| SABAN, Anna
SABAN, Mieczyslaw, son (1922-) They lived in Lvov. Mieczyslaw, an auto mechanic, provided food to the ghetto. He helped Efraim Adler to get out of the ghetto, took him into their apartment and harbored him from 1942 until the Red Army occupied Lvov for the second time. Efraim wrote in his deposition that he was treated like a member of the family. He hid in a part of the cellar with a concealed entrance from the vestibule; in the evenings he often stayed in the apartment itself. "I live only thanks to this brave man, who disinterestedly helped me" he wrote. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SADLAK, Kazimierz
SADZIKOWSKI, Kazimiera, born DZIEMIANOWICZ Kazimiera Dziemianowicz, a liaison officer of the AK, worked for the Health Insurance Board in Warsaw. She knew many employees and their employers and she had access to a number of files, enabling her to create many false documents, like fictional work, birth, marriage certificates, Kennkarten, required of everyone in the General Government. Lack of any of them during the very frequent sudden round-ups in the streets, of Poles or Jews, meant, most often, immediate dispatch to a labor camp. Aleksander Bronowski from Haiffa testified that Kazimiera entered the ghetto legally, bringing large quantities of medicine for typhoid fever and illegal documents for the Jews who wanted to escape, what she encouraged. Aleksander found refuge in her home and later in other homes located by her; she also acted as a link between him and his wife, always refusing to receive any reward for whatever she did. Jozef Daniel Szarbel, a former inmate of Auschwitz and before of the Nowy Dwor ghetto, testified also that large quantities of food and medicines reached the ghetto from her place of work. She or her acquaintances harbored those who escaped. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. SAGAN, Bronislaw SAGAN, Jan (not related)
Jan was a farmer who had a mill frequently visited by other peasants. Morris Krantz (15), whose family was murdered in its entirety, slipped for a few days into his pigsty. He overheard Jan protesting somebody's expression of joy at the slaughter of Jews. Morris asked Jan to give him shelter. Jan was married and had several children and his parents living with him. At first he refused, like others before him, fearing for his family. Jan said: "I was startled by the sight of you: overgrown hair, face swollen from cold, all in rags, a ghost, a wild man, a barely human creature. I was in shock. But I was in turmoil over it for two days. I considered it the greatest crisis in my life; you made me aware what a precious gift life is, and the God-given power in it". Jan sheltered him in the barn, initially not telling even his wife for 14 months, until April 1944, when Morris joined the partisans. LaterMorris said about Jan: "The man gave me new life, my second father". See: Paldiel, op. cit. SAGAN, Marek (not related)
SAJDAK, Wladyslaw Adam, (1912-)
The Sajdaks resided in Zloczow, Tarnopol prov. and owned three houses, of which one served as an inn, run by a Jew. The father Wladyslaw instilled in them certain principles. In fact he wrote: "If you encounter on your way a Jew needing help, don't turn your head from him. Jews are our brothers; remember that Jesus Christ and his mother were Jews". The two sons helped Jews mostly by leading them out of the ghetto, harboring them in their home and then leading them over to the partisans. Among those helped were Mr. Katz, and Chaim Klosowski from Lodz, who was the only one who survived the massacre of the Zloczow Jews in the nearby forest. Mr. Markus from Tarnopol and Mr. Misztal, as well as a 12 years old girl, Malka Koch, escaped from a transport to the Belzec camp. Adam placed her with a woman living alone, where she grazed cattle. After the war her mother came for her. In 1984 Maurycy Altstock stated from Australia that in 1944, having been robbed and wounded by a German gendarme, he managed to reach the Sajdaks. Before that, he had been with another farmer. He stayed with them till the end of the occupation. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SALA, Wladyslaw
* SALEK-DENEKO, Jadwiga (1911-1944) From a working familyin Lodz, Jadwiga worked in Warsaw as a teacher in the institution "Nasz Dom" (Our home) managed by Maria Falski (q.v.). Before the war she worked in the Social Welfare Department, in the Substitute Families Section for orphans. She hid some Jews, like Eugenia Sigalin and Katarzyna Meloch, whom she placed with the Sisters Little Servants of Mary Immaculate at Turkowice. The Turkowice convent and orphanage are described here by Sisters Antonina Manaszczuk(q.v.) Jozefa Romansewicz (q.v.) and Aniela Polechajllo(q.v.). Jadwiga was arrested on Nov. 27, 1 943, with a Jewish family, in the press office of the Polish Socialists, where she was in contact with Ludomir Marczak(q.v.). After a severe interrogation she was shot on Jan 6 (8?), 1944 in the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. Awarded the medal "Righteous Among the Nations", she was mentioned here in the List of "Those Who Paid with Their Lives". See: Grynberg, op. cit., Prekerowa, op. cit., Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. SALEK, Tadeusz (not
related)
SAMOLUK-LICHTENTAL, Joanna (1900-) Joanna lived in Trembowla, Tarnopol prov. She worked for a veterinarian. She harbored in her apartment the child Michelle Barzilaj and Meir Lichtental. After the war she married Meir and they settled in Israel. Joanna was the mother of three children from her first marriage, one of seven born from her marriage to Meir; she has 14 grandchildren. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SANDNER, Henryk
SAWICKI-WACHALSKI, Anna
The sisters resided in Warsaw and belonged to the Polish Socialist Party. They helped Jews, especially the ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization) making their apartment available for their meetings. They rented apartments on their own name for many Jews living outside of the ghetto. Maria was a liaison officer for the Jewish underground in Warsaw and in Czestochowa. Anna organized a "Kennkarte" for the Bund activist, Wladka Meed (Feigele Peltel) on basis of the identity card of her deceased daughter, Stanislawa. Maria was a courier for the Jewish fighters. Both sisters harbored two Jewish girls. Their nephew, 19 years old Stefan Siewierski led to the partisans several Jews disguised as Germans in 1943. On his return travel to Warsaw, he was apprehended and executed. An article entitled "To the Memory of a gallant Polish woman" in the Polish language paper "Izraelskie Nowiny i Kurier" appeared on Nov. 4, 1966. It stated that Anna Wachalska will live forever in the hearts of all Jewish fighters who found with her shelter, motherly care and family warmth for the orphaned Jewish children. See: Grynberg, op. cit. * SAWICKI, Emilia (1905-1944)
The Sawicki family lived at Korolowka, district of Borszczow. In the years 1943-1944 they harbored a Jewish family: the sisters Rena Hausner and Pola Henenfeld with her husband Leon. In the same building, Germans kept in detention peasants who were late in their obligatory delivery of farm products to Germans. There were searches, fortunately without results. In 1984 Rena Hausner wrote from Israel confirming these facts. Ukrainian Bandera nationalists killed the Sawickis' mother Emilia and her youngest son Nikodem for trying to save Jews. Both were awarded posthumously the medal "Righteous Among the Nations" and were mentioned here in the list of "Those Who Paid with Their Lives". See: Grynberg, op. cit. SAWICKI, Halina (not related) SAWICKI, Leopold (not related) SAWICKI, Ludwik (not related)
SAWICKI, Irena, daughter? alias "STEFANIA" or "THE FIRST IRENA" (-1944) Irena lived in Warsaw. In 1939 the Polish ZWZ, (Zwiazek Walski Zbrojnej, i e. Union for Armed Struggle) later called AK (Armia Krajowa i.e. Home Army) was already established. Finally, it became part of the KB (Korpus Bezpieczenstwa i.e. Security Corps). From its beginning it maintained regular contacts with the Warsaw ghetto. From 1942, under the control of the AK, it saved individuals from the ghetto and supplied arms and ammunitions to the Jewish underground, and later to the ZZW (Jewish Military Organization). Irena, from PPR (the Polish Workers Party), was one of those most active in organizing shelters and gathering points for Jewish youths being sent out of the city to join the partisans. She cooperated with Adolf Berman, member of the Leftist Poale-Zion movement, who with his wife, Basia (diminutive of Barbara), was sent in September 1942 from the ghetto to the "Aryan" side to establish contacts and inform the world of what was happening. He became the representative of the ZKN (Jewish National Committee) in Zegota. Basia, also very active, wrote a glowing account about "The First Irena", how she received them warmly with a big parcel of homemade food and hot coffee. In her words "She always appeared when she was needed, invariably full of enthusiasm, always short of breath and hurried, but always managing to find time for everything, able to choose the best course and mobilize people to help her in her noble tasks". With Zofia Podkowinski (q.v.) "The 2nd Zofia" and a third woman, Nina Assorodobraj, a non-Aryan, she received all those needing help and protection. On Sunday the "Three Graces" received many such friends with homemade pastries on a table laid with embroidered cloth and fine porcelain. On Aug. 1st, 1944 Irena went to Mokotow (a southern Warsaw district) and was killed there. See: Bartoszewski and Lewin, op. cit., Prekerowa, op. cit. Irena cooperated very closely with Loda Komarnicki. Loda, coming from a rather rightist and nationalistic background, was not very sympathetic to Jews. But seeing their fate, she devoted herself completely to their cause. One of the saved, Mrs. H. C. wrote from Australia, "she spirited dozens of people out of the ghetto and handed them over into safekeeping by others". Finally meeting a Jew to whom she had nothing to give, she traveled on his behalf to another city, in a borrowed dress, (as she had given all her dresses to the needy) to retrieve money owned him. She was killed by his debtors... SAWICKI-GLOS, Stanislawa (not related) see GLOS, Aleksander, husband SAWICKI, Wiktor (not related)
SCHULTZ, Irena (1902-1983) journalist Irena worked already before
the war in the Social Welfare Department of Warsaw.
SCHUSSEL, Alfred, Dr.
SENDLER, Irena alias JOLANTA (1910-) Before the war Irena Sendler lived with her parents in Otwock. Her father was a physician whose main clients were poor Jews. Early in life she learned respect for people and the duty toward those who are in need. During the occupation she lived in Warsaw working in the city Social Welfare Department. She started helping Jews from the beginning of the ghetto. In the second part of 1942 the newly created Zegota named her chief of its Children's Bureau. She and Irena Schultz (q.v.) had a special permit to enter the ghetto, where she wore the Star of David. She cooperated with the Children's Section of the Municipal Administration, linked with the RGO (Central Welfare Council), a Polish Relief Organization tolerated by the Germans under their supervision. She also worked secretly with the above-mentioned Zegota. She placed the Jewish children with substitute Polish families or in orphanages and convents, the Warsaw orphanage of the Sisters of the Family of Mary, with its superior Mother Matylda Getter, q.v.). Other children were placed at Turkowice and Chotomowo convents of the Sisters Little Servants of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mary, where the superior was Sister Polechajllo. (q. v.) . In 1943 the Gestapo arrested Irena, tortured her severely and sentenced her to death. When driven to the shooting place, she was liberated thanks to a hefty bribe given to a Gestapo man by Zegota, but officially it was unnounced that she was executed. From a new address, this time in hiding, she continued her work for the Jewish children. In 1983 she was decorated in Jerusalem as "Righteous". On that occasion Dr. Teresa Kerner, with tears in her eyes, related how Irena accompanied her several times to a safer place and how, as a Jewess, she remained in her house for two years after the war. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit., Grynberg, op. cit., Lukas, Did the Children Cry?, op. cit., Paldiel, op. cit. Prekerowa, op. cit. In the USA there exists an organization of young people named for Irena Sendler, who is still today in contact with her. SENDLER, Zofia (not related)
SENIOR, Jozefa (1899-1981) Jozefa Senior lived in Warsaw with her 4 years old daughter. Her husband, Edward, an architect, died in the Stuthoff extermination camp. She did not belong to any underground organization but she helped Jews on her own. In 1987 Mosze Antokolski declared that she told him, as soon as he came to her, that her door is always open to him. He spent many months in her apartment and once, when it was necessary to take for a night thirteen (13) Jews straight from the ghetto, she offered them that needed shelter without a moment of hesitation. When the 14 were there, Germans suddenly appeared at the door. Fortunately, they came only because the neighbor did not black-out his windows. She also saved Eugenia Sigalin. "Jozefa Senior should have a monument built from human memory and reverence", Mosze said. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SENKOW-JEDRZEJKO, Maria
see JEDRZEJKO, Jan, father
SERAFIMOWICZ, Julian
The couple lived in the village of Mostowka, Ostroleka prov. with their three children. Julian was a forester. He found in the forest two Jewish refugees from the Treblinka uprising: Szloma Helman and Szyja Warszawski. At first, Julian brought them food to the forest, but later took them into his farm, and fed them without any compensation for 11 months, till the end of the occupation. Already in 1951 Szloma confirmed this from Tel-Aviv. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SETLIK, Alfons (-1979)
The two brothers and their
families farmed in the village of Swiecony, Jaslo district.
SEWERYN, Tadeusz, Dr., alias SOCHA (1894-1975) Tadeusz Seweryn, professor of ethnography, was entrusted in February 1943 with organizing the Council for Aid to Jews in Cracow, as representative of the Peasant Party. He was also the leader of the Civil Struggle Directorate. "Socha" is considered as one of Zegota's most meritorious members. He was even a member of the Underground Tribunal, which issued death sentences for those who collaborated with Germans, particularly in blackmailing Jews or Poles who harbored them. He wrote in one of his declarations: ".This is not only against all rules of ethics - it comes under the criminal law. Collaboration with the enemy is a crime even in war time, and for crimes we punish today". In 1967 he published his account: "Various ways of help to Jews under the Hitlerite occupation" in "Przeglad Lekarski" (Medical Review) Nr. 1. See: Grynberg, op. cit., Prekerowa, op. cit., and his own report in Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. Here should come the names
starting with "SI": SIARA, up to and incl. those starting with "SZ"
The following group of names
start all with a softened "S" ( ?) and therefore must follow all those
starting with the usual "S", even those starting with "Sz".
