Engel Lola

Langer, Mrs. Uniatowicz-Langer, Ludmila Zahaczewska-Langer, Stanisława Langer, Bożena Engel, Lola In early 1942, when Regina and Józef Spiegler and their children were interned in the Drohobycz ghetto in the Lwow district, Regina turned to Lola Engel, her friend, and asked her to save her two children. Engel agreed, and smuggled ten-year-old Zvi and three-year-old Shlomo out of the ghetto, and took them to the Langers, her acquaintances, who lived in the nearby town of Sambor. Mrs. Langer and her three daughters, Stanisława, Ludmila, and Bożena, took in the two Jewish boys and hid them in an underground shelter in their yard, where Roiza Szrekinger, Regina Rernewelt, Gusta Galewska, Hila Krebs and Sheps couple were already hiding. In due course, Regina and Józef Spiegler joined the refugees. Langer and her daughters cared for all eight refugees devotedly until the eve of the liberation in July 1944, when the Germans discovered their hiding place. Bożena, in an attempt to save her mother and sisters, took responsibility for hiding the Jews and was executed. Engel was also arrested and shot dead, and the refugees were sent to a labor camp in Sambor. All, except Józef Spiegler, who was arrested, sent to labor camps and died in Mathausen in 1944, and Gusta Galewska, who perished in the Borislaw camp, escaped and survived until the area was liberated by the Red Army in August 1944, after which they left Poland. Later, the survivors testified that their saviors were people of outstanding humanity, who were guided by humanitarian considerations only, and never expected anything in return. On August 2, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Lola Engel, and Mrs. Langer and her daughters, Bożena Langer, Ludmila Uniatowicz-Langer and Stanisława Zahaczewska-Langer, as Righteous Among the Nations.