Miklaszewski Jacenty & Miklaszewska Maria ; Daughter: Miklaszewska Władysława
Miklaszewski Jacenty & Miklaszewska Maria ; Daughter: Miklaszewska Władysława
Righteous
Iza Harnik (Israela Hargil) in the arms of Jacenty Miklaszewski, Krakow, February 1946
Miklaszewski, Jacenty
Miklaszewska, Maria
Miklaszewska, Władysława
Kalman Harnik lived with his wife Elsa and their three-year-old daughter Iza in the city of Brody, in the Tarnopol district. Harnik, a music teacher, had been friendly with Jacenty Miklaszewski, a colleague, many years before the occupation. The murder of the Jews of Brody began in 1941 with the German occupation of the city, and Miklaszewski, who witnessed the events, came to the Harnik home and offered to take little Iza under his wing. At first, the parents refused to be parted from their daughter, but after they were saved from an Aktion and after seeing the destruction and murder terrorizing the lives of the Jews of the city, they decided to take up their friend’s kind offer. Iza was taken to the apartment of Jacenty and Maria Miklaszewski, who took her under their wing, and together with their daughter Władysława, cared for her with love and devotion. In May 1943, after the liquidation of the ghetto and after Iza’s mother had been murdered, the Miklaszewskis found a place to hide for Harnik and another relative of his, Leon Blaushtein, who lived in one of the nearby villages, covering all the costs involved out of their own pocket. With the increase of informants in the area, and after the Jewish fugitives and their rescuers became aware of the very real danger that their hiding place would be discovered, Miklaszewskis moved to Krakow, where they continued to hide all three refugees under an assumed identity. Harnik, his daughter Iza and Blaushtein survived and after the war, immigrated to Israel. The survivors remembered their benefactors as fine people with deep humane values, who despite the danger to their own lives, made every effort to save them, never asking for or receiving anything at all in return.
On June 10, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Miklaszewska, her husband Jacenty Miklaszewski and their daughter Władysława Miklaszewska as Righteous Among the Nations.