Matjas Franciszek & Józefa

Matjas, Franciszek Matjas, Józefa In autumn 1942, the Germans liquidated the Pinczow ghetto, in the Kielce district, in a particularly bloody Aktion. The six members of the Szejner family managed to flee before they were killed or deported. Shlomo Szejner, his wife Alta, their 14-year-old daughter Gitl, and their sons Israel, Yechiel and Yitzchak wandered throughout the countryside for four months, during which time, they were occasionally given warm soup, but only rarely a place to hide by the local farmers. In January 1943, when the icy cold did not leave them much hope for survival, the six desperate fugitives left their hiding place in the forest. They set out for the village of Debowka in the Pinczow county, where in the middle of the night, they knocked on the door of Franciszek and Józefa Matjas. In the past, Matjas had worked in Szejner’s flourmill, and over time, the two men had become true friends. The six fugitives were received warmly in the Matjas home, and for two years, Franciszek and Josefa Matjas concealed the Szejner family in a well-concealed hiding place he built for them, until the liberation in January 1945. Although the hiding place was overcrowded, it offered them bearable conditions, and the fugitives were treated very well by the Matjas family and their five children, who were in on the secret and knew how to keep it from curious and suspicious neighbors. One day, the Matjas family brought another Jew, a young man, to the hiding place. Too weak and ill to survive, he died in the hiding place and was buried in the yard. Neither asking for nor receiving any payment whatever in return for their help, and despite the constant danger to their lives, the Matjas family saved the six Jews during the occupation, motivated by pure altruism and friendship that stood the test of the times. After the war, the Szejner family immigrated to Israel, with the exception of Yechiel, who immigrated to France. On July 27, 1988, Yad Vashem recognizedJózefa Matjas and her husband Franciszek Matjas as Righteous Among the Nations.