Niedźwiedziew Leokadia (Bartel); Daughter: Klaper Teodozja (Niedźwiedziew)

Niedzwiedziew, Leokadia Klaper-Niedzwiedziew, Teodozja File 6448 During the occupation, Leokadia Niedzwiedziew and her daughter Teodozja, of Warsaw, supported themselves by repairing furs. They became aware of the Jews’ distress by observing starving ghetto children who roved on the Aryan side of the city and approached them to beg for food. When the ghetto was liquidated in the spring of 1943, the Niedzwiedziews’ home became a place of refuge for ten Jewish men, women, and children who had fled from the ghetto. Some of them spent a short time with the Niedzwiedziews until their hosts placed them in safe hideouts; a few stayed with them until the liberation. After the war, Miriam Furmańska, twenty years old when she had fled from the ghetto Minsk Mazowiecki, wrote the following about the Niedzwiedziews’ rescue actions: “In March 1943, after our money ran out and Regina Grynszpan, my friend, and I had lost hope and wanted to commit suicide, a Pole came over to us, had pity on us, and led us to the home of Leokadia Niedzwiedziew and her daughter Teodozja. After I spent about a month with them, Teodozja arranged a job for me and I went to live elsewhere. Basia Abramowicz took my place and stayed there with Regina until the end of the war.” Another Jew who fled to the Niedzwiedziews’ home was Dr. Adam Festensztat, who was being pursued by extortionists; the Niedzwiedziews arranged a hideout for him with their relatives in a village. Additional Jews who found asylum with the Niedzwiedziews were the attorney Stefan Monitz, the barber Adam Kamień, two sisters named Hanna and Paulina, and a six-year-old boy Józia, whom they concealed with their rural relatives for his safety. After the war, the survivors emigrated to several different countries. A few of them stayed in touch with the Niedzwiedziews for many years and recalled how, for no material reward, they had risked their lives to save them. On January 11, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized TeodozjaKlaper-Niedzwiedziew and her mother, Leokadia Niedzwiedziew, as Righteous Among the Nations.