| BABIARZ, Kazimiera
BABIARZ, Halina, daughter BABICZ, Maria BABILINSKI, Gertruda Gertruda was a nurse of Michael, son of the Jewish Stolowicki family in Warsaw. In 1939 she moved with the mother and son to Vilna, where she aided Jews. After the mother's death Michael was considered to be her son and a Catholic. To keep her word given to the deceased, she went after the war with Michael to Israel, where he was reared in his Jewish faith. She remained in Israel as a Catholic. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BABINSKI, Zofia (1888-1972)
Zofia was the owner of a boarding house on Bracka St. 18 in Warsaw. Mother and daughters, with great sympathy, gave food, lodging and all kinds of help to many Jews during the entire occupation. They extended their help even to the ghetto, e.g. to the Goldbergs, mother and son, to Hanna Landau and her aunt . See: Grynberg, op. cit BABISZ, Zofia
BADOWSKI, Stefan Franciszek (1909-1989) Stefan saved three (3) people: Helena Wolman with her 10 years old daughter and Helena's sister, Irena Kerth. He rented an apartment for them in Zoliborz (Warsaw) and gave Irena the identity papers of his deceased sister. He extricated them from the prison, bribing the Krippo (police functionary specialized in crimes) with a substantial sum of money, offered by an ex-honorary consul of Yugoslavia, Franciszek Punczuk and by a Pole, Henryk Kozlowski. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BAGINSKI-PUCHALSKI, Irena
see PUCHALSKI, Jan & Anna , parents?
BALICKI, Zygmunt (1888-1959)
engineer
Many Jewish friends found refuge in the Balickis' home, mostly people partially assimilated. One of them, Bernard Szapiro, died after being ill with typhus for several weeks. They buried him under his occupation name, Boleslaw Sadowski. Many survived the war, including Sara Biderman. She had a heavy accent, striking Semitic features and behaved in a very imprudent way, although she was an activist of ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization). Wounded by a gendarme she fled to the Balickis who managed to put her in a hospital. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BALSEWICZ, Czeslaw
BANASIEWICZ, Franciszek
The Banasiewicz hid safely on their farm fifteen (15) Jews at Orzechowce, Przemysl district. Salomon Ehrenfreud, whose entire family had been shot, and who hid at the Jan Kosciak's home, came to them first, escaping the massacre of June 1942. After him came Junek Frenkiel, then Salomon's brother, Izaak, being helped previously by several other people. Two Banasiewicz sons, Antoni and Tadeusz, were taken into forced labor to Germany. Tadeusz escaped and was hiding Salomon in the barns and fields. With Izaak came also his cousin Jakub Nassan and their friend Marcel Teich. Franciszek with one of his sons helped to escape from the Przemysl ghetto Nassan's wife, Eugenia and her friend Fejga Weidenbaum. A week later Franciszek brought Edmund Orner. With the approaching winter the family built a bunker under the house. On request of Salomon, Tadeusz brought from the ghetto Bunia Stamhofer in October 1943 then Fela Szattner and in January 1944 Samuel Reinharz, his brother Beniamin, his mother Bertha and Jozef Weindling. While waiting for Jozef, Tadeusz was arrested by Germans and shut in the ghetto by Jozef Weindling's brother, who was a guard in the ghetto. Samuel Reinharz, then still in the ghetto, with his horse and cart, bribed the commander Sch(w)ammberger, who let Tadeusz go and they all came to the shelter, as the German guard Maslanka behaved humanely. But other people who helped Jews paid dearly. Michal Kruk, through whom communication with Jews was maintained, was hanged and Maria Kuras was arrested and later had a mental brake down. The gamekeeper at Tarnawce, Kurpiel was shot with his wife and the Jews they sheltered. In May 1944 the passage from the house to the bunker, due to an explosion, caved in and Germans surrounded the farm. While the Germans were occupied with the arrest of one of the Banasiewicz sons, the other scattered and Germans did not discover nor them nor the bunker. All survived. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. p 454-459 BANASIK, Klara see KOBYLEC,
Piotr & Karolina, parents
BARAN, Boleslaw (1920-) As a clerk in the town hall of Cracow he procured false documents for Jews, among others to Jozefa Singer, and Anna Wernicz. Both survived the war. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BARAN, Franciszek
BARAN, Jozef
BARAN, Jozefa BARAN, Julian (1905-1980)
Julian and Anna residing at Galk, near Brzezany, gave refuge on their farm to the couple Mark and Klara Zipper, from April 1943 till the war's end. The Zippers emigrated to the USA. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BARANCEWICZ, Larysa
BARANSKI, Janina (not real.)
