Krystina Zolowicz hated the term “survivor.”
“That word made it sound passive, as if she survived by being quiet,” said her daughter, Elizabeth Zolowicz. “She was a fighter and that’s how she survived. She was bold and brave.”
Zolowicz, who survived World War II as a Partisan, died in San Francisco Oct. 22.
She was born as Kazimiera Hadar Krystina Smetkiewicz at the Belweder estate in Poland. She swore her daughter to secrecy about her date of birth.
She hated her given name Kazimiera, and from an early age, chose to be called Krystina. That name was fitting, since her parents — who had ties to Polish nobility — raised her Catholic, even though they were Jews.
While still a teenager, she met and fell in love with Jerry Zolowicz. They married and were together until his death in 1993.
Zolowicz became a schoolteacher, but once the war intervened, her blond hair and blue eyes helped her pass as a gentile.
Neither she nor her husband had paperwork declaring them as Jews, so they were more or less safe, and they joined the Partisans, the Jewish resistance.
Hiding in the forest, the couple was able to procure fake identification cards from Polish farmers they knew. Zolowicz used them to smuggle Jews out of the Warsaw ghetto.
After surviving the war, the couple had two children, and immigrated to San Francisco in 1960. First, they opened European Delicatessen on Sutter Street, and later, Jerry’s Coffee Shop on Noriega.
Zolowicz’s son Mark predeceased her in 1973.
Her daughter described her mother as “strong and generous,” and the type who adhered to the “teach someone to fish so they can feed themselves” mindset.
On Feb. 22, 2000, Zolowicz suffered a stroke that caused her to lose 90 percent of her mental and bodily functions. She didn’t speak the last four years and eight months of her life, spending her last years at the Jewish Home, where she received wonderful care, her daughter said.
In addition to daughter Elizabeth of San Francisco, Zolowicz is survived by two grandchildren. Donations can be made to any charity. A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 14, at the Eternal Home Cemetery in Colma.