Steczkowski Stanisław

STECZKOWSKI, STANISŁAW TROCKA, MARIA RAJEWSKA, EWA During the war, Ewa Rajewska lived with her mother, Maria Trocka, in Warsaw. In February 1943, Ewa received a phone call from the ghetto, from her old school friend Maria Wilk-Wilczyńska. Maria, a physician, was working at the ghetto hospital at the time. Being aware of the imminent liquidation of the ghetto, Maria decided to escape with her husband, Seweryn, and their son, Aleksander. She phoned Ewa to ask for help. Ewa immediately invited Maria and her family to come over to her home. On the night of February 9, Maria, her husband, and their son stole their way to the Aryan side and, at dawn, they reached Ewa’s house. Ewa and her mother, both active members of the underground movement, took care of the escapees and then put Seweryn in contact with Stanisław Steczkowski, a major in the Armia Krajowa. Stanisław managed to obtain false documents for the whole Wilk family. He also arranged employment, as a clerk at the Professional Training Institute in Warsaw, for Seweryn, introducing the fugitive as a Polish officer, wanted by the Germans. Working at the Institute also resolved Seweryn’s family’s housing problem because his employers provided him with an apartment. From then until the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, Stanisław was regularly in contact with Seweryn and he helped him whenever and however he could. Stanisław also persuaded Seweryn to cooperate with the Armia Krajowa. When the uprising broke out, Seweryn was appointed to manage a field hospital on Zlota Street. Stanisław headed the AK units in Srodmiescie, in mid Warsaw. In October 1944, when the uprising was brutally repressed, both Stanisław and Seweryn were deported to Germany, to different prisoner of war camps. They were reunited back in Poland in September 1945. The Wilk-Wilczyński family maintained a close relationship with Stanisław, Ewa, and Maria, who moved to England. In 1970, the Wilk-Wilczyńskis immigrated to Sweden. “ColonelSteczkowski, our special friend, was kind enough to come to say goodbye,” wrote Seweryn and his wife in their testimony to Yad Vashem. On March 7, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Stanisław Steczkowski, Maria Trocka, and her daughter, Ewa Rajewska, as Righteous Among the Nations.