BARCIKOWSKI, Helena (1907-1989)
Beginning in September 1942, the Barcikowskis sheltered in their home at Wisniowiec, Tarnopol prov. Adam Gajlo. Helena obtained for him a baptismal certificate from a local priest. They fled before Ukrainian bands to Lancut. Once a gendarme burst into the room where Adam hid behind the wardrobe. . As the room did not have lighting the gendarme lit a flashlight. A second before he could look at the wardrobe the bulb went out. He went to the kitchen to change the bulb and did not return to the room...See: Grynberg, op. cit. BARCZAK, Franciszek
BARSZCZEWSKI, Janusz The Fleishmans, shopkeepers lived in Cracow. They spoke Polish at home but knew German and Yiddish. When Germans closed the Jewish schools, the parents paid an English teacher to instruct their daughter in that language. They all moved to Warsaw, but soon returned to Cracow, leaving in Warsaw their 14 years old daughter, Rachel, staying with her aunt and taking courses in agriculture. Rachel befriended Waclaw and Janina Barszczewski, and their children, Janusz and Krystyna. Waclaw helped her aunt and uncle to leave the ghetto and brought Rachel warm garments. Rachel escaped the ghetto at the beginning of its Uprising (1943). Waclaw organized for her a birth certificate for the name of Bronislawa Kowalczyk and placed her at Zatrzebie, while her aunt and uncle at Radosc. Rachel changed families several times. She volunteered in the Warsaw Uprising (1944) to take care of the wounded. After its fall she was taken from Pruszkow to Germany to a displaced persons camp. To that camp came some Polish officers from the AK (Home Army) looking for an English translator and took her to Italy. Gen. Anders, to whom she told that she is Jewish, and that she wanted to join his brother, staying since several years in Israel, helped her to get there in 1945. She learned that her parents had been killed, although some Poles helped her mother. The older Barszczewskis died. Rachel got from Yad Vashem the recognition as "Righteous" for Janusz, a lawyer and painter, shortly before his death, but not for his sister, considered too young at 12. Waclaw and Janina were not recognized, and the family does not appear on the Yad Vashem list of 1999. See: Isakiewicz, Elzbieta: "Ustna Harmonijka; Relacje Zydow, Ktorych Uratowali od Zaglady Polacy" [Warszawa, Niezalezne Wyd. Polskie, c2000] (portrs., illus., 260 pp) BARTCZAK-TEWEL, Felicja
Felicja and Irena were engaged in helping Jews. Felicja, wife of a Jewish barrister, Maurycy Tewel, harbored at Debica, Lublin prov., beside her husband, his sister, Maria Blumental, with her son and friend Mrs. Lozinski, with her son and the tailor, Winter. She organized the transfer of Sabina Poper to stay with her sister Irena in Warsaw. When at the beginning of 1943 Germans burst into the apartment of Felicja, they arrested Maurycy. He did not return from Auschwitz. The next day Germans returned but did not find the other Jews, because the father of Felicja, Jozef, managed to hide them in another place. After the death of Maurycy, Felicja harbored the couple Dawid and Fejga Deresiewicz, with their son Markus. Irena, active in the resistance movement, took advantage of her contacts for helping Jews from Debica. Thus she harbored together with Sabina Poper, Maria Korzennik. All survived. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BARTCZAK, Marian (1908-)
The Bartczaks helped several Jews. Among them was a barrister, Marek Kleiner, for whom Marian got false documents, rented an apartment and whom he helped financially. As Kleiner asked him to search for his family, he went to Lvov, where he came to know the family Dienstag. He brought Irena Dienstag to Warsaw as the governess of his child, obtaining for her documents on the name Zaleski. She emigrated later to Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit BARTCZAK, Stefania
BARTOSZEWSKI, Wladyslaw, (1922-), author, historian, ambassador, minister Bartoszewski, member of the underground, worked for the Polish Red Cross. In September 1940 he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Liberated by the efforts of the Polish Red Cross, he produced one of the first reports on that camp. He studied Polish literature at the Underground University, 1942-44, and continued later in 1948. In September 1942 he became a member first of the Temporary Committee of Aid to Jews and then, co-founder with Zofia Kossak-Szczucka of ZEGOTA, (cryptonym of the Council for Aid to Jews, 1942-45), as the representative of the Catholic organization FOP (Front for the Rebirth of Poland). At the age of only 21 he was responsible for the liaison section, i.e. the couriers' work, considered the most dangerous of all its activities. He spent many other years in prison under the communist regime, 1946-54 in Warsaw, Rawicz, Raciborz, which ruined his health and again in 1980-81 in Bialoleka. In 1963 he became one of the first to be recognized by Yad Vashem as "Righteous" and a honorary citizen of Israel. As a passionate but rigorously meticulous historical chronicler, writer, publicist and editor of articles and books, many times editor-in-chief, he boast of a bibliography of more that 1,000 titles, of which many were translated into English, French, German, Spanish and Swedish. He was invited as a visiting Professor by the Catholic |University of Lublin, 1973-1985 and by various German Universities. In 1990 he was nominated ambassador to Austria, in 1995, Minister of Foreign Affairs, later was a Senator and again Minister of Foreign Affairs, highly decorated and recipient of many honorary Doctorates in Poland and abroad. Bartoszewski is the author of 30 books, important for the war years, like "Warsaw Death Ring, 1939-1944". Warsaw, Interpress Publ. 1968 (illus. 459 pp.) and "Dni Warszawy" Krakow, Znak, 1974 (illus. 834 pp.). He edited other two books with Zofia Lewin on the Polish-Jewish relations, mentioned in the Bibliography. As a member of various Polish-Jewish -organizations he has done probably more than anyone else to build understanding and reconciliation between Poles and Jews and also between Poles and Germans. See: Kunert, A. K. ed. "Wladyslaw Bartoszewski: Zycie i Tworczosc". Warszawa, Rytm [1999] (portr., illus., bibliography, 205 pp.) BARUT, Jan (1896-1956) school
principal
Jadwiga's husband, Stanislaw Urbanski, (1913- 1973) an officer of the Home Army, (AK) residing at Huta Polanska (Krosno prov.) bicycled 20 km. to Zmigrod, to warn his acquaintance, Jozef Strenger, of an imminent execution of the Jews. Jozef declined the offer of help but entrusted the eldest of his 4 daughters, 11 years old Golda, to Stanislaw, who brought her home. Jozef survived in the woods with food brought him by the Baruts. Golda got a school certificate from Jan on the name Barbara Folta. She emigrated to Israel, while her father went to the USA. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BARUTOWICZ, Stefan
BARYS, Kazimierz, (1924-)
The Barys brothers gave refuge, at the beginning of 1943, to Golda Schachter, who was roaming with two small children in the area of Gaje Kudynowskie, near Zborow, Tarnopol prov. First they hid them in the loft of their farmhouse, thus saving them from Germans and Ukrainians. When Germans discovered a similar hiding place nearby and all people there have been killed, the brothers dug a shelter under the barn, and covered it with heavy farm machinery. It took close to an hour to get to this shelter when bringing them food. The Germans and their Ukrainian collaborators searched the house several times but did not found them. Another Jewish woman, Mania N., joined Golda and stayed with them till the end of the war. We have before our eyes the beautiful statement by Golda Schachter with the addresses of all the people involved. She died in 1986. Yad Vashem recognized them in 1987. Case no. 3610, was started in 1986. BARYS-SZUL, Maria see SZUL-BARYS,
M.
