Misztal Antoni & Janina (Ratusznik); Son: Tadeusz

Misztal, Antoni Misztal, Janina Misztal, Tadeusz The Misztal and Sztark families, from the city of Radom, in the Kielce district, had been very close friends for many years before the war. Even after the members of the Sztark family were imprisoned in the Radom ghetto during the German occupation, Antoni and Janina Misztal smuggled food into the ghetto and cared for their needs. To carry out certain dangerous missions, their thirteen-year-old son Tadeusz did what he could, risking his life to enter the ghetto. One day in 1942, Tadeusz smuggled Tamara, the Sztark’s six-year-old daughter, into his parents’ home. In the Aktion conducted the very next day in the ghetto, the Germans murdered Tamara’s parents and her brother Tomasz. Despite the danger to their lives and their own impoverished circumstances, the Misztal family decided to keep the Jewish child in their home. They treated Tamara with kind devotion and the Misztals and their children considered her a beloved member of their family. Tamara remained with the Misztals even after the liberation of the area by the Red Army in January 1945, and lived with them until her marriage. Tamara Sztark remained in Poland with her husband and children, and never forgot that the Misztals had saved her life because of their true friendship with her parents. On April 25, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Janina Misztal, her husband Antoni Misztal and their son Tadeusz as Righteous Among the Nations. File 6577