Sikora Kazimiera (Bąkowska)

Sikora Kazimiera Kazimiera Sikora became acquainted with the Jewish Wojdyslawski family from Łódz at the very start of the war when they arrived as refugees in Warsaw and rented an apartment near her. From that time a friendship grew between them that continued even after the Wojdyslawskis were moved to the ghetto and for a long time afterwards. In April 1943, when the ghetto was liquidated and the Jews were being sent to their deaths, Kazimiera came to the rescue of her friends. By this time, Zygmunt Wojdyslawski was already on the "Aryan" side of the city, but the rest of his family – his wife, his two twelve-year-old twin daughters, and his sister-in-law with her two small girls, aged seven and four – were all still in the ghetto. Kazimiera planned how to bring them out of the ghetto down to the smallest details. The first thing she did was to ready an apartment in which to hide them. She also took care of having forged "Aryan" documents waiting for them. Not only did she help to successfully take them out of the ghetto, but she continued to help them by instructing them on how to behave on the "Aryan" side: she taught the girls all the details of Christian customs, the prayers, conduct in church, confession before the priest etc. She was also their address for solving various problems that arose in living on the "Aryan" side. When the need arose to move to other apartments she would be there to help them. Kazimiera also arranged to transfer the girls, using assumed Christian identities, to a convent in Milanówek, where they remained until the end of the war. All the members of the Wojdyslawski family, who were looked after by Kazimiera, survived the war, and to a great extent thanks to her resourcefulness and devotion, and they remained grateful to her for all that she had done for them. At the end of the war when they left Warsaw, which was in ruins, to return to their own Łódż, she joined them and went to live with them. They stayed in touch with her for years and even long after they had emigrated from Poland. On February 10, 2002, Yad Vashem recognized Kazimiera Sikora as Righteous Among the Nations. File: 9515