Brust Henryk & Aniela

Brust, Henryk Brust, Aniela Brust, Marian Brust, Lucyna In June 1943, Tzvi Wiernik and Zyskind Szmulewicz were sent to the Hasag camp at the Rakow foundry in Czestochowa. After a while, they made contact with a friend, Ita Dimant, who was active in the Jewish underground and lived on the Aryan side of the city. Through Ita, Tzvi and Zyskind became acquainted with Marian Brust, a veteran worker at the foundry. Marian, who was a member of the PPS, organized assistance for the Jews in the camp and acted as liaison between the Jewish underground and the Zegota organization, which provided financial aid via him to the prisoners. With the active assistance of Marian’s wife, Lucyna, the Brusts’ home became a center for the relief of persecuted Jews. It served as an address for the transmission of directives to the underground and funds to the needy, as well as a temporary refuge for Jewish fugitives. One day in December 1944, Marian was stopped when entering the camp and searched by the Werkschutz. As he had on him documents and medicines, which he was intending to smuggle in to the inmates, he tried to escape. The Germans shot him, however, and he died in the hospital without revealing anything of his activities. Ita, who was helped by Marian's brother and sister-in-law, Henryk and Aniela Brust, took refuge in their apartment together with Yitzchak Berman. She remained in hiding until her arrest by the Gestapo and subsequent deportation as a Polish worker to Germany. The Brusts' sister, Henryka Mielczarek*, followed in their footsteps and sheltered a young Jewish woman who had fled from the Czestochowa ghetto in 1942. The woman remained with her until the area was liberated by the Red Army in January 1945. The Brust family regarded their rescue operations as part of the war against a common enemy. They were motivated by purely humanitarian principles, and received no payment for their actions. On September 4, 1979, Yad Vashem recognized Henryk and Aniela Brust as Righteous Among the Nations. On December 22, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Marian and Lucyna Brust as Righteous Among the Nations. Files 1676, 1676a