Demel Józefa

Demel Józefa At the end of 1942, Golda Zylbering and her daughter Hana managed to escape from the Warsaw ghetto to the Aryan side of the city. At first they found a hiding place with a Polish family that lived in the Praga quarter, but they soon had to leave because of blackmail attempts and threats by the owners of the apartment. When all hope seemed to be lost, Golda and her daughter met a Polish acquaintance, who, after hearing their story, suggested that they go to the home of Józefa Demel, a woman who lived alone in the center of the city. Having no other choice, Golda and her daughter did go to Demel’s home. Although she did not know them and despite the danger to her own life, Demel agreed to give the two of them shelter in her home. Even when she found out that they had no way of paying her, she decided nonetheless to assist them for humanitarian reasons and helped them obtain Aryan papers. Demel bravely withstood various blackmail attempts by people who threatened to inform on her to the authorities. Golda and Hana Zylbering remained in her apartment until October 1944, when the Warsaw population was expelled from the city. They both spent a few days in the Pruszków camp and with their false papers registered for work in Germany, where they were liberated by the Allied armies. After the war, Golda and her daughter immigrated to Israel, and later invited the woman who had rescued them to visit them in their new home. On August 25, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Józefa Demel as a Righteous Among the Nations.