Kozub Edward

Obrał, Antonina Maciuszek, Antonina Kozub Edward In 1939, immediately after the Germans invaded Bielsko-Biala, Mr. and Mrs. Gutfreund, their son Kurt and another relative of the family, Mrs. Volkman, fled to the village of Gierczyce in the Krakow district, where they had relatives. In 1941, when all the Jewish inhabitants of the village, including the Gutfreunds, were deported to the ghetto in nearby Bochnia, Edward Kozub, owner of the Gierczyce estate, hastened to help the Gutfreunds. He got them out of the ghetto after obtaining a permit to employ them on his estate, having told the authorities that they were agricultural workers. When the Germans arrived at his estate, Kozub advised the Jewish refugees to flee and hide. So after a brief stay, the four left Kozub’s estate and found shelter in the home of Antonina Obrał, a poor farmer, who, asking nothing in return, agreed to hide them in the attic of her home. Since Obrał could not afford to feed the Gutfreunds and provide them with all their needs, she sought the help of her neighbor, Antonina Maciuszek, who brought the three Jewish refugees food every day, until liberation by the Red Army in January 1945. The three Poles who saved the Gutfreunds never asked for any payment for their help, and everything they did was out of the goodness of their hearts and their feelings of compassion. On February 27, 1979, Yad Vashem recognized Edward Kozub, Antonina Obrał and Antonina Maciuszek as Righteous Among the Nations.