Lewicki Aleksander ; Daughter: Lewicka Katarzyna ; Granddaughter: Lewicka Jarosława

Lewicki, Aleksander Lewicka, Katarzyna Lewicka, Jaroslawa Immediately after the occupation of the town of Zloczow, in the Tarnopol district, in July 1941, Aleksander Lewicki came to the help of his Jewish friends who were in trouble. When the Germans introduced measures restricting the movement of Jews and forbidding them to purchase food, and began confiscating their apartments, Lewicki began supplying his Jewish friends with food and medicines. He would not have been able to do so without the help of his courageous granddaughter, Jaroslawa, who acted as his courier without awakening the suspicions of the Ukrainian guards. In December 1942, when a closed ghetto was set up in Zloczow, Lewicki, his daughter, Katarzyna, and granddaughter continued to help the incarcerated Jews, until the liquidation of the Zloczow’s Jewish community in April 1943. Among the handful of survivors of the massacre perpetrated by the Germans and Ukrainian nationalists against local Jews, were two Jewish boys Ryszard Feyering and Yurek Shenker, whom the Lewickis sheltered and looked after until July 1944, when the area was liberated by the Red Army. The Lewickis also helped another group of 25 Jewish refugees, who were hiding in the basement of a ruined house two kilometers away, by bringing them food, despite the distance and the danger accompanying the purchase of such large quantities of food. In throwing in their lot with that of their charges, the Lewickis were inspired by a deep compassion and Christian love, and never expected anything in return. After the war, the survivors moved to territory within the new borders of Poland and most of them subsequently immigrated to the United States. Two of them – Israel Fenster and Abraham Szpiro – immigrated to Israel. On September 21, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Aleksander Lewicki, his daughter Katarzyna Lewicka, and his granddaughter, Jaroslawa Lewicka, as Righteous Among the Nations. File 4380