Sobkowa Franciszka (Badecka)

Sobkowa, Franciszka Before the war, Franciszka Sobkowa worked for the Bienstock family, in the town of Drohobycz, in the Lwow district, as a governess for their 14-year-old daughter, Pola, and 11-year-old daughter, Irene. When the Jews of Drohobycz were interned in the local ghetto, Sobkowa, a war widow, used to slip into the ghetto, at great personal risk, to supply her former employers with food and medicines. On one of her visits to the ghetto, Sobkowa offered to shelter Irene in her humble apartment in the Aryan side of the city. With her parents’ consent, Irene was smuggled out of the ghetto and taken to Sobkowa’s apartment. Later, Irene’s father perished, and when rumor spread of the ghetto’s imminent liquidation, Irene’s mother, Sara Bienstock, sent her mother and Pola to stay with Sobkowa. The three refugees stayed under Sobkowa’s devoted care until the area was liberated in August 1944. In risking her life to save Irene and Pola and their grandmother, Sobkowa was guided by loyalty to her employers and a friendship that triumphed over adversity, and never expected anything in return. After the war, Sobkowa moved to an area within the new borders of Poland, while Sara Bienstock and her daughters immigrated to the United States, where they kept up a correspondence with their savior. On October 22, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Franciszka Sobkowa as Righteous Among the Nations.