Korta Władysław & Janina

Golonka, Jan Golonka, Bronisława Maks Halpern was born in 1932 to Ela and Aron Moshe. There were two older children in the family as well. Aron Moshe was a woodworker. The family spoke both Yiddish and Polish at home. When war broke out in 1939, they moved away from their hometown of Kraków. Various trials and tribulations led them through the neighboring villages until 1942, when the father, Aron Moshe, was captured by the Nazis and taken first to forced labor and then to the concentration camp in Płaszów, where he perished. Ela was left alone with the three children. They spent some time in the Bochnia Ghetto, where Ela too was sent to forced labor every day. When news arrived of the looming liquidation of the ghetto, the Halperns decided to escape. They found refuge with the Korta family (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1999) and stayed with them until mid-1944, when someone denounced them to the Nazis. The Kortas refused to hand them over to the authorities, but everyone understood that the shelter was compromised, and for everyone’s safety the Halperns left to seek another place. They arrived in the village of Buczyna, and there they found the Golonka family, Jan and Bronisława, who were Jehovah’s Witnesses, the only Christian sect persecuted by the Nazis. The Golonkas agreed to let the Halperns hide in their barn, in the straw. The Golonkas were very poor, so at night the Halperns had to go out to look for food. Other Jehovah’s Witnesses in the area knew about them and tried to help out as much as they could. One day in the summer, the village celebrated Sobótki, a pre-Christian holiday that involves bonfires. The Golonkas’ children decided to celebrate it their own way and set the barn on fire. Maks was so scared that he ran away from the burning straw and spent the day in the forest convinced that his family was dead, until Jan came to fetch him, and he learned that everyone had survived. When the Russians liberated the area, Jan advised the Halperns not to escape too quickly, because there were still aggressive anti-Semites in the area. They stayed for another two weeks and then left. The anti-Semites continued harassing the Golonkas until they were forced to leave Buczyna. On April 2, 2013, Yad Vashem recognized Jan and Bronisława Golonka as Righteous Among the Nations.