Krzyształowski Józef & Krzyształowska Helena ; Daughter: Senderska Irena (Krzyształowska)

Krzyształowski, Józef Krzyształowska, Helena Senderska–Rzońca, Irena In early 1944, the Bander family from the city of Borysław (Drohobycz County, Lwów District, today Ukraine) were in serious difficulties. The parents, Elias and Regina, and their six-year-old son, Myron, had managed to survive until then thanks to the relations of the father, a doctor by profession, with his Christian patients. Now the last family with whom they had been hiding had decided to abandon the town and they were about to remain without a hiding place or anyone to take care of them. By this point, they were also completely destitute. In his distress, Dr. Bander turned to the Krzyształowski family, who were also among his patients, and received shelter readily. The Krzyształowski family numbered six: the parents Józef and Helena and their four very young children. They were poor people living on the modest salary of the father, the chief of the municipal fire brigade. Nonetheless, they took upon themselves to hide and to support another three people. Józef Krzyształowski hid the Bander family in the loft of a small storeroom in the courtyard where they raised pigeons. There they watched over them and attended to their every need. The oldest daughter, Irena, then aged 13, took on the main responsibility of serving them. This was a dangerous and tense period, and the children kept the secret well even though the house shared a common courtyard with several neighbors. The military front drew ever nearer and the town swarmed with German soldiers. The Krzyształowskis lived in constant fear that the German soldiers who were now lodged in their house and sought provisions in the courtyard for the army's needs, would unintentionally discover the hidden Jews. Notwithstanding, it never crossed their minds to send the Bander family away. The Banders hid with the Krzyształowski family for about seven months, from February to August 1944, when the town was liberated, and were never asked for any payment in return. On November 7, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Józef and Helena Krzyształowski and their daughter Irena Senderska–Rzońca as Righteous Among the Nations.