OBERMILLER, Henryka (1905-)

Henryka resided with her husband Herman and a small daughter Iwonka in Warsaw. Herman was active in the underground and for security reasons dwelt elsewhere. Adam and his wife Eugenia Goldberg, from Radom fled in 1942 to Warsaw. They came to Henryka asking for shelter. First they stayed with the Obermiller family. Then Henryka provided them with false documents and placed them at Zbojna Gora near Warsaw. She maintained close contact with them taking care of their interests. Salomon Wiener was in the ghetto; he had had business relations with Goldberg before the war. Salomon had a daughter, Guta Frydman with her husband and small son. Henryka visited them in the ghetto, passing through the court building on Leszno Street, providing them with food and money. At the request of Salomon, Henryka led his grandson out through the same court building. She planned to extract from the ghetto also his mother, Guta, but the latter was taken to the Treblinka camp. For security's sake Henryka organized for him an operation to liquidate the signs of the circumcision by two Jewish doctors. She took him to Zielonka, near Warsaw and placed him in her apartment, in which she harbored also a Jewish teacher from Kalisz, F. L., with her mother, providing them also with proper documentation. After the war Henryka found the boy's father in England and returned him his son to that country. The Goldbergs wrote in 1954 a beautiful letter thanking for all the care and devotion they experienced during the war from the Obermillers. See: Grynberg, op. cit.

OBRAL, Antonina
OBREBSKI, Boleslaw

OCHALSKI, Przemyslaw (1914-)
OCHALSKI, Krystyna (1922-) born KROLIKIEWICZ, wife

The Ochalskis were residents of Piotrkow Trybunalski. In that town the Germans organized the first ghetto in Poland, to which they brought Jews from nearby towns, so that in 1942 the ghetto counted 25.000 people. There was a scarcity of living quarters, due to the heavy devastation of 1939. Also, the Volksdeutch community (there were 6533 of them in that area in 1940) was eager to occupy the Jewish shops and houses. In October 1942 during the liquidation of that ghetto, two Jewish girls escaped from it: Bronia Zaks and Franka Berksztejn and came to the Ochalskis, as one of them was Krystyna's schoolmate. Franka still had family in Czestochowa and they wanted to go there. Krystyna gave them her garments and Przemyslaw drove them to their destination. After the war Franka went to Australia and Renia to Israel. In 1985 Renia Zachs' husband, a Profesor in Haifa, invited the Ochalskis to their home for saving his wife's life. See: Grynberg, op. cit.

OCZYNSKI, Boleslaw
OCZYNSKI, Agnieszka, wife

OCZYNSKI, Jan (1835-1996) (not related)
OCZYNSKI, Mieczyslaw (1914-) son

Father and son resided in Sambor, Lvov prov. Jan was a railway engineer and Mieczyslaw graduated from the Lvov Conservatory of Music. The Germans deported from the Sambor ghetto many Jews to the Belzec extermination camp, others to the Janowski camp or killed them on the spot. In the house next to the Oczynskis there hid a Jewish woman from Drohobycz, Amalia Mudrycki. She asked Mieczyslaw to shelter a family from that town. Jan with his father's assent, took into their home the physician, Dr. Maksymilian Getlinger, his wife Leontyna, their son-in-law, also a physician, Dr. Alfred Herzig, and their maid Rachela, and treated them as members of the family. On the request of Dr. Getlinger, Mieczyslaw went to Drohobycz and led from the ghetto a 10 years old boy, Adam, and brought him home. The Gettlingers later adopted the boy. In comparison with all the stories related up to now, the refugees had exceptionally good conditions. The apartment was heated; they were not hungry and could often take a bath. At night they strolled in the yard. Mieczyslaw provided them with books from the library, with German newspapers and played for them the violin. He often drove to his father's brother to the country, Uherce, where he worked in the fields to earn food for all these people. The uncle, not knowing about the people sheltered by his brother and nephew, wondered why the latter took with him so much food. Mieczyslaw visited there the Ochowicz's farm, where two Jewish sisters, Basia and Ewa Schreiber, were also hidden. When Basia fell ill, Mieczyslaw took her into his home and under the care of Dr. Herzig she recovered and was returned to her hiding place. Amalia Mudrycki was also forced to accept the Oczynskis' hospitality. All survived and left Poland. But the fate of the two Jewish girls, who were provided with "Aryan" papers and went to Warsaw, is unknown. The Getlingers maintained contact with the Oczynskis for many years. See: Grynberg, op. cit.