BECK, Walenty
The Becks rescued eighteen (18) Jews hiding them in their home, in spite of posters everywhere announcing that helping Jews equals the death penalty. When some young children were to be sent to that shelter, endangering all of them, some of them protested. To which Walenty said simply: "What will be, will be, let the children come". This took place in April 1943 and was described in detail by Faarszon Taffet in his book: "Zaglada Zydow Zolkiewskich" (Extermination of Zolkiew Jews). Lodz 1946. He wrote also that in Bar, near Grodek Jagiellonski, Poles saved over 20 Jews, him included. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. BEDNARCZYK, Tadeusz, alias "BEDNARZ" or "TADEUSZ" (1943-2000) Lieutenant-colonel in the army, he was as an economist a Warsaw treasury official in the Jewish area. In Sept. 1939 General Wladyslaw Sikorski, before leaving Poland for France to continue the fight for freedom, created the Military Organization (OW) that operated underground in Poland. Bednarczyk was nominated in January 1940 as the head of Dept. for Minorities and Help to Jews. He co-operated with the president of the Jewish commune, the engineer Adam Czerniakow. On Tadeusz's proposal the OW and the Central Committee of the Organizations for Sovereignty (CKON) entrusted him with co-ordination of their own and of the Home Army's (AK) help to the Ghetto and to the Jews in hiding. He took part in the creation of the Jewish Military Organization (ZZW)and was the only Pole who visited the Ghetto every single day till its Uprising. The last time he went there on May 1, 1943 to bring ammunition to the fighters. Author of several books with a wealth of information on the Warsaw Ghetto and the help given to Jews: "Walka i Pomoc"(Fight and Help) Warszawa [Iskry] 1968 (68 pp.), "Obowiazek Silniejszy od Smierci"(Duty stronger than death) Warszawa, Spol. Wyd. Grunwald, 1986. (162 pp.). "Zycie Codzienne Warszawskiego Getta, 1939-1945 i Dalej". (Everyday life in the Warsaw ghetto) Warszawa, Ojczyzna, 1995 (ill., 345 pp.). See photo. BEDNARSKI-WITUSZEK, Anna
see WITUSZEK, Jan, husband
BERCZYNSKI, Kazimiera
Kazimiera, her husband and son, both named Waclaw, kept a Jewish girl 6 years old, Ilona Friedman, in Czestochowa. Kazimiera pretended to be her grandmother. Once she had to run with Ilona to the nearest cemetery to hide there for 2 days. When Waclaw, the son, wanted to marry Zofia, he had to tell her their secret. They all had to move several times. The mother of the child, Roma, (later Tuchband) managed once to see her daughter, thanks to a Pole named Cesarz, who helped her to keep in touch with the Berczynskis. Roma mentions him several times in her moving deposition before us. Both Roma and Ilona married in America. See: Tomaszewski , Irena & Werbowski, Tecia.: Zegota; the Rescue of Jews in Wartime Poland. [Montreal, Price-Patterson, Ltd, c1994] (map, portr., illus., 171 pp.). Recognized: 86-03-19. Case:3366 was started in 1985. BERENGUT-ZIELINSKI, Irena
see ZIELINSKI-STAWNICZA, Albina, mother
BERETA, (BERATA ?) Anna
Anna, a simple peasant woman, from the village Borowa, No. 104, in the Bochnia district, hid nine (9) Jews: Szymon Lieblich, his daughter and brother, Julian Rolecki, Dranger and others. See : Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. BEREZNICKI, Jan
BERNARDA, Sister of the Sacred Heart Congregation in Przemysl Maria Klain was the youngest child of an orthopedic shoemaker in Przemysl. As her mother became very ill after her birth, Maria stayed mostly with her aunts. She went to the Polish school and at home they spoke Polish and German. When the war broke out she was only six years old. Przemysl was ruined by bombardment. Soon appeared the Germans and started to kill Jews. Her brother, a communist, was killed too. In 1942 the Germans organized the ghetto. Her father, a member of the Polish Socialist Party was well liked by Poles. As her both aunts perished, the child cried constantly and thought of suicide. When she was about to jump from the third floor, a girl friend caught her just in time. In her account about the stay in the ghetto she tells that many people killed the children in order to survive themselves. So her father finally found for her a refuge with the Sacred Heart Sisters in Przemysl, but Maria refused to go there. So he forced her to look at the atrocious way the Germans put Jewish children to death. A Polish woman, Kazimiera Romankiewicz, who was allowed to enter the ghetto, and receive potatoes peelings for her cow, as payment for milk for the supervisor, drove many Jewish children out of it, in her small cart, covered with those potatoes peelings. Another Polish woman took Maria under her cape to exit with her from the ghetto, but the guard saw them and started to shoot. Maria ran in zigzags and he relented. She went straight to Kazimiera, who conducted her to the convent. Maria tells that her coming to the convent was a balsam for her, something miraculous, due to the goodness and patience of all the sisters, although there was extreme poverty. She mentions all their names: Sister Alfonsa, who begged for food for the children, from house to house, and after the war left the convent and went to Australia, Sister Bernarda, sister Jakuba, sister Ligoria Grenda, (q.v.), Sister Leokadia and Sister Longina and the superior Mother Emilia-Jozef Malkowska, related to the princely Czartoryski family, who devoted herself completely to