Piasecki Leopold

File 3665 Piasecki, Leopold Wiktor Early in the war, Miriam Berlin (née: Spira), her sister Marta and her husband Rudof Goldberger fled from their hometown of Rzeszów to Chodorów, in the Lwów district in Eastern Galicia, where they opened a medical practice. The three Jewish fugitives rented an apartment from the Piasecki family, who befriended them, especially the son Leopold, and who helped them get settled in their new place of residence. In the summer of 1941, after the Germans occupied the city, the three Jews were forced to leave the apartment, although they continued to keep in touch with the Piasecki family. In 1942, when the Germans began the liquidation of the Jews of Chodorów, Leopold Piasecki came to their assistance. He moved Miriam Berlin to the village of Machów, in the Dębica county in the Rzeszów district, and disregarding the dangers the move posed, Piasecki demonstrated considerable resourcefulness in overcoming the difficulties. With the help of “Aryan” papers he obtained for her, Berlin remained in the village in relative security until the summer of 1944. Throughout the entire period, Piasecki visited Berlin in her hiding place in the village, bringing her food and maintaining contact between her and her sister and brother-in-law, who hid on the Aryan side of Warsaw under an assumed identity. Before the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944, when the neighbors began to suspect the true identities of the Goldbergers, Piasecki decided to move them to Machów as well. He remained at the side of the Jewish fugitives until the liberation, taking care of all their needs, motivated by pure altruism, without asking for or receiving anything in return. After the war, Berlin immigrated to Israel, and Piasecki visited her in Israel in her home. The Goldbergers immigrated to the United States and Piasecki moved to an area within the new Polish borders. On June 17, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Leopold Wiktor Piasecki asRighteous Among the Nations.