Aleksander Bardini in Łódź: A Family from Zielona 6 in Archival Records

Aleksander Bardini is another artist connected to Łódź — a figure whose name appears in the history of Polish theatre and film, but whose early life in the city is less often told. Born in

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Aleksander Bardini in a film role, appearing as a doctor.

1913, Bardini became one of the most important figures of postwar Polish theatre. He worked as an actor, theatre director, and teacher, was associated with major theatre institutions, and later became a respected professor at the State Theatre Academy in Warsaw, shaping generations of actors. Yet before all of that, there was Łódź. Like many figures associated with 20th-century Polish culture, Bardini’s biography does not begin with theatre institutions or film roles, but with a family, an address, and a set of documents that place him in a very specific urban and social context.

And it is precisely there — in the archival records — that this story begins.

An application for personal identity card issued in 1932, with a photograph, places

Identity document of Aleksander Bardini (1932). Source: State Archives in Łódź.

Aleksander Bardini in Łódź in the early 1930s. The document captures a young man at the beginning of his adult life. What is striking, however, is not only the image, but also the profession recorded there: restaurateur. Today, Bardini is remembered as an actor and director, but at that moment he still appears within a different context — one that reflects the world of his family.

That context becomes clearer when we turn to other sources. A residence card reveals the household at Zielona 6 in Łódź: Józef Bardini, his wife Marja Grad, their son Aleksander, and their younger daughter Irena. The same document tells us that Józef, Aleksander’s father, was the son of Jakob and was born in Sejny in 1876. In documents related to Józef, another detail appears: his father is recorded not only as Jakob, but also as Jankiel — Jakob (Jankiel) Bardyni. Following this trace leads further back.

Jakob (Jankiel) Bardyni also lived in Łódź. His residence card places him at Zielona 6

Identity document of Aleksander Bardini’s mother. Source: State Archives in Łódź.

together with his sons, and his occupation is listed as restaurateur. He was born in Sejny in 1846, the son of Chaskiel. From here, the research moves once again — from Łódź back to Sejny, where in 1866 Jakob (Jankiel) Bardyni married Rysza Zatzow. The marriage record provides further information, including the names of the parents of the bride and groom, extending the family line and identifying the great-grandparents of Aleksander Bardini. These traces place the family within a broader geographical context: before Łódź, there was Sejny, a town with an established Jewish community, including the synagogue completed in 1880.

Returning to Łódź, other sources allow us to move beyond names and addresses. Public notices confirm that Józef (also appearing as Josel) ran a dining establishment at Zielona 6.

Identity document of Józef Bardini. Source: State Archives in Łódź.

The same address appears again — not only as a place of residence, but also as a place of work. The pattern becomes visible. Aleksander Bardini, in his identity document, is described as a restaurateur. His father ran a dining establishment. His grandfather is also recorded as a restaurateur. Further traces appear in connection with other family members. One of them is Chaskiel, Aleksander’s uncle, who in earlier records is listed as a tanner and later appears as the owner of a restaurant, living with his family at Piotrkowska 31.

Across generations, the same occupational sphere reappears — gastronomy, small businesses, everyday urban life — documented in administrative records and local press. And yet, Aleksander Bardini’s life would take a different direction. Photographs preserved in identity documents show a young man who would later become an actor, director, and teacher, but at this stage still remains part of a family defined by a different professional world.

Public notice concerning the business run by Józef Bardini, including a mention of a prenuptial agreement.

Other records add further layers to this picture. Public notices reveal a prenuptial agreement

signed between Józef and his wife, through which Marja Grad appears as Estera Maria. In inheritance documents following the death of her father, Wolf Grad, she appears as Malka. The same person — Marja, Estera Maria, Malka — depending on the context, language, and type of record.

What emerges from these materials is not a single, complete biography, but a set of interconnected traces: an identity card, a residence record, public notices, a prenuptial agreement, inheritance documents, earlier records from Sejny, and photographs. Each of them captures a different moment, a different version of the same people. Read together, they place Aleksander Bardini within a family — at Zielona 6 in Łódź, and earlier in Sejny — across names that shift and occupations that, for generations, remained connected to the same sphere.

Synagogue in Sejny built in 1880.

This is how genealogical and archival research works: not as a single, continuous story, but as a process of assembling fragments, until a person known today as an artist reappears first as a son, a brother, and part of a family rooted in specific places, occupations, and records.