Plewa Alojzy

Plewa, Alojzy In the summer of 1942, using false “Aryan” papers, Guta Gripel and her two-year-old daughter Ruth made their way from Ostrowiec Swetokrzyski, in the Kielce district, to Poland’s southern border in order to steal across the border to Hungary. After a long and difficult journey, Gripel met up with her husband in the city of Sambor, in the Lwow district, where they were imprisoned in the local ghetto. Because they remained penniless, a younger brother from Zawiercie, in Silesia, sent them some clothing and money with Alojzy Plewa. One rainy winter night in late 1942, Plewa risked his life to enter the ghetto and bring them the things he had received for them. The Sambor ghetto was about to be liquidated at the time, and the Gripels asked Plewa, who had never met them before, to at least try to save their baby daughter. The next day, Guta Gimpel gave little Ruth to Plewa, and she and her husband found a place to hide somewhere else. Plewa gave the little girl to his mother, who lived in a village near Poznan, and she cared for her until the occupation ended, telling neighbors that Ruth was her granddaughter. After the war, Ruth’s parents located their daughter, and after they got her back safe and sound from Plewa’s mother, the three members of the Gripel family immigrated to Israel. Plewa also helped Jan and Anna Dziula, relatives of Gripel, and extended assistance to additional Jews. Plewa risked his life and the lives of his family to save Jews, for which he never asked for nor received anything in return. On November 28, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Alojzy Plewa as Righteous Among the Nations.