Zagrodzka Julia

Zagrodzka, Julia (Sister Kantalicja) Stanisław Gabriel Stammer Cichocki was born in Lwów (today Lviv), Poland, on August 5, 1937. His biological father was Polish and completely uninvolved with the family. Stanisław’s mother, Felicja Apisdorf, later married Chaim Stammer, who like her was an active member of the Communist movement. When the Germans reached Lwów, the family escaped to rejoin Felicja’s parents in Sadowa Wisznia, where they owned a house. Soon enough, a ghetto was established in Sadowa Wisznia, and the Apisdorf-Stammer family was forced to move there. When that happened, an acquaintance by the name of Julia Zagrodzka reached out to Felicja. She was a mother in the local Felician convent and known there as Sister Kantalicja. This woman was a very distant relative of Stanisław’s estranged biological father. She offered to hide the boy should things take a turn for the worse, which indeed they did. After the family spent ten months in the ghetto, it was liquidated. By hiding in the local mill, Felicja, Chaim, and Stanisław managed to escape the terrible fate that befell their entire family. Felicja used her underground Communist connections to get in touch with Sister Kantalicja. Stanisław was sent to the convent, where he was instructed to pretend he did not know the one Jewish girl he recognized from Sadowa Wisznia, Niusia Gutman, who had received the same instructions. The children did not speak of their origins, but they were never forced to pray or convert to Christianity. There were about twenty Jewish children hidden at the convent, all known to Sister Kantalicja, who went on to become the mother superior. In winter 1944 the convent moved to Otwock, bringing all the refugee children along. Meanwhile, Felicja, Stanisław’s mother, first hid in Rzeszów. She was then sent by her Communist organization to Germany and Austria, and she was one of the few members of the Red Orchestra espionage organization to survive the war. In 1946, Felicja returned to claim her son. They remained in Poland, and Stanisław was sent to school, but he didn't like the Communist propaganda which naturally put a strain on his relationship with his mother. In 1957 he chose to immigrate to Israel. He remained in touch with the sisters from the convent. On November 23, 2016, Yad Vashem recognized Julia Zagrodzka (Sister Kantalicja) as Righteous Among the Nations.