Sielewicz Jan

Sielewicz, Jan In late 1942, after the father Avraham Borodowski and son Arie were murdered at the Ponary murder site near Wilno (today Vilnius, Lithuania), the mother, Genia-Szeina (née Lurie), with her 13-year-old son Hirsz (later, Zwi Borodo) fled the Vilna ghetto for the surrounding villages in order to seek safety. A Polish acquaintance in one of the villages sent them to the priest Jan Sielewicz in the town of Worniany (Vilnius-Troki County, Wilno District), telling them that he was helping Jews and would also help them. The priest Sielewicz indeed took them under his protection and sent them to farm families in the surrounding towns and villages who needed working hands in exchange for food and lodging. Their employers did not know that they were Jews. However, when they were asked to register at the local police, both returned to Father Sielewicz for a temporary hiding until he could find them work and secure lodging elsewhere. In 1943, while a new hiding place was being sought for Genia and her son Hirsz, they learnt that the priest had died. The mother and her small son returned to wandering through villages and towns until the liberation by the Red Army in the summer of 1944. When he grew up, Hirsz Borodowski became a well-known opera singer in Israel, under the name of Zwi Borodo. On January 26, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Father Jan Sielewicz as Righteous Among the Nations.