Romuald Szymanski and Jadwiga Szymanska
All information below comes from
The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations
Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust: Poland
edited by Sara Bender and Shmuel Krakowski
Copyright © 2004 Yad Vashem
The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority,
Jerusalem, Israel
Reproduced with permission of Yad Vashem
In June 1941, after the
Germans captured the town of Swieciany in the Vilna district, the Jews
of the vicinity were herded into a former military training ground,
where they were kept under harsh conditions, and shot a few days later
by Lithuanian collaborators. Among the few Jews
who managed to escape the massacre were Rachel Swirski, a widow, and
her daughters, 15-year-old Lea and eight-year-old Chana. Swirski
and her daughters tried to return to Swieciany, their hometown, where a
ghetto had meanwhile been established, but their plan failed and they
decided to turn to Romuald and Jadwiga Szymanski, Polish acquaintances
of theirs. The Szymanskis greeted the three refugees warmly and,
despite the danger, hid them in their apartment without expecting
anything in return. On day, when Swirski told her benefactors
that she wanted to join her father-in-law in Swir, some 30 kilometers
away, the Szymanskis, with great resourcefulness, rented a wagon and
transported each of the Swirskis separately to Swir. Later,
Swirski and her daughters were interned in the Kaunas ghetto, where
Chana perished during one of the Aktionen. Swirski and Lea,
together with the remnants of Kaunas Jewry, were sent to the Stutthof
concentration camp, where they were put to work in a labor camp until
January 1945, when they were liberated. After the war, they both
immigrated to Israel while their saviors moved to an area within
Poland's new borders.
On September 16, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Jadwiga and Romuald Szymanski as Righteous Among the Nations.
On September 16, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Jadwiga and Romuald Szymanski as Righteous Among the Nations.