Tomíček Alexander ; Daughter: Butová Anna (Tomíčková)

Tomíček, Alexander Butová, Anna Zvi (Grisa) Goldgamer was born in Suwalki, Bialystok district, in 1926. In 1939, with the outbreak of war, he fled across the border and settled with some relatives in Luck. However, in 1941, the Jews of Luck were concentrated in the ghetto and Zvi was attached to a group of road builders outside the ghetto. The group, watched over by Ukrainian guards, was billeted with local farmers. This work brought the group to Knienicze, a village that consisted mostly of Czechs. There, Zvi became acquainted with a local farmer, Alexander (Saša) Tomíček. Tomíček bribed the Ukrainian work manager and obtained a release from the group for Zvi, under the pretext that he wanted him to work on his farm. Once in a while, Zvi returned to his relatives in the ghetto. On one of those occasions, Tomíček refused to let Zvi go to the ghetto. Zvi later found out that on that day there had been an Aktion in the ghetto. Following the liquidation of the ghetto, Tomíček prepared a bunker for him under the granary in his yard. Zvi stayed in the hideout during the day and at night he came out and performed various chores. Zvi stayed at the Tomíčeks’ house from the end of 1941 until the liberation of the area in the spring of 1944. The Tomíček couple had three children – Anna (Aninka; later Butová) and two younger siblings. Tomíček or his daughter Aninka brought Zvi food to his hideout every day. Aninka also laundered Zvi’s clothes and had long talks with him to raise his spirits. When the front approached the Tomíčeks’ home in the spring of 1944, Alexander moved Zvi to a nearby abandoned Polish village and, along with Aninka, took care of his basic needs in his new hiding place. Zvi stayed at Tomíček’s house for some time after the liberation of Knienicze by the Red Army. Zvi eventually immigrated to Israel and the Tomíček family later returned to their Czech homeland. In 1995, Zvi visited the Czech Republic and searched for the Tomíček family by publishingads in the newspapers. Aninka responded. Her parents were no longer alive. Later that year, Zvi invited Aninka to visit him in Israel. On August 27, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Alexander Tomíček and his daughter, Anna Butová, as Righteous Among the Nations.