Czabaj Wanda

Czabaj, Wanda Wanda Czabaj, a teacher from the town of Kolomyja, in the Stanisławow district, traveled to Lwow in early 1942, when Jews were being deported en masse from the ghetto, to see if she could help her friends, the Alster sisters. After supplying them with “Aryan” documents, she arranged for them to stay as “Aryans” with a Polish family. Czabaj also took Rosa Selig and her small daughter, Mireille, back with her to Kolomyja, and put them up in her home. A few months later, Czabaj obtained “Aryan” documents for them, thanks to which Selig found work on a nearby farm. In October 1942, Czabaj hid Norbert Gruft, Selig’s brother, for a month in her flat. After being provided with “Aryan” papers, he too found work, and moved in with a Polish family in Kolomyja. In May 1943, when the landlord began to suspect something was amiss, Gruft turned to Czabaj who helped him board a train carrying Italian soldiers back to Italy. Gruft was liberated in Italy by the Allied Forces, while Selig and Mireille were liberated in 1944 by the Red Army. Later, the three survivors testified that Czabaj was an extremely compassionate woman, who was prepared to risk her own life in order to help persecuted Jews, without expecting anything in return. On June 3, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Wanda Czabaj as Righteous Among the Nations.