saving Jewish children until her premature death on April 12, 1944. In the convent there were 60 children, among them some boys, which as circumcised, were an added danger, especially when the Ukrainian police, collaborating with the Germans, moved to the first floor of that same building and took liking to a Jewish baby boy. The children were mostly orphans from the East, where they suffered from the Ukrainian hands and were just as terrified as the Jewish children of whom there were 14. Maria befriended them and particularly one, Hania. She did not have any knowledge of the Catholic religion, but the good heart of the sisters little by little brought her to beg the sisters and the priest to baptize her, which they refused, telling her that she will return to her Jewish family and that religion is not a pendulum. In 1944 the Sisters told her to return to her father, according to the fourth commandment: "Honor they father and thy mother". Her father did not allow her to practice the Catholic religion, and beat her up badly for going to church. For four years she fought with him about that. In 1948 they all left for Sweden. Her father wanted to go to the USA, but Maria refused. She arrived in Israel all alone where her mother joined her after her husband's death and died there. Maria who felt so happy in Poland found the life in Israel extremely difficult, but she married and had a child. She asked a Polish acquaintance to search for her Sisters. This lady found only two of them still living: Sister Bernarda and Sister Ligoria Grenda. In 1986 Maria went to Poland and again in 1987 to give the two Sisters the medal of "Righteous". There was a beautiful ceremony at the town hall in Cracow and she met at that occasion cardinal Macharski, to whom the Sisters wished to present one of the children saved. She saw her Jewish friend Hania, who won the process to remain in Przemysl, against the wishes of her family. She never admitted to be Jewish, married a wonderful Pole and has two grown up Polish children. She visited Maria 5 times with her husband. Maria terminated her account by telling: If I would remain in Poland I also would never admit being Jewish, as in Poland to be Jewish is not a shame but it is an embarrassing situation. None of the other sister nor Kazimiera were recognized. See: Kurek, op. cit. and Isakiewicz, op. cit. BERNAT-SLISKI, Zofia see
SLISKI-BERNAT, Z.
BIELATOWICZ-KNYSZEWSKI, Bronislawa (1907-) Bronislawa lived in Warsaw and was the nurse to the son of a Jewish woman, Janina Wrzesniewski. When Janina found herself in the ghetto, Bronislawa stole into it to bring food to mother and child. In August 1942 Janina extracted the child from the ghetto as well as the children of Janina's sister, Helena Meszorer, Jozef Lucjan and Ludwika. Janina Wrzesniewski testified that Bronislawa did not gain any material benefit for all she did. See: Grynberg, op.cit. BIELAWSKI, Irena (not related to the other Bielawskis) BIELAWSKI, Jozef
Boleslaw Bielawski was a luminary of the Warsaw bar, with Jan and Leon Nowodworski, Michal Skoczynski and Jerzy Czerwinski. German occupation authorities struck all non-Aryans from the roll of lawyers as of January 1, 1940. Then, the Germans asked the opinion of the Council of the Warsaw bar as to whether Jews should be permitted to practice law. The Council replied in February 1940, that according to the prewar Polish laws and to the Hague Convention of 1907, Jewish lawyers should be free to exercise their profession. A vote was ordered in May-June 1940 among the lawyers. Eighty replied yes, nine did not state their views, some accepted "re-polonization" of the law profession. The 80 Polish lawyers were put in the Pawiak prison then transported to Auschwitz, from where very few returned. Boleslaw might be the son of Jozef and Barbara. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. BIELEC-RADWANSKI, Helena,
see RADWANSKI-BIELEC, H.
BIELINSKI, Antoni (1914-)
Antoni and Helena lived in the village of Ksiezopole Budki, Siedlce prov. They had a three years old daughter and were very poor peasants. From September 1942 they gave refuge to five (5) Jews and soon after to six (6) others of the Bird family: Rubin, Rachmil, Szmul, Rubinfeld, Nahari Andzia and Romek. In March 1943 the Germans occupied their farm, stood the parents with the little girl against a wall and under the barrel of guns ordered them to give up their Jews. Nobody said a word and the Jews were not found. The Germans departed taking all the food and arrested Antoni for further investigation taking him to Sokolow Podlaski. Miraculously he was released after four weeks. All the Jews survived the war and emigrated. See: Grynberg, op cit. BIELINSKI, Stanislaw (not
related)
BIELINSKI, Zdzislaw, (1908-1945)
physician (not related)
Before the war their home in Lvov was a meeting-place for Polish, Jewish and Ukrainian intelligentsia, who were against any form of chauvinism. During the war the doctor frequented the ghetto to help and provide medical care to Jews there. Deprived of his academic position, he continued to work in the hospital and in their private consulting room. Dozens of Jews benefited from their help. Many survived the war and sent glowing attestations to the humanitarian attitude of both doctors, e.g. Dr. Alfred Vogel, Dr. Janina Fischer, Prof. Seweryn B. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BIENIECKI-GODLEWSKI, Halina
see GODLEWSKI, Maria, mother?
