Stopka Andrzej & Stopkowa Wincentyna (Wodzinowska)

Żurowski, Ludwik Stopka, Andrzej Stopka, Wincentyna Adamski, Jozef Adamska, Michalina Adamska, Helena Adamska Gramatyka Lewartowska, Michalina Armatys-Przedmolska, Maria Dr. Julian Aleksandrowicz was the founder of one the hospitals at the Kraków gertto. As the ghetto was being liquidated in March 1943, Dr. Aleksandrowicz and his wife Maria and son Jerzy managed to bribe a few German policemen and find temporary shelter. Shortly afterwards, the Germans traced their whereabouts. When in their despair they attempted suicide, Dr. Ludwik Żurowski came to their assistance, and, in mortal danger and without recompense, gave them lifesaving treatment. From then on, Dr. Żurowski stayed in touch with his wards and arranged shelter for them in the apartment of Professor Andrzej Stopka and his wife Wincentyna, who employed them as domestics. The Stopkas, together with Dr. Żurowski, met the Jewish refugees’ needs and gave them board. Whenever things became especially dangerous, they moved them to a safer hideout. Dr. Żurowski served as a liaison between the fugitives and their parents, who had been exiled to the Plaszów camp, a short distance from Kraków. Over time, the group of rescuers was joined by Maria Armatys-Przedmolska, in whose apartment the Aleksandrowiczes found refuge for a rather lengthy period of time. Armatys-Przedmolska also gave them her documents and those of her family, at great risk and for nothing in return. Armatys-Przedmolskas assisted many other Jews, only a few of whom are known to us by name. In their post-war testimony, the Aleksandrowiczes cited Jozef and Michalina Adamski, their daughter Helena and grand-daughter Michalina Gramatyka Lewartowska, who during their stay in Wieliczka, assisted them with food and money. German police arrested Adamski and, although they tortured him in his interrogation, he and his wife continued to aid their Jewish wards without letup, aware of the danger that their actions entailed and withoutremuneration. Dr. Aleksandrowicz subsequently joined a partisan unit of the Socialist Fighting Organization (S.O.B), subordinate to the A.K., and eventually became its deputy commander. After the war, the Aleksandrowiczes remained in Kraków and stayed in touch with their rescuers’ families after the rescuers themselves had died. Julian Aleksandrowicz became a scientist of world renown and a professor of hematology at the medical academy of Kraków. The diary he kept as a partisan was published in Poland under the title Pages from the diary of Doctor Twardy, recalling his underground alias during the occupation. On April 18, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Dr. Ludwik Żurowski, Professor Andrzej Stopka and his wife Wincentyna, Maria Armatys-Przedmolska, and Jozef Adamski and Michalina Adamska Gramatyka Lewartowska and their daughter Helena Adamska as Righteous Among the Nations.