Engel Alfred

Engel, Alfred During the occupation, Alfred Engel, guided by humanity and compassion, exploited his senior position in a large construction company in Warsaw to help Jews. In late 1941, Engel was transferred by his company to Tarnopol, the district capital of Eastern Galicia, where he personally witnessed pogroms and Aktionen against Jews. Stirred to compassion, Engel employed Jewish engineers and workers in his factory, without informing his superiors that they were Jewish. His secretary and maid were also Jewish. One of the families helped by Engel was the Misiewicz family. At great personal risk, Engel drove Ignacy Misiewicz and his wife, Janina, from the town of Drohobycz to Hluboczek near Tarnopol. Engel employed Misiewicz to lay railway lines, and Janina as an accountant. In 1943, when the Gestapo became suspicious of Misiewicz’s identity, Engel arranged for the Misiewiczes to be transferred to a subsidiary of the factory in Podwoloczyska, near Tarnopol. In the spring of 1944, Misiewicz and his wife were forced to flee, and having no other address but his, returned to Engel in Tarnopol. Engel put them up for several days, and supplied them with food and money, which enabled them to reach Warsaw, where they hid until the area was liberated in 1945. On October 28, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Alfred Engel as Righteous Among the Nations.