OGNIEWSKI, Bronislawa
OGNIEWSKI, Irena see JORASZ, (JAROSZ ?) Bogdan, husband

OGONOWSKI, Franciszka
OGONOWSKI, Irena, daughter
OGONOWSKI, Stefan, son
OGONOWSKI, Wladyslaw, son`

These farmers, together with the Dudas (q.v.) harbored ten (10) Jews in the Kielce prov. The fugitives stayed for 20 months in a bunker under the barn, the entrance to which was covered with branches. A pregnant woman went into labor. To cover her screams the Ogonowskis banged pots and pans and moved furniture to and fro, as nearby stationed the Russian General Vlasov, whose units collaborated with the Germans. Some supposedly Polish partisans (Ukrainian and Belo Russian partisans spoke also Polish and could be easily mistaken for being Polish) raided the farm, killed Wladyslaw and wounded Stefan. When they departed, Franciszka, rushed to the hideout to reassure the Jews, saying, "It was God's will!" See: Paldiel, op. cit.

OGRODZINSKI-CHMIELEWSKI, Stanislawa see CHMIELEWSKI, Michalina, mother
OJAK, Jozef
OJAK-SOBKOWIAK, Helena, wife
OJRZANOWSKI, Janina & Maria see OYRZANOWSKI, J. & M.
OKNIANSKI, Antoni
OKNIANSKI, Maria, wife
OKON-POLANSKI, Jozefa see POLANSKI, Stanislawa, sister?
OKULOWSKI, Urszula

OLBRYSKI, Wanda (1888?-1985) born FICE

Wanda was a young actress in Warsaw when Hitler invaded Poland Sept. 1, 1939.
Her husband, a member of the Polish underground, perished in Auschwitz in 1942. Nevertheless Wanda is credited with saving 20 Jewish men, women and children, who now have ca. 40 offspring. Wanda and her deceased brother, Tadeusz Fice (q.v.) concealed Jews and resistance fighters in a bunker under their house near Warsaw for more than two years. In 1982 the Beth Emeth-Bais Yehuda Congregation in Toronto, Canada, honored both, as well as Yad Vashem which recognized them as "Righteous" the same year. She received a special commendation from Moshe Bejski, chairman of the Israeli Commission for the Designation of the Righteous. She got letters, etc. from her protégés from Israel and several other countries. She said in an interview: "It was from the heart. I just thought I was supposed to do it. I didn't think about it. I just did it"
One of her friends, also saved by other Poles, Miriam Ogniewicz, who under the pen name of Maria Halina Horn wrote a book" Memoirs of a Jewess" wrote: "As the Warsaw ghetto battle is commemorated and the horror revived, the world must be reminded that thousands of Wandas helped Jews". See: the articles in the Canadian press: The Toronto Sun, Jan. 26, 1985 by Dick Chapman and The Canadian Jewish News, by David Birkan.

OLCZAK, Genowefa
OLESZEK-MALEK, Marianna see MALEK, Jan, brother?

OLIZAR, Wladyslaw (1908-1982)
OLIZAR, Jadwiga, born JANKOWSKI (1911-2000)

The Jewish couple Lazar, and Irena E. escaped from the Lvov ghetto in 1943 warned by the Gestapo man, Kramer, that the end of the Jews approached. There were only 500 of them left in the ghetto. The couple reached Warsaw and learned that Mother Matylda Getter, superior of the congregation of St. Mary's Family, was helping Jews. Irena E. went to her and told her that she was a Jew and got work through her as a maid at the estate of Szeligi II near Warsaw. Its owner was Kazimiera Jawornicki who died shortly after her arrival. The manager of the estate was her son, Count Wladyslaw Olizar and his wife Jadwiga, née Jankowski. There lived also Jadwiga's sister Alexandra, married to the engineer Stanislaw Zaryn (q.v.). Both couples had children, some of which were in their teens. All of them knew that Irena was Jewish and treated her very well. When they realized that the maid's work was too hard for her, they proposed to Irena that she become the governess of Alexandra's children. Wladyslaw found a place for Irena's husband on a nearby farm. The housekeeper of the owners of the farm, Halina Pesko, took part in helping in the care of the Jewish couple. A delegation of the estate workers asked the count to get rid of Irena, feeling that their safety was compromised by the presence of a Jewish person. The count refused, telling them "I alone will be responsible for what will happen". They accepted his words, and kept quiet. Irena stayed with them till January 20, 1944, when both families were forced to leave the estate due to the agricultural reform imposed by the new Communist regime in Poland. Irena E. and her husband maintained heartfelt contacts with the Olizars couple via letters and thoughtful, meaningful gifts. Yad Vashem recognized the Olizars and the Zaryns as "Righteous among the Nations" on January 29, 1998. However, only Jadwiga Olizar, ill and in her 80's- could come to the ceremony in Warsaw honoring the four of them on Jan 14, 1999. Case No. 7521, started in 1995.