SCIBOROWSKI, Helena (1900-)
Helena, a widow with children, resided in Warsaw and rendered many services to Jews. She harbored them in her apartment, like the Grotens, three (3) persons, and the Bursztyn families. Members of the Jewish resistance also used her apartment, like Wladka Meed, Salo Fiszgrund and others. She also looked for places of shelter with her acquaintances. Wladka Meed remembers: "She took money for her work, but as a rule, she distributed that money to hidden Jews. She sold her own belongings to help the Jews". The ZIH (Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw) attested on Oct. 15, 1963: "Citizen Sciborowski established contact with Prof. Sak, member of the underground Jewish National Committee. Through him Helena got allowances for her charges. She delivered them that money regularly every month. After the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto she used to bring food to the Jews hiding in its ruins. The disinterested generosity, courage and self-possession of that woman saved the life of 10 to 20 Jews". See: Grynberg, op. cit., Prekerowa, op. cit. SCISLO, Waclaw
SCIWIARSKI, Zbigniew Zbigniew took part in the rescue of some most important Jewish fighters. See the story under the name SWITAL, Stanislaw Dr. (1900-1982), physician SLEBOCKI, Stanislaw
SLEDZIEWSKI, Szymon
The Sledziewski family lived at the village of Cierpieta, Wegrow district, Siedlce prov. Froim Kaplan worked with his son Aron in the forge in the same village. During the occupation Aron lost his parents, three sisters and three brothers. Only he and his younger brother escaped with life. He hid with the Sledziewskis. Leokadia (16) helped him the most. She brought him food and helped him to flee to the forest just before the irruption of the Germans into their farm. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SLEDZINSKI, Helena
SLEZAK-GAWLAK (DYL-GAWLAK?), Regina Regina is one of twelve Poles (out of a total of ca. 50 saviors) from Czajkow, Kielce prov. and vicinity, to be recognized by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations". She helped the following: Elias and Regina F., Maurice F., Aleksander E., Szymon. R., Lola W., Meir B., Rina N.S. This announced a letter from Yad Vashem, dated Sept. 5, 1996. Case Nr. 6510B. [According to the information coming to this researcher from a most trustful source, her true name was Dyl. Slezak was just a nickname.]. Her cause was started in 1987. SLISKI-BERNAT, Zofia
SLIWCZYNSKI, Tadeusz (1892-1949)
The Sliwczynski family lived before the war in Mlawa, which was incorporated into the Third Reich from the very beginning of the war. Jews were driven from it already in 1940 to the "General Gouvenerment" (central Poland under German administration). Later the family moved to Warsaw. The father was the manager of a department in the Treasury ministry. Jerzy worked in the office of the Court of the IX district and was at the same time member of ZWZ, later AK (Home Army). He had a pass to the ghetto. As the court building bordered on the north with the ghetto (Leszno Street) and on the south with the "Aryan" part of the city, (Ogrodowa Street) some Jews, with help from Poles, did leave the ghetto through this building. The place of meeting was room 515, in which Jerzy worked. He specially helped Jews from Mlawa, for instance the school-mates of Tadeusz, his father: Mr. Biezunski, the pharmacist, Jakub Kleniec and his wife and daughter Ruta, Dr. Jozef Makowski and his wife and daughter and Celina Czech. These people received false identifications based on birth certificates obtained from the priest Dr. Dudzinski from Powazki. From mid 1942 Ella Preker was harbored in the Sliwczynskis' apartment. Before that she was with Artur and Zofia Pienkiewicz (q.v.). For his help to Jews, the Gestapo sent Artur Pienkiewicz to the Stutthof extermination camp, where he perished. Jerzy Piotr was also dispatched in the first days of August 1944 for forced labor to Germany. Ella Prekel wrote from the USA saying that Jerzy Sliwczynski helped her to get false documents and particularly saved her from being taken for forced labor to Germany. And when Jerzy was sent to Germany himself, his family continued to harbor her. "His disinterested help to Jews merits the highest recognition", added Ella Prekel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SLIWIAK, Andrzej (1899-1985) Andrzej lived in Kolomyja, Lomza prov. He spent time in prison for his Communism but avoided being executed. There were 18,000 Jews in Kolomyja. They were partly deported to Belzec and the Janowski camp, partly murdered on the spot. At that time, in November 1942, Andrzej hid in his homestead ten (10) escapees from the ghetto: Pola and Marceli Najder, Mundek Rat, Abraham Sperber, Jozef Weitz, Fryderyk Ferber with his son Aleksander, Bernard Arnold, and Zygmunt Prinz. Pola Najder, in her 1976 declaration wrote that Sliwiak "hid the ten Jews in the cellar contiguous to his house, giving them disinterestedly food and necessities for 18 months. The survival of that group is due to the courage and attitude of an upright man and Pole". See: Grynberg, op. cit. SLIWINSKI, Boleslaw
SLIWINSKI-SKOCZYLAS, Stanislawa
(not related)
SNIADECKI-ORNATOWSKI, Zofia (1913-) educator Zofia Sniadecki lived at
Brzezany, Tarnopol prov. She was a courier for the AK between
Lvov-Kolomyja-Tarnopol and Stanislavov. In Brzezany there were 4,000 Jews. In
July 1941 the Ukrainian nationalists perpetrated a pogrom. On Dec. 18,
1941 approximately 1,000 Jews perished, mostly the intelligentsia. The others
were deported to Belzec or murdered on the spot in June 1943. Zofia,
who spoke fluently German, worked for a German company, partly located
in the ghetto. She wrote in 1981 that her parents instilled in their
children respect for every human being. Emil Ornstein in his account
of 1965 wrote that "Zofia from the first moment started to help us, the
entire family.She brought food to the ghetto, warned us, consoled us, and inspired
us. She concealed us in her apartment, not only us, but also others
as well. She never refused help. She led out of the ghetto all my
family, my brother-in-law, my sister and her two daughters and found them
a place on the "Aryan" side.
In her apartment there was always someone in hiding. She did all of this disinterestedly." It
is difficult to describe all her activity on behalf of the Jews.
SPIEWAK, Maria SREDNICKI, Stanislaw
Stanislaw and Irena were strongly engaged in helping Jews. For three years they harbored in their house in Warsaw the outstanding writer, Kazimierz Brandys with his mother. Besides, they rented an apartment for Melania Wasserman and maintained contact with many Jewish acquaintances and helped them. They were decorated with the medal "Righteous among the Nations" on Jan. 14, 1999, as announced by the Israeli embassy in Poland. SWIATEK, Apolonia SWIATEK, Franciszek (not
related)
SWIATEK, Michal (not related)
SWIATEK, Piotr (not related)
SWIERCZYNSKI, Antonina SWIERCZYNSKI, Bernard-Konrad (1922-) (not related) The Swierczynski family resided in Warsaw. Bernard's father, Konrad Swierczynski, belonged to the progressive movement; so Bernard learned at home deep attachment to human values. During the occupation he was very active in helping Jews. In the ZIH (Jewish Historical Insitute in Warsaw) there are many examples of that activity. He placed many of his charges, which escaped from the ghetto, in the apartment of his parents and later in other shelters relatively more secure. Among others, the following benefited from his help: Bronka Frydman, Fryda Hofman, Halina Horowic, Pawel Lew Marek and his wife and mother, Roza Rozenberg, Mr. Szlamowicz and his wife and sister, Dr. Aleksander Wolberg, Dr. Zelikson. Bernard obtained from his neighbor a room in the loft for the ghetto escapees. After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising he helped to build a bunker where forty (40) Jews hid. Among them were two Greek Jews from the ca. 400 Jews from Greece, France and Belgium, liberated by the Polish scouting battalion "ZOSKA" from "Gesiowka" (a central camp in the Warsaw ghetto) on Aug. 5, 1944. Pawel Lew Marek underlined his noble attitude to the people helped. The latter in his long account written in July 1966 says: "With his lightheartedness, and his disrespect for danger, he kept up the spirit of all of us and never showed to anyone that he is his benefactor. All this lasted for four years, and especially the last two years, in which every minute decided about life and death. In every one of them 'Kondek', as they called him, and his deceased father showed the most beautiful humanitarian attitude, of which the Polish nation may be proud." Fryda Zgodzinski wrote a similarly glowing homage in July 1966. She relates how he brought her to the ghetto letters from her betrothed from a Stalag (POW camp for soldiers). She describes also how he received her, staying himself at a neighbor's, after she jumped from the train transporting Jews to extermination, wounded and half living, and later how many services he rendered with total disinterestedness and with the greatest warm-heartedness. He was for them a treasure beyond value and the memory of him will remain as the only shining point in those terrible years." His parents however are not recognized up to now. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SWIERCZYNSKI, Jadwiga (not related) SWIERCZYNSKI, Mr. (not related)
SWIERKOWSKI, Anna
SWIETOCHOWSKI, Wladyslaw
(1918-)
The couple resided in Warsaw and Wladyslaw worked in the city electrical plant. In April 1943 his father-in-law, Jozef Pera, (q.v.) asked him to hide two Jewish girls, Malwina and Bronislawa Grosbart. During the Ghetto Uprising the Germans ordered that the electrical installation in the ghetto be protected. Wladyslaw was sent to do the job. He was in the ghetto during the heaviest fighting, from April 23 till June 1943. He contacted some activists in the Jewish resistance and helped them, in contrast to some of his colleagues. After the fall of the Uprising he harbored the following beside the two Grosbart sisters: Halina Belchatowski and her husband, Boruch Spigel, Masza Glejtman and Jakub Putermilch, among others. He maintained contacts with Julian Fiszgrund, Icchak Cukierman, Cywia Lubetkin and with the partisan unit, named for Mordechaj Anielewicz and operating in the Wyszkow forest. In 1950 Wladyslaw gave a detailed account of those events to the ZIH. See: Gynberg, op. cit. SWITAL, Stanislaw, Dr. (1900-1982) physician Dr. Stanislaw Swital directed the Polish Red Cross Hospital in the Warsaw suburb of Boernerowo. Particularly noteworthy is his part in saving seven from the main insurgents of the Ghetto Uprising (1943) and participants of the Warsaw Uprising (August 1, till October 3, 1944). Those persons were hiding in a cellar, on Promyka Street No. 43. Alicja Margolis, (Alina Margulis?) who was with them, stole from the cellar to look for help and informed Dr. Swital of their desperate situation, as the German sentries surrounded them. On Nov. 15, 1944, Dr. Jozef Sylkiewicz, (Zylkiewicz?) who worked in the hospital as a male nurse, led a group of five people who were prepared to die. The others were: his wife, Maria, Barbara Kinkiel, Zbigniew Sciwiarski (q.v.), and Janusz Oseka (q.v.), beside Alicja (Alina). In case they were stopped by Germans they had to tell them that they are under the orders of a German officer, who visited the hospital in Boernerowo and ordered that sick people from Promyka street be brought to that hoospital. The six rescuers led out or brought on stretchers the wounded to the hospital, right under the nose of the Germans: Icchak Cukierman, Cywia Lubetkin, Marek Edelman, Tuwie Borzykowski, Julian Fiszgrund, Zygmunt Warman and the only Christian among them, Dr. Teodozja Goliborski. After the war Dr. Sylkiewicz (Zylkiewicz) went to Israel and wrote there his memoirs about the occupation. Dr. Swital also described his experiences, and his wife Eugenia gave an account of his deeds. See: Grynberg, op. cit. and also Lukas, Out of the Inferno, op. cit. SWITAL, Stanislaw (another
one, not related)
SIARA, Karol (1888-1965)
The Siaras farmed in the village of Mackowiec, Przemysl district. They had a small son, Emil. The Frenkel brothers and Mr. Chwast, all from the same locality, survived thanks to the Siaras. The Frenkels left Poland after the war. Mr. Chwast remained in Przemysl where he died in 1984. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SIARKIEWICZ, Miroslaw
Stefan, 19 years old, was a nephew of the sisters Anna Wachalski (q.v.) and Maria Sawicki (q.v.). With his sister Halina, all four were of socialist leanings, helping the Jewish Fighting Organization. He was a member of OMTUR (Youth organisation for the Society for the Promotion of the Workers University). He worked for the ZOB both in the ghetto as on the "Aryan" side, transferring weapons, and assisting Jews who escaped from the ghetto; he took part in organizing a place for meetings of the underground Bund. Toward the end of the Ghetto Uprising a group of Jews escaping through the sewers had to be driven by lorry to the Wyszkow forest. Stefan escorted them as a Gestapo man. Caught on his return journey he was taken to the Szucha Alley and was most severely tortured during four weeks, but he did not betray anybody or any Jewish address. He was shot when he tried to escape. Posthumously awarded the medal "Righteous Among the Nations" he was mentioned here previously in the list of "Those, Who Paid with Their Lives". See: David Klin's account of his heroic life in Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. SIKORA, Jan
Sam Edelstein published a book entitled: "Tzadikim in Sodom; Righteous Gentiles; Memoirs of a Survivor from World War II". Toronto, North American Press, 1990. In this book he presents in glowing terms what Karola (Karolina) and Edka (Edwarda) did for him. He also praises highly, as most commendable, the attitude of Jan Kowalek, who was tortured by Germans for helping Jews, but did not betray anyone. He praises also Mrs. Szczuka (probably Kossak-Szczucka? q.v.) and a major, who both were also helpful to him. To the book's author, the above-mentioned people seem to be the only, unique Polish Gentiles who behaved in a proper manner during the Holocaust. SIKORA, Michal (not
related)
SIKORA, Renata (not related) SIKORA, Stefan, (not related)
SIKORA, Wojciech (not related)
SIKORSKI, Wladyslawa (not
related)
The Jewish man, named Wyszewianski, saved by the above family, married Kamilla and brought the Sikorski family to Mexico. Yad Vashem on Feb. 5, 1985 (or May 2) recognized the four Sikorskis as "Righteous Among the Nations". Letter announcing it is dated May 23, 1985. Case No. 3202. Their cause was started in 1984. SINGER, Franciszek
SIPAYLLO, Janusz
From 1943 till 1945 the Sipayllos harbored in their house in Milanowek a small Jewish girl, Janina Winawer, whom they treated like their own daughter. Afterwards, for security reasons, they transferred her to another locality where the girl's family lived. They were honored with the medal "Righteous among the Nations" in Warsaw on Jan. 14, 1999 as announced by the Israeli Embassy in Poland. SITARSKI, Jan (1891-)
The Sitarskis had their own house in Warsaw-Blizne. They harbored members of the ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization) who operated on the "Aryan" side: Stefan Grajek and Symcha Roten (alias Kazik), as well as other Jews from the ghetto. In 1989 Stefan Grajek testified to these facts. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SITKO, Janina
