Duracz Jerzy

File 744 Duracz, Jerzy During the German occupation, Jerzy Duracz, the son of Teodor Duracz (a famous Polish lawyer), came to the help of Warsaw’s Jews. In 1942, he joined the underground Gwardia Ludowa (GL – People’s Guard), and soon became friendly with Jewish members of the underground. As part of his underground activities; Duracz, together with Niuta Tajtelbaum, carried out combat operations in the streets of Warsaw, helped Jews in the ghetto, and fugitives on the Aryan side of the city. In due course, he became known as an “address” for persecuted Jews. As well as finding them hiding places, Duracz gave the refugees money and supplied them with “Aryan” documents. Duracz, also served as a courier between the refugees and the partisans in the forest, and led Israel Mączkowski and his brother, Natan; to a Jewish partisan unit operating in the forest of Parczew (Lublin viovodeship). In April 1943, Duracz actively participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as part of a GL unit, which attacked an SS position. After the war, Duracz married Ania Bailer, a Jewish member of the underground. In 1971, when the two immigrated to Israel, Duracz was given a hero’s welcome by the Jews whose lives he had saved. On the 16th of April 1972, Yad Vashem recognized Jerzy Duracz, as a Righteous Among the Nations.