Pulit Wojciech & Marianna

Pulit, Wojciech Pulit, Marianna In late 1941, Mania Gorodecer brought her four-month-old daughter Sara to a family of farmers that lived near the town of Dolina, in the Stanisławow district, in Eastern Galicia. The father of the baby was serving, at the time, in the Red Army, and the mother, who tried to find a place to hide somewhere else, was found by the Germans and murdered. The family to whom she had brought the baby gave her to farmers Wojciech and Marianna Pulit, and they named her Maria. They adopted Maria and throughout all the years of the war, raised her as their own. After the war, the Pulit family moved to an area within the new Polish borders, and settled in Silesia. Lea Gorodecer, the baby’s aunt, survived the war. She knew that her sister had brought her baby daughter to a Polish family for safekeeping, and she searched for the child with the help of the Red Cross and the newspapers. In 1947, after she managed to track Sara/Maria down, Gorodecer arrived at the home of the Pulits, accompanied by a member of the Coordination Committee (Komitet Koordynacyjny) – an organization formed to restore Jewish children saved by Christians during the Holocaust to the Jewish people. She introduced herself as the mother of the child and asked the Pulits to return the baby to her. Considering little Marysia as their own, Wojciech and Marianna Pulit cried bitterly because they were deeply attached to her, and at first, refused to hand her over. Only after lengthy negotiations that lasted many days did they finally agree to give the child up. Although the Komitet Koordynacyjny gave them a considerable sum to compensate them for the years they cared for the girl, they could not be compensated for their broken hearts at being separated from young Maria, whom they genuinely loved. Lea Gorodecer and her niece Sara eventually immigrated to Israel. On September 13, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Marianna Pulit and her husband Wojciech Pulit as Righteous Among theNations.