Wydra Bronisława ; Son: Józef

File 1728 WYDRA, BRONISŁAWA WYDRA, JÓZEF Bronisła Wydra, a widow, lived during the war years, in Jasło with her five sons. Józef Wydra, her eldest son, was a railroad worker and he was also active in the AK. In December 1943, twelve-year-old Chana (Hana) Bonder (later Hellman) came to the Wydras’ home. Half a year earlier, she had escaped together with her older sister from the Frysztak ghetto in the district of Rzeszów. For almost half a year, they roamed the local villages whose inhabitants knew the girls’ parents from before the war because they had sold them products from their store. One day, the girls were asked to leave the area since the local population didn’t want to take any more risks. They were advised to change their last name. The girls then decided to move to an area where they would not be known. Each of them headed in a different direction after agreeing to meet again in the same place two months later. Chana reached a relatively distant village and there, in the fourth or fifth house, she was hired as a housemaid. After some time, the landlady told her that she had a widowed daughter who lived with her five sons in Jasło, the town that Chana’s mother came from. She was looking for an orphan girl to help her around the house. Thus, in December 1943, Chana arrived at the Wydra house in Jasło. One of the sons noticed that her leg was frost bitten. He gave her a hot bath and dressed her wounds. Bronisława told Chana that she once had a little daughter who died when she was one month old, and that ever since then she was longing for a little daughter. She then added that if they liked each other, the Wydras would adopt Chana, who had introduced herself as an orphan from a Christian family that was driven out of Poznań. Bronisława asked Chana to go to where she once lived and bring her the documents or else to be baptized “again” in order to make out new documents. Chana, brought up in a traditional Jewish household, did not wantto go through with the plan but she, nevertheless, behaved like a Catholic, prayed and went to Church. Half a year later, Bronisława, in the presence of her son Józef, told Chana that she had discovered that Chana was a Jew, where she came from, and who her family was. Chana denied everything and said that if they wanted, she would go away. Bronisława told her to stay. She did not bring up the subject of baptism or mention the documents again. Her feelings towards Chana did not change and she continued to treat her like a member of the family, “even in the hardest times, when we had just a slice of bread each.” [Furthermore, Józef saved the lives of Samuel Bauring and Salka Blumm (two fugitives who were saved by him at the Moderówka (near Krosno) railway-station, after escaping from a transport; later, they were saved by the AK organization members)]. When the people of Jasło were deported, the Wydras took Chana with them. When the war was nearing its end, Bronisława, along with her children and Chana, returned to Jasło. They all began building a new home together because the Germans had burned down their old house. At the same time, Bronisława again broached the matter of Chana’s background, repeating that she knew about it and she understood why Chana wanted to keep it a secret. “When I was told about it for the first time, and I denied it, they came to the conclusion that I can keep a secret and decided - despite the risk - to let me stay with them, and, after the war, if I agreed, to adopt me as a daughter”, wrote Chana in her testimony to Yad Vashem. Chana decided to visit the town where her family used to live and to find out about her relatives. She left her adopted family’s address and half a year later, a man from Chana’s town came to the Wydra’s in order to take Chana to a Jewish orphanage. “It was a hard blow for mother,” Chana says of Bronisława, “but she said I have to decide by myself about my fate.” From the orphanage in Kraków, Chanaleft for Israel, but she never severed her ties with Bronisława and her family. On November 29, 1979, Yad Vashem recognized Bronisława Wydra and her son, Józef Wydra, as Righteous Among the Nations.