Jerry Rawicki was born in Plock, Poland. He was raised with two older sisters in a middle class home. In 1940, all Jews from Plock were sent to Soldau, East Prussia and dispersed into small villages. Later, he worked in the Bodzentyn Ghetto digging graves to save his family from starvation.
With his oldest sister, Jerry escaped to Warsaw in 1942. After a perilous journey, he joined his father in the Warsaw Ghetto. There he joined the Jewish Fighting Organization as a courier. He worked smuggling goods and messages in and out of the ghetto.
During the ghetto uprising after he had run out of ammunition, he hid in an abandoned cellar. Ill for weeks, he was caught by German satellite troops but later escaped. In 1943, Jerry left Warsaw posing as a gentile. He found work on a farm and then joined partisans. He was liberated by the Soviet Army in 1944 in Lublin, Poland.
Jerry Rawicki was filmed by the University of South Florida Libraries.