Kraskowski Benedykt

Kraskowski, Benedykt In August 1941, Vladimir Shatzman, a Jewish officer in the Soviet Army, fled from the Stalag prisoner-of-war camp in Biala Podlaska, in the Lublin district, and, after changing into civilian clothes, entered the local ghetto, where he was indistinguishable from other ghetto residents. A short while later, Shatzman decided to escape from the ghetto and, in September 1942, in a daring operation, fled to the Aryan side of the city where Benedykt Kraskowski employed him in his carpentry workshop. Kraskowski also employed other Jews who lived in the ghetto and were escorted to and from work by police. After Shatzman told Kraskowski that he was a Jew and a Soviet officer who wished to join the partisan units operating in the area, Kraskowski agreed to let Shatzman build himself a hiding place in the yard of his workshop. Shatzman hid in the yard for three months, before joining Soviet partisan units. As a newly reinstated officer in the Red Army, Shatzman took part in the liberation of Prague. On December 16, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Benedykt Kraskowski as Righteous Among the Nations.