Klimczak Nusia

Klimczak, Nusia Nusia Klimczak, a single woman in her 30s, worked as a maid for the Dawidmans and their three children, in the town of Stryj, in Eastern Galicia. Klimczak, who was attached to the Dawidmans, did not abandon them during the occupation. When the Dawidmans were sent to a labor camp near the sawmill where they worked, Klimczak kept in touch with them, and when the Aktionen in Stryj began, she sought a way to save at least one member of the family. Klimczak came to the camp fence and tried to persuade Dawidman to let her smuggle out his elder daughter, but the Dawidmans refused to be separated. After the liquidation of the Stryj ghetto in August 1943, the labor camp was surrounded by German and Ukrainian policemen, who separated the prisoners into groups, and took them in trucks to pits where they were shot. At this point, the Dawidmans decided it would be better to split up. When their 13-year-old daughter, Shoshana, was put in a truck with other women, she decided to escape. She used the money her father had given her to bribe one of the Ukrainian guards who looked familiar, and when the truck slowed down she jumped off and ran away. Shoshana began wandering from one acquaintance to another seeking shelter, but although some offered her food or shelter for the night, no one was prepared to put her up for any length of time. In desperation, Shoshana sought out Klimczak, who worked in a convalescent home for soldiers of the Wehrmacht, in the village of Morszyn, not far from Stryj. After giving her a warm welcome, Klimczak reassured her that she would “take care of everything.” Klimczak informed the Ukrainian girls who worked with her in the kitchen that Shoshana was a relative whose stepmother had sent her away. Klimczak looked after Shoshana, nursed her back to health, gave her shoes, provided her with a work permit, and found her a job in the kitchen where she worked. In risking her life to save Shoshana, Klimczak was guided by humanitarianmotives, which overrode considerations of personal safety or economic hardship. Shoshana stayed with Klimczak until the area was liberated by the Red Army, and later immigrated to Israel. All her attempts to trace Klimczak after the war proved abortive. On October 2, 1984, Yad Vashem recognized Nusia Klimczak as Righteous Among the Nations.