Bułkowska Rozalia

Bułkowska, Rozalia A few weeks after the occupation, the Bibersteins left the town of Gdynia and moved to Zbaraz, in the Tarnopol district, which in those days was annexed to the Soviet Union. In 1941, when the Germans occupied Zbaraz, the Jews were herded into the ghetto. On the eve of the ghetto’s destruction in the spring of 1943, the Bibersteins and their two daughters escaped from the ghetto. After many vicissitudes and several abortive attempts to find shelter, the four refugees were taken in by Rozalia Bułkowska, a peasant who lived in one of the nearby villages. Bułkowska, stirred by their plight, hid them in a field adjoining her house, where she provided them with food and clothes until harvest-time. Shortly before harvest-time, Bułkowska invited the Bibersteins into her home, and hid them in the hayloft, together with a Jewish woman and her son, who were already hiding there. In risking her life to save Jews, Bułkowska was guided by purely altruistic motives. The six Jewish refugees stayed with her until they were liberated in April 1944, after which they immigrated to Israel, while Bułkowska moved to an area within the new Polish borders. On June 23, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Rozalia Bułkowska as Righteous Among the Nations.