Białowarczuk Wacław & Lucyna (Storczyńska)

Białowarczuk Wacław Białowarczuk Lucyna On June 19, 1941, two days before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a baby girl, Maria, was born to Izaak Rozensztajn and Bella Kaufman of Białystok. The city was occupied eight days later, and David was killed during a massacre of the local Jews. His wife and baby daughter were interned in the ghetto for a year, after which Bella succeeded in escaping with the child. They fled to the nearby town of Tykocin where, under an assumed name, Bella obtained work as a maid in the house of two Polish women, who also agreed to house Maria. In March 1944, partisans attempted to kill the chief of the local gendarmerie, and in reprisal the Germans organized a manhunt in the streets of the town. Bella, who was out walking with her daughter, was arrested, separated from the child, and sent to Ravensbrueck concentration camp in Germany. Little Maria was taken in by a Pole, who gave her into the care of Wacław and Lucyna Białowarczuk the following day. The Białowarczuks were teachers and had no children of their own. They adopted the little Jewish girl, who called them “Mommy” and “Daddy,” and looked after her devotedly until the end of the war. Bella passed as a Polish prisoner in Ravensbrueck, and she survived the war and returned to Tykocin. She found her daughter safe and sound with the Białowarczuks, but Maria, who did not recognize her mother, refused to part from her adopted parents. She and Bella remained for a number of weeks with Wacław and Lucyna until the crisis had passed. In 1948, Bella was killed in a car accident, and Maria was adopted by friends of her mother’s. She remained in close contact with the Białowarczuks, who had saved her life without receiving any recompense and had cared for her like parents in her hour of need. On October 1, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Wacław and Lucyna Białowarczuk as Righteous Among the Nations. File 4775