Mierzejewski Edward & Mierzejewska Janina (Pajew)

Mierzejewski, Edward Mierzejewska, Janina During the German occupation, Edward Mierzejewski was employed on the Horodyszcze estate near his hometown Luck, in the Volhynia district. In 1942, after the Germans had liquidated the Jewish community of Luck, Mierzejewski entered the site near the Horodyszcze estate where the Jews were assembled before they were murdered. Mierzejewski planned to save the family of his friend David Hecht, but he was only able to save his friend’s three-year-old daughter Nina. Fearful of their neighbors’ suspicions and in order to be able to care properly for Nina and keep her safe, Edward and Janina Mierzejewski were forced to rent an apartment in a place where no one knew them. Despite their meager circumstances and the danger to their lives, they cared for Nina with love and devotion, as if she were their own. In all, she remained with them for seven years, even after the Mierzejewskis moved to the area within the new Polish borders. In 1949, a relative located Nina, and after he arrived at their home, Edmund and Janina Mierzejewski handed her over safe and sound, and she immigrated to Israel. Everything the Mierzejewskis did to save Nina’s life was motivated by their goodness of heart and sense of obligation to help their persecuted friends. On March 29, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Janina Mierzejewska and her husband Edward Mierzejewski as Righteous Among the Nations.