SITKO, Maria (not related)
Maria and Wanda lived in Sosnowiec in an apartment consisting of one room, a kitchen and a small vestibule, with the entrance directly from the corridor. In the years 1943-1945 six (6) Jews were sheltered there: Fryda and her niece, Fela Kac, Jerzy Feder, Heniek Mandelbaum, Felicja and Leon Weintraub. One hideout was arranged under the kitchen floor and the other in that small vestibule. On a visit to a police station Wanda pinched an identity document from a table. Jerzy Feder removed the name inscribed on it and wrote his own in its place. This allowed him to go out on the street. During a roundup of Jews the two women succeeded to lead out Jerzy and Heniek just in time from the apartment, so when the police came to search for them, they did not find them. Fela Kac, Fryda's niece, who escaped with her from the transport, taking the Auschwitz inmates to the West, also stayed in that shelter until the arrival of the Russians. In 1986 the saved people wrote a letter to Wanda (her mother was then no longer alive): "You and your mother at the risk of your life did things impossible and great. all this disinterestedly. acting only from the heart, which at that time was truly heroic". See: Grynberg, op. cit. SITKOWSKI, Helena
SIWEK, Karol (not related)
SIWEK, Katarzyna (not related) Katarzyna Siwek is one of the several Poles mentioned by the Jewish Congregation of Cracow, known to them personally, who "gratuitously helped Jews." She offered shelter on more than one occasion to a number of them. The following testified to this: Maria Jakubowicz, her sister Aniela Parnas, her second husband, Maciej Jakubowicz and Maciej's nephew, Czeslaw Jakubowicz. Maria, with her 2 years old son, after the murder of her husband, found help in Katarzyna's home on three occasions. Katarzyna was a liaison between her and her family in Dobczyce. Katarzyna helped also her sisters, Aniela Parnas and Stefania Graf to obtain documents to go for work to Germany. Katarzyna cooperated with Piotr Kopera (q.v.), Wojciech Krupa (q.v.) and Wladyslaw Piwowarczyk (q.v.). All those people were simple peasants to whom sixteen (16) Jews owe their lives. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. SKALSKI Kazimierz
SKALSKI, Michal (1905-1964)
(not related)
Michal and Jadwiga lived in Bialystok, with their 10 years old daughter. Before the end of the Bialystok ghetto, Leon Grynberg who knew the Skalskis, and managed in February 1943 to escape out of the ghetto with his daughter Halinka, asked the Skalskis for help. The latter took her in and later moved her to their acquaintances, the Leszczynskis, (q.v.) in Suraz. The couple Felicja and Jakub Wajsfeld also benefited from the Skalskis' help. Felicja gave birth to a daughter and it was Jadwiga who received the newborn. For security reasons they placed the baby in an orphanage run by the Sisters in Bialystok, where the child survived the occupation. In August 1943 Germans deported the remaining Jews to Treblinka, among them Leon Grynberg, the father of Halinka. He jumped from the train and returned to the Skalskis. Soon joined him Fruma and Jankiel Rosen and Aleksander Brener with his daughter Ida, seven (7) people altogether. Brener had some money that helped to feed that group. Skalski prepared a hideout under the kitchen floor, for moments of danger. Otherwise they stayed in the apartment. In 1984 Halina Grynberg attested to these facts, saying that thanks to the two families she survived the war. See: Grynberg, op cit. SKARZYNSKI, Wieslaw (1914-1985)
engineer
The couple resided in Warsaw. From 1943 till the Warsaw Uprising (August 1944) the Skarzynskis harbored Bernard Szabason from Radom under a fictional name, sometimes in Wieslaw's office. For two years they also harbored in their house Cecyna Gurfinkel, as a housemaid; occasionally, her sister and mother stayed there also. In 1949 Bernard testified to this and wrote that they owe their life to these worthy people. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SKAWINSKI-BIKUPSKI, Serafina
SKOWRON, Roch (1893-1943)
The family lived in Warsaw. Roch was a turner in a state aviation company. In their flat they harbored six (6) Jewish people: Zofia Kestelman from Lvov, her aunt, Sonia Tayerstein with her daughter Paula, Zofia's stepfather, Low Malina, the couple Elizar and Lola Blumenberg. It was Michal Szyszko (q.v.) Jozefa's brother, who brought her all these people. He also brought her Zofia's friends, the nurse Julia Mebel, her daughter Irena and a 3 years old cousin Gizela Mebel from the Warsaw ghetto. The Tayerstein maintain contacts from the USA with Eugenia, the Skowrons' daughter. The Blumenbergs are in Paris and Gizela in Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SKOWRON, Stanislaw (1908-1982)
(not related)
Stanislaw and Natalia farmed in the village of Rachwalowice, Miechow district. In 1942 Stanislaw brought home an acquaintance from Koszyce, Ada Mandelbaum with her small son, Artur. The Skowrons, with Natalia's father, Waclaw Eliasz (q.v.) decided to save them. They built a hideout in the pantry, which the persons being sheltered left only for the night. The Mandelbaums left for Israel. Artur is a professor in Haifa. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SKOWRONEK, Stanislaw
SKOWRONSKI, Honorata (1912-) Honorata lived in Dabrowa Gornicza. In July 1942 she took into her home a six months old infant, Irena Frydrych from Bedzin. Because of the danger of denunciation, Honorata had to move to Miechow. After a few months she had to move again, this time to Jedrzejow, as neighbors suspected the baby to be Jewish, finally to Borszowiec. After the war Bernard Frydrych, the girl's father, came for his daughter and took her to the USA. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SKORA, Wladyslaw He lived at Brzesko-Nowe, Miechow district. Before the war he was active in a leftist movement and took a stand against anti-Jewish excesses. During the occupation he was in the underground, in the PPS (Polish Socialist Party) and in the GL (People's Guard). In November of 1942 the four members family of the Strosberg family asked him for shelter. They stayed in his house till the coming of the Red Army. Rozalia, daughter of the Strosbergs, testified that Skora harbored them completely disinterestedly. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SKROBAN, Salomea
SKROCZYNSKI, (SKORCZYNSKI
?) Wilhelmina (1898-1976)
The Skroczynskis lived in Warsaw where Stefan and Maria were members of the underground. Stefan was killed in the Warsaw Uprising. Many Jews stayed in their apartment, some for a few days or for a few weeks, others for longer periods. The names of eight are known: the Wyszowianskis, Maksymilian and Bella and their sons, Leon and Samuel, Barbara Baumgarten, who died in Warsaw in the 70's, Eugenia Chwatt who also died in Warsaw in the 1950s, Janina Reizin, and Janek Gazit. Wilhelmina protected some of them even after the Warsaw Uprising. The people saved by the Skroczynskis invited Maria Miklaszewski to Israel in 1986, where she planted the tree with the family names on the Avenue of the "Righteous". See: Grynberg, op. cit. SKRZESZEWSKI, Helena SKRZYNSKI, Tadeusz
Janette Goldman from Toronto maintains that Tadeusz and Maria Skrzynski saved her life. Maria is the most common name for women in Poland and very often added to another name and as such is used in place of the first name, which Jeanette Goldman might not know. It is probable that the Maria from her story was the 2nd name of Paulina. The article was published in "The Canadian Jewish News" on Oct. 20, 1988 in Toronto. Following is the summary of that article: In August 1943 she (Jeanette Goldman) escaped from Poland. Her mother was no longer alive and her father had been imprisoned in the Plaszow camp, near Cracow. He confided in a Pole, Tadeusz Skrzynski, who was assigned the task of conducting a group of Jews from the camp to a carpentry factory. He knew him from before the war. Tadeusz sympathized with the Jews, made purchases for them and sold vaious items for them. Goldman had two small children. Skrzynski found a shelter for Jeanette's brother with a Polish Catholic family, as their child. But Jeanette had black and curly hair so typically Jewish.. Tadeusz cooperated with Tadeusz Pankiewicz (q.v.), owner of the only non-Jewish pharmacy in the Cracow ghetto. That pharmacy was a meeting point for Jews and the people who tried to help them. So for a certain time Jeanette stayed in the one-room apartment with the Skrzynskis. Jeanette's father thought of getting the children to the relatively safer Czechoslowakia. His wife, Maria (possibly Paulina Maria) got a message asking her to take Jeanette to the Bochnia ghetto, to her two teenage aunts, whose parents had been shot. She returned again with the German authorization to enter the ghetto and to take from it Jeanette and the younger of her two aunts. Her elder aunt, 18, was supposed to follow the next day with her brother (?) But the same evening the Bochnia ghetto was liquidated and Sheva, Jeanette's elder aunt was deported to Auschwitz, which she fortunately survived. Maria (or Paulina Maria) guided Jeanette and her younger aunt across the Polish-Czech border, through the Tatra Mountains. Tadeusz Skrzynski had been arrested three times, but miraculously he was released and both continued their activity until the end of the war. On July 4, 1988 Jeanette Goldman went to Poland and met the Skrzynkis. They received her with great anticipation, emotion and warmth. When she asked why they risked their life, they replied that having themselves a child they could not stand idly by, when other children were in such terrible danger. Jeanette Goldman does not tell in her article if she brought the Skrzynkis to the recognition as "Righteous" by Yad Vashem. So one cannot be sure whether they are the couple recognized as Tadeusz and Paulina or if they are an entirely different couple with the same name and forename of the husband, Tadeusz Skrzynski. SKRZYNSKI, Wlodzimierz (not
related)
SKRZYPEK-WILCZENSKI, Maria
and son Boleslaw (not related to Jozef)
SKRZYPIEC-DZIEDZIC, Wiktoria
(not related)
SKWARA, Wladyslaw (1895-1979)
The Skwaras farmed in the village of Kamionna, near Wegrow, Warsaw prov. In the nearby locality of Baczki there resided Efraim Wajnberg, with his wife and their 2 years old daughter. The two families knew each other. During the liquidation of the Baczki ghetto, the Wajnbergs came to the Skwaras for help. The Skwaras built them a shelter under the unused porch, at the back of the house. In 1964 Efraim made a deposition about the help received. He wrote that from Sept. 23, 1942 till Aug. 24, 1944, i.e. to the arrival of the Soviet Army, they were hidden disinterestedly by the Skwaras, fed every day and often got necessary medicines. Even the young boy Zdzislaw kept the secret and warned them of any danger. "Till the end of our life, Efraim wrote, we will remember all the good which we received from Wladyslaw, his wife and their son". In 1982 Zdzislaw was invited by the Wajnbergs to Israel and planted an olive tree at Yad Vashem. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SKWARCEWICZ-NIESCIEROWICZ,
Waleria see
SLAWIK, Henryk (1894-1944) called "Polish Wallenberg" Henryk Slawik was born on July, 15, 1894 in Szeroka near Pszczyna, the son of a small farmer in Silesia, who got only rudimentary schooling, but gained a vast knowledge through self-education. As a Silesian, he was forcibly enrolled in the German army during WW I (1914-1918), then fighting Russia, has been taken prisoner, but escaped and returned home. He took part in the three Silesian uprisings (1919-1921) for the reunification of Silesia with the newly resurrected Poland (1918). Between the two World Wars he became a renowned journalist and an important Socialist figure in, Silesia. He held the post of president of the Syndicate of Polish Journalists in Silesia and became a member of the Katowice Town Council. In the fall of 1939 he evacuated with many others, first to Romania and then to Hungary, where he started the same year a vast sociopolitical activity. As the president of the Citizens Committee for Care of Polish Refugees in Hungary and Delegate of the Polish Government-in-Exile (first in France then in England) for their care, he cooperated and struck friendship with Dr. Jozsef Antall, the commissioner for refugees from Poland, a civil servant of the Ministry of Interior, whom the Poles called affectionately, "Daddy of Poles". Beside Antall, and his government, some members of the aristocracy, especially countess Erszebet Szapary and the Catholic Church helped in these endeavors. Henryk's main activity consisted in facilitating the exodus from that country of Polish and especially Jewish people, providing them with lightning speed with fake documents as Catholics, food, garments and money to enable them to reach a country independent of German domination. He visited camps for the refugees from Poland, among them that for the Jewish soldiers of the Polish army in the locality called Vamosmikola. Slawik was known for being always very accessible and considerate for everybody. He also helped in the upkeep of Jewish children attending a school situated in a small village, by name of Vac. These children stayed in a house officially known as being a school for orphans of Polish officers: For their safety, they were instructed in Polish and in the Catholic liturgy, but also in Hebrew, the history of the Israeli people and in the knowledge of the Bible. Another school for Jewish children was in Csillahegy. Before 1944 friends proposed to Slawik several times to escape from the country. He declined, not wanting to abandon his responsibilities towards his Polish and Jewish countrymen. From March 19, 1944, when the Germans invaded Hungary, he went into hiding, but on July 16, 1944 he was apprehended, as was his friend and cooperator, Dr. Joseph Antall. Maybe he gave himself up to save his wife, Jadwiga. In 1943 she arrived from Poland (on Hungarian papers) with their daughter to search for him and had been incarcerated. More probably he was denounced. Brutally tortured and confronted with Antall, he took all the blame on himself for shipping Polish and especially Jewish refugees from Hungary abroad. He vehemently denied that his friend had anything to do with these activities. His wife saw it all from her prison cell. To Antall, who thanked him for saving his life, Slawik said: "Tak placi Polska"(thus Poland repays its debts). When both were transported in a prison van, Henryk managed to touch his friend's hand and whisper in his ear: "Polonia semper fidelis" (Poland always faithful). He was executed (probably by shooting) on August 25, 1944 in Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, having exclaimed before the firing squad: "Niech zyje Polska" (Long live Poland!). His wife was sent to the infamous Ravensbruck concentration camp for women, and their daughter remained in hiding in a Hungarian village. Mother and daughter were reunited after the war in Katowice. Dr. Joseph Antall, the other hero survived: He died on July 34, 1974 and on his grave there is a plaque with the words: "POLONIA SEMPER FIDELIS". In the spring of 1990 his son, also Jozsef Antall, Jr., became the new prime minister of Hungary. On November 6, 1990, Slawik's daughter, Krystyna Kutermak, was present at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for the double ceremony of recognition as "Righteous Among the Nations" of both, her father, Henryk Slawik, and of his friend and cooperator, for whom he gave his life, Dr. Jozsef Antall. Such an elaborated ceremony, (as she was informed) was given before only to General Wiadyslaw Anders. It is one of the saved, Henryk Zvi Zimmermann from Israel, president of the Society of the Polish Jews saved in Hungary, ex vice-president of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) and Israeli ambassador to New Zeeland, who was instrumental in this. He learned about Slawik's fate only in 1989 and published a book under the title: "Przezylem, pamietam, swiadcze". (I lived through it, I remember, I give testimony). Krakow, Baran i Suszczynski,1997. He stated at that celebration that "The Great Man", Henryk Slawik, had saved, beside him, thousands of Polish Jews as Polish Catholics. From Hungarian documentation held by Yad Vashem, it turns out that the number of Polish Jews saved amounts to ca. 5,000, mostly due to Henryk Slawik and his Committee. According to Zimmerman, who was Slawik's right hand and trusted man for the last six months, before the occupation of the country by Germans, this estimate is too low. Given the number of Polish Jews who fled to Hungary, it is quite probable. Joszef Antall, Jr. could not be present at the ceremony for his father and his father's savior. He went there 6 months later. Krystyna, was overwhelmed by the praises of her father by the Jews he rescued. Thus the proverbial friendship of Poles and Hungarians was confirmed. Hungary, in spite of heavy German pressure, gave most nobly and hospitably temporary refuge to hundreds of thousands of Polish and Jewish refugees. See: Lubczyk, op. cit. and Isakiewicz, Czerwony olowek, op. cit. SLIWCZYNSKI, Jerzy Piotr Jerzy Piotr Sliwczynski is since December 10, 1991, till today, the President of the General Board of the Polish Society for the Righteous Among the Nations (created on November 20, 1985). He is most meritorious for the Society's achievements, in spite of its great financial difficulties and one of the "Righteous", who is also a honorary citizen of Israel. SLOBODA, Julia
