Bar Józef & Julia ; Daughter: Czarnota Janina (Bar)

Bar, Józef Bar, Julia Czarnota-Bar, Janina In 1942, after the Riesenbachs were warned by a Polish policeman of the Germans’ plan to annihilate the Jews of the Rzeszow district, Józef Riesenbach, his wife Ida, their son Józef and their daughters, Mania and Genia, fled from their home in the village of Markowa, in the county of Lancut. After wandering for several weeks through fields and orchards, Riesenbach and his wife managed to find a hiding place for their three children with a local farmer, while they continued searching for a hiding place for themselves. As winter approached, the Riesenbachs asked Józef and Julia Bar, acquaintances of theirs from the same village, for shelter. Despite serious misgivings, the Bars agreed to hide the Riesenbachs in their attic, where they clothed and fed them at their own expense. Meanwhile, the Riesenbachs, anxious over the fate of their three children, asked the Bars if they could take them in too. Despite the enormous danger and economic hardships involved, the Bars agreed. Józef Bar immediately set about building a hiding place for the family in the farmyard. The five refugees lived on lentils and potatoes, which they shared with their benefactors. The Bars’ daughter, Janina, (aged 18), looked after the refugees devotedly. The members of the Riesenbach family stayed in hiding until the Red Army liberated the area in the summer of 1944, after which they emigrated to Canada. On August 30, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Julia Bar, her husband Józef Bar and their daughter, Janina Czarnota-Bar, as Righteous Among the Nations.