BIESIADA, Edmund (1901-1947
Having themselves an eight years old daughter, they took into their home in Warsaw in 1940 Szoszana Brzoza, (13) and later her sister, Cyla, who escaped from the burning ghetto. They found a refuge in the countryside for Fela, the third sister, and provided all three with documents. They helped also other Jews, e.g. Magdalena Rolirad, bribing a Gestapo man with 30,000 zlotys and a gold bracelet. The three sisters left Poland in 1947 and sent a declaration of how they stayed with the Biesiadas even when the latter lost the roof over their heads after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BIL, Tomasz
BLAM, Helena Sara (1915-)
BLICHARZ, Marian
BLICHERT, Antoni
The Blicherts lived in Kovno, Lithuania, and saved Elena (2) daughter of Frania and Abram Rezer. Frania brought the baby asleep to a factory in a suitcase. Jadwiga transported the baby in a basket, now awake and crying, and put it up with her family in the countryside. After the war, as the parents had perished in the ghetto, the couple adopted the girl and called her Halinka. When at 15 she completed grammar school in Wroclaw, the Blicherts entrusted her to a Jewish family leaving for Israel. Through advertisement in the press Halinka found her uncles in the USA, who brought her to stay with them. It is worth to note that the second wife of Antoni, Wladyslawa Bankowski, and her sister Stanislawa Bankowski, mentioned here previously, helped throughout this endeavor. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BLASZCZYK, Helena, see RAK,
Mrs.
BLASZKOWSKI, Aleksander
BLOCH, Anna, (1875-) With her daughter, Bronislawa
Lazowski, she harbored for 6 months at Radwan, near Cracow, Sabina Salomon
(76), two small children, Chawa and Henryk Amsterdam and Mrs. Margulis.
Jozef Kasprowicz brought this last by horse wagon beyond the Vistula River.
Nuns hid her in their convent and thus she was not discovered during a
German inspection. The second daughter of Anna Bloch , Zofia, hid
Jews in an unfinished house at Radwan and by nighttime brought food to
Jews in the forest of Dulcza Wielka, up to the war's end. Anna's
son, Jozef Bloch, with the help of his sister, Bronislawa, drove by horse
wagon Chawa and Henryk Amsterdam from Miedzyrzecze to Radwan, to their
father. The husband of Anna's granddaughter, Maria, named Marian
Strano organized false Catholic documents for three of his classmates,
who thus survived the war. Anna's grandson and Bronislawa's son,
Henryk Lazowski (1920-) helped Rose Hollander. He was arrested with
her, but released. She jumped from the train leading her to the concentration
camp. We have before us the depositions of Rose Hollander.
In that of March 12, 1991, she writes that Henryk brought to her father
staying in Cracow, 54 documents fro the Lesers, the Salomons and the Habers.
These permits, obtained by Rose in Tarnow, made possible to that many people
to leave Cracow legally for the relatively secure Radwan , where they stayed
for 16 months. Rose petitioned Yad Vashem to recognize as "Righteous"
Anna, her daughter Bronislawa Lazowski and Bronislawa's son Henryk, for
their disinterested help, as "no financial arrangements were made or promised"
as she tells. From all these people mentioned above only Anna got
her recognition in 1997. The Case 8068 was started in 1993.
BLOCKI Kazimiera
BLYSZCZUK-ROSENCWEIG, Maria (1914-) Maria prepared a shelter at Czortkow (Tarnopol prov.) for Dr. Emil Rosencweig, whom she knew before the war. First she concealed him at her mother's place, and then she rented a room in an attic, in the center of the town. When the Ukrainian police searched his room, they fortunately did not find him. She escaped to Bobrka near Lvov, to stay with her family. Some good people took care of Dr. Emil. They transported him in a clothes basket and put him up with a worthy Ukrainian family. After the war the two married. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BOBATOW, Aleksander
BOBROWSKI, Helena (not related)
BOBROWSKI, Mieczyslaw (not
related)
Mieczyslaw offered his flat for meetings of the members of the left-wing Jewish movement ZOB, - Jewish Fighting Organization. Some of them had fled to Cracow after the failure of the Ghetto Uprising. Wladyslaw Wojcik (q.v.) and Jozef Porczak cooperated with him. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. BOBYLAK-GRABINSKI, Waleria BOCHENEK, Bronislaw (1912-1973)
Maria knew some Jews from her university years in Lvov. She provided food to the family of Dr. David Riesel and gave her birth certificate to Zuzanna Tennenbaum. When she found herself in Warsaw, she had to use the birth certificate of another person, changing her identity to that of Maria Jastrzebski. Dr. Riesel with his wife and a six years old daughter, Felicja, also came to Warsaw. Bronislaw organized for them false documents and finally the Bocheneks took the entire family into their only room. When the doctor with his wife left them, Maria found a place for the girl at a convent on Kazimierzowska Street. Other Jews benefited also from their help, e.g. Prof. Jozef Feldman, particularly wanted by Germans, as the author of a book on Bismarck and Poland. He escaped to Lvov, then to Maria's sister, at Stary Sambor, and finally to Warsaw, to the Bocheneks. He died after the war. In total, they rescued seven (7) Jews. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BOCHENEK, Henryk
BOCHENSKI, Olga (not related) see ZAWADZKI, O. BOCIAN, Zygmunt
Zygmunt and Halina took in a 12 years old Batia Freier, when her mother and elder sister fell in the hands of the Gestapo. Batia was considered by all to be a cousin of Halina. She stayed with the Bocian couple one year and a half, till the end of the Warsaw Uprising (1944). BOCON-KEDRA, Helena see KEDRA, Michalina, mother? BOCZAR, Jadwiga Zofia (1916-) Jadwiga Zofia completed her
law studies in Lvov. During the occupation she lived
BOCZKOWSKI, Stanislaw