SLONIMSKI, Stefan
The Slonimskis helped several escapees form the Warsaw and Otwock ghettos. They often found them places of shelter, always at the risk of their life. Thanks to their heroism many Jews survived the war. The Israeli Embassy in Poland announced the ceremony of conferring on them the medal of "Righteous among the Nations", which took place in Warsaw on Jan. 14, 1999. SLOWIK, Karolina
SLOWIK, Tadeusz (1916-) physician (not related) Tadeusz, born in Boryslaw, completed his medical studies at the Lvov University. During the occupation he was a regional physician at Podborze. Since January 1943 he hid in his apartment Scharlotta Katz from Boryslaw, who previously had been harbored for several months in Lvov. He also harbored a physician known to him, Dr. Jakub Bauer. On days of particular danger a third person also stayed with him: his school colleague, Dr. Ryszard Sochaczewski, from Nieszawa. Dr. Slowik placed him for a certain time with his friends in Boryslaw. When strangers visited Dr. Slowik, the refugees secreted themselves in a bin under the stairs leading to the attic. For greater security they hid also in a hideout in the cellar, under one of the rooms. This happened especially when police searched the apartment on two occasions. After the war Dr. Sochaczewski went to Heidelberg and Dr. Bauer became the chief of the Gynecological Department in a hospital in Katowice. He died in 1961. See: Grynberg, op cit. SLOWINSKI, Antoni
SMOLINSKI, Michalina (not
related)
SMOLSKI, Wladyslaw (1909-1986) writer Wladyslaw completed his Polish studies at the Warsaw University. He devoted himself to literature and arts. His dramas were played at Vilna and Cracow. He had many Jewish friends among artists. The Nazi extermination of the Jews provoked in him such a shock that he decided to help them by all means. He had been ill, and even his disease receded. From July 1942 he started his activity on their behalf. He received in his apartment escapees from the ghetto, the first of them being a young violinist, Henryk Reinberg. Henryk later joined the partisans and died fighting. Wladyslaw placed Henryk's sister, Wanda, at Grochow with some worthy people; she survived. He organized for many Jews places of shelter. He took care of a 5 years old girl, whom he placed with his acquaintances, paying for her upkeep. Later he transferred the little girl to the Franciscan Sisters' orphanage at Pludy, where she remained till the end of the war. He also transmitted to the Jews stipends received for them from Zegota. The following persons benefited from his help: Bronislaw Anlen, Elizabeth Bizonard, Wanda Hac, Zophia Hampel, Edward and Joanna Reicher with their daughter, Dr. Janina Wierzbicki, Jolanta Z., Natalia Z. After the war Smolski published three books about the martyrdom of Jews and the help extended to them by Poles, one of which appears in the present bibliography at the end of this list. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit., Grynberg, op. cit. and Prekerowa, op. cit. SMOLKO, Jan (1907-)
The Smolko couple resided at Tykocin, Bialystok prov. They were members of the underground movement and also helped Jews. Jan was the organist in the local church. This gave him access to the parish records. Thus he could create false documents for Jews. Six (6) persons benefited from their help: the Goldzin family of four, and the Turek brothers. In 1981 Dr. Michael Turek sent a statement from Australia, in which he wrote that Jan and Wladyslawa gave him and his brother Menachem - when they escaped the Bialystok ghetto - material and moral help at the risk of their own life. They fully deserve to be decorated with the medal of the "Righteous among the Nations". See: Grynberg, op. cit. SMUGARZEWSKI, Zofia (1922-) Zofia resided in Warsaw and during the occupation was a liaison for the AK and for the Jews in the ghetto, especially maintained contacts with Maria Rozenberg. She harbored some of them who left the ghetto in her apartment and organized false documents for them. For Maria Rozenberg, who went under a different name, she rented one room in a loft and placed in it six other refugees: Bernard, a watchmaker, Edward, a businessman, Edward Goldberg (24) Heniek, Julia (26) and Jan Rozenberg. Her Jewish charges made a hole under the bed through which it was possible to reach the attic in moments of particular danger. Heniek was hid first in her apartment and then at her acquaintance from the underground, Jerzy Sikorski, but because of danger Zofia had to take him back. Zofia used to come to that "apartment" bringing them food and necessities. On these trips, she used to take her small son to justify the quantity of her baggage. During the Warsaw Uprising the inhabitants from the loft took part in the fighting. They all thanked Zofia profusely for her help. Another of her protegés, one Chrzczanowicz, a POW who escaped from the Starachowice camp, remembers hiding at Zofia's apartment. After the war Maria Rozenberg stayed in Lodz and Heniek in Poznan. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SMYCZYNSKI, Anna
SOBCZAK, Stanislaw (1893-1978) The Sobczaks lived in Frampol, Lublin prov. In November 1942 Germans liquidated the ghetto, killing some on the spot and deporting the rest to Belzec. Sobczak gave refuge in his house to 12 who escaped: Mosze Cymerman, Lins Hof, Szmul Hanigman with his wife Chawa, Nachman Kestenbaum, Szmul Mahler, Abram Sztajnberg with his family of four, Mosze Zalc with his sister. First he hid them in the attic, but later he built a bunker in the barn. Chawa died in the bunker. They deepened the bunker and buried her in it. In July 1944 the front came to Frampol and the Sobczak's buildings started to burn. The Jews escaped to the forest where bandits killed Mosze Sztajnberg with his children and Nachman Kestenbaum. In the Frampol remembrance book in Israel there appears the conversation of Sobczak with his wife, when they were in front of a 12th refugee: "Tell me, my dear, what the Germans will do when they find with us eleven Jews? What a question, replied Mrs. Sobczak, they will shoot us. - And if they find twelve with us? - Also death, replied the wife. In this case we can take the 12th one". Stanislaw wrote that he was however so terror-stricken, that during the 21 months of their stay with him (Nov. 1, 1942 till July 27, 1944) he never fully closed his eyes. The Germans, who visited the farm very often, did not find the Jews. After the war some bandits came and learning that he protected Jews, robbed him and beat him very badly. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit., Grynberg, op. cit., Paldiel, op. cit., Wronski & Zwolakowa, op. cit. SOBCZYNSKI, Stanislaw
SOBECKI, Maria (not related)
SOBIESIAK, Jozef alias MAKS (1914-1971) general Jozef Sobiesiak was the commander of a partisan unit that operated during the war in Volhinia (now western Ukraine). He describes thus his experiences. In 1942 the Germans arrested me, but I escaped and with local patriotic people we organized in April 1942 a partisan unit. We contacted the ghettos at Maniewicze, Trojanowka, Rafalowka, Podworsk, Mielnica and others. We presented to the Jews the only possibility of survival: the escape into the woods, joining the partisans and fighting. In Maniewicze were gathered 3,000 Jews. Informed by us that the Germans would kill them, some were inclined to listen, but the Judenrat (Jewish authority) opposed the plan categorically and did not allow the Jews to flee. On Sept. 14, 1942 the Gestapo came and shot ca. 500 of them. The rest fled in different directions. After executing some of the perpetrators of this massacre we gathered in a nearby forest 300 Jewish fugitives. We posted sentries to protect them and moved on to Kowel. In the meantime the rabbi convinced them to return, as Germans promised that they would be spared. The Germans shot those who believed him and ordered the rabbi to disclose the location of our camp base. Fortunately they did not find anybody there, as we had moved with the rest, ca. 150 Jews, deeper into the woods and marshes. In November 1943 we found in the locality of Koninsk, in the nerby forests, a group of several hundred Jews, whom the entire Polish population protected, bringing them food and medicines. The Slowiks, the Podgorskis and the Baranskis were particularly active among Poles. We gathered 500 Jews, mostly women, children and old people who would die a certain death without our help. We led them much deeper in the forests. With our instructions they built huts in 3 camps, which they named "Nalewki" (name of a well known street in the Jewish quarter in Warsaw) "Palestyna" and "Birobidzan" in which we protected and fed them. For helping Jews and partisans, two entire Polish localities, Berecz and Podiwanowka, were anihilated and 200 people from worthy Polish and Ukrainian families were murdered. On Nov. 2, 1942 the Hitlerite and Bandera's Ukrainian nationalists shot 1,024 people for the same reason. Some Jewish youth joined the partisans. Under our protection, several hundred of them survived till the coming of the Red Army in the spring of 1944. The following people could confirm these facts: Mojzesz Beresztein, now in the USA, Michal Brot, his wife and four children, Izaak Syngal, Dr. Melchior, Dr. Melmerstein, Dr. Ratniewski, Jezajasz Flasz and his family, Izaak Sliwka, all now in Israel, Borys Gruszka now in Canada. See: Grynberg, op. cit., Wronski & Zwolakowa, op. cit., and Zajaczkowski, op. cit. SOBKOWA, Franciszka see SOBEK,
Franciszka
SOBOL, Jozefa (1908-) Jozefa, a Yehova's witness, lived in Lvov and knew the Chajmajdes family. She decided to save Szajndla, the only one remaining from that family. At that time, in November 1942, the commander of the SS and police, Katzmann, issued a decree that any help to Jews will mean a death sentence and even the fact of not informing the Germans about Jews staying out of the ghetto would bring a severe punishment. Nevertheless Szajndla hid for several weeks at Jozefa's. The latter organized for her false documents and moved her to an acquaintance, Maria Koral at Sarnaki Gorne, under a ficticious name. After the war Jozefa was in prison for being a Yehovah's witness. When she was released she stayed some time with Szajndla and later both moved from Ukraine to Poland and from there to Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SOBOLEWSKI, Jozef
SOBOLEWSKI, Teofil (not related)
The family farmed at Plotycza, Tarnopol prov. From June 1943 till the coming of the Russians in July 1944 they harbored nine (9) Jews: Falk Bodzan, his wife and two small daughters, Marian and Bronislawa Fuks and their two children and Chaim Rotenberg. The latter stated on Jan. 18, 1987 that he found at the Sobolewskis eight other Jews hidden in a hole in the barn. It was especially the young Leon who brought them food from the town. "To the Sobolewski family we owe our life" he wrote. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SOBOLEWSKI, Wladyslaw (not
related)
SOCHA, Jozef
Zofia was a nurse to the children of Dr. Lind in Lublin and his assistant in his consulting room. In 1942, during the liquidation of the Lublin ghetto she led out the couple's two children, Kamila and Robert to Warsaw, where she cared for them till the end of the war. She also led out from the Lublin ghetto to Warsaw, a 12 years old child of Linds' friends, whose parents perished. After the liquidation of the Lublin ghetto the Lind couple found refuge with the Sochas. They left for Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SOCHA, Leopold
Ziporah Wind from Turka came
to Lvov, with false papers as Halina, but soon was denounced and arrested.
Fortunately she managed to flee the prison and join a group of Jews who
hid not far from the Pelten River. When on June 1, 1943, the Germans
launched the final liquidation of the Lvov ghetto, this group of Jews,
through underground tunnels and sewers, reached a strip of ground, where
they could sit. There they met Leopold Socha, a sewer worker, who
used to hide stolen goods in these sewers. Moved by their suffering,
he decided to save Halina and her friends. He told them to stay there
till the morning. The next day he came with a friend and brought
food and said that the ghetto is burning and bodies of Jews lay everywhere.
He brought them food every day and once a week his wife, Magdalena, washed
and ironed their underwear, filthy with the dirty water in the sewers,
where rats did not give them respite. Besides food he brought them
a prayer book, reading material and words of encouragement. He also
brought them candles for Friday evenings and a lot of potatoes for Passover,
during which they were not supposed to eat bread. Some of the group
decided to leave on their own in spite of Leopold's warnings: "Either you
all survive, or nobody will. As long as you are my responsibility,
you are all equal to me". Those who left soon perished. During
heavy rains the water in the sewers rose so high that children had to be
lifted and held aloft until the water subsided. When winter came,
the snow on the street above the sewers in which they were hidden began
to melt. The Germans suspecting that some people are hiding there
sent sewer workers to search, but they did not find them. On July
17, 1944 Socha announced them that they are free, the Russians had arrived.
Magdalena was waiting for the refugees with freshly baked cake and a bottle
of vodka. They remained with the Sochas for one more week and then
departed. Of the more that 200 Jews who were in the sewers only a
handful survived. Socha's Jews were among them.
