Krawczyk Cecylia

Krawczyk Cecylia Seven Jews – Rachela Kleiner, her little daughter Tova, the Goldberg couple, a Russian Jew whose first name was Pietia, Bernard Kałuszyner, and Judyta Goldsztajn – owed their lives to the daughter of a poor peasant couple, who lived on the outskirts of Mikulicze, a remote village in the Volhynia district. All the Jewish refugees reached Krawczyk’s home after escaping from Aktionen in the Włodzimierz Wołyński ghetto, nearby. Some had been wandering for weeks through villages, fields and forests, unable to find shelter. Krawczyk, whose husband was a prisoner-of-war, decided to rescue Jews after her father, who lived in the neighboring village, was executed for hiding Jews. Despite her straitened circumstances and the enormous danger, Krawczyk looked after the Jews, who were complete strangers to her, hid them under the floorboards of her house, and fed them with leftovers from the German canteen where she worked. After Krawczyk obtained “Aryan” documents for Rachela Kleiner, she helped her find work as a maid with a German family, to whom she and her daughter were introduced as Krawczyk’s relatives. All seven refugees stayed in hiding until the summer of 1944, when the area was liberated by the Red Army. After the war, they all left Poland, while Krawczyk settled within Poland’s postwar borders. On August 11, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Cecylia Krawczyk as Righteous Among the Nations. File 5401