Pietkun Jan

Pietkún, Jan In 1941, David and Chana Bowilski of Kovno found themselves in the Vilna ghetto and they immediately started to look for a way to escape over to the Aryan side of the city. Because they were strangers to the area and had no acquaintances among the local population, they looked among the local Jews for someone to represent them. In 1943, not long before the final liquidation of the ghetto, the Buwilskis managed to escape with the help of Lipa Sztejnhauer, a local friend, and reach Jan Pietkún, a Polish official who was willing to hide all three Jews in his home. At first, he hid them in a hiding place he had prepared for them under his apartment, but after a short time, he was forced to moved them out because the command post of the German air force had taken over the apartment above. Under these conditions, Pietkún built the three fugitives an alternative hiding place in a building near a church, where they hid for almost a year, until the area was liberated by the Red Army. Throughout that entire period, Pietkún took care of all their needs and they paid the cost of their upkeep. In the beginning, they also paid him a modest sum to prepare the hiding place for them, but he saved them for both humane and patriotic reasons. After the war, David and Chana Bowilski immigrated to Israel and in 1962, Pietkún, who moved to an area within the new Polish borders after the war, visited them in their home. On April 28, 1970, Yad Vashem recognized Jan Pietkún as Righteous Among the Nations.