Howil Bogusław ; Mother: Helena (Wilgocka)

Howil, Bogusław-Apolinary Howil, Helena Already in 1939, shortly after the occupation of Poland, Bogusław Howil came to the rescue of his Jewish acquaintances. As a businessman, Howil used to travel from Kraków to Łódź or Częstochowa, and back, and used these occasions to transport Jews from Łódź to Częstochowa. When the Gestapo found out about his activities, Howil fled to Warsaw where, with the financial assistance of his Jewish friends, he opened a textile store in the main street, in the name of his mother, Helena, in whose apartment they lived. At the request of a Jewish friend, Howil employed a Jewish girl as a cashier. When the Jews of Warsaw were interned in the ghetto, Józef Płomnik, another Jewish friend, asked Howil to save his five-year-old daughter, Marysia. Howil agreed and hid Marysia in his apartment, where his mother, Helena, looked after her. When blackmailers discovered that the Howils were sheltering a Jewish girl, they demanded a large sum of money in return for their silence. Howil refused, using his ties with the Polish underground to keep the blackmailers at bay. Marysia Płomnik survived, and after the war, left Poland. Howil also helped Jerzy Lando, the son of an old friend of his, who fled from the ghetto in 1942, employing him in his store under an assumed identity. Lando hid in Howil’s mother’s apartment until the area was liberated by the Red Army and, after the war, immigrated to England. In saving the refugees’ lives, Bogusław-Apolinary Howil was guided by humanitarian motives and a loyalty, which triumphed over adversity. On July 25, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Bogusław-Apolinary Howil, and his mother, Helena Howil, as Righteous Among the Nations. File 5780