Bosko Oswald

Bouska, Oswald Vienna-born Oswald Bouska (called in some sources Bosko) was a police sergeant in a high-ranking position in the unit assigned to the Krakow ghetto. By the time of his deployment he was a fervent Nazi, but when he saw the treatment of the Jews, he was soon disenchanted and became known for his fair treatment of Jews, and for turning a blind eye when food was smuggled in from outside the ghetto. He even allowed the escape of some Jews who were to be deported. One of Bouska’s friends was Julius Madritsch (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations), manager of a sewing factory located next to the ghetto. Madritsch helped the Jews in the ghetto as much as he could, allowing a number of his workers to escape and to hide among the local population. Bouska, along with a number of other policemen from Vienna who were responsible for counting the workers, ignored the fact that a number of workers were occasionally missing after a change of shift. At the end of 1942 Madritsch learned that all the children of the Krakow ghetto were to be deported, and decided to save his workers’ children with Bouska’s help. During the night, Bouska smuggled the children and their mothers through holes in the ghetto fence, transferring them to Madritsch’s factory. The smallest children were quieted with sleeping drugs and carried in sacks so that they would not be discovered. Afterwards, the families escaped to the area of Tarnow. Two days later, the children who remained in the ghetto were sent to Auschwitz, or were shot dead. After the liquidation of the ghetto on March 13, 1943, hundreds of Jewish families continued to hide in the ghetto’s basements and bunkers. Again, Bouska took advantage of his position as a leading member of the police force to transfer many Jewish men, women and children to Madritsch’s factory. The transfer continued gradually, in small groups, over a period of ten days. Later, the escaped Jews were transferred to Tarnow. Afterwards, most of the families managed to escape to Slovakia and from there to Hungary. In 1944 Bouska tried to evade military service at the front. He tried to escape but was caught, put to trial on charges of desertion, treason and document falsification, and sentenced to death by a court of the SS and police. He was executed on September 18, 1944, in the Gross Rosen concentration camp. . On February 18, 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Oswald Bouska as Righteous Among the Nations.