Dolenga Teresa (Wrzosek)

Dolenga-Wrzosek, Teresa Teresa Dolenga-Wrzosek (b. 1910), a Polish woman, lived with her daughter, father, and aunt in the village of Stołowicze, Nowogródek District (today Stalovichy, Brest District). Teresa worked as a teacher in the village and, after the Germans conquered the area on June 27, 1941, she worked in a peat-processing factory. Jacob Wanger, a refugee from Poland, was a clerk in the same factory and had become friendly with Teresa’s family before the German invasion. In January 1942, when the Germans established a ghetto in the village, Wanger turned to Teresa and asked her to look after his ten-year-old son Richard. Teresa, who had previously provided a Jewish teacher with false identity papers, agreed to do so and she also agreed to hide Gittl, the local rabbi’s daughter, in her home. The ghetto was liquidated in May 1942, when Richard and Gittl were both in Teresa’s home. Fearing that her house would be searched, Teresa moved Richard away from Stołowicze, to the home of her friends, a Catholic family. In the meantime, Gittl was discovered in the barn adjacent to Teresa’s home and she was murdered. About two months later, the Catholic family asked Richard to leave their house and he returned to Teresa. Despite her fear, Teresa welcomed Richard back into her home, where he hid alternately in the barn and under a bed. Eventually, due to the constant fear of being discovered, Teresa moved Richard away from the village after coaching him how to act like a Polish child. Richard survived the war and later immigrated to Israel. After the death of Teresa, who had remained in Belarus, he maintained contact with her daughter, Elzbieta Wrzosek. On May 5, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Teresa Dolenga-Wrzosek as Righteous Among the Nations.