Wierzbicki Jan & Wierzbicka Józefa (Maciak)

Wierzbicki, Jan Wierzbicka, Józefa Jan and Józefa Wierzbicki lived with their three children - Heniek, Janka, and Tadek- in Dubno in the district of Wołyń. Jan worked in the local slaughterhouse. For seventeen months, from October 24, 1942, until March 17, 1944, they gave shelter to eleven Jews. Among those rescued by the Wierzbickis were Baruch Kac and his wife Ester. Before the ghetto in Dubno was established, Baruch and a schoolmate had built a hideout at the home of the schoolmate in his attic. The Wierzbickis moved into the home a short time after. Following the liquidation of the ghetto, Baruch and his wife found refuge and shelter in a bunker in the area of the ghetto. After three months, they fled the bunker. They found their way to the Wierzbickis’ home and asked for shelter in return for all of their remaining property left behind in the ghetto hideout. Wierzbicki agreed. When “my wife and I entered the hideout in the attic we found a group of Jews there; these were Shlomo and Chasia Schiller, Moshe Grosblat, Aharon and Bila Grosberg,” wrote Baruch in his testimony to Yad Vashem. He also added that that very evening he and Shlomo returned to the ghetto and picked up Baruch’s remaining possessions and brought them to Wierzbicki. In time, four more Jews joined them in the hideout: Tzila Schiller and her daughter Sonia, Scheider, and Grisha Druk. “We express our feeling of deep affection and thankfulness towards the dear and loved comrade Jan Wierzbicki, his beloved wife Józefa Wierzbicka and their children for their generosity in these seventeen months... They accepted these people with open arms, hid us from Hitler’s barbarians and so rescued us from a terrible and certain death. During this whole period, they stood on guard day and night. The mother and father looked out for our lives and our health, provided us with food, and attended to our needs out of concern and love,” wrote the Jews saved by the Wierzbickis in a statement they preparedin 1944. After the war, the rescued Jews left Poland. Some went to Israel and others to the United States. The Wierzbickis moved to Szczecin, inside of Poland’s new borders. On July 15, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized Jan Wierzbicki and his wife, Józefa Wierzbicka, as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2107