Roma Ligocka is a Polish costume designer, writer, and painter.

She was born in a Jewish family in Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 a few years before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. During the German occupation of Poland her family was persecuted by the Nazis - her father was incarcerated, first in the Płaszów and then Auschwitz concentration camp

Auschwitz concentration camp

Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

s. In 1940 she was taken with her mother to the Kraków Ghetto

Kraków Ghetto

The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the General Government territory for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation of Polish Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II...

 but before the end of the ghetto in 1943 they fled and hid with a Polish family. After World War II she studied painting and scenic design in the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Then she worked with considerable success in theatre, film and television as a set designer. In 1965 she and her husband Jan Biczycki left the Communist Poland and moved to Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Germany where she continued with her set design assignments.

She has written several novels, some of them reflected her biography:

• The Girl in the Red Coat
  The Girl in the Red Coat
  The Girl in the Red Coat is a memoir by Polish writer Roma Ligocka , published in November 2003 by Random House....
  
  (Dziewczynka w czerwonym płaszczyku)
• Znajoma z lustra
• Kobieta w podróży
• Tylko ja sama (originally published in German)
• Wszystko z miłości

Her novel The Girl in the Red Coat was inspired by Steven Spielberg's movie Schindler's List

Schindler's List

Schindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...

. After watching the movie she recognized herself as a Jewish child that wore a red coat.

External links

• Roma Ligocka and her writing - a website created by her publisher (Polish)
• Bibliography of Roma Ligocka - National Library of Poland