Stecyk Bartolomej

Stecyk, Bartlomiej Bartlomiej Stecyk lived in the town of Borysław, Lwòw District (today Boryslav, L’viv District), and worked as an auto mechanic. In January 1944, a Polish acquaintance approached Stecyk and asked him if he was prepared to hide a Jewish woman in his home in return for payment. Stecyk agreed and later that month he was introduced to Blanka Hamerschmid, a prisoner of the forced-labor camp in Drohobycz (Drohobych). The two of them agreed upon a financial arrangement, and, one month later Hamerschmid arrived at Stecyk’s home. Stecyk’s one-room home was located far from the town center and was surrounded by fruit trees that hid it from the neighbors. Every morning when Stecyk went to work, he locked his ward in the house, with his dog as her companion. When Stecyk found out that Hamerschmid’s mother, Barbara, and sisters, Rita and Lidia, were hiding in the area of the liquidated Drohobycz ghetto, he offered to shelter them too. Due to the expense of feeding four people, Hamerschmid’s funds quickly dried up and the financial burden fell to Stecyk. He employed every means possible to obtain extra money and food, including stealing. The four members of the Hamerschmid family did not leave Stecyk’s home until the liberation of the area, on August 7, 1944. Throughout this time, none of his neighbors knew of their presence. After the war, Stecyk married Blanka and with her family they moved to Poland. In 1947, the couple divorced and they each married again. Hamerschmid and her family later moved to France and Canada, from where they maintained contact with Stecyk and helped him financially for the rest of his life. On October 14, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Bartlomiej Stecyk as Righteous Among the Nations.