Soroka Tadeusz

Soroka, Tadeusz In January 1943, when the Germans liquidated the Grodno ghetto, Hershl Lipszyc (later Hirsz-Zwi Lipszyc), who worked in a furniture factory outside the ghetto, turned to Tadeusz Soroka, a 20-year-old Pole whom he knew at work, asking for help. Soroka, who knew what was happening to the Jews in the city, agreed to save Lipszyc and transfer him to Vilna. That evening, Lipszyc, accompanied by his friend, Lutek Schneider, slipped out of the ghetto, and made his way to Soroka’s house, as arranged. Despite the danger, Soroka accompanied Lipszyc and Schneider to the railway station, where they awaited the departure of a freight train from Grodno to Vilna. When the train began to move, the three jumped on to the steps on the side of the wagons, climbed up the iron ladder to the roof of the wagons, and lay down flat. Exposed to the icy elements of a Polish winter and the possibility of discovery if the train were to stop en route, Soroka and the two Jewish refugees traveled all night to Vilna, about 180 kilometers away. When they arrived at dawn in Vilna, Lipszyc told Soroka that he had given his address to other friends of his in the ghetto, and asked him to save them too. Soroka repeated the rescue operation with seven other Jews, Eliahu Jezerski among them, in three separate journeys. On the fourth and last trip, in March 1943, Soroka accompanied Lisa Nussbaum (later Derman), a 16-year-old girl, her friend, Aron Dereczyński, and her 13-year-old brother, Berusiek Nussbaum. When the train began to move, Soroka realized that Lisa was missing. Followed by Dereczynski, he jumped from one wagon to the next, and found Lisa on the last wagon, hanging on for dear life, unable to climb the ladder. Without panicking, Soroka lay down on the roof of the wagon, instructed Dereczyński to hold on to his feet, while he dragged Lisa up by her hands to the roof to the wagon. All the nine Jews whom Soroka saved reached Vilna safely. They entered the local ghetto, wherethey later joined the ghetto underground, and in the summer of 1943, some of them left for the forests of Narocz. Schneider and Lazar Zalcman perished in the forest, while the seven other fugitives were liberated in July 1944. After the war, Lipszyc and Eliahu Jezerski immigrated to Israel. Lisa, her brother, her father, Hirsh, and Dereczyński (whom Lisa later married) and their friend, Ruben Lubicz, immigrated to the United States. After the war, the survivors lost touch with Soroka, and all attempts to trace him failed. It was only about 40 years later that Soroka was found in Tarnowskie Gory, in Upper Silesia. At the invitation of his former charges, Soroka visited the United States, after which he visited Israel. On October 27, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Tadeusz Soroka as Righteous Among the Nations.