Jaroszyński Józef & Jaroszyńska Halina ; Daughter: Jaroszyńska Klara

Jaroszyński, Józef Jaroszyńska, Halina Jaroszyńska, Klara Furmanik, Maria In August 1942, during the liquidation of the Radom ghetto in the Kielce district, Jakob Lotenberg, his wife, Karola, and their eight-year-old daughter, Anita, fled to Warsaw. With the help of an acquaintance, Anita was taken in by Józef Jaroszyński, a teacher, and his wife, Halina, a former senior lecturer at the technical college. When Anita’s parents subsequently turned up, Jaroszyński told them that although he supported the emigration of Jews from Poland, he was against their liquidation. The Jaroszyńskis agreed to shelter Karola in their apartment, and found a hiding place for Jakob in a rented cellar in the Bielany suburb of Warsaw. During raids or visits by friends, Anita and her mother moved into the cellar until it was safe to return. In due course, Anita was sent to a home for the blind, run by the “Siostr Nazaretanek” (Nazarene Sisters) in Laski Warszawskie, where the Jaroszyńskis’ daughter, Klara, worked as a nun. Klara introduced Anita as a relative of hers, whose father worked as a pilot for the Polish Army-in-Exile. Before leaving for the convent, Maria Furmanik, a close friend of the Jaroszyńskis, who lived with them, drilled Anita in the Christian prayers. Later, Maria visited Anita in the convent, and took her out for walks through the local parks. The Jaroszyńskis, meanwhile, continued to supply Anita with clothes, textbooks, and stationery, without expecting anything in return. On the eve of the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944, the Jaroszyńskis sheltered Anita’s parents until they arranged accommodation for the entire family with friends in the village of Bukowina Tatrzanska, in the Tatry Mountains, in the county of Nowy Targ, where they remained until the area was liberated in January 1945. In risking their lives to help the Lautenbergs, the Jaroszyńskis and Furmanik were inspired by their religious faith, which commanded them to come to the help of thosein trouble. In due course, the survivors immigrated to Israel where they kept up a correspondence with their saviors. On February 18, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized Halina and Józef Jaroszyński, their daughter Klara, and Maria Furmanik, as Righteous Among the Nations.