The photograph of Emilia Leibel from the period shortly after her repatriation

The photograph of Emilia Leibel (first on the right) with another, unknown, teacher from the Cracow orphanage. They are walking towards the photographer, smiling; the photographer's silhouette, together with the camera, casts a shadow visible in the lower part of the photograph. The photograph was probably taken in early autumn.

The Orphanage was located in a building at today's Chmielowskiego Street. The edifice was built before the war by the Jewish Community to house the elderly (during the war it housed a public house for German soldiers). There were numerous bathrooms and toilets, as well as beds, and the building only needed the walls and windows renovated. Children helped with the cleaning, and bedding, clothes, etc. were sent by American Jews. Upstairs, there were toddlers, who had exclusive use of the large terrace, and on the ground floor, there were preschoolers. Halina Leibel lived with the children, and Emilia Leibel managed the orphanage, although officially the director was Dawid Erdestein, a very party man, as Emilia Leibel described him in her memoirs. Among the staff was an elderly woman, a Pole, who had rescued Jewish children during the war. She was called the nanny. In gratitude for her help, the municipality assigned her a lifetime flat next to the Orphanage.

One of the friends of the Orphanage was Jonasz Stern (see his works in the POLIN Museum collection: *), both of whom, along with the director, came from Kałusz near Stanisławów. Before becoming rector of the Academy of Fine Arts, Stern taught children drawing on a voluntary basis and made costumes for them for theatrical performances.