Pałys Katarzyna (Bielawska); Daughter: Łuska Janina (Pałys)

Palys, Katarzyna Luska-Palys, Janina In late 1942, just before the liquidation of the Czortkow ghetto, in the Tarnopol district, in Eastern Galicia, Pola Henefeld brought five-year-old Basia Gajewska, the daughter of family friends, and Basia’s aunt Irena to the home of Katarzyna Palys and her daughter Janina, who agreed to hide them. Katarzyna transferred Irena to the Kielce area, where she survived using false “Aryan” papers. She kept young Basia with her, raising her alongside her granddaughter, Janina’s daughter. Palys and her daughter cared for Basia devotedly and treated her as if she were a member of the family without asking for or receiving anything in return. After the war, Irena returned to Czortkow, and Palys returned her niece to her safe and sound. Even before the war, the members of the Palys family were known for their good treatment of Jews, and everything they did during the war to save Jews was motivated by pure altruism. After the war, the rescuers moved, together with Pola Henefeld, to an area within the new Polish borders. The fate of Basia and Irena remains unknown. On June 6, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Katarzyna Palys and her daughter Janina Luska (neé Palys) as Righteous Among the Nations. File 5759