Nowicka Łucja (Czajka)

Nowicka-Eisen Łucja After escaping from the concentration camp on Janowska Street in Lwow, Isaac Eisen smuggled his married daughter, her husband and their two little girls out of the ghetto, and all fled to the forest in the hope that there they would somehow survive. The conditions in the forest became very difficult for all of them but especially for the two little girls. Eisen consequently decided to look for a more favorable hiding place for the girls and consequently approached acquaintance Łucja Nowicka, a poor widow that worked in the household of a wealthy Polish family. Eisen asked Nowicka to take the little girls and care for them, and she took them with her to the home of her employers, where she had a room, presenting the two young fugitives as her nieces. Her employers, however, told her that they would only allow her to keep one of the girls and having no choice, Nowicka gave Tola, the younger girl, to a Catholic children’s home and never saw her again. Jula, the older sister, remained with Nowicka until the liberation, but her parents perished, and Isaac Eisen, the grandfather, remained alone in the forest. When Nowicka learned of this, she suggested that he assume her late husband’s identity and hide near the house where she worked. Nowicka bought Eisen clothes and rented a room for him, but because she did not have enough money to support him, she sold objects she took from her employers’ home to buy food for him. After the war, Eisen married Nowicka and they immigrated to the United States together with Eisen’s granddaughter Jula. On December 11, 1986, Yad Vashem recognized Łucja Nowicka-Eisen as Righteous Among the Nations.