Zięcik Kazimierz & Julia (Jaworska)

Zięcik, Kazimierz Zięcik, Julia In August 1943, after the Tarnopol Ghetto was liquidated, thirteen Jews arrived in groups at the Zięcik family household, begging for help. The first to arrive was Markus Horowitz, who had known Julia from before the war. Later, others heard that this was a house where desperate, persecuted souls were not turned away, and gradually a group of thirteen Jews who had not known each other previously assembled. This was the closest house to the road, built by Kazimierz, who owned a stone and sand quarry and worked there himself. Kazimierz felt it was his duty to put these Jews up, despite having a large household that would doubtlessly be endangered. He hid them in the barn and set about making bunkers. One would not be enough, so he built two. The first bunker was made under the floorboards of a small room in the house and held four people. The other, with a masked entrance through the pigsty, held nine. To avert neighbors’ suspicions, the Zięciks worked on the bunkers at night, and during the daytime they pretended to be evening out their yard using the earth dug from the bunkers. In the beginning some of the Jews in the bunkers tried to pay for their keep, but soon their resources ran out, so the Zięciks had to provide all of their food. Luckily, they owned some livestock and a field, so milk and potatoes were available. Kazimierz sometimes worked in grain warehouses, and part of his pay was in grain. Julia provided two meals a day. Kazimierz and his sons were responsible for the safety of the operation, loudly sawing wood in the yard every day to mask the noises of humans and letting them out for fresh air at night. In 1944, when the Germans were retreating, some soldiers ran into the house and ordered everyone out. The Zięciks managed to smuggle out the four people hiding in the house, but the ones under the pigsty were forced to remain. The next day part of the town was liberated and they were able to come out: they had been there for seven months. On February 5, 2013, Yad Vashem recognized Kazimierz and Julia Zięcik as Righteous Among the Nations.