Zimoń Konrad & Regina ; Daughter: Rezner Stefania (Zimoń)

ZIMOŃ, KONRAD ZIMOŃ, REGINA ZIMOŃ-REZNER, STEFANIA Konrad and Regina Zimoń lived with their two daughters in the village of Wielopole, near Rybnik, in Upper Silesia. Konrad worked on the railroad and Regina was a housekeeper. Their eldest daughter, Stefania, worked as a clerk for the local council and their youngest daughter was six years old. One day in January 1945, three Jews, Michael Goldman (later Gilad), Chanan Ansbacher, and Eli Heiman hid under the roof of their farm’s barn. All three had escaped from the death march of Auschwitz prisoners. After spending a night in the hay, they heard footsteps climbing the ladder very early in the morning. They were convinced that they would be Germans. To their amazement, it was a young girl, Stefania, and she had left a jar of milk and a loaf of bread by the ladder without saying a word. The escapees were afraid that it was some type of trap. For a while, they did not go near the food that the girl had left for them. After some time, however, they decided to reach for the food since they were very hungry. Later that afternoon, the fugitives heard Stefania once again. This time she climbed up and asked them in Polish who they were and how many they were. Michael answered her without letting himself be seen, saying his name was Bronisław, that he was a Pole from Katowice, and that he and his friends were political prisoners and that they had all lived in one barrack in Auschwitz. Chanan and Eli did not answer Stefania because they both came from Germany and did not know Polish. While giving out this information, Michael observed Stefania and noticed - to his joy - that she cared not about their origins or that of his companions, but that she was merely happy that he was one of “hers,” a Silesian man, who had managed to escape. She also realized that the men were Jews and so she asked them to be cautious and not to let their presence be known since not all of the neighbors were like her own family. For anentire week, Stefania brought the fugitives food and drink twice a day. She also informed them about the situation at the front with information from German radio. On January 26, 1945, the village of Wielopole was liberated by the Red Army and upon seeing the Soviet soldiers the hiding Jews emerged from their hideouts. They came down and met Stefania’s parents, shaking their hands, happy that they survived. Regina told them how they noticed them in the barn and how shortly afterwards the Germans entered the yard, led by neighbors, searching for escapees. Regina was holding her young child in her arms at the time. She instinctively covered the child’s lips with her hand and told the Germans she saw people running through her yard but that they had run further away. The Germans left in the direction that she indicated. After the war, the survivors immigrated to Israel, from where Michael (Gilad) tried for years to find the Zimoń family, but to no avail. In 1989, he traveled to Poland. He traveled to Wielopole, which had become in the meantime a part of the town of Rybnik. He eventually found the Zimońs and the reunion was very warm. The Zimońs said that they never lost hope of meeting at least one of those that they had saved during the war. Michael visited Stefania as well. “The Zimoń family behaved nobly, not waiting for anything in return,” wrote Michael. “At the time of the meeting [1989], they refused to accept anything from me as well, and when I left them some money, supposedly for their grandchildren, the old woman blushed and started crying, even though - as I could see - they lived in difficult conditions.” On March 7, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Konrad Zimoń, his wife, Regina Zimoń, and their daughter, Stefania Zimoń-Rezner, as Righteous Among the Nations.