Widerschal Agnieszka (Budna)

WIDERSCHAL, AGNIESZKA (BUDNA) Soon after the German invasion of Poland, Agnieszka Budna was deported from Gdynia. She settled in Siedlce, where she met a young Jew, Motek Galicki, and became friendly with him. When the ghetto was sealed off, Agnieszka brought Motek (whom she secretly married) to her home. Later on, she accepted five more Jews into her apartment. They included her husband’s brother, Lipa (Leopold) Galicki, the three Halber brothers, Izaak, Abram and Melech, as well as David Grunberg. She hid all six men in a small room in the attic behind double walls. In the afternoons, Agnieszka worked in a German office as a cleaning lady. In the mornings, she would go out to do the shopping. She used to shop in several places so as not to arouse suspicion. “The situation was very difficult when that the Germans started searching houses, even after the ghetto was liquidated... I brought three rabbits... they ran around, knocked, tapped and thumped all over the apartment and everything was blamed on them.” In 1946, Agnieszka’s husband died and she was left alone with her three-month-old baby girl. Her husband’s family took her to Germany, but Agnieszka returned to Poland and settled in Legnica. There, she started working in a Jewish cooperative, where she met her second husband, Mr. Widerschal. When her daughter was seven she was run over by a train after an older girl had pushed her. In 1958, Agnieszka and her husband immigrated to Israel. On January 4, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Agnieszka Budna-Widerschal as Righteous Among the Nations. File 3556