Zembik Jerzy

Zembik Jerzy When the war broke out, Jerzy Zembik was working in a factory owned by the Hassag Corporation in Częstochowa. The factory used concentration camp inmates drawn from a nearby camp as forced laborers. In 1942, Lusia (Łucja) Wajsman was sent to the camp for compulsory work; her parents and sister had been deported to Treblinka and were never heard from again. One day, Jerzy approached Lusia and said that he would help her to get out of the camp. It was in January 1945, shortly prior to the liberation of the camp by the Red Army. The following day, Jerzy brought Lusia his sister’s clothes as well as some documents made out under the name of Łucja Kowalska. When the workday ended, Jerzy took Lusia under his arm, flashed the newly forged passes at the guards, and they went out of the camp. He took her directly to his home where he lived with his mother and brother. Initially, his mother was frightened. She worried that Jerzy was putting the entire family in danger and that they would be executed if the Germans discovered that they were hiding a Jew, but eventually Jerzy and his brother calmed her down and allayed her fears. In the end, the mother agreed to arrange a hideout for Łucja in a closet. After the liberation, Lusia left Jerzy’s house and moved to Tarnowskie Góry near Katowice. Half a year later, Jerzy came to her and proposed to her. She accepted the proposal and they got married. On September 8, 1986, Yad Vashem recognized Jerzy Zembik as Righteous Among the Nations. File no. 3474