Wyrzykowski Aleksander & Wyrzykowska Antonina (Karwowska)

Wyrzykowski, Aleksander Wyrzykowska, Antonina Aleksander and Antonina Wyrzykowski lived with their two children in the village of Janczewko, four kilometers from the town of Jedwabne, in the Bialystok district. On July 10, 1941, all the Jews of Jedwabne were killed by local Poles. Over a thousand Jews were herded into the market square, forced into a barn, which was surrounded and guarded, and burned alive. A handful of Jews who escaped the massacre reached the nearby ghetto of Lomza. On November 2, 1942, when the Germans began liquidating the Jews of the district, seven survivors of the Jedwabne massacre – including Shmuel Waserstein, Moshe Olszewicz, his wife Lea, his brother Dov, Jacob and Lea Kubran and Józef Grądowski – escaped from Lomza. All seven refugees were given a warm welcome by the Wyrzykowskis, who looked after them devotedly until January 1945, when the area was liberated by the Red Army. Two weeks after the liberation, a gang of Polish nationalists raided the Wyrzykowskis’ home and beat them up, for having rescued Jews. As a result, the Wyrzykowskis had to leave their home and moved to Milanowek, near Warsaw. After the war, only a few of the participants in the Jedwabne massacre were brought to trial. Waserstein himself testified at the trial. At the time, the authorities were keen to keep the massacre, which was perpetrated by the local Polish population, under wraps. The massacre received renewed attention after the publication of the book “Neighbors” by Professor Jan Tomasz Gross, which referred to the Wyrzykowskis’ heroic rescue operation. After the war, the Olszewiczes moved to Argentina and the Kubrans to the United States. After Wyrzykowska lost her husband, the Kubrans brought her over to the United States. On January 16, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Antonina and Aleksander Wyrzykowski as Righteous Among the Nations.