Płachcińska Felicja (Rzeczyńska); Son: Płachciński Ludwik

File 4527 Plachcińska, Felicja Plachciński, Ludwik During the occupation, Felicja Plachcińska, a widow, and her young son Ludwik lived in the city of Bochnia, in the Kraków district, working on the farm they owned, which bordered on the ghetto in the city. One day in 1942, 14-year-old Josef (Józef) Wiener, who was the same age as Ludwik, showed up on their doorstep. Wiener, who had lived in one of the nearby villages until he was deported together with his family to the Bochnia ghetto, asked Plachcińska, who had never met him before, if he could work for her watching the cows. Wiener did not hide the fact that he was Jewish and Plachcińska, who at first hesitated to take him in, finally agreed to employ him on condition that he slept in the cowshed. Wiener hid in Plachcińska’s farmyard for an entire year, until the final liquidation of the Bochnia ghetto in August 1943. After the liquidation of the ghetto, Plachcińska was wary of continuing to harbor Wiener because her neighbors had discovered that he was Jewish and she feared that they would inform on her to the authorities. Her son Ludwik took it upon himself to hide Wiener in a shed in the yard and provided for all his needs, but Wiener decided to leave the hiding place in the Plachciński yard and seek a safer place to hide in the area. He continued to hide out in Plachcińska’s house on weekends, and Plachcińska gave him food from time to time and sometimes allowed him to hide on her property for short periods. After a neighbor discovered Wiener on Plachcińska’s property, he was forced to part from her and her son permanently, but not before Ludwik taught him to behave like a Christian, even giving him a crucifix to wear before he left. After much wandering throughout the countryside under his false Christian identity, Wiener found a job on a farm near Kraków, were he remained until the liberation in early 1945. Motivated by pure altruism, Plachcińska, without asking for or receiving anything inreturn, also helped other Jews, who during the Aktion before the final liquidation of the ghetto used to hide in the bunker in her yard. After the war, Wiener immigrated to Israel and, in 1989, Plachcińska and her son visited him. On March 7, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Felicja Plachcińska and her son Ludwik Plachciński as Righteous Among the Nations.