OLSZAKOWSKI-GLAZER, Zofia
OLSZANECKI, Olga
OLSZANECKI-KULYNYCZ, Stefania, sister
OLSZANSKI, Janina
OLSZEWSKI, Edyta

OLSZEWSKI, Maria (not related)
OLSZEWSKI, Henryk, son
OLSZEWSKI, Janina, daughter (or Henryk's wife)
OLSZEWSKI, Leon, son
OLSZYNA, Aniela

OLDAK, Aleksander
OLDAK, Apolonia, wife

The Oldak couple resided at Dzierzoniow, near Krasnik, Lublin prov. In October 1942, the Germans transferred some Jews from Dzierzoniow to Krasnik, and killed the others in the forest. Apolonia found among the murdered an 8 months old baby girl. She took her home and kept her in spite of the neighbors' insistence that she get rid of the Jewish child. Aleksader died in 1950 and Apolonia left with her adopted orphan, Basia, for Israel in 1958. Basia married there and has two sons; Apolonia is treated as the mother and grandmother. See Greenberg, op. cit. and Isakiewicz, op. cit.

ONOSKI, Jadwiga, see USZCZANOWSKI, Antoni, husband
OPEL, Kazimierz
OPEL, Irena, wife
ORACZ, Maria
ORCZYKOWSKI, Antoni
ORCZYKOWSKI, Jozefa, wife
ORCZYKOWSKI, Zenon, son
ORLIK, Michal
ORLIK, Kazimierz, son

ORLOWSKI-PRZYLUCKI, Anna (1912-)

Anna with her baby fled from Modlin eastward before the German onslaught. She planned to stay with her sister, Gertruda Gorowicz at Borszczowo Tarnopol prov. Toward the end of 1941 there came to them for shelter two sisters, Bella Hessing and Lola, who remained with them till the end of the occupation. Anna dissuaded them to return to the ghetto, although they did not have any resources. The two girls remained with them through the occupation, went to the Western territories of Poland and emigrated after a few years. Anna and Gertruda aided other Borszczowo Jews by organizing for them medical help, false documents, or brief sojourns in their home. Not all survived; some were denounced or murdered later by Ukrainian nationalists. Gertruda does not seem to be recognized as "Righteous" See: Grynberg, op. cit.

ORLOWSKI, Marta (not related)
ORLOWSKI-SPIRYDOWICZ, Halina, daughter

ORLOWSKI, Zygmunt (not related)
ORLOWSKI, Marianna, sister
ORNATOWSKI-SNIADECKI, Zofia see SNIADECKI-ORNATOWSKI, Z.

ORZECHOWSKI, Franciszek, Mgr. (?)

ORZECHOWSKI-GLUS, Jozefa (not related)
ORZECHOWSKI-BILINSKI, Stefania, sister?

OSEKA, Janusz

Oseka participated in the rescue of some important Ghetto Uprising heroes. For the story see: Swital, Stanislaw, Dr. (19000-1982) physician

OSIECKI, Aleksander, priest

OSIEWICZ, Jan (1917-)

Jan came from the estate of Kozaryna, Krasnystaw district. He took part in the September campaign (1939). He worked as an electrician at Starachowice and in Krasnystaw. There he befriended Jakub Knobl who in August 1940 found himself with his family in the ghetto. In October 1942 the Germans transferred the Jews from Krasnystaw to the Izbica ghetto. Jan visited there his friends. Jakub Knobl refused aid, not willing to part with his family. Jan organized false documentation for his wife Aniela and her departure for work to Germany. Estera, the sister of Jakub came also to Jan for help. The latter rented an apartment for her at Krupe and later took her into his home. He also cared for the Honigman family of four people, placing them with a farmer, Karol Olecha, at Wielkopole. Thus seven (7) persons were saved from certain death. See: Grynberg, op. cit.

