Smenda Danuta (Czubek)

Czubek-Smenda Danuta Kowalska-Szarek Weronika Kowalska-Wolfram Maria Before the war, the Czubeks and Kowalskis were customers and friends of the Horowicz family, which owned a textile store in the summer resort village of Brwinów, near Warsaw. During the occupation, when the Horowicz family was interned in the Warsaw ghetto, their daughters, Hanka and Salka (Chana and Sara), used to smuggle food into the ghetto from the Aryan side of the city, with the help of Danuta Czubek and Maria Kowalska, their Polish friends, who waited for them outside the ghetto walls. Danuta and Maria never left their side for a moment, helped them buy goods, and – most important – kept a lookout for policemen and blackmailers. Salka and Hanka Horowicz often had to sleep outside the ghetto but, being well known in their native village, could not stay with the Czubeks or Kowalskis. However, Weronika Kowalska, Maria’s mother, found places for them with acquaintances in nearby villages, where they could stay overnight. Danuta and Maria always accompanied Salka and Hanka until they were safely back inside the ghetto. In risking their lives to save their friends, Danuta and Maria were motivated by a true friendship that overrode considerations of personal safety. Of the entire Horowicz family, only the younger daughter survived the concentration camps. After the war, she immigrated to Israel where she kept up contact with her Polish friends who had helped her and her family during the occupation. On October 8, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Danuta Czubek-Smenda, Maria Kowalska-Wolfram and Weronika Kowalska-Szarek as Righteous Among the Nations. Files 5441, 5441a