Mencik Józef & Stanisława

Mencik, Józef Mencik, Stanisława In the summer of 1942, Hadasa Rajnherc fled with her two children during the final liquidation of the ghetto of Pabianice, near Lodz. After much suffering and hardship, the three fugitives arrived in the village of Janow Czestochowski, near Czestochowa, where they found asylum in the home of Józef and Stanisława Mencik, poor farmers who lived in a small cabin with their three adult children. The fugitives were placed in a loft above the cowshed, and the Menciks fed them, sharing the meager food they had with them. One day, Hadasa Rajnherc left the hiding place to go into town to buy shoes for her daughter. Her identity was discovered and a gang of Polish nationalists murdered her. After the murder, a rumor began spreading that there were other Jews hiding in the village. The Menciks were terrified and claiming that the children were endangering their lives, decided to throw them out. However, their compassion overcame their fear, they changed their minds, and Mordechai and Esther Rajnherc remained under the protection of the Mencik family until the liberation by the Red Army in January 1945. Despite the constant danger to their lives, the Mencik family extended their assistance to the persecuted Jewish children, motivated by humane values and receiving absolutely nothing in return. After the war, the two Rajnherc children immigrated to Israel. On January 27, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Stanisława Mencik and her husband Józef Mencik as Righteous Among the Nations.