OSIKA, Stanislaw
OSIKA, Katarzyna, wife

Roza Hajman stated that in 1942 her father went to the village of Kuchary seeking shelter for his family of six (6) persons. Before the deportation of the Jews from Brzesko Nowe, Stanislaw Osika came for them and took them to his home, hidden under a load of hay on his cart. They were concealed in his home till 1945. His son, also Stanislaw, took particular care of them. Yad Vashem recognized the Osika couple as "Righteous" and it was honored in Cracow, on Oct. 16, 1999. The son Stanislaw was not recognized.

OSIKIEWICZ, Andrzej, priest

As a parish priest in Boryslaw, aged 43, he urged his parishioners to help the persecuted Jews. For this he was sent to the Majdanek camp where he died on Dec. 29, 1943. See: Zajaczkowski, op. cit.

OSINSKI, Czeslaw
OSINSKI, Julia, wife
OSINSKI, Bogdan, son
OSINSKI, Wieslaw, son
OSSOWSKI, Zofia see BOCZKOWSKI, Stanislaw, husband
OSTEP, Leokadia, see SIWEK, Karol, father
OSTREYKO, Jordana
OSTROWSKI, Jan
OSTROWSKI, Maria, wife

OSTROWSKI, Janina (not related)
OSTROWSKI, Barbara daughter
OSTROWSKI-RYBCZYNSKI, Irena, daughter
OSTROWSKI, Krystyna, daughter

The three sisters from a bourgeois family who did not have much contact with Jews before the war, all teenagers (16-19) took under their care Wanda Samstein-Feuerman, whom they met at a summer resort at Chylice, in August 1943. Barbara found a place for her at their mother Janina, where she stayed herself. This house belonged to the girls' aunt, Brunona Siedlinski (q.v.). The aunt did not know at first that Wanda was Jewish, but did not throw her out when she learned the truth. According to Wanda's words, "to this day she is my dearest aunt, although I have authentic ones." She described the three girls as very unusual, very brave, very unselfish. They studied in underground, carried ammunitions, leaflets and protected "their" Jewess, trying to spare her any bad news. By their sense of humor and nonchalance they made her forget the sad experiences she had had before. "I liked to come to their place after the war where I was almost happy in those terrible times." See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit.

OSTROWSKI-RUSZCZYNSKI, Maria (not related) see
RUSZCZYNSKI-OSTROWSKI, M.

OSTROWSKI, Nina (not related)
OSTROWSKI-CZARNOWSKI, Krystyna, daughter

OSTROWSKI, Stanislaw (not related)
OSTROWSKI, Marianna, wife

OSTROWSKI, Witold (not related)
OSTROWSKI, Bronislawa, (Boleslawa?) wife

OSZEROWSKI-LANGIEWICZ, Wanda see LANGIEWICZ-OSZEROWSKI, W.
OTRE(M)BA, Genowefa
OTWINOWSKI, Bronislawa
OWCA, Stanislaw

OYRZANOWSKI-POPLAWSKI, (POPLEWSKI?) Janina (1918-) scholar
OYRZANOWSKI, Maria (1922-) sister, dentist

Franciszka Tusk-Scheinwechsler, who lost all her family deported to Treblinka from the Warsaw ghetto, escaped from it in 1942 to the "Aryan" side. She had neither resources nor documents. Polish acquaintances, who could not keep her for good, helped her passing her from one to the other: Zofia Palczynski, Eugenia Drabik-Witkowski, her mother Michalina Drabik, Franciszka Kutner, Mrs. Sommer, Klementyna Porowski, altogether 45 people risked their lives, none of them have been recognized up to now. Only when she found her way to Janina and Maria, she felt safe. She stayed with them till the end of the war. See: Grynberg, op. cit. and also Prekerowa, op. cit. Very many Jews had similar experiences.

OZYNSKI, Ewa