Osęka Janusz

Osęka, Janusz Ściwiarski, Zbigniew On November 15, 1944, just a few weeks after the Warsaw Uprising was put down, volunteers were sent from the Polish Red Cross to rescue a group of fighters that had fought in the rebellion as part of the “People’s Army” (Armia Ludowa), hiding in a cellar on Promyka Street. Zbigniew Ściwiarski and Janusz Osęka were part of the group that set out from their base in the Boernerow hospital, west of Warsaw, disguised as a Red Cross team. However, until they found them, they did not know who it was they were supposed to rescue. They soon discovered that among the seven people trapped in the cellar six were Jews that had participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943: Marek Edelman, Tuvia Borzykowski, Zygmunt Warman, Zivia Lubetkin, Julian Fiszgrund and Yitzhak Cukierman. The seventh was a Polish physician, Teodozja Goliborska. The faces of the fugitives were covered in bandages, two were placed on stretchers and all were taken on a very strenuous 12-kilometer trek to the hospital through the ruins of the city, under the watchful eyes of the Germans. The volunteers, who considered the rescue operation their patriotic duty, risked their lives to save the seven fighters hiding in the cellar. The seven fighters were taken from the hospital to other hiding places, where they remained until the liberation by the Red Army in January 1945. On January 23, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Janusz Osęka and Zbigniew Ściwiarski as Righteous Among the Nations. File 6648 File 6649