SOCHACKI, Eugeniusz
SOKOLOWSKI, Anna She was one of 210 people
from the area called Sadecczyzna, who were executed
SOKOLOWSKI-KROLIKIEWICZ, Danuta see KROLIKIEWICZ, Wladyslaw & Helena, parents? SOKOLOWSKI, (SOKOLOWSKY?) Izydor (not related) SOKOLOWSKI, Julianna (not
related)
SOKOLOWSKI, Lech (not related)
Lech and Maria harbored in their home in Milanowek the three members of the Winawer family, from 1943 till 1945, whom previously sheltered the Sipayllos, Janusz and Ewa (q.v.). Lech and Maria were honored in Warsaw on Jan. 14, 1999 as "Righteous among the Nations", as announced the Israeli Embassy in Poland. SOKOLOWSKI, Maria (another
one, not related to Sokolowski, Lech)
SOLARZ, Franciszek (1904-1955)
Franciszek was a forester at Lipie, near Radomsk. He used to transport wood to the sawmill in Radomsk, which belonged to the Jews Leon Znamirowski and Herman Rodal. In Radomsk there were over 6,000 Jews and during the occupation 14,000 Jews were gathered there, from where they were deported to Treblinka in the fall of 1942. During the ghetto liquidation Paulina Znamirowski escaped from it and asked Franciszek for help. Soon her husband joined her. The Solarz family arranged a shelter under the floor of the barn, brought them food and medicines until the coming of the Soviets in January 1945. After the war Znamirowski became the chief director for the wood industry for Lower Silesia and he employed Franciszek. Now they are in Israel but maintain contact with the Solarz family. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SOLDANSKI, Jan
SOLEK, Wincenty (1907-1969)
The Solek couple lived at Przeworsk, Przemysl prov. Since 1942 till the arrival of the Russians they harbored a Jewish boy, Dawid Berger, son of a doctor from Zimna Woda, near Lvov, and called him Janusz. After the war Janusz settled in Israel and maintains contacts with his benefactors. See: Grynberg, op cit. SOLODZINSKI, Julian
SOMMER, Stefan Eliasz (1903-1981)
In September 1939 Stefan Sommer was one of the commanders of the anti-aircraft defense in Warsaw and also directed a branch of the Ujazdowski military hospital, where he met Dr. Goldman. When the latter found himself in the ghetto, Stefan led him out of it with his small daughter and helped him to settle on the "Aryan" side. Stefan and Eliza harbored in their apartment Helena Cwikel, who wrote in her deposition in 1965: "Mr. Sommer, a man completely unknown to me, at the risk of his life helped me to survive." The Sommers also helped Ludwik Druszcz, an escapee from the ghetto of Tomaszow Mazowiecki. Ludwik attested that in their home he met always with warm-hearted friendliness and a complete understanding of his situation. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SOPOREK, Mieczyslaw
SOROKA, Tadeusz Tadeusz, a 20 years old man in 1943, worked for the railway in Grodno (now in Belorussia) and used to trade food for clothes. He met Aron working from the ghetto on some repair jobs. Tadeusz informed him that the ghetto would soon be liquidated and offered to hide him. Aron, suspecting a trap, said that he does not have money. "I don't need your money, I want to help you" Soroka replied. After another wait and a close brush with death, Aron decided to take Tadeusz's word and took along his fiancée, Lisa (16) and her brother, Robert. The three met Tadeusz at night, over a mile from the ghetto and went to the train station. Tadeusz made them lie down and then jump on the boxcar of the military train leaving for Vilna. The three men did it, but Lisa missed a step and was left dangling with her feet off the ground. Soroka, as the others hung on to his legs, leaned over and pulled her up. He made them blacken their faces with coal, as to appear as coal workers, jump from the train and hide at a certain farmer's shed. Then he led them to join other Jewish workers returning from work to the ghetto and slip into it; to escape from it later. Two days after their departure from Grodno ghetto it was liquidated. Soroka made four such trips, saving nine (9) lives. During a reunion in the USA in 1982 with the people saved by him he said: "We were all taught the second great commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" So I knew what I had to do. It was no big thing… I believe that every good deed is permanently enshrined in history." See: Paldiel, op. cit. SOROKO, Felicja
SOSNOWSKI, Sister Julia, a nun (not related) SOSNOWSKI, Karolina (not
related)
SREBRNIK-DICKER, Maria Maria was one of the three women who saved seven (7) Jews. The latter escaped from the transport taking them from Lvov to the Belzec extermination camp, in August 1942. The other two were Hanna Rudowicz-Reiss (q.v.) and Helena Radwanski-Bielec (q.v.). The three women hid and took care of the seven Jews for two years. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SROKA, Henryk
STACHOWIAK, Henryka (1916-) Henryka was a book-keeper at a forest administration in Trembowla. The Germans liquidated the Trembowla ghetto in June 1943. Adolph Phillips who escaped from the ghetto, requested shelter from her. She hid him on her farmstead. Often, his brother Jakub also came to her for meals, beside other Jews, hiding in the forest. To feed all those people Henryka had to change her allowance of wood, flour, butter, grits, and grain. When there was no more flour, she ground the grain herself on a quern. Besides her and Adolf, she had to maintain also three old people: her parents and a 90 years old grandparent. They lived in constant fear of the Bandera Ukrainian nationalists' raids. Two Jews were discovered in the home of her relatives. They were murdered together with three children and a woman, who harbored them. Those tragic experiences caused her the loss of her child, dead born, but Adolf remained with her till the end of the war. In 1984 Adolf sent a statement about how he was hidden in the barn among the corn for ten months in 1943, fed three times a day and cared for in a most heart-felt and disinterested way. "Without Henryka's help he would never be able to survive," he wrote. See: Grynberg, op. cit. STALKOWSKI, Jozefa
Jozefalived in Warsaw in a house close to the ghetto wall. She was a widow of a railway man and lived in one room with her two daughters, 11 and 9. She rented out the other room. First she provided foodstuffs to some Jewish families. Zofia Breskin got out of the ghetto and came to Jozefa for shelter, settling in the same room with the widow and her daughters. In her statement to Yad Vashem of 1962 Zofia Breskin wrote that from the first day Jozefa was for her the best of sisters, and helped her in all her undertakings. Many other Jews passed through her apartment, or she led them to other hideouts prepared beforehand. Among them were: Zofia and Maks Cwiling, Dr. Jakub Person and his wife, the Tykocinski family of four members, the lawyers Felson and Nowogrodzki, the engineer Warth and his wife, Irena Maksman, Rafal Rogozinski, Michal Breskin. Jozefa was recognized in 1965, Alina in 1991. See: Grynberg, op. cit. STALMACH, Jan,
STANKIEWICZ-JOZWIK, Jadwiga (not related) STANKIEWICZ, Stanislaw (1903-1947)
(not related)
Stankiewicz was a forester at Glodno, Lublin prov. He had two children, Barbara and Tadeusz, (14 and 10). Several Jews owe their lives to the couple, among them Helena and Sabina Wolfram, sisters, and Majer Gelba. Szlome Szmulewicz escaped to the woods from the forced labor camp at Jozefow. In his statement from Sept. 12, 1985 he wrote that "Stanislaw found me unconscious and he brought me home. All the family took care of me as if I were their son. Thanks to their generosity I, and the others are now living." See: Grynberg, op. cit STANCZAK, Jozef
STATNIK, Leokadia, alias "PESSEL" Leokadia Statnik (Pessel
was her war time name) lived at Ochojec, near Katowice.
STAWNICZA, Albina see ZIELINSKI,
Irena, daughter
STAWSKI, Stanislaw K.
Stanislaw was the director of a transport company, which took readymade products manufactured by the Jews from the Warsaw ghetto. It employed 200 of them as guards who thus had the occasion of leaving the ghetto, changing clothes and escaping, mostly via Cracow to Hungary, from where came letters of thanks. The Stawskis harbored at their home a Jewish woman, Keila Korn, who survived. See: Bednarczyk, "Zycie Codzienne." op. cit. STEBELSKI, Adam STEBELSKI, Piotr (not related)
STECYK, Bartlomiej (1910-) (does not appear on the 1999 List but did before) Stecyk resided in Boryslaw, Drohobycz district, working as an auto mechanic. In 1939 there were 14,000 Jews in Drohobycz. In March 1942 the Germans, after a massacre of several hundred, deported part of them to Belzec. Some Jews were left to work in a German factory, a form of a forced labor camp. In it worked the Hammerschmids: Benjamin and Barbara and their three daughters: Blanka, Lidia and Rita. Stecyk took into his house first Blanka, then in February 1944 her mother and her two sisters. He built under the tile stove a hideout for four persons. During the day the four women could stay in the apartment. But when Stecyk returned from work, and in order to show that he does not hide any Jews, he received many visitors. Then the refugees had to hide in the hole under the stove. As the women did not have any money, all food had to be bought by Stecyk, who also fed other Jews: the engineer Wolf, Hesiol, Talar, Haber, Intrabor, Zeeman Baumgarten. Kopel Holtzman stayed there longer, as he was writing a book in his apartment, entitled " Land without God". See: Grynberg, op. cit. STECZKOWSKI, Stanislaw
STEFANSKI, Tadeusz
The couple resided in Warsaw and was helping Jews. In the fall of 1942, during the deportation of Jews from Lomza to the camp at Zambrow, they brought from it several families, among them the Jabloneks, the Podrozniks and the Gielczynskis. They harbored them in their apartment and organized for them false documents. These families survived the occupation. See: Grynberg, op. cit. STEFKOWA, Zofia
STELMACHOWSKI, Irena (1895-1970)
Irena lived with her daugher Witolda in Warsaw. Ewa Schutz escaped from Lvov in 1942 with her 11 years old son, Jan, and came to Warsaw, already under a different name. She was without a place to live and without money. Sister Laurenta, from the Sisters of the Resurrection, gave her the address of Irena. The latter took her in with her son and kept them till the fall of the Warsaw Uprising (1944). They were deported together to the Pruszkow camp. After the war, Ewa and her son went to Israel. In 1947 Ewa's husband wrote to Irena to thank her for all the good his wife and son received from her. "A miracle happened that I see them both alive and healthy and I owe this to your heroism and good heart". See: Grynberg, op. cit. STELMASZCZYK, Janusz
STOKOWSKI-LUTY, Janina Helena (1915-) Janina Stokowski-Luty lived in Cracow. On the same street there lived her colleague, Jakub Haubenstock. In 1939 he was mobilized and taken POW, but escaped from the transport to the camp and returned to Cracow. Janina rented him a room and brought him food. When he was taken to the ghetto in March 1941, Janina took care of him and his family. With the help of the underground organization - (probably Zegota) - she got false documents for him and helped him to escape from the ghetto. She placed him in a rented room and provided him with food and necessities. Towards the end of 1944 Jakub had to leave his place in a hurry, as people talked that he might be Jewish and Irena found him another room. She was interrogated several times by the Gestapo and severely beaten. Her parents' apartment was searched. She moved to another apartment till the end of the war. In 1945 Irena and Jakub were married. See: Grynberg, op. cit. STOLARCZYK, Franciszek
STOLARCZYK, Jadwiga (not
related; the three, does not appear on the 1999 list)
Jadwiga brought food and took care of all the needs of Irena Meitel, 17, whom harbored Jadwiga's parents, Franciszek & Apolonia, in the years 1943 and 1944. They had been recognized as "Righteous" posthumously in 1995, or 1993 according to the announcement of the Israeli Embassy in Poland, when their daughter, Jadwiga, in 1999. She was honored as "Righteous" on May 5, 2000 in Cracow. STOLARSKI, Aleksander STOLARSKI, Balbina (not related)
STOLARSKI, Hieronim (not
related)
STOLARSKI, Maria (1904-) (not related) Maria with her family of
seven people farmed at Mlodzawy Duze, Kielce prov.
