Makomacki Tadeusz

Makomacki, Tadeusz In August 1941, the Romanian authorities began mass deportations of the Jews of Czernowitz, the capital of Bukovina, to Transnistria. On the night before their deportation, Efraim Ungar, his wife Judia and their daughter Lea, escaped and arrived at the home of Tadeusz Makomacki, a taxi driver of Polish extraction, who had been a childhood friend of Efraim Ungar. The unmarried Makomacki lived alone in a secluded house, and without asking for or receiving anything in return, took the three members of the Ungar family into his home and prepared a hiding place for them in the cellar under the floor. Despite the danger posed to his life, he gave them his full protection and provided for their every need. Although there was a Romanian army base near his house, Makomacki guarded the Ungars, shared his food with them, and, risking his life, took them out of the dark and dank hiding place from time to time so that they could breathe fresh air. The three members of the Ungar family remained in Makomacki’s home until the liberation by the Red Army in March 1944. They eventually left Czernowitz and moved to Siberia, where Efraim Ungar and his wife passed away. Their daughter Lea immigrated to Israel in 1990. On April 4, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Tadeusz Makomacki as Righteous Among the Nations.