Righteous Among the Nations
He who saves a single soul saves the entire world!

This is a list of Non-Jews who risked their lives and/or lost their lives aiding Nowy Korczyn Jews during the Holocaust. It is not be any means a complete list but hopefully both Jews and Poles will submit their stories so the list will grow and become more complete.

The following proclamation was issued by Dr. Ludwig Fischer, the German district governor of Warsaw, on November 10, 1941: "Concerning the Death Penalty for Illegally Leaving Jewish Residental Districts...Any Jew who illegally leaves the designated residential district will be punished by death. Anyone who deliberately offers refuge to such Jews or who aids them in any other manner (i.e., offering a night's lodging, food, or by taking them into vehicles of any kind, etc.) will be subject to the same punishment. Judgment will be rendered by a Special Court in Warsaw. I forcefully draw the attention of the entire population of the Warsaw District to this new decree, as henceforth it will be applied with the utmost severity."

Bronislaw Kupis & wife

Jozef Piwowarczyk
Wladek & Maria Piwowarcyk and children Waclaw, Jozef and Janina
Jozef Sliwa
Jozefa Wojtaszewicz with her husband and children
Gertruda Rejdych
Pawel and Stach Buczakow
Wladek Wozniak and his brother Bronek

Jozef & Stefania Macugowski

Bronislaw Kupis & wife
Shot in the spring of 1943 on their property by military police from Nowy Korczyn for sheltering 3 Jews. (The three Kupis children survived.)

Information from: www.citinet.net/ak/polska_27_f2.html

Jozef Piwowarczyk
Wladek & Maria Piwowarcyk and children Waclaw, Jozef and Janina
Jozef Sliwa
Jozefa Wojtaszewicz with her husband and children
Gertruda Rejdych
Pawel and Stach Buczakow
Wladek Wozniak and his brother Bronek

The above people looked after Izrael Wajnbaum, his wife Layeh Wajnbaum and their young child Adash (Albert) Wajnbaum. This letter to the editor was written by Izrael Wajnbaum to the editor of a Polish newspaper in 1973.

Dear Editor,

On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto upraising, it would be unjust for me not to mention the heroism of Mr.Wladyslaw Piwowarczyk, his wife Maria and their children, and especially their son Wacek. I would like here to raise my voice and be reminded about those nightmarish days.
During that time, I was not in the Ghetto; together with my wife and children, we were living in a bunker located in the village of Leka. The bunker was excavated by Jzef Piwowarczyk, together with my help and the help of my brother Szymon and Wladek Wozniak on the fields belonging to Wladek Piwowarczyk.
In the village of Senislawice, another two bunkers were excavated; in those, the following people were hidden:
In the 1st bunker, were hidden: Lejzer, Zwata, Szajndla and Moszek Pisarz, and two brothers Chaim and Moszek Stern. The person in charge was Moszek Pisarz.
In the 2nd bunker, were : Jozef Piwowarczyk, my brother Szymon Wajnbaum with his wife Mania, and sisters Henia and Ewcia. The person in charge was my brother Szymon.

(From Left) Jozef Piwowarczyk, Henia and Ewcia Tzuker, Izrael Wajnbaum

In our bunker, I was the person in charge, the commandant. It was the role of the commandant to stand and defend to the end, and in the last moment to put to death the ones who were still alive including myself. The reason for such action was not to be able to give away any information to the Nazis about the people who had helped us.
Over the two year period, the ground above the bunker was ploughed, the crops were harvested. Our contact with the world was through openings the size of a mouse hole. These mouse holes also served as air pockets, and was coming through in such small amounts that it was not sufficient air to light a match. Through these small holes, food in small quantities was dropped, into the area where five of us were squeezed into. During the summer days, the food was delivered to us more frequently. Winter time food could only be delivered whilst it snowed so the foot-prints of Wladek Piwowarczyk and his 14-years old son Wacek did not leave a trace after them. To catch an extra bit of fresh air, we could open a specially made cellar door. This was only possible during the dark nights or when there was no snow around. During those gloomy murky days, our carers Jozef, Wladek and the little Wacek Piwowarczyk, who were not rich by any means, and with no personal interest what so ever, shared the little amounts of bread that they had with us.

