Wicherek Mieczysław & Maria ; Daughter: Czernicka Józefa (Wicherek)

WICHEREK, Mieczyslaw WICHEREK, Maria CZERNICKA, Jozefa (Wicherek) Mieczyslaw Wicherek lived with his wife Maria and daughter Jozefa in the village Medwedowce, near Buczacz (Eastern Galicia). In 1943, when the Jews of Buczacz were being deported, Jakub Szwarc went to Wicherek. Wicherek and Szwarc knew each other from before the war, through commercial contacts. The Wicherek family agreed to help Jakub and his family. Altogether, the Wichereks hid six people in their apartment: Jakub, his wife, their son Moshe, two of Jakub’s cousins (the Schechners), and Mina Rosner. “They built a hiding place for us, they guarded and fed us … they were our contact with the world,” wrote Moshe Szwarc in his testimony. He added that Jozefa used to come in to them in the evenings and tell them what was going on in the town and the neighborhood. She also took out their excrement. Wicherek would buy produce in far off places so as not to draw his neighbors’ attention to the increased quantity of food he was buying. His wife was busy cooking all day long. Towards the end of the war, during the fighting between Germans and Russians in the area, Maria Wicherek was shot right in the heart and died immediately. Wicherek’s married daughter was also shot and killed by a stray bullet. “I am not sure there is enough ink to describe the kindness and friendliness of those people,” wrote Mina Rosner about the Wicherek family. On September 12, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Mieczyslaw Wicherek, his wife Maria, and their daughter, Jozefa Czernicka (nee Wicherek), as Righteous Among the Nations.