Righteous Gentiles
Killed for Helping Jews
Gorlice, Galicia
Although Nazi Concentration Camps and Slave Labor Camps were located
throughout Europe during World War II, all of the
camps devoted exclusively to extermination — Chelmno,
Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka — were located in
Poland.
The Nazi's two multi-functional camps for forced labor and extermination — Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek — were also located in Poland. Approximately three million Polish Jews died during the Holocaust. Approximately three million Poles, who were not Jews, also died, some of them killed for helping Jews.
Poland was the only country in which the penalty for helping a Jew during the German occupation was death. Nonetheless, many brave Poles tried to rescue Jews from the Nazi death machine. Some were members of the Council for Aid to Jews (code name: "Zegota"), a Polish organization formed in 1942 specifically to rescue Jews.
Other Poles were non-affiliated ordinary citizens who took extraordinary risks to help their beleaguered Jewish neighbors. More than 5,500 Poles have been awarded "Righteous Among the Nations" status by Yad Vashem, a larger number than in any other country. We will never know who all of the Righteous Gentiles were.
Below, however, are some who are known to have given their
lives for their attempts to help Gorlice area Jews.
Władisław Boczoń, author of the book in which the names and the details of the following
thirteen individuals appear, was himself a Zegota member.
The list was translated by Marjorie Rosenfeld and Eva Bednarska from page 158, Żydzi Gorliccy (The Jews of Gorlice) by Władisław Boczoń, Gorlice, 1998.
NOTE: The former Web Site http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/index.htm, which memorialized non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, notes additionally that Stanislaw Radzik, whose name appears first on the list, was a 40-year-old farmer when he was shot on September 30, 1943, for sheltering four Jews, and that on January 26, 1944, as a result of a subsequent investigation, his wife, Maria, was murdered.
The same Web site also provided the name of Anastzja Tylawska, from Rozdziele, near Gorlice, and notes that she was shot in 1943 for sheltering Leib Jaskow from Mecina.
~May their names be blessed. May they be as a light unto the world.~
- Stanisław Radzik, z Łużnej (from Łużna)
- aresztowany przez gestapo w 1943 r. za przetrzymywanie Żydów i rozstrzelany na kirkucie w Gorlicach.
arrested by the Gestapo in the year 1943 for sheltering Jews and shot in the Jewish cemetery in Gorlice. - Jόzef Pietrzykowski – lekarz z Bobowej, 32 lata (a physician from Bobowa, 32 years old)
- rozstrzelany w Rdziostowie k. Nowego Sącza za przetrzymywanie dziecka żydowskiego.
shot in Radziestow near Nowy Sącz for sheltering a Jewish child. - Andrzej Marszalek – Głęboka
- członek AL – rozstrzelany w 1944 r. za przechowywanie Żydów.
member of the AL [the Communist Armia Ludowa, or People’s Army] shot in the year 1944 for hiding Jews. - Piotr Oleśkiewicz, z Pagorzyny (from Pagorzyna)
- aresztowany i wywieziony do Oświęcimia, gdzie zginął w 1943 r. – za przetrzymywanie
Żydów.
arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where he perished in the year 1943 – for sheltering Jews. - Jan Benisz, z Gorlic (from Gorlice)
- aresztowany i rozstrzelany w 1943 r. za organizowanie pomocy Żydom w krakowskiej Radzie Pomocy Żydom.
arrested and shot in the year 1943 for organizing assistance to Jews in the Krakow Council for Aid to Jews. - Stefania Krzysztofiak, z Siepietnicy (from Siepietnica)
- rozstrzelana w Bieczu za ukrywanie Żydόw.
shot in Biecz for hiding Jews. - Józef Pruchniewicz, z Biecza (from Biecz)
- rozstrezelany w 1944 r. za ukrywanie żydowskiej rodziny Plummerow.
shot in the year 1944 for hiding the Jewish Plummer family. - Piotr Dragan, rolnik z Rozdziela (a farmer from Rozdziel)
- rozstrzelany przez żandarmerię za ukrywanie Żydόw.
shot by the military police for hiding Jews. - Stanisław Goleń, z Biecza (from Biecz)
- zginął w obozie za udzielanie pomocy Żydom.
perished in a camp for giving assistance to Jews. - Franciszek Bieleniak, z Glebokiej (from Gleboka)
- rozstrzelany w jesiani
1943 roku za ukrywanie Żydów.
shot in autumn of the year 1943 for hiding Jews. - Julia Brońska, z Szymbarku (from Szymbark)
- rozstrzelana w 1943 roku za ukrywanie Żydów.
shot in the year 1943 for hiding Jews. - Tadeush Czocharaz, z Beicza (from Biecz)
- rozstrzelany w 1943 roku za ukrywanie pomocy Żydό.
shot in the year 1943 for helping to hide Jews. - Adam Czajka, z (from) Lipinek
- rozstrzelany na kopalni Lipa za przechowywanie kupca Pinkasa.
shot in the Lipa Mine for sheltering the merchant Pinkas.
Compiled by Susan Kim Updated: May 2024 Copyright © 2023 Susan Kim |
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