Pępiak Julia

Pępiak, Julia After the Germans had occupied the Lwów ghetto in 1941, Salomea Hellmann fled with her young daughter Bronia from their home in the city to search for a place to hide in the village of Bełżec, where she had been born. After arriving in the village, she arrived at the doorstep of Julia Pępiak, a past neighbor and friend, to ask for her help. Disregarding the danger to her own life and the lives of her two children, Pępiak agreed to hide Hellmann’s daughter and prepared a hiding place for her in her barn. There she cared for her and guarded her safety. However, despite the precautions she took, a rumor started making the rounds that Pępiak was hiding a Jewish child in her home. When the danger grew, she moved Bronia to a pit in a wheat field that belonged to Pępiak, and there she remained until things calmed down and she was able to return to the barn. This situation repeated itself a number of times, especially after two SS men serving in the nearby death camp were stationed in her home. After they left, Bronia was returned to the hiding place in the barn, where she remained under Pępiak’s protection until the liberation of the area by the Red Army in July 1944. Salomea Hellmann was caught and transferred to various concentration camps, but survived, and after she was liberated, Pępiak returned Bronia to her safe and sound. After the war, Salomea and Bronia (later Bronia Rauffman) immigrated to Israel. On December 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Julia Pępiak as Righteous Among the Nations. File 8180