Masojada Felicja

Masojada Felicja Wrodarczyk Ludwik On August 26, 1942, at the time of liquidation of the Rokitno Ghetto (Sarny County, Volhynia District), the local Jews were ordered to gather at the train station. The German and Ukrainian police surrounded the assembled Jews. Many began to flee, whereupon the SS and police opened up with automatic fire. In the resulting panic, many Jews succeeded in fleeing to the forests and surrounding villages. Among those who escaped were the two Lewin brothers, 17-year-old Samuel and 10-year-old Alexander, who tried to find a hiding place in one of the villages but were repelled by the farmers. After wandering for a long time, they reached the village of Okopy and knocked on the door of a house at the edge of the forest asking for food. This time they were lucky. They were taken inside by a man and a woman who warned them that a roundup of Jews was being carried out at that very time in the area. The woman, the teacher Felicja Masojada, was the mistress of the house, and the man was the local priest, Ludwik Wrodarczyk, who happened to be visiting at that time. They decided to hide them in the house until the danger was past. While the murderers scoured the area, the teacher and the priest hid the brothers in a closet. Once the roundup was over, they gave them food and sent them to hide in the forest, explaining that it was safer than in the village. After they settled in a cave in the depths of the forest, Masojada's house remained for them a kind of aid station to which they returned to receive food and a change of clothing. Felicja and Ludwik were exceptional in this rural community for their high moral values and their profound social commitment. They also assisted other escaped Jews who happened to come to their village and they paid for this with their lives. Felicja Masojada was murdered in June 1943 by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists. In December 1943, the priest Wrodarczyk was also murdered by them on suspicion of collaboration with Jewish partisans and antifascist activists. On August 3, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Felicja Masojada and Ludwik Wrodarczyk as Righteous Among the Nations. File: 8930