Puchalski Jan & Puchalska Wiktoria

Anna Puchalska and her son Stanilsaw Jan and Wiktoria Puchalski Joseph Buch Feit was about 4 years old in 1942 when the ghetto in native Rozwadow in Galicia was liquidated. His parents gave him to Anna Puchalski in nearby Nisko in order to save him. Feit told Yad Vashem that he remembered seeing his parents staying behind on the San river shore, as Anna took him across the river in a boat. The child stayed with Anna and her son Stanislaw for a short time, and then was transferred to relatives, Jan and Wiktoria Puchalski, who lived on a farm in a secluded area. The family was very poor, but they lovingly took care of their charge and he stayed with them for two years until liberation. Joseph’s parents, Benno and Mania Buch, perished in the Holocaust. A relative told Yad Vashem that Mania Buch had tried to escape with false papers that were provided to her by Stanislaw Puchalski, but was caught and murdered. After the war Joseph was taken back to his hometown, where a Jewish family of survivors took care of him until his uncle and aunt, Chaim and Rachela Feit, found him and adopted him. The family emigrated to the United States. In his letter to Yad Vashem Joseph Feit wrote: “It is gratifying that even in a time of great cataclysm and sudden catastrophe, when misfortune sprinkles ashes on the heads of man, when everyone around you destroys, there are people who heal and build”. On March 13, 2000, Anna Puchalska and her son Stanilsaw and Jan and Wiktoria Puchalski were recognized aas Righteous Among the Nations.