Bednarska Zofia

File 2067 Bednarska, Zofia In October 1942, during the final deportation of the Jews of Gródek Jagielloński in the Lwów district, Filip Gottfried – a dentist by profession – hid with his wife, Ita, and five-year-old daughter, Ruth, in the attic of their home. Concealed together with them was Felicja Widerhorn, a Jewish girl who had been adopted by the Gottfrieds after her parents had perished during one of the preceding Aktionen. The fugitives were warned by a Polish acquaintance that a local German with whom they had quarreled was seeking vengeance against them, and a former school friend of Filip’s, a Volksdeutsche, transferred them to the house of a former patient of Filip’s, Zofia Bednarska. Zofia, who was a teacher, lived in a tiny one-room apartment and kitchen, but she took in the family and, despite the danger, hid them in a bunker under the kitchen floor. At first, the Gottfrieds had the wherewithal to pay for their maintenance, but after their funds were exhausted, Zofia supported them. She worked in the storeroom of a German soup kitchen and was thus able to obtain food for the fugitives, with whom she became increasingly friendly. In due course, amid growing danger of exposure, the Gottfrieds moved to a nearby village to stay with a Ukrainian farmer with whom they were acquainted, but relations with his family became very strained and they were forced to return to Zofia’s apartment, where they remained until June 1944. With the approach of the Russian front and renewed danger of exposure by local collaborators, the family left the apartment together with Zofia, after her home had been damaged by bombs. Until their liberation by the Red Army in the summer of 1944, they hid in forests and fields in the surrounding area. After the war, the Gottfrieds and Felicia immigrated to Israel. They continued to keep in contact with Zofia, who had selflessly assisted them in their hour of need. On May 27, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized Zofia Bednarska as Righteous Among the Nations.