Witomska Maria ; Son: Witomski Jan ; Son: Witomski Ignacy ; Son: Witomski Kazimierz

WITOMSKA, MARIA WITOMSKI, KAZIMIERZ WITOMSKI, IGNACY-WILHELM WITOMSKI, JAN ZARANEK, STANISŁAW Maria Witomska lived during the war in Budzanow, in the county of Tremblowa, Tarnopol district. She had to raise her three sons, Jan, Kazimierz, and Ignacy-Wilhelm, all by herself because her husband, Marian, was arrested in 1940 by the NKWD and their oldest son, Tadeusz, had been taken by the Germans in 1942 for forced labor. The Kleiner family - Józef, his wife Yocheved, and their son Adolf (about fourteen years old) - had fled the Trembowla ghetto. In July 1943, the Ukrainian that was hiding them told them to leave the shelter because he had learned that Ukrainian nationalists were planning to kill them. With no place to go, the Kleiners turned for help to their closest prewar neighbors - Maria Witomska and her children. Even though the Witomskis were poor and all depended on Ignacy-Wilhelm who was an electrician, they nevertheless accepted the Kleiners. One week later, however, a Polish neighbor warned the Witomskis that the Ukrainian nationalists knew that the Kleiners were staying at their house. Ignacy began looking for a way out of the dangerous situation. He decided to turn to a friend of his, Stanisław Zaranek. He was a lonely man whose house stood some 250 meters from the Witomskis’ home. Next to his home were a garden and a detached cellar. Ignacy induced Zaranek to agree to have a hideout for the fugitives in his cellar, promising him in return to guarantee to help him out financially to compensate for feeding the fugitives. Along with his younger brothers, Kazimierz and Jan, Ignacy began working and within a few nights, they had dug out a shelter in which the Kleiners found refuge. Maria prepared food for them and washed their clothes. Every night, Zaranek or one of Ignacy’s brothers brought food to the Kleiners. Soon after the shelter was built, Koller Mieczysław (a pharmacist) and his wife Helena, Julian Silberman MD, his son Michał, andMizio Pohoryles, Adolf’s teacher, joined the Kleiners. All were looking for shelter from the Ukrainian nationalists. “We were packed together like canned fish. We were all fed by the Witomskis, who did not ask for any compensation,” wrote Adolf in his testimony. On March 24, 1944, the Red Army entered Budzanow and all of those hidden by the Witomskis were freed. “Helping the persecuted Jews, who were destined to be exterminated, we took into account the dangers that were facing us. However, being guided by humanitarian motives as well as political reasons, despite the lost independence we did not succumb to the compulsions of the German occupier and Ukrainian nationalists... we undertook this duty - having full satisfaction, as we saved the lives of eight Jews,” wrote Igancy-Wilhelm Witomski. After the war, the Kleiners immigrated to the United States and the rest left for Israel. The Witomskis also left Budzanow and moved to Warsaw and Jelenia Gora. On July 1, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Witomska and her sons, Ignacy-Wilhelm, Kazmierz, and Jan Witomski, as well as Stanisław Zaranek, as Righteous Among the Nations.