His father Mieczysław Hurewicz was an industrialist born in Wilno, which until 1939 was mainly populated by Poles and Jews.
Rapidly, a strong school of mathematics grew up in the University of Warsaw, with topology one of the main topics.
He visited the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and then decided to remain in the United States and not return to his position in Amsterdam.
It presents the theory of dimension for separable metric spaces with what seems to be an impossible mixture of depth, clarity, precision, succinctness, and comprehensiveness."
Investigators did not expect much new information from groups, which were obviously commutative..." In the late 1940s, he was the doctoral advisor of Yael Dowker.
He tripped and fell off the top of a Mayan step pyramid during an outing in Uxmal, Mexico.