STOPKA, Andrzej (1904-)
Andrzej Stopka was a cartoonist and stage designer. From 1950 he was a professor at the Arts Academy in Cracow. Wincentyna was also a painter, daughter of a Cracow painter Wincenty Wodzinowski (1864-1900). The Stopkas took part, with many others, like Maria Armatys (q.v.), in saving Dr. Julian Aleksandrowicz (1908-) in Cracow. He was a hematologist coming from a Cracow family of Jewish descent. During the occupation he worked in the Jewish hospital, which, in the spring of 1941 was included in the ghetto. Once a week the Jewish physicians were made to sweep the streets from snow. Mr. Mrozinski, a town councilmember, seeing him at that work, wanted to take the shovel from his hand. In spite of the objections of the doctor he remained with him a long time cleaning the snow. Dr. Aleksandrowicz left the ghetto with his wife and their 7 years old son, Jerzy by the sewers. With the help of many Poles whose cordiality, devotion and disinterestedness the Doctor described in glowing terms, he joined a partisan unit of the AK (Home Army) as its physician, under the alias of "Doktor Twardy". He wrote his reminiscences in the book "Kartki z Dziennika Doktora Twardego" (Pages from the diary of Doctor Twardy). Krakow, 1962. He became a professor at the Medical Academy of Cracow and a scholar of world renown in research on leukemia. He always fought for the humanization of relations between peoples. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. STRASBURGER, Hanna STRASBURGER, Maria (not related) STRASZEWSKI, Janina
Janina and Teresa lived in Cracow. Toward the end of 1941 Teresa met Ludwika Liebeskin-Melcer, a seamstress. The latter became a frequent visitor to the Straszewskis. In the summer of 1942 Ludwika asked Janina to shelter her 5 years old niece. The two women got a certificate of baptism from a priest for mother and child under new names. Ludwika helped her own mother to escape from the Plaszow camp. She was placed at the home of a previous housekeeper of the Straszewskis. Ludwika and her niece remained under the care of Janina and Teresa. The child's mother (Ludwika's sister) also benefited from their help occasionally. Ludwika was found out to be a Jewess and was taken by the Gestapo. Due to the efforts of Janina and Teresa she was released and provided with a new identity documents thanks to Teresa's contacts with the underground. The four Jewish women survived. In 1961 Ludwika made a statement in Cracow, that "thanks to the heroism and generosity of that exceptional woman, Janina, and her daughter, Teresa, the four of us survived. I wish to add" - , she said,- -" that it was not easy, for her, as Janina was a very sick woman, and lived in utmost misery herself; we were hungry together".. She also had to oppose continuously the pressures from the neighbors, who admonished her not to endanger all of them. See: Grynberg, op. cit. STRASZEWSKI-RETTINGER, Maria
see POTOCKI, Jerzy
STRAUCHOLD, Norbert Czeslaw (1905-1985) The son of a shoemaker in Warsaw, Norbert worked in the tram depot at Mlynarska Street. He was the inspector of tramways crossing the ghetto. On the proposal of the Polish Socialist Party, to which he belonged, he led out of the ghetto Dr. Jelenkiewicz. To do this he gave him his own overcoat and his inspector's cap. He transferred the doctor to the underground liaison. In the same way he also extricated from the ghetto a young woman. On Nov. 23, 1942 he was arrested, spent time in three different prisons in Warsaw, and in spite of tortures did not confess anything. A special court in Warsaw sentenced him to 6 years of close confinement. He was sent to the Wisnicz Nowy prison, near Bochnia and then to the infamous Gross-Rosen concentration camp, from which the Allies liberated him in May 1945. The Polish Red Cross attested that he was sentenced to 6 years for helping Jews to escape the ghetto. See: Grynberg, op. cit. STROJECKI, Lech
STRUZIK, Tadeusz (1919-)
Brother and sister farmed in the village of Wozniki, Kielce prov. Their house was ca. 300 m. from the village, near the forest. From July 1944 till January 1945 they hid on their farm Henryk Szaniawski and Jakub Klobucki. Henryk, originally from Lelow, spent time in several labor camps. He also was in the underground. He escaped from the camp and found his way to the Struziks. The farmer and his sister made two hideouts for the refugees: one in the barn, the second in a field in a haystack. Henryk attested in 1975 that during their sojourn with the Struziks "Tadeusz personally took care of us, brought us food and necessities. As we did not have any money this resulted from the good will and self-sacrifice of that worthy family." See: Grynberg, op. cit. STRYCHALSKI-SZELEST, Janina Barbara STRZALECKI, Janusz
(1902-) painter
Janusz Strzalecki, an artist painter, was one of the representatives of the Democratic Party in the executive of the Cracow Zegota (Council for Aid to Jews). Its other members were: Stanislaw Wincenty Dobrowolski, (q.v.) from the Polish Socialist Party, as president, Wladyslaw Wojcik (q.v.) from the same party, as secretary, Anna Dobrowolski alias Michalski (q.v.) as treasurer. To the Executive belonged also Jerzy Matus (q.v.) and the representative of the Jewish community, the writer Maria Hochberg, alias Marianski (which pseudonym she retained later as the second part of her name). The representative of the civil authorities was Tadeusz Seweryn (q.v.). Janusz took part personally in convoying Artur Samborski (Artur Nacht), from Lvov to Cracow. He also saved other Jews. After the war he was a professor at the Arts Academy in Warsaw. His wife, Jadwiga, ran a childrens home in Warsaw. It was created by the RGO (Rada Glowna Opiekuncza, i.e. Council of social welfare) the only social institution tolerated by the occupying power. For the 30 children in that house one third were Jewish and two persons of the personnel were also Jews. After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising (October 1944), the children were transferred to the south of Poland, to Poronin, a small locality in the Tatras. The above-mentioned Jewish member of the Cracow Zegota wrote of her: " .a person of uncommon beauty, of great character, of limitless self-sacrifice and generosity in saving Jewish children. " Jadwiga accepted into the house even children with very pronounced Jewish features and nobody dared to question her decisions. The boarding school went through dramatic events. One of the teachers, Wanda Waliszewski, relates: "In February 1944 the Gestapo blocked all the streets in the so called 'Sadyba'. It seemed that nothing would save the children and the personnel (of whom some had previously escaped from the ghetto). The children had just finished to dress, when suddenly we heard the roar of military cars, with screams and yelling usual in such" "Aktion". In a few seconds the Gestapo, the German soldiers and the Wlasowscy (soldiers of the Russian General, Wlasow, collaborating with the 3rd Reich), surrounded the house and the garden. They were everywhere. The director, Jadwiga, was in bed with a case of severe cold. She hardly managed to put on some clothes when the Gestapo officer directing the entire "Aktion" entered her room. Jadwiga calmly ordered us to give the children breakfast and take them to the room where they usually played, as if nothing happened. The Gestapo officer interrogated the ill head mistress, looked through all the documents, threw open the closet, pulling out its contents. In the meantime he was called off to a nearby villa where an old Jewish couple was discovered. When he returned to the director's room he ordered the director to show him all the children, boasting that he would recognize a Jew even from behind. The director went with him to the room where the children were playing, certain that he would easily discover the Jewish children. He looked on them for a long while. Suddenly a ten years old Jewish boy stood in the middle of the room, full of sitting children, playing on the floor. The officer called him, looked at him intently, asked him his name and his age, then.he turned around and went out. The director followed him. She felt like fainting, but did not show her terror for one second. The blockade lasted from nine in the morning till night. From almost all the houses in Sadyba, that day, many Jews and Poles were arrested for any reason or without any reason. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit., Grynberg, op. cit., and Prekerowa, op. cit. STRZALKA, Kazimiera
STRZALKOWSKI-RYNSKI, Stefania
(not related)
STRZELECKI, Anna (not related)
STRZELECKI, Jadwiga (not related) STRZELECKI, Maria (not related) STRZELECKI, Wladyslaw (not
related)
STRZELECKI, Zofia, (another
one, not related) )
STUPNICKI, Janina (1901-1973)
born WOJCIK
Janina, a teacher by profession, lived with her daughter in Warsaw. She administered several buildings and even, especially at the beginning of the occupation, in the ghetto. Thus she had a permanent pass to enter the ghetto. One day, in 1941, she told her 11 years old Anna that they would lead out of the ghetto a girl of her age. Anna exchanged her overcoat and beret with such a girl and the two girls with two passes left the ghetto. The mother returned home later. That girl was Liliana Tauber, daughter of an activist of the Bund who worked in the underground and perished. Janina got a birth certificate for Liliana under the name of Krystyna Wojcik, like her own maiden name. So people thought that Liliana was a relative of the family. Liliana survived and was taken by her aunt to France. Other Jews also benefited from Janina's help. Among them was Ryszard Grynberg, who also got a false identification and settled in France. A physician from Lodz, Dr. Mikolaj Borenstein, also got false papers and even employment. The latter stated in 1966 that the self-sacrifice and devotion of Janina helped all those needing disinterested help. Liliana, having found her benefactors invited Anna to France, and planned to visit Poland. See: Grynberg, op. cit. STYPULCZAK, Helena Helena lived in Lvov. In mid 1942 she led out of the ghetto her friend with her 8 years old son, Michal and brought them to Warsaw with false documentation prepared in advance. From Warsaw she took two children: Michal Zohaczewski, mentioned above and 6 years old Halinka Lachowicz, to Wola Filipowska, where she rented an apartment in an old manor. She took into the same shelter a third Jewish child, one and a half year old Lidia Uzwij. To the same shelter she brought also Helena T., met at Lvov, who had to leave her place of hiding. In September 1943 the Gestapo arrested Helena Stypulczak, put her into a Lvov prison, then in Auschwitz and later in the Mittweide camp (branch of Flossenburg) where she stayed till the liberation. All her charges also survived. See: Grynberg, op. cit. STYPUL, Stanislawa
SUCHODOLSKI, Adam
The Suchodolskis farmed at Krzynowloga Wielka, near Baranowicze (now Belorussia). The family harbored Michal Szaft, who escaped the Baranowicze ghetto in 1942. After the war Jadwiga married Michal and in 1957 they left for Israel. Michal died there in 1982 and Jadwiga still farms there. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SUCHODOWSKI, Barbara see
ROGINSKI, Janina, mother
SUDZICKI, Wlodzimierz (1908-)
The Sudzickis lived at Komorow(o), near Warsaw. Wlodzimierz worked in the commune administration. He took advantage of his position to issue false documents to Jews; some of them he registered fictitiously, so that they could get ration cards (without rations cards nobody could buy food during the occupation; he could buy it only illegally, on the black market). The Sudzickis also sheltered in their apartment the following Jews: The Kalwassers and the Tylbors. The Winers and others also benefited from their help. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SUKIENNICKI, Jadwiga, physician
SUSKI, Stanislawa (1918-1986) Stanislawa (Stasia) was a
housewife at the village of Wieprzec, Cracow prov. and at the same time
was a nurse to the son of Dr. Abend, in Cracow. When Dr. Abend was
in the army, his wife Sara was transferred with other Jews to Tarnow.
Stanislawa accompanied her. The doctor's wife was taken to the ghetto
in February 1942 and Stanislawa moved to a nearby village, remaining in
contact with Sara Abend. Her husband came to Tarnow and worked in
the Jewish hospital.
SUSZCZEWICZ, Maria (1910-) Maria lived with her family on a farm at Konarzewo, near Poznan. Henryk and Henryka Goldmans lived in Sosnowiec. When the Sosnowiec ghetto was to be liquidated, an acquaintance of the Goldmans brought their baby daughter, Zofia, to Poznan. Maria waited for it at the railway station. She took the little girl to her house. In especially dangerous moments Maria's sister, Maria Rowinski in Wronki also took care of the baby. The child survived the war. After the war Henryk Goldman returned to claim his daughter. Zofia now lives in Australia and maintains contact with Maria. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SUWOROWSKI, Leonard
SYCZ, Janina, educator
The family lived in Lvov. Janina took from the ghetto a small girl, Irena Dragielewicz, who had lost her parents. Later she moved with her three sons and Irena to Skarzysko-Kamienna, where people thought that Irena was Janina's near relative. Irena survived the war and went to Israel. After a few years the youngest son of Janina, Jerzy, also moved to Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SYGADLEWICZ, Kazimierz
SYTA, Jan (1912-)
The Sytas lived with their 7-year old daughter in Warsaw on Panska Street. They head another apartment on Zabkowska Street. Jan's sister went to the country to live with their mother and left them a third apartment. In March 1942 an acquaintance of the Sytas came asking for shelter for his family, of five: Hersz Hamersztein, his wife, two daughters and a sister-in-law. The Sytas took them in, concealing one of the rooms by covering the door by a closet. In May 1942 another acquaintance of Sytas, Tadeusz Dzwonkowski, asked them to harbor also the five members of the Erlichs family from Lublin. All were placed in the Sytas' second apartment with an additional hideout in the attic. After a few months the Sytas transferred the Erlichs to the third flat. Several other Jews came to them with the same request, among them Antek Cukierman, the ZOB representative (Jewish Fighting Organization) on the "Aryan" side. All the people harbored by the Sytas survived. Some left for Israel, others remained in Poland. Dawid Erlich confirmed all this in 1966 when he visited Poland. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZACHNIEWICZ, Helena see
WEGLOWSKI-SZACHNIEWICZ, H.
SZAFRAN, Wladyslaw
The Szafran family had a
farm at Gorna Owczarnia, near Opole Lubelskie. In October 1942 Pesa
and Jojne Nisenbaum, from Opole Lubelskie, asked the Szafrans for
shelter. At that time the
SZAFRANIEC, Leon (1894-1979)
The Szafraniec family farmed on 7 hectares at the Rataje village, Kielce prov. Some Jews also farmed there like Herman Kleinplatz, on 30 ha. Wladyslaw was a member of the underground, in the BCH (Peasant Battalions). The Szafraniec family started helping Jews in the second part of 1942, when the ghettos from the Radom area were being liquidated. Mozes and Barbara Wolfowicz, Jews from Dabrowa Tarnowska, relatives of the Wolfowiczes from Rataje, came for shelter to the Szafraniec family almost at the same time as the Falek Wolfowicz and Herman Kleinplatz from Rataje. The three Frajsman brothers, Herman, Leon and Natan also benefited from the Szafraniecs' help. In the last days of the occupation Wladyslaw saved several more lives. He got an anonymous request to pay 100,000 zlotys, to avoid being denounced. The Jews he harbored on his farm had to disappear in a hurry and hide in the forest, where Wladyslaw took care of them. The Wolfowiczes were assaulted and Barbara was even shot in the leg. Wladyslaw took them from the forest with a horse wagon to Polaniec, a locality already occupied by the Russians. With equal determination he took by horse wagon Karol Fass from Szczucin, who was ill, across the Vistula River, which was still in German hands. Nine (9) Jews benefited from the care and help of the Szafraniec family. All happily survived. Wolf Wolfowicz died after the war, but the others left Poland and maintain contacts with their benefactors. Wladyslaw visited some of them in Israel and in the USA. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZAFT-SUCHODOLSKI, Jadwiga see SUCHODOLSKI, Adam & Stanislawa, parents SZAJNER, Wladyslaw
In the fall of 1942 Jakow and Chana Nissenkorn with their children escaped to the woods. The farmer Lukaszewski, found them in winter there and led them to the Szajners. There they were harbored in the attic. Particularly the young Jozef took care of them. They were honored as "Righteous" on May 6, 1999 in Lublin, according to an announcement coming from the Israeli Embassy in Poland. SZALEK, Wladyslaw SZANDOROWSKI, Janina (1888-1970)
Janina Szandrowski lived in Warsaw with her two daughters and a 12 years old son. Her husband, an Air Force colonel and career officer, took part in the September 1939 campaing, was active in the underground under another name and for security reasons stayed elsewhere. He approved the activity of his family on behalf of Jews. After the Warsaw Uprising he became a POW in an officers' camp from which he did not return. Their apartment had 11 rooms and Janina, to earn a living, rented rooms, mostly to Jews. Some of them, without any resources, did not pay rent and she fed them. So her children had to help to maintain the boarding house. Her boarders fled the ghettos of Lvov, Sambor, Rzeszow, Sanok and Cracow. Some of them came already with false identifications; for others, Janina had to obtain them. Over fifty (50) Jews passed through her flat. Some stayed there a few days, others a few weeks, for some Janina found shelter elsewhere. Sometimes, at their request, she traveled to other towns to bring their Jewish relatives or their belongings from places as far as Lvov: The first time to bring an infant Jewish boy, suffering of diarrhea and the second to bring 2 kilos of gold belonging to one of the roomers, Arthur Stala. Arthur rented another apartment, but soon returned to the boarding house. He asked Elzbieta, a teenager, to retrieve his gold he left in that rented apartment because he thought that its owners discovered that he was a Jew and planned to blackmail him. Elzbieta entered with trepidation that apartment in their absence with his key and followed his instructions and brought the gold back to him again. For this service he gave her three white tulips. There were several searches in the boarding-house. During them the Jewish tenants hid in the attic, or in some other place like under the blanket of a bed. In May 1943 the Germans arrested in the boarding house 17 people, including the Szandrowskis, interrogating them on Aleja Szucha. Fortunately, having found some diamonds sewn in the garment of a Jew, they were in good mood and released the next day the ownersof the flat,. as, Janina told them that she did not know that they are Jews. They released also some of the Jewish tenants who had very good papers and who were able to recite Catholic prayers. As one woman forgot her document, lack of which would cost her life, Elzbieta brought it to the Gestapo, thus endangering herself again. Elzbieta saved also Beno Bursztyn and his friends by helping them to escape from the Pawiak prison. She gave them the city plan of the sewers under Warsaw, candles, mathches and later food and shelter. Twenty eight (28) persons survived from the total number. It took 20 lines to Grynberg to list their names and places of origin. Some of them returned to Janina and Elzbieta several times. The people thus sheltered also went through dramatic moments. Shortly after the departure of a trusted surgeon who performed a successful nose operation on one of the tenants, police broke in. There was no time to remove all traces of blood. The people present explained to the police that the man had had a street accident. Finally the neighbors of Janina, annoyed with the frequent police visits, gathered in the porch and clamored loudly that they do not want to face risk any longer because of Janina's Jewish boarders. Elzbieta courageously shouldered her way through the throng of people, leading out of the gate two Jewish women with a child and brought them to the train station to travel to another town. Already in April 1946 Janina received a letter from London, from Dr. Ludwik Rozenberg, who thanked her in most moving words for saving his son Roman and enquiring sincerely about her and her family. See: Grynberg, op. cit., Lukas, Out of the Inferno, op. cit. and Prekerowa, op. cit. SZANDURSKI-WOLSKI - Wanda
see WOLSKI, Malgorzata, mother
SZAROWARO, Kazimiera (Halina?)
