Ustjanowski Ignacy & Ustjanowska Bronisława ; Son: Czesław ; Daughter: Okułowska Urszula (Ustjanowska)

Ustjanowski, Ignacy Ustjanowska, Bronisława Ustjanowski, Czesław Okułowska-Ustjanowska, Urszula In early 1943, after escaping from the Janowska Street labor camp in Lwow, Mordechai Szikler returned to his hometown of Czernelica, in the Stanislawow district, in Eastern Galicia, where he joined a group of Jews hiding in the nearby forest. Ignacy Ustjanowski provided the Jewish refugees with food without expecting anything in return. One night, Shimon Tauber, one of the refugees, invited Szikler to go with him to the Ustjanowskis’ home, to warm up a bit and eat a hot meal. When they arrived, they were given a warm reception and allowed to stay the night. At dawn next day, when they were about to return to the forest, Bronisława, Ustjanowski’s wife, told her family that her conscience would not allow her to let the refugees leave in the cold and windy weather. The Ustjanowskis therefore prepared a temporary hiding place for Tauber and Szikler in the pigsty, where they stayed for about a year, until June 1944, when the area was liberated by the Red Army. On cold nights, the fugitives were invited into the Ustjanowskis’ home to get warm. The Ustjanowskis’ 17-year-old son, Czesław, used to visit the refugees in their hiding place, and give them moral support. Ignacy Ustjanowski also helped hide about twenty Jews in the church vault, which he opened for them and provided them with food and medicines. However, during a police raid, all the refugees hiding in the church were discovered and killed, except for one who managed to escape. In risking their lives to save Jews, the Ustjanowskis were guided by humanitarian and religious motives, which overrode considerations of personal safety or economic hardship. After the liberation, upon discovering that Ustjanowski had hidden Jews, Ukrainian nationalists set fire to his house and he and his family barely escaped. After the war, Szikler and Tauber immigrated to Israel, while the Ustjanowskis moved to an area withinPoland’s postwar borders. Later, the survivors remembered the Ustjanowskis and for many years after the occupation, kept up contact with them, helped them materially, and invited them to visit them in Israel. On May 18, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Ignacy Ustjanowski as Righteous Among the Nations. On May 15, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Bronisława Ustjanowska and her children, Czesław Ustjanowski, and Urszula Okułowska-Ustjanowska, as Righteous Among the Nations.