Malova Yelena (Zavadskaya); Malova Yelena (Zawadzka); Mother: Zavadskaya Konstanzia

Zawadzka, Elena Zawadzka, Konstancja In February 1942, after Cylia Perelman’s husband died in the Mogilew Podolski ghetto, in the Vinitza district, in the Ukraine, Cylia, her daughter, Sara, and her son, Aleksander, were left destitute. The ghetto, where hunger and overcrowding were rife, was controlled by the occupation authorities, who frequently used to swoop down on Jewish youngsters in the ghetto, and send them to forced labor camps in Germany, where most of them perished. Elena Zawadzka, a childhood friend of Sara’s, used to enter the ghetto to supply the Perelmans with food and other commodities. In time, Konstancja, Zawadzka’s mother, also joined in the rescue venture and, as a senior employee in the municipality, used to warn them of imminent Aktionen and “recruitment raids” for candidates for forced labor. During the Aktionen, Zawadzka and her mother opened their door to the Perelmans, and hid them in their cellar until they were able to return to the ghetto. In the spring of 1944, the Zawadzkas, guided by a sincere friendship and Christian love