Deba Magdalena ; Son: Jan

Deba, Magdalena Deba, Jan In July 1942, Moshe Mondshein and his father Yosef, who lived in town Tarnopol, were interned in the forced labor camp of Zagrobela. During the liquidation of the camp in May 1943 they managed to escape and after days of wandering through fields and villages made their way to the cottage of Magdalena Deba, who lived with her 13-year-old son, Jan, in a remote village near the camp. Moshe and his father knew Deba as someone who had smuggled food into the camp for the Jews, who were then building roads near her home. Upon their arrival, Deba gave the Mondsheins a meal, and allowed them to wash and stay the night. The next day, when they were about to leave, Deba suggested they hide in her farmyard, and they and her son, Jan, set about digging a hiding place in the farmyard, with a concealed entrance. Despite her straitened circumstances, Deba refused payment for looking after her charges. Her son, Jan, stopped bringing home friends and bought food from faraway villages in order not to arouse the neighbors’ suspicions. Later, the Mondsheins were joined by another Jewish refugee, a woman who had been hiding in the nearby forests. The three Jewish refugees stayed with Deba and her son until the area was liberated in he summer of 1944. In risking her life to save them, Deba was guided by humanitarian principles only. After the war, the three survivors immigrated to Israel, while Jan moved to France and, after his mother passed away, kept up a correspondence with Moshe Mondshein. On February 2, 1971, Yad Vashem recognized Magdalena Deba and her son, Jan Deba, as Righteous Among the Nations. File 630