Ryszard Polanski is the father of Roman Polanski. Ryszard Polanski’s son is a French and Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Roman’s tumultuous personal life was as well known as his dark, unsettling, and quasi-autobiographical films. Polanski emerged from his native Poland with the Oscar-nominated “Knife in the Water” (1962) after a childhood marred by Nazi atrocities. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, British Academy Film Award, César Award, Golden Globe Award, as well as the Golden Bear and a Palme d’Or.
Ryszard Polanski: Bio Summary
| Full Name | Ryszard Polanski |
| other names | Ryszard Liebling, Mojżesz Liebling |
| famous as | Father of Roman Polanski |
| Age | 79 years old at the time of death |
| Date of Birth | September 28, 1903 |
| Place of Birth | Kraków, Poland |
| Date of death | 1984 |
| Zodiac sign | Libra |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Caucasian |
| Children | Roman Polanski |
| Spouse | Wanda Zajączkowska (m. 1946–1984), Bula Liebling |
Who is Roman Polanski’s father?
Ryszard Polanski was born on September 28, 1903, as Ryszard Liebling in Kraków, Poland to his parents Samson Hirsch Liebling and Maria Liebling. He was a Polish Holocaust Survivor. Ryszard has been married twice with his first wife being Roman’s mother Bula Liebling and the second being Wanda Zajączkowska. Roman was born in France in 1933. When he was 4, the Polański family moved back to Kraków, Poland, in early 1937.
Two years later, the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany started World War II. Kraków was soon occupied by the German forces, and the racist and anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws made Ryszard Polanski and his family a target of persecution. They were forced to move into the Kraków Ghetto, along with thousands of other threatened families.
ALSO, READ; Bula Liebling: What happened to Roman Polanski’s mother?
Six years old Roman watched as his father was taken away in a raid which was one of his first experiences of the terrors to follow, he narrated the experience- “I had just been visiting my grandmother … when I received a foretaste of things to come. At first, I didn’t know what was happening. I simply saw people scattering in all directions. Then I realized why the street had emptied so quickly. Some women were being herded along it by German soldiers. Instead of running away like the rest, I felt compelled to watch.“
The film director went on to say-“One older woman at the rear of the column couldn’t keep up. A German officer kept prodding her back into line, but she fell down on all fours … Suddenly a pistol appeared in the officer’s hand. There was a loud bang, and blood came welling out of her back. I ran straight into the nearest building, squeezed into a smelly recess beneath some wooden stairs, and didn’t come out for hours. I developed a strange habit: clenching my fists so hard that my palms became permanently calloused. I also woke up one morning to find that I had wet my bed.“
Ryszard Polanski was transferred, along with thousands of other Jews, to Mauthausen, a group of 49 German concentration camps in Austria, and his four months pregnant wife, Bula Liebling was taken to Auschwitz and killed in the gas chamber soon after arriving. While Ryszard was being taken away, Roman tried getting closer to his father to ask him what was happening and got within a few yards. Ryszard Polanski saw his son, but afraid he might be spotted by the German soldiers, whispered (in Polish), “Get lost!”
ALSO, READ; Bula Liebling: What happened to Roman Polanski’s mother?
Where is Roman Polanski’s father now?
Ryszard Polanski survived the camp but his wife didn’t. The father and son reunited and moved back to Kraków. Ryszard remarried on 21 December 1946 to Wanda Zajączkowska, whom Roman had never liked. The couple didn’t have any children. Roman Polanski’s father passed away from cancer in 1984.
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