Nathan Drew (né Podruznik) was born in Łomźa on August
23, 1912. He was a teacher and taught at the Łomźa
Talmud Torah. In 1938, he married Helen (née
Kochanowicz) who was also from Łomźa.
When the war began, Nathan and Helen found themselves
in separate cities; Nathan was in Suvalk and Helen was
in Łomźa. During the Soviet occupation of Eastern
Poland, Nathan and Helen lived in Augustów. When the
Germans occupied Eastern Poland in the summer of 1941,
the couple returned to Łomźa. They lived in the Łomźa
Ghetto from its inception until its liquidation in
early November 1942 when they fled to Warsaw. Nathan
and Helen survived much of the remainder of the war in
Warsaw living openly as "counterfeit Poles."
In May 1946, Nathan and Helen boarded the Marine
Flasher in Bremen, Germany and came to America. They
settled in New York where Nathan became a successful
businessman.
Nathan dictated what would become The Counterfeit
Poles to his wife Helen who transcribed the testimony
in Polish. The memoir tells the story of Nathan and
Helen's Holocaust survival.
Nathan died in 2006 at the age of 93. He was survived
by his wife Helen who passed away four years later in
2010 at the age of 94.
After Helen's death, Nathan and Helen's son Dr. Jerry
Drew, professor of Economic History at the University
of Pennsylvania, published his father's Holocaust
memoir.