Rzeczycka Sylwia

Rzeczycka, Sylwia Sylwia Rzeczycka was the daughter of a high-ranking officer in the Polish army and a member of Warsaw’s enlightened Polish intelligentsia. During the occupation, she mobilized to rescue Jews on the Aryan side of the city—friends and total strangers alike. Rzeczycka cooperated with Batia Berman, an activist in the Jewish National Committee, and exploited her ramified social connections to provide Jews with “Aryan” papers, safe hideouts, and jobs. She concealed Jewish refugees in her home for various lengths of time, and many of them, especially those among the intelligentsia, owe her their lives for her assistance when they escaped from the ghetto to the Aryan side. They include the five members of the Bugajer family; Hanna Sigalin and her daughter Krystyna; Henryka Gertner and her sister; the family of Prof. Lewenfisz; Jetka Sztajnberg and her daughter Krysia; Anna Kowalczewska-Oderfeld; Ludwika Łaska; and Ludwika Blum and her son Kazimierz. Rzeczycka, broadly educated and a devout theosophist, adhered to her principles uncompromisingly and, despite mortal danger, considered saving Jews a mission given her by God during the occupation. On December 14, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Sylwia Rzeczycka as Righteous Among the Nations.