Tola Wilner Widawski photographs

Tola Wilner (also known as Tolka or Teresa) was born in 1920 in Łódź, Poland. Her father, Israel Wilner, was considered well-educated for his time and worked as a courier for an attorney. Tola Wilner's mother, Ruta Nahtegal, came from a wealthy family and had an arranged marriage with Israel Wilner.

Tola Wilner and her family lived in the Łódź ghetto from 1939 until 1943, where her father died of starvation. In 1943, a Jewish policeman warned Wilner, her sister, and her mother that the Łódź ghetto was going to be liquidated. He advised them to take work at a camp outside of the ghetto, but the train they were told to take to the work camp arrived at Auschwitz instead. Wilner's mother was killed upon arrival; Wilner and her sister were sent to Birkenau. As Russian troops neared the camp late in the war, inmates were forced to evacuate. During the evacuation, Wilner and a friend were rescued by an older German couple. After the Russians liberated the area, Wilner traveled to a cousin's house in Germany before returning to Łódź where she located her sisters.

In 1947, Tola Wilner met Michislaw (Mieter) Widawski and they married a year later. Their daughter, Evelina (Eva), was born in 1949, followed in 1950 by their son, Jerry. The family moved from Poland to Israel in 1957 and immigrated to the United States in 1960. Michislaw Widawski changed his first name to Mike after he arrived in the United States.