Najdek Szymon & Helena

Najdek, Szymon Najdek, Helena Szymon and Helena Najdek lived in Borysław (Eastern Galicia). Before the war, they had been customers of the Majers, who owned a clothing store, and their friends included Manek and Anna Wilf, also of Boryslaw. In the course of an Aktion conducted in Borysław in August 1942, the two Jewish families asked the Najdeks to shelter them. Thus, Josef and Fryda Majer, their two children Erwin and Zygmunt, and the Wilfs—six people in all—moved in with the Najdeks. Intending to stay for only a few weeks, they actually remained there for two years—until the liberation in the summer of 1944—in an attic hideout that the Najdeks had prepared for them. Although the fugitives paid for their upkeep, their hosts had to find a way to obtain food for them without arousing neighbors’ suspicions. To solve the problem, Szymon Najdek cycled to faraway villages and hauled the food home under cover of darkness. During the concealment operation, the Najdeks and their wards experienced episodes of severe suspense and dread. Frida Majer became ill and died in the hideout several months before the liberation; the Najdeks had to bury her in their garden and, despite their precautions, suspicious neighbors kept their house under surveillance. The constant strain prompted Szymon Najdek to leave home shortly before the liberation, but before he took this step, he equipped the fugitives with enough food for several weeks. The Jewish survivors lived to greet liberation day, after which they resettled in Israel and stayed in touch with their rescuers. On September 19, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Szymon Najdek and his wife Helena as Righteous Among the Nations.