Halina Szarowaro was in charge of the Common Lodging House on Leszno Street. There lived insane women, many habitual drunkards and beggars, who did not want to work. When in 1942 the Germans liquidated the "small " ghetto in Warsaw, many Jewish women, tried desperately to avoid being deported to Treblinka, and directed to that House by Sister Bernarda, arrived frantic seeking asylum, with false "Kennkarten" issued by the city of Warsaw. Halina and her coworkers, especially Zofia Wiewiorowski knew that the documents were false, but accepted everyone in good faith. At the start of the Ghetto Uprising in April 1943 cordons of gendarmes and Shaulises (German collaborators of Lithuanian and Latvian origin) encircled the women's House. The habitual beggars and drunkards in panick, urged the two women to throw out into the street the many hidden Jewish women. Zofia Wiewiorowski threatened them that she would go to the police first and they all would be taken for forced labor. That calmed them down. The two women arranged for the Jewesses to contact their families and get for them food clothing and medicines from underground organizations. Zofia Wiewiorowska in her account stresses that for the fragile and nervous Halina it was an unbelievable strain. Zofia Wiewiorowska is not recognized. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit SZASZKIEWICZ, Mieczyslaw
(1913-1983)
Mieczyslaw and Halina lived at the beginning of the occupation in Warsaw and later moved to Burakowo, commune of Lomianki, near Warsaw. They partially repaired a small house from the devastation of the September campaign of 1939. In that house they sheltered from June 1943 till October 1944 five Jews: Izabela and Nina Boniowa, Feliks Brodzki, Leon Rapaport and Irena Zytkiewicz. In February 1944 a sixth one joined them: Henryk Boniowka, who did not survive, however. In November 1944 Russian artillery destroyed the house and the Jews had to leave. Izabela, Feliks Brodzki and Irena Zytkiewicz wrote: "Five people survived without any doubt in the Burakowo house thanks to the courage, generosity and truly humanitarian attitude towards the persecuted persons, on the part of Mieczyslaw and Halina Szaszkiewicz.There is no way to describe their ways of helping Jews.". See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZATKOWSKI, Rozalia
SZCZAWINSKI, Eugenia 1900-1963)
The family lived in the town of Ostrog, Wohlinia (now in Ukraine). The father managed a mechanical shop of the town administration. He built a house, which he did not finish before the war. He employed in its construction a Jewish carpenter, Samuel Klepacz. The 6,000 Jews in Ostrog, gathered in the ghetto in the second part of 1941, were murdered in mid 1942. The massacre by the Germans and Ukrainian police lasted several days. Very few managed to escape it. One of them was Samuel Klepacz and his betrothed who came also to the Szczawinskis. They, although terrified, took them in for the night. The next night Tadeusz led them to a Polish woman, Goroszko, living alone near the forest. They could not keep the fugitives as Ukrainians lived nearby and at their home there lived a Ukrainian nurse. Tadeusz hid them in a haystack on Goroszko's yard. Soon the woman asked that they be tacken back. The Szczawinskis' sons, without the knowledge of their father, decided to save the two refugees. Klepacz supervised the building of a bunker, which had a concealed opening for air. Edward installed in the bunker electricity and beds out of boards. Its entrance was via the feeding trough for the cows. After a certain time a 13-14 years old Jewish boy, Lina Nusinow joined the refugees. Unfortunately he fell ill and died before the liberation. Ostrog was taken by the Soviets in March 1944. Antonina wrote that nine people were saved from sudden death from purely humanitarian motives. The Klepacz couple, now in Israel, maintains contacts with their saviors. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZCZEBIC-KUROWSKI, Anastazja
SZCZEPANIAK, Natalia (not related) SZCZEPANIAK-SZNEPF, Alicja
(not related)
SZCZESNY, Florian (1894-1964)
(not related)
The family farmed in the village of Klembow, near Wolomin, Warsaw prov. Abram Sztarkier and his wife managed to survive from among the 3,000 Jews of Wolomin, deported to Treblinka or massacred on the spot in October 1942. In February 1943 Kazimierz found the Jewish couple in their barn and brought them some soup. The woman said to him: "For this soup I will be grateful to you until my death". The family after some consultation decided to save the Sztarkiers. A hideout was arranged in the barn and the Sztarkiers stayed there till the end of the occupation. From Israel they maintain contacts with the Szczesnys. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZCZUBIAL, Franciszek
Franciszek and Maria lived in the village of Bronow, Kielce prov. They, and their relative, Mieczyslaw Leszczynski (q.v.), took care of the six members of the Gerszonowicz family: Zalman Gerszon Gerszonowicz, his sister and her children. Hidden in a bunker they sometimes came at night to the house to have some warm food. The Szczubials harbored also a 7 years old Jewish boy, Borchowicz. Leszczynski also sheltered Gerszonowicz's niece for some time. All survived the war. Zalman settled in Germany and his sister in Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZCZUCKI-KOSSAK, Zofia see
KOSSAK-SZCZUCKI-SZATKOWSKI, Z.
SZELAG, Marianna (1898-1980)
Marianna and Jerzy lived in Warsaw, but their house was included in the ghetto. Jerzy had a permanent pass to and from the ghetto, as he attended his primary school on the "Aryan" side. Jerzy Pfeffer, a Jewish man, stated in his deposition of 1984, that his parents, Abram and Dora Pfeffer, were friends with Szelag's parents. Jerzy, the school-boy, was helpful to many Jewish families in the ghetto, in bringing them food and letters, among others to Dr. Spiro, the Szajbergs, the Cukiers and the Penderskis. Many times he was apprehended and beaten by the gendarmes guarding the ghetto. Pfeffer took advantage of Jerzy's services to pass letters to Stanislaw Tegi and Franciszek Piasecki, who before the war had business relations with his father's company and were members of AK (Home Army). The Szelags were expelled from the ghetto in December of 1942. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZELAGOWSKI, Kazimierz For the first three months of the occupation he was the minister of Religious Affairs and Public education. He directed the help to Jews obtained from the RGO (Council of Social Welfare: look for explanation under Strzalecki, Jadwiga), specifically for the Warsaw suburb of Mokotow. He was in charge of this suburb as of January 1940 and had under his permanent care ca. 40 Jews for whom he got money from the Delegate in Poland of the Government-in-Exile in London. See: Bednarczyk: "Obowiazek Silniejszy od Smierci", op. cit. SZELEST-STRYCHALSKI, Janina Barbara see STRYCHALSKI-SZELEST, J. B. SZELEWA-KURASIEWICZ, Helena Helena lived at a forester's lodge near Rudka. She participated in the saving of the Braten brothers, Lejzor and Rubin. Michal Mazur (q.v.) admitted her into the secret of their hiding. In 1984 the two brothers declared that Helena Szelewa-Kurasiewicz and Michal Mazur hid and fed them only for humanitarian motives for two years. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZELKA, Karol (1915-)
The Szelka family had a farm at Niebieszczany, Rzeszow prov. They were in the resistance. Wladyslaw, a non-commissioned officer before the war, was the commander of a partisan group, and Karol his substitute. Dr. Leon Pener, a lawyer from Jaroslaw, was deported to a forced labor camp in Zaslaw, near Sanok. He contacted the AK members who gave him the Szelka's name. When the Germans liquidated the Zaslaw camp in January 1943, Penner escaped from it and came to the Szelkas. As they were active in the underground, their home was not too secure. They placed Penner with a poor woman Wiktoria Rolnik. He had two hideouts there: one in the loft, the other in the stable. The Szelkas brought him food and other necessities. Penner survived and in 1986 made a deposition that he was kept and fed for 21 months by Wladyslaw and Karol Szelka and by Wiktoria Rolnik, at the risk of their lives and totally disinterestedly. In spite of that, Wiktoria Rolnik is not recognized up to now. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZEMELOWSKI, Augusta see
TRAMMER, Fryda, mother
SZEWCZENKO, Mikolaj (1883-1972)
The family lived at Sulejowek and had a store in Warsaw with wines and a restaurant. The Sulejowek ghetto was liquidated in March 1942 and its inmates were deported to the Warsaw ghetto. The Szewczenkos took into their home two children, Tadek and Genia Wotasz, whose parents had been killed. The children survived and went to Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZEWCZYK, Franciszek
SZEWCZYK, Teodora Teodozja
(not related)
SZMURLO, Kazimierz
SZMURLO-SKULSKI, Lucyna
SZPARKOWSKI, Jozefa (1880-1960)
The Szparkowski brothers lived before the war in Wloclawek and toward the end of 1939 they moved to Warsaw. Zdzislaw, active in the PPS (Polish Socialist Party), worked in Wloclawek in a metal products company owned by Icchak Szwarc. He had many acquaintances from the Haszomer Hacair (a Jewish scouting organization). He met then Mordechaj Anielewicz (future commander of the ZOB - Jewish Fighting Organization in the ghetto). Anielewicz was there in a camp preparing Jews to work in agriculture. There were ca. 12,000 Jews in Wloclawek, a town incorporated into the Third Reich, as part of the "Warthegau"(the Warta River area). Germans planned to kill or expel from it Poles and Jews and colonize it with Germans. All Jews were deported (if not killed) in the spring of 1942 to Chelmno on the Ner River. Zdzislaw helped the following Jews to escape from Wloclawek: Flamenbaum, Icchak Praszker, Nelly Sluzewski and Jakub Torunczyk. Soon Zdzislaw had to escape himself. In Warsaw he helped especially the Wloclawek Jews. His brother Jozef and their aunt cooperated in this. He found places of shelter for them and provided them with false documentation. He placed eight (8) people in his brother's flat. A folksdeutche woman, by name Sowiecka, denounced them and on May 23, 1943 Jozef and all his guests were killed. He kept the following Jews in his own flat: Ezra Zakrzewski, Blima Fuks, the lawyer Hipolit and his wife. Ezra was killed at the ghetto's wall during the Ghetto Uprising, but the others survived. Zdzislaw had a permanent pass to the ghetto. This enabled him to have contacts with the underground there. He owned a restaurant, in which he employed Blima Fuks. In the kitchen, through the closet, there was an entrance to a bunker, in which more than twelve people were hiding, some staying there till the end of the occupation. In 1966 Eugenia Merwald stated that Mordechaj Anielewicz directed her to Zdzislaw, with a letter in which he thanked him for arms provided to the ghetto and asked for ammunition. She also stated that Zdzislaw placed her with his aunt, Jozefa, who took care of her in a most cordial way. She also knew that Zdzislaw helped Jews in the Skarzysko-Kamienna and Radoszyce camps. Jozef Szparkowski was posthumously awarded the medal "Righteous Among the Nations" and was mentioned here in the list of "Those Who Paid with Their Lives". See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZPILIK, (SZPILYK?) Stanislaw
SZTAJNER, Jan
The family lived in the village of Zielona, near Czortkow, Tarnopol prov. They had many Jewish acquaintances in Czortkow. In January 1943, during the liquidation of the Czortkow ghetto, there came to the Sztajners the four members of the Fenerberg family and also Dr. Akselrad, Dr. Bunek Margules, Izydor Zin, Rutka Lempel, Adela and the couple Nusia and Gerszon Bergman, eleven (11) persons. All stayed with the family till the end of the occupation and left Poland. Emil corresponded with some of them till his death. In 1982 the Bergmans wrote from Sweden about the Sztajners that they treated them very cordially, in spite of difficult circumstances and the danger which threatened all of them. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZTANDO-JEDYNAK, Helena see
JEDYNAK, Maria, mother
SZTETNER, Edward Edward extricated out of the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 Anna Piasecki, the niece of his wife. She remained with him and her aunt till the end of the war. Her uncle provided her with a ficticious documents and sent her to school. He organized false documents also for other Jews. Yad Vashem recognized him as "Righteous" in 1999 and the Israel minister of education honored him on May 1st, 2000 in Warsaw. SZTUKOWSKI, Helena (1901-1985) lawyer Helena resided in Vilna. After her studies at the Stefan Batory University there, she opened her lawyer's office. The occupying Germans, still before the formation of the ghetto, murdered in Vilna several thousand Jews. At that time Masza Blumental, whose husband was among the killed, came to Helena for help. Helena took her with her 2 years old son into her home and kept them till the end of the German occupation. Jozef Edalsztejn and the engineer Alfred Horowic were harbored for a certain time at her mother's estate, Balinpol, near Vilna. Masza and her son settled in Mexico and in 1968 she invited Helena for a protracted stay. The Jewish community there received Helena in a moving ceremony. A Jewish paper "Di Sztyme" published a long article with photographs about Helena' s help to Jews. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZUBER-DUDAR, Stanislawa
see DUDAR, Antoni & Wiktoria, parents
SZUL-BARYS, Maria Golda Saperstein and her
children: the 11 years old daughter, Frieda and an infant son, Martin,
escaped from a ghetto in Zborow (now in Ukraine). They roamed the
fields by night, fearing that the infant's cries could betray them, hiding
by day in haystacks and knocked on the doors to ask for food. In
1942 they encountered Marysia (diminutive for Maria), a 15 years old girl,
who took them in. She concealed them in a hole made in the barn.
