Pawłowska Józefa

Rylski, Mieczysław Pawłowska, Józefa Paula (b. 1923) and Hanna (b. 1922) Kornblum were sisters born to a respected family in Kałuszyn, a small town near Warsaw, Poland. Theirs was a family of millers. They had some means, and at the beginning of the war their father was able to hide a fair amount of money in the yard of his house and sew some into the girls’ clothes as well. However, no money could help the deteriorating position of the Jews in Poland, and it was suggested that the girls obtain Aryan identification and move to Warsaw to find work. With the help of a Polish family friend, they managed to do that, and they spent some time in Warsaw until the uprising in the ghetto broke out on April 19, 1943. While in Warsaw they met Mieczysław Rylski, a glass manufacturer from Częstochowa. Finding themselves out of a job and in danger because of the uprising, the girls approached him for help. They told him honestly that they were Jewish, but Rylski said that if they could get fake work permits, he would employ them. Not only that but they would also be able to stay in the factory. When the factory received a rationing of clothes, they could have first pick (winter was approaching, and their garments were quite inadequate for the upcoming cold). Indeed, that is what it happened for the next several months, until their presence in Rylski’s factory began to arouse suspicion. At this juncture Rylski reached out to the Albertine convent in the city, where he had some connections. He explained the situation to the mother superior, Sister Vita (nee Józefa Pawłowska), and she permitted the girls to move into the nuns’ house. It was a forty-five-minute walk away from the factory, and they made the trek every morning at seven o’clock and back every afternoon at four, when the factory closed. All of the nuns lived together in one room with ten beds, and all treated the girls very fairly. Sister Vita was particularly angelic to them, and she was the only one who knew they were Jewish. They kept up appearances by going to church every Sunday and learning their catechisms. They crafted a back story for themselves, posing as Polish orphans who had no relatives remaining. Once, in 1944, a Polish SS collaborator came looking for them at the convent, but they managed to convince him of the truth of their story. In January 1945, when Częstochowa was liberated, Paula and Hanna, uncertain what to do next, remained at the convent for several additional weeks, after which they decided to leave Poland and go to the United States. On January 21, 2014, Yad Vashem recognized Mieczysław Rylski and Józefa Pawłowska as Righteous Among the Nations.