Zofia saved five years old Hanna Podoszyn from imminent execution with a group of Jews, telling the German officer in charge, that she knew her to be a Christian child. She bribed him and returned the next day with faked documents, in spite of her husband's objections. The couple kept already Hanna, and another Jewish girl, Janka Stiglitz, both till the end of the war. See: Paldiel, op. cit. BODASZEWSKI, Kazimierz
They lived at Honoratowka, Stanislawow prov. When Germans killed 2,000 Jews at Rohatyn in 1942 and deported another 1,000 to the Belzec concentration camp in 1943, the Wohl family, Bertha, Herman and his brother Morris avoided deportation and took refuge with Kazimierz and Maria. Fearing denunciation, they hid in a forest where the Bodaszewskis provided them with food and necessities till the end of the war. See: Grynberg, op. cit. * BOGDANOWICZ, Anna Wife of an anti-Semitic district attorney of Kielce, she hired her friend, Sara Diller, as tutor to her two sons, when staying in Jaslo near her mother. To save Sara from the danger of deportation, both women traveled to Kielce, where Anna's husband became mayor of the city. Although unable to keep Sara with her, she took care of her in such a diligent way that it finally brought about her arrest and deportation to Auschwitz, where she died from typhoid fever. Another person, who died for Sara, was Dr. Julian Ney (q.v.). Sara fled to Cracow, and then to Warsaw, and, as a Pole, crossed to Austria and Switzerland. In Jerusalem, in 1985, Sara, in tears, recounted her story to this researcher. See: Paldiel, op. cit. Anna was the 1st out of 25 in alphabetical order, among the killed to be recognized as "Righteous". She was mentioned here before in the list of "Those Who Paid with Their Lives". BOGDANOWICZ, Franciszek
In 1941 in Lituania all the Jews were ordered to assembly into the ghettos. Benedykt Birgeriene with his wife Stasy escaped from Kiejdany to the village Liptuny and found refuge at the Bogdanowicz family. The couple built for them a special hideout and took care of all their needs. The fugitives remained with them during two years. The Bogdanowicz family was honored as "Righteous" on Dec. 15, 1999 in Warsaw., according to the announcement of the Israeli Embassy in Poland. BOGDANOWICZ-KRUCAJ, Jadwiga see KRUCAJ, Zenobia, mother BOGDANSKI, Janina
BOGUCKI, Andrzej, actor
The Boguckis were friends of the brilliant Jewish pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman (1911-2000). The pianist saw many harrowing events in the Warsaw ghetto. Forcibly prevented from boarding the train that was to take his family and other Jews to an undisclosed location, he fled and saved his life. He subsequently joined a detachment of Jews working outside of the ghetto and took part in supplying the ghetto with ammunition coming from the Polish underground. He met, among others, the leader of the Warsaw Philharmonic, Dworakowski, who showed him touching sympathy and dispelled any illusions about his family's fate. As Szpillman later explained: "Me certainty of death gave me the energy to save myself at the crucial moment". On Jan 13, 1943, he succeeded in leaving the ghetto for good and went, thanks to a certain Majorek, to the Boguckis' house where they awaited him anxiously. Many other Poles risked their lives to harbor him: Piotr Perkowski, head of the musicians opposing the German rule; the engineer Gebczynski and his wife; conductor Czeslaw Lewicki, who became his friend; Mrs. Malachowska; Zbigniew Jaworski, his wife Zofia, her mother, Mrs. Bobrownicka, and Zofia's sister-in-law, Helena Lewicka, whom he recalled as "the best and most sacrificing of women". Against all odds and incredible dangers he survived till winter hidden in a loft of a building partly destroyed by fire and surrounded by Germans. When he was nearly dying from thirst and hunger, he was discovered by a Catholic German officer, Captain Wilm Hosenfeld who, upon learning about his profession, asked him to play on the piano still remaining in the building. Szpillman played for him the Chopin's Nocturne in C minor, the same piece he played on Warsaw Radio on September 23, 1939, with the city already under bombardment. One can read all this in his beautifully written and gripping book: "The Pianist; the Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945". First published in 1946, it was the basis of Roman Polanski's award-winning film "The Pianist". From the dozens of people who risked their lives for him, beside the Bogucki couple possibly only Czeslaw Lewicki (q.v.) have been recognized, as his number follows immediately theirs in the same year 1978. See: Szpillman, op. cit. See also the article by Leszek Zebrowski published in a Polish weekly "Glos Polski" in Toronto of 16-22 October 2002 entitled: "Troche blizej prawdy". In it the author, from Poland, beside his opinions about the Polanski's film, cites important excerpts by Izaak Bashevis Singer and prof. Gunnar S. Paulsson, about Polish-Jewish relations. BOGUCKI, Karol BOGUCKI, Kazimierz (1897-) Kazimierz lived in Lublin with his wife Halina, where he was active in the underground and helped Jews. They harbored till the end of the war a six years old girl under the name of Regina Dziedzio. He sheltered also a young student, Janina Czaplinski, and found her work in Zamosc which seemed safer. Thus, after the war, she finished her studies in Warsaw. He helped also Marek Kohn, sending him food and medicines to the ghetto. He prepared for him a way of getting out, but Kohn could not make up his mind to take advantage of that offer and died with his child there. See: Grynberg, op. cit. His wife, Halina, is not recognized. BOGUCKI, Kazimierz
(another one, not related)
BOHOSIEWICZ-ROTTER, Helena Helena lived at Mozycz, near Lvov. Six (6) Jews found shelter in her attic: three Rotters, Szoszana Mendel, her sister and Jan Jung. All survived the war. She married one of the Rotters and went with him to Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BOJANOWICZ, Tadeusz