January the 30th 1944, was the day of crisis and will remain in our memory for ever. During that night, Wladek Piwowarczyk came around and informed us about the tragedy of the other two bunkers in the village Senislawice, just 11 km away from our bunker. There, my brother Szymon was in charge. Around 6 am, murderers and Nazi thugs surrounded both bunkers. Their were defending the bunkers till 2 o'clock that afternoon, and even when the situation became hopeless, those who were still alive did not give in and fought to their death and died a heroic death. The terrible shocking news of the heroic deaths of Szymon's brother Jozek, and all our close friends caused a total breakdown. As commandant and the person in charge of our bunker I took the decision to commit joint suicide. We had with us cyanide in case of such an occasion. To this day, I recall, this particular night and in shock, I remember telling Wladek : - *we have to stop this trauma and this continuous risk we are placing on your family under*. Showing the outmost passion, Wladek Piwowarczyk, expressed the following words in a firm voice: - *No, we have to survive. Only January, February, and May*. To give us some hope, he never mentioned March or April, to make this period shorter. I had listen to the reason and we gave ourselves a promise that we shall live and if we were to die, we would perish in the same way as our close friends had in the other 2 bunkers.

A few weeks later, the second terrible news reached us. A heart-breaking loss, Jozek Sliwa, who had helped us with food packages, left the bunker and was on his way to his family home. He was rounded up. Someone had denounced him. He was tortured terribly, they burned his feet, he was hacked to death. He never wilted under this torture, did not tell them where we were hidden nor the locations of others. This lad was full of life and he was only 20 years old. Again after this loss, we were on the edge of total collapse. As the front was getting closer our survival in the bunker our survival was going to be impossible. Our much appreciated Wladek Wozniak managed to find some building materials for construction of a new bunker. This bunker was built on the quiet during June and July of 1944. It was built under the barn belonging to Wladek Piwarorczyk. We had survived in that bunker until the 14th of January 1945. For the last two weeks, we were all alone, with the enemy posts above us. The whole village was deported. Wladek Piwarorczyk, together with his son Wacek had managed to supply us with some fresh water and some raw potatoes, beetroot, carrots and onions in the darkness of the night. They had given us all they had. Wladek was the person who led us out of the bunker into the daylight. The Gehenna was over.

Today, writing these words to the editor, I feel that I am telling only a small part of what Jozef Piwowrczyk, his brother Wladek with his wife Maria, together with their sons Wacek and Jozef and their sister Janina did for us. This list is enriched by addition of Jozefa Wojtaszewicz together with her husband and her children, Gertruda Rejdych, Pawel and Stach Buczakow, Wladek Wozniak and his brother Bronek.

Who were those people? They were simple men and women. Jozef Piwowarczyk was a friend of mine with whom I used to go to school together in Nowy Korczyn and our friendship had flowered from that time. This friendship continued to blossom in Lodz, where I had brought Jozef and employed him in my small textile factory. He was full of energy and life. He, together with my brother Szymon had made a good team singing Jewish songs, and together they fell in the bunker. Jozef was a very kind man, he was also a good speaker. He was a communist party member and during the war he was in the People's Army. Just before the Lodz Ghetto was closed, both of us left Lodz and made a pact to survive. Jozef did not make it, he died as a hero together with his Jewish friends. Together, they were put to rest in a common grave.

This is my tribute to him. The memories of the days gone by are with me to this day. For my part I've been back to Poland 3 times. The whole of Jozef's family is always there to greet me and welcome me like a father or brother. Together with them we are building a new house and a barn on top of the place where our bunker was. In this humble way, I would like to honour the memories of Jozef and Wladek Piwowarczyk. My energy is leaving me now fast, but I am hopeful that together with my family, I will have enough strength to revisit the area again and see the completed house and the modern barn. I shall treat this area as a modest monument of the days gone past.

I am enclosing the photo of all the Piwowarczyk family, which was taken last year. I would be obliged, if you could kindly publish this photo in your paper. They are worthy of it.

Izydor Wine
Sydney, Australia

Kurier Polski April, 1973 Translated by Mr Frank Dobia

Jozef and Stefania Macugowski

Jozef & Stefana Macugowski hid nine people in a bunker under their house. They were Leib Radca, his wife, three daughters Sarah, Golda (later changed to Zahava) and Miriam, Leib Radca's neice, Sarah, and three people who came later to the bunker who were not affiliated with the Radcas' and they were Allen Kupfer and another man and women from Nowy Korczyn.

The bunker was approximately 3 metres by 3.5metres and 1.5metres high. The bunker was built by Jozef Macugowski and Nussbaum (the fiance of one of Leib Radca's daughters) . As the sand and debri could not be taken out of the house it was taken by bucket to the first floor and spread on the floor of the unfinished structure - quitely and only at night so as to keep the work a secret.

The Macugowski's were honoured as Righteous among the Nations in a ceremony at the David Yellin Teachers College in New York, USA.