Sokołowski Izydor

Sokołowski, Izydor In September 1942, the Gottesfelds, their son, and daughter, Fanya, escaped from the massacre of the Jews of Skala Podolska, in the Tarnopol district. After wandering for days and nights through fields and villages in search of shelter, they returned to their town, assuming the danger was over. At dead of night, they knocked on the door of Izydor (Sidor) Sokołowski, an employee of the building firm where Gottesfeld had worked as an engineer. Despite his wife’s objections, Sokołowski took the four Gottesfelds in, gave them food and drink, and hid them in his granary. Later he built a larger hiding place for them under the chicken coop, but due to the neighbors’ suspicions, the Gottesfelds hid for a while in the nearby forest, where Sokołowski continued to care for them until the danger was over. When Sokołowski subsequently contracted typhus, he refused to see a doctor for fear that the doctor would suspect him of hiding Jews (since the Germans claimed the disease was spread by Jews). Despite the danger, the four Gottesfelds stayed with the Sokołowskis until April 1944, when the area was liberated by the Red Army. In risking his life to save Jews, Sokołowski was guided by altruistic motives and a love of mankind that triumphed over adversity. In 1997, Fanya Gottesfeld (later Heller) invited Sokołowski’s daughter to Jerusalem to receive the title of Righteous Among the Nations on behalf of her father. On March 10, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Izydor Sokołowski as Righteous Among the Nations.