BOMBA, Kazimierz
BORKOWSKA, Anna, Sister, a nun She was the mother superior of a small convent of Dominican Sisters at Kolonia Wilenska, near Vilna (city now in Lithuania). She harbored a group of 17 young Jews who were plotting an uprising in the ghetto. Among them were: Abraham Suckerwer, Abe Kovner, Edek Boraks and Arie Wilner, whom she named "Jurek". That convent saw the printing of the first manifesto in Nazi occupied Europe. It was distributed in the ghetto on Jan. 1, 1942. Sister Anna, called "Ima" (mother) gave them nuns' habits and wanted to accompany them in the uprising. Abe Kovner persuaded her to rather procure them arms and ammunition, which provision to the ghetto she organized. Other sisters who helped her were: Sister Bernadeta, i.e. Julia Michrowska, Sister Bertranda, Sister Cecylia, i.e. Maria Roszek, Sister Diana, i.e. Helena Frackiewicz, Sister Imelda, i.e. Maria Neugebauer, Sister Jordana, i. e. Maria Ostrejko, Sister Malgorzata, i e. Irena Adamek, Sister Stefania, i.e. Stanislawa Bednarska. In March 1943 the Germans arrested the superior, shut the convent and dispatched Sister Bertranda to a labor camp, Perwejniszki, near Kovno. In 1984 Abe Kovner came from Israel and presented Sister Borkowska with the award in the name of Yad Vashem, and planted himself a tree in her honor in the Alley of the Just in Jerusalem. See: Paldiel op cit. Grynberg, op. cit. (photograph) and Kaluski, op. cit. None of the other Sisters was recognized. BORKOWSKI, Eustachiusz
BORYS, Maria Maria Borys was living alone in Lvov. She hid in spring of 1944 the couple Tadeusz and Fryderyka Rozanski with their two children, Aleksander and Anna, her neighbors, in a small house on a lot of New Lvov. Michal and Anna Jadwiga Czyrny (q.v.), for whom Maria was an aunt, harbored the Rozanskis before. Yad Vashem recognized her with the Czyrnys in 1997. Case No. 7090a. Cause started in1993. BORYSIEWICZ, Feliks
Aniela and Feliks lived at Dokszyce. They helped Jews. The Germans killed their mother for that. For about two years they concealed in their home Batya Frydman-Pren, who survived the war and went to Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BORYSOWICZ, Dr. Jerzy (1903-1980) physician He provided much appreciated help in the Jewish hospital for infectious diseases in Radom. Dr. Dawid Wajnapel and Dr. Anna Gecow presented glowing depositions about his courage and humanitarian attitude. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BORYSOWICZ, Wladyslawa, see
DROZDOWSKI, Stefania, mother
BRADLO, Szczepan (-1960)
The family lived on a three-hectare farm at Lubcza, Tarnow prov. Two Jews from Slotowa asked them for shelter, for themselves and then for their families, as they had to leave their previous hideout at the home of the peasant Ryba. Their families consisted of six Bochners, three Reichers, Izrael Hamel, Abraham Einspruch, Bochna and Beniamin Dereszewicz: sixteen (16) people all told. The family and the fugitives built a dug out in which they spent over two years, till the end of the war. Franciszka also helped, besides cooking for all of them. Although poor, the family shared all they had with the refugees for over two years. All survived the war and five of them signed the deposition. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BRATKOWSKI, Zofia
BREJNA, Boleslaw
The Brejnas lived in Warsaw. In 1942 they smuggled from the ghetto a five years old girl, Raszbaum-Hass, entrusted to them by her aunt. In the Warsaw Uprising (1944) Boleslaw and another son, Kazimierz, were killed. The girl stayed with them till 1947, when her aunt who survived came for her. The Brejnas helped also other Jews. They got a Kennkarte for Hinc under the name of Czajkowski and for the couple Eisenman, under the names of Stefania and Julian Kepski. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BROCZEK, Franciszek
Franciszek and his family lived in the village of Wygnanka, Dubno prov. (city incorporated into the Soviet Belorussia). They harbored a 10 years old girl, Sonia, an orphan. After the war her aunt came for her. The Broczeks helped also other Jews. In 1942 they took into their barn Arie Pietrykowski and six (6) other Jews who spent 18 months till the end of the occupation in a shelter built in the cellar. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BRODA, Adam
Helena lived with her husband, Adam, in the village of Majdan Kaweczynski, near Lublin. When the Germans deported the Jews from Piaski in 1942 to the Belzec camp, there came to them Szlome Akerstein with his fiancée, Celia Dreszer who was ill. In 1943 a certain Fogel also joined them. Celia recovered thanks to their good care and all three survived and left Poland, but maintain contact with Helena. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BRODOWSKI-KUBICZ, Helena see KUBICZ-BRODOWSKI, H. BRODZIAK, Wladyslaw (1912-1944)
The Brodziaks resided in Warsaw and were active in the underground. They kept the engineer Hunko in their apartment, but he had to leave them because of a suspicious janitor. In the spring of 1943 they gave refuge to Henryk K. and his wife Karolina. Thanks to Wladyslaw's efforts, Henryk got work at the post office. In the fall of the same year they took in Zofia Jaworska with her small son Jerzy, and frequently harbored her husband, Michal. They kept them till the fall of the Warsaw Uprising. All survived, except Wladyslaw, killed in the Uprising. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BRON, Zygmunt
BRUZDA, Rozalia She lived with her husband and two children in Cracow. From January 1941 she harbored in her apartment or in her husband's family home at Wrzasowiec, a young woman, Genowefa Rapaport, knowing that she was Jewish. Genowefa's false "Kennkarte" name was Rakowski. She was thus able to survive the war. See: Grynberg, op. cit. Her husband is not recognized BRYG-JOB, Izabela see JOB,
Jozef & Wiktoria, parents?
