Kobyłko Tadeusz

Kobyłko, Tadeusz While serving in the Polish army, Tadeusz Kobyłko from Lwow made friends with Jewish recruits who helped him when, in September 1939, Lwow was annexed to the Soviet Union. In 1941, when the Germans occupied Lwow, Kobyłko decided to repay his Jewish friends, and in July, arranged for a group of Jews from Lwow to stay with the Kellers, a Jewish family who lived in nearby Stary Sambor. Keller prepared a bunker for the refugees, fed them, and saw to all their needs. In the spring of 1942, during a German raid, most of the hiding places in the village were discovered, and the Jews who were hiding, killed. Kobyłko, fearing that the Kellers’ bunker would be discovered, took Fajga (Fani) Ginzberg back to his apartment in Lwow, where he passed her off as his wife, Maria. Later, shortly before the liquidation of the Jews of Stary Sambor, Salka Keller, Fajga’s sister, sent a note to Kobyłko informing him that she had left her four-year-old daughter, Ita, behind in the bunker. At great personal risk, Kobyłko made his way to the bunker and took little Ita back with him to Lwow. When the neighbors became suspicious, Kobyłko moved to a new apartment, where Fani, whom he had meanwhile married, gave birth to a baby boy. After Lwow’s liberation in the summer of 1944, Kobyłko was suspected of collaborating with the Germans, and it was only thanks to his Jewish friends, who testified to his courage and altruism during the occupation, that he was released. After the war, Kobyłko and Fani moved with their son and little Ita to an area within the new Polish borders. Later, Fani separated from her husband, and immigrated to Israel with her son and niece. On January 31, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Tadeusz Kobyłko as Righteous Among the Nations.