Danek Tadeusz

Danek, Tadeusz With the Germans’ entry into Brzezany, in the Tarnopol district, Tadeusz Danek, a doctor, offered to help his Jewish doctor friend, Eliezer Wagschal, and his family. Danek sold the money and valuables that Wagschal had left in his keeping in order to buy them food, which, at great personal risk, he smuggled into the ghetto. In June 1943, during the liquidation of the Brzezany ghetto, Wagschal, his wife and their baby son, Mati, fled from the ghetto, together with Wagschal’s relative, Hela Glazer and her nine-year-old son, Marek, Wagschal’s niece, Hermina Glazer, his uncle, Moshe Glazer, and their friend Rozka Lichtensztajn. At first, Danek thought to hide the Jews in the hospital where he worked, but after the openly antisemitic guard threatened to denounce them, Danek took them to a hiding place outside the town, in the nearby forest. Danek persuaded the manager of a local farm to act as an intermediary between him and the Jews, and paid him to look after them. As the danger of discovery intensified, Danek arranged a new hiding place for the refugees in a dugout under a poor farmer’s house. Even after Danek had sold all their valuables, he continued paying for the refugees’ upkeep out of his own pocket. With great courage and resourcefulness, Danek managed to save his charges from the dangers that constantly lay in wait for them. Danek’s heroic behavior was prompted by humanitarian considerations and a friendship that overrode thoughts of personal safety. After the liberation, Danek was recruited to the Red Army, and after the war, settled in Silesia. The Jews whose lives he saved immigrated to Israel. On July 21, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Dr. Tadeusz Danek as Righteous Among the Nations.