Dobiecka Jadwiga (Grzymała)

Dobiecka Jadwiga From 1942 until the Warsaw uprising in August 1944, Jadwiga Dobiecka sheltered a number of Jews who were in danger, including two boys, Henryk Eichel and Mietek Bursztyn, and two women, Ludka and Tusia, one of whom was wounded, who had survived the massacre in the Poniatowa camp in the Lublin district, during “Operation Harvest” (Erntenfest), in November 1943. Other people put up by Dobiecka were Roman Warszawski and Henryk Krupnik, who managed to escape from Pawiak prison, and Dr. Stefan Vergesslich, and his wife, Judyta. Dobiecka also looked after Jews for short periods until she could find more permanent hiding places for them in the city. At the start of the Warsaw Uprising, Dobiecka built an underground shelter under her home where her charges hid, even after the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising and the expulsion of the local population from the city. In risking her life to save Jews, Dobiecka was guided by altruistic motives and received no payment, apart from occasional contributions by the refugees towards their upkeep. After the war, most of the survivors emigrated. Even after Dobiecka’s death, some of them kept up a correspondence with her daughter. On August 11, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Jadwiga Dobiecka as Righteous Among the Nations. File 5400