Barczyński Józef

Barczyński, Józef Robert During the German occupation of Poland, Józef Robert Barczyński, an engineer by profession, was employed in the village of Wereszyca, near Lwow, as director of a German company that manufactured wooden ammunition boxes. He took advantage of his position to help victims of persecution – Poles and Jews alike – and save them from mortal danger. Among those he rescued were three former residents of Przemysl, Artur and Sara Lea Frim and their daughter, Zula Bronisława. Upon the outbreak of war, the Frims had moved to Lwow, where they were interned in the ghetto after the city’s occupation by the Germans. They remained in the ghetto, and throughout their stay there, until the autumn of 1942, received help from Józef Barczyński, who had been superficially acquainted with Artur before the war. Prior to the ghetto’s liquidation, Józef succeeded in smuggling out seven-year-old Bronisława Frim and placing her with a Polish family, passing her off as a niece of his whose parents had been exiled from the country. In due course, Artur and his wife also escaped from the ghetto, and Barczyński found them employment in a factory and a place to live – all without requesting any material recompense. After the couple had settled in the village where they were employed, Barczyński personally brought Bronisława to join them. The Frims survived and immigrated to Israel after the war. Until his death, Barczyński refused all attempts by the family to repay him by having his name inscribed among the Righteous, stating that he had only fulfilled his duty toward his fellow human beings. His widow, who had continued to correspond with Bronisława after her parents had passed away, subsequently gave permission for his memorialization in Jerusalem. On November 7, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Józef Robert Barczyński as Righteous Among the Nations.