* BRYS, Johan A railwayman from Sosnowiec helped several Jews to cross the border through the Tatra Mountains to Hungary, for which he was dispatched to Auschwitz. He did not return from it. Posthumously recognized as the 2nd "Righteous Among the Nations", he was mentioned here in the list of "Those Who Paid with Their Lives". BRZESKI, Jan
BRZUSZKIEWICZ, Kazimierz Kazimierz befriended Tadeusz Wolpert in the years 1941-1942, when both worked in a machine factory near Warsaw. Kazimierz took care of Tadeusz in all respects. He found also a shelter for his mother, Regina, who managed to flee from the ghetto. Thanks to him both survived the war. Kazimierz was honored as "Righteous" on Dec. 15, 1999 in Warsaw and was present to receive his medal and diploma himself. BRZYSZCZ, Franciszek
The couple lived at Czajkow Polnocny, a village of Tarnobrzeg prov., with their two small children, Henryk and Krystyna. They hid several Jews: two women, Regina and Aleksandra F. and their young nephew Aleksander E. According to the statement of Regina F., the basement was very dark and food was brought to them always at night with utmost caution. We learned from a letter of Irena D. that one day some armed men invaded their home, Germans or same kind of partisans. They put the barrel of their pistols to the head of the parents and children, ordering them to tell where they hid the Jews. Katarzyna fell on her knees swearing by the image of the Holy Virgin Mary on the wall, that they do not keep any Jews. For that simple pious woman it must have been a terrible sacrilege, but she committed it in order to save human beings. Nobody admitted to the presence of the Jews and the search did not reveal them. The three fugitives transferred later to the homes of other villagers, to the Dyl family, also recognized as "Righteous". The Brzyszcz couple was recognized as "Righteous" by a Yad Vashem letter, dated Sep. 5, 1996. Case No. 6510A. BUCHHOLTZ-BUKOLSKI, Janina Janina Bukolski was a psychologist, wife of a university professor of the Lodz Polytechnic and later a professor at Lodz herself. During the occupation she devoted her life to saving Jews. Her office on Miodowa Street in Warsaw where she worked as a registered translator, became one of the central conspiratorial offices of the Jewish National Committee. Here "Aryan" documents were stored and distributed; here hundreds of Jews received financial assistance, provided by the Warsaw Delegate of the Polish Government-in-Exile in London; here were exchanged the most important secrets about the rescue of Jews. In Janina, Jews found the most sympathetic and careful consideration, encouragement and hope. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. and her own account, pp. 88-99 in Smolski, Wladyslaw; "Za to Grozila Smierc; Polacy z Pomoca Zydom w Czasie Okupacji" (The price was death.). [Warszawa] PAX, 1981. BUCZEK, Wilhelm
BUCZKOWSKI, Karol (1904-) He resided at Kamionka Strumilowa (a place incorporated into the Soviet Russia). Otto Reinisz, a lawyer, found refuge in his house until the end of the occupation. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BUDAL-SOLARZ, Zofia see SOLARZ,
Franciszek & Wiktoria, parents
Agnieszka was a housekeeper for a German policeman in Siedlce. She harbored in the attic six (6) Jews until the end of the occupation. After the war she married Izrael Widerszal and left with him for Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BUDNIK, Piotr Piotr lived on a farm at Kaczanowka, Tarnopol prov. He extricated from the ghetto three Helrajch children: Adela, Estera and Zeew and kept them for 18 months. When the last two fell ill with typhoid fever, he took them to the forest and took care of them there, but he himself caught typhus and got meningitis. All survived. After the war he married Adela and left with her for Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BUDYNSKI, Wladyslaw
BURCHACKI, Stefan (1908-1948)
Having lived before the war in Radzymin, near Warsaw, Stefan befriended many Jews, so they could always count on his help when he moved to Warsaw. Some Jews spent a night, others several weeks in the Burchacki's two rooms. He smuggled Jerzy Klajnbard, a hairdresser, from the Izabelin labor camp, got him a "Kennkarte" as well as work in his profession. He also brought to Warsaw his two sisters, Roza and Sabina. The Burchackis had two small sons and a lodger who blackmailed them and in spite of that they helped Wanda Elster, Izak Goldman and his wife Sara, Rachela Jonisz, Adam Kerler, Szoszana Kosower, Roza Szafran, Leon Wajnstein. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BURDA, Elzbieta see SZYSZKIEWICZ-BURDA, E. BURKO, Andrzej (1909-)
The Burko couple lived at Dublany, near Sambor. When the persecution of Jews started, they brought food to those who tried to escape. They also hid the following persons in the loft of their house: Wita Weingarten, Natan and Moszko Stulbach, and Icek Somme. All survived. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BURLINGIS, Pawel
BUSSOLD, Stanislawa As a midwife in Praga (a suburb of Warsaw) she assisted Jewish women who gave birth in her own apartment, outside of the hospital. See: Smolski, op.cit. BUSZKO-CIOSMAK, Anna see
CIOSMAK-BUSZKO, A.
BUZA, Tadeusz (1911-) As a tram conductor in Warsaw, he brought food to the ghetto when driving through it, as did many of his colleagues. He took into his apartment a fugitive from Lvov, Leon Schachter. When the neighbors became suspicious, he put him up with some acquaintances and took care of him till the end of the occupation. See: Grynberg, op. cit. BYKOWSKI, Antoni
BYKOWSKI, Krystyna, Sister,
a nun
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