When neighbors asked her about the infant's cries in the barn, Maria told
them that it was her infant brother's cries.
SZULC, Emil
SZULC, Jozef (not related)
SZULC, Jozef (another one,
not related)
Jozef and Maria Szulc with their son, Leszek, led out of the forced labor camp, at the last moment, Sara and Jonasz Fridlers and hid them on their property. In spite of searches by the Ukrainian police, the Jewish couple was not found. The Fridlers remained with the Szulces till the coming of the Red Army. The Szulc family was honored as "Righteous Among the Nations" on Jan. 14, 1999 in Warsaw, as announced the Israeli Embassy in Poland. SZULC-KUTTE, Liliana (Alicja?) (not related) SZULC-KOISZEWSKI, Wladyslawa
(not related)
SZUMSKI, Maria (1905-1990) Maria lived at Lida, Vilna prov. She was a court secretary. In 1943 she pulled out from a transport of Lida Jews to an extermination camp, the 7 years old Halinka Degenfisz. At the beginning Halinka was harbored in Maria's home, but when this became dangerous, Maria moved with Halinka to the village of Osowa. After the war, Halinka's parents, who also survived, retrieved their daughter and left Poland. Halinka maintained contacts from the USA with Maria until the latter's death. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZUTKOWSKI, Wladyslaw
SZWAJKAJZER, Stefan (1895-1970)
The family and their nine children lived in the village of Zymodry, near Kurzeniec, Vilna prov. The father worked at Stara Wilejka and they also had a farm. In 1941 Chava and Jankiel Czertok and three of their children perished in the Vilna ghetto, but their daughter Slawa Czertok survived. A German soldier, who led the Jews from the ghetto to work, told her to leave the group and search for shelter. A priest at Stara Wilejka sheltered her for several weeks and called on Stefan to take her home. The latter did it and got false documents for her. In the fall of 1942 Czeslawa was arrested but managed to escape. She came to Wanda, who was a teacher in a nearby village. With her help she joined a partisan unit with which she took part in military actions. After the war Czeslawa settled in Poland, but left it for Israel with her husband Czeresnia. In 1980 she stated that she did not have any resources or relatives who could pay for her. In this deposition she wrote that the Szwajkajzers were a profoundly Catholic family and treated her like their own daughter, their children never showing any unfriendliness. Czeslawa invited Wanda to Israel for her ceremony at Yad Vashem. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZWARZ-HECHT, Jadwiga (1922) Jadwiga resided in Lvov. In 1943 she gave her birth and baptismal certificate to Regina Matte-Bank, a Jewish woman, 2 years younger. This enabled the latter to leave for work in Germany. Liberated there, she settled in the USA. After many years she found Jadwiga and took care of her recognition as "Righteous Among the Nations". See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZWAROCKI, Jozef
SZWED, Helena (not related) see ZADWORNY, Jan, father SZWED, Jan (not related)
SZWED-KOTWICA, Maria (not related) SZWIERSZCZAK, (SWIERSZCZAK
?) Manko
In June 1941 Germans invading Russia decimated Jews in Buczacz, (eastern Poland) with the help from Volksdeutche and Ukrainian collaborators. The Germans organized several massacres of Jews. Henry Rosen met a Polish cemetery caretaker, Manko, illiterate, but in Henry's words: "he was a good Christian and possessed a heart of gold." Manko sheltered Henry and ca. forty (40) Jews on the top floor of a chapel in the cemetery for several days, at which time 2,000 Jews met their death. The 40 Jews returned after that to the ghetto. Henry, who had two brothers, 18 and 12 and a mother, decided to leave the ghetto and ask Manko for help. The latter, consulted his wife and agreed. He put the Rosen family and four other Jews eight (8 in total) in an old tomb, from which he removed three caskets buried elsewhere, and brought in blankets, pillows and dishes. The Rosens paid for the food that Manko bought and transported in his toolbox and left each night at the tomb. On top of the tomb he put a statue of the Virgin Mary, so that nobody would tamper with it. As he was found buying too much food, he was arrested, interrogated for four days and mercilessly beaten, but he denied any allegations of helping Jews. When he returned to his charges, with marks of the beatings, the Rosen mother kissed his hands and his wounds. The four other men decided to leave the tomb and were never heard again from. In 1943, with winter coming, they all feared that the footprints on the snow near the tomb would reveal their secret. Therefore, Manko moved them to an improvised shaft beneath the mortuary where they stayed till March 1944. Some German soldiers retreating from Russia wanted to find shelter from the biting cold and entered the top of the shaft, jumping up to warm themselves from the bitter cold. The floor caved in under their weight and the soldiers went crashing down on the four hidden Jews. At first, the Germans were terrified that the dead took revenge for interfering with their rest. The three brothers managed to escape, but the soldiers shot their mother. The three Rosens found refuge with another Pole, whom they knew before, Michal Dutkiewicz (q.v.). They remained with him until the coming of the Russians. See: Paldiel op. cit. SZYDLOWSKI, Jan
SZYDLOWSKI-SMYCZYNSKI, Teresa
(not related) see SMYCZYNSKI, Anna, mother
SZYMANSKI-LIPCZYNSKI, Ewa (not related) see LIPKO-LIPCZYNSKI, Ewelina SZYMANSKI, Feliks (not related) SZYMANSKI, Genowefa (not related) SZYMANSKI, Genowefa (another one, not related) SZYMANSKI, Janina (not related) SZYMANSKI, Marcin (not related)
SZYMANSKI, Michal (not related)
SZYMANSKI, Piotr (1891-1979)
(not related
The family lived in the village of Podgorze, Grodno district, where they had a 20 hectares farm. In Grodno, where 25,000 Jews lived, Germans established two ghettos, which they liquidated deporting the Jews to Auschwitz in November 1942. In February 1942 the Szymanskis heard a knock on the window. Piotr saw three Jews, known to him from Grodno: Mr. Peresiecki, and his two brothers-in-law, Abe Tarlowski and Efraim Illin. Piotr took them in. After a few days they asked Piotr to bring two daughters of theirs: Helena Tarlowski (15) and Bella Illin (6) who were hiding with some Polish woman. It was urgent to take them immediately. The 14 years old Czeslaw went for them to Grodno with a horse wagon and brought them home. The Szymanskis prepared a good hideout in the barn, and the air vent was located in the dog's house. They fed them from their own resources. At night the Jews went out to take some fresh air and sometimes came to the house to wash and change clothes. There were dangerous moments. The Germans, on the way to Grodno, often came to the Szymanskis to eat and drink and searched for partisans, but they did not find the five (5) hidden Jews, all of whom survived. Helena Tarlowski confirmed all this in her statement from France in January 1984. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZYMANSKI, Romuald (not related)
SZYMANSKI-JACUNSKI, Janina (not related) see MAKUCH, Barbara, daughter SZYMANSKI, Wincenty (1880-1955)
(not related)
Wincenty and Maria lived in Warsaw. Maria's sister, Zofia Kowalczyk lived with her husband and son above them. In the spring of 1942 an acquaintance from before the war, Mr. Pentelka, asked them to shelter his daughter, Halinka (13). Wincenty and Maria, in consultation with Zofia, took the girl in. Pentelka told them that he had placed his wife elsewhere, returned to the ghetto and was never seen again. During the day it was Zofia who fed and took care of Halinka, without the knowledge of her husband and son. Wincenty installed a partition in a big closet, so that Halinka could stay there if necessary. Her mother in the meantime was denounced and shot. Wincenty and Maria lived their own tragedy. They lost their only daughter in 1934, their son in 1941 to tuberculosis and their second son perished in Auschwitz. So they became very attached to Halinka for whom Wincenty got false documents as Krystyna Szymanski, their daughter. After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising they all found themselves in the Pruszkow camp, except for Halinka who was taken for work to Germany. She returned to Poland gravely ill with tuberculosis. She spent almost a year in the sanatorium in Otwock, until her relatives in the USA proposed to pay for her cure in a Swiss sanatorium. Their parting was dramatic, as the Szymanskis considered her as their own daughter. Halinka met in Switzerland a Polish non-commissioned officer from the Polish army in the west, Bronislaw Bloch, married him and left with him to Israel. After Halinka died, her husband kept in contact with her adopted parents and with Zofia Kowalczyk. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZYMANSKI, Wladyslaw
SZYMCZAK, Jozef
Zdzislaw was a student at the Warsaw Polytechnic and active in the Communist Party (dissolved in 1938) where he met many Jews. His aid to them (not only Communists) consisted in finding them shelters. . Around a hundred (100) passed by his house to other places in Warsaw prepared beforehand, among them that of his parents-in-law with two hiding places, one in the cellar, the other in the loft. Many of them joined later the partisans in the Kielce region. Zdzislaw used also to procure food to Jews in the ghetto, even during its Uprising. After its end he got news from one of the Jews, Mieczyslaw Kadzielski, that there still exists a secret bunker and he decided to help the people hidden there. He let himself to be hired by Germans as a worker for the removal of the machinery from the ghetto, but he did not find that group on the first attempt. The new address of the Kadzielski group brought one of its members, the "Little Jurek, a 15 years old Jewish boy who came to Zdzislaw through the sewers. Zdzislaw with his friends organized the group's escape from the ghetto by sewers and the pickup of that group from a manhole at midnight. The plan succeeded. Zdzislaw's parents-in-law offered refuge to Kadzielski and later Father Ilinski, member of the AK, placed him at the home of the Matysiak family. Zdzislaw brought also by train from Czestochowa Mrs. Kadzielski's niece, who now lives in Paris as Ola H.. As Germans hunted Zdzislaw for his Communist past, it seemed natural to him to help the persecuted Jews. We do not know anything about his brother's activity. His wife and parents-in-law are not recognized. See: Lukas, Out of the Inferno, op. cit. SZYMCZAK-TATOMIR, Janina (not related) see TATOMIR, Jan & Julia, parents SZYMCZUKIEWICZ, Witold, priest? Witold Szymczukiewicz, parish priest at Rukojmie, Vilna prov., gave some Jews false baptismal certificates. He also saved the life of Fajga Reznik with her son, placing them with a parishioner, Jadwiga Romanowski. See: Kaluski, op. cit. SZYMKIEWICZ, Jozef SZYMKIEWICZ, Wladyslaw (not
related)
SZYSZKIEWICZ-BURDA, Elzbieta alias LIZA Elzbieta lived in Bialystok and was a professional nurse. On June 27, 1941 the German army entered Bialystok and started a massacre of Jews. They drove the Jews into the synagogue and put it on fire. It was their quite a usual method. Elzbieta pulled Dr. Kogan out of the burning synagogue. After the formation of the ghetto she provided her acquaintances in the ghetto with food and medicines. She harbored in her apartment some escapees from the ghetto, like Efraim Nachimowicz. Her home became the contact place for the Jewish partisan movement. One of its commanders, Marian Buch wrote in his statement of September 1983: "Miss Szyszkiewicz, now Mrs. Burda, in spite of the danger, during the occupation made her apartment accessible to the Jewish liaisons from the ghetto and from the partisan unit "Forojs". Being a member of that partisan movement I also used her apartment. I know also that she harbored Jews in her home." See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZYSZKO, Michal (1912-1945) Michal studied law at the Catholic University in Lublin. He belonged to the Assoociation of workers' universities, a Polish Socialist Party's youth organization and thanks to it had contacts with the Jewish youth organization, the "Cukunft". As an officer of the AL (People's Army) he did much to help Jews in the Lublin and Warsaw area. Among other services rendered to Jews, he led out of the ghetto, at the turn of 1942 and 1943, Julia Mebel, a nurse of the Jewish hospital, with her small daughter, Irena. He took Irena to his home and later placed her in the RGO boarding school. He visited her regularly and at his home the daughter used to meet her mother. He got false documents for both and they survived the occupation. See: Grynberg, op. cit. SZYSZKO-SKOWRON, Jozefa (not related) see SKOWRON, Roch & Jozefa, parents? SZYSZKOWSKI, Waclaw (1904-)
lawyer
Waclaw and Irena, and their
three small children lived in Warsaw. Dr. Szyszkowski was a member
of the AK and after the Warsaw Uprising (1944) was taken to the POW camp
in Murnau (Germany). Friendly relations with several Jewish lawyers,
especially with Jozef Zysman, prompted him to save the Zysman's small son,
Piotrus. The latter was led out of the ghetto through the sewers
and Irena took him from a secret shelter to their home. For security
reasons Piotrus had to be moved several times; he survived like his mother,
but his father perished in 1943. His mother, Teodora (now under a
different name as it usually happens) wrote: "All the weight of trying
to find a new place for Piotrus fell on the shoulders of Irena and Waclaw
Szyszkowski who during all the occupation maintained contact with my child.
I learned about its fate only after the war.I also know that they saved
two daughters of the Warsaw lawyer Roman Frydman-Mirski, risking their
own life and the life of their children. They accomplished a great
and heroic deed". See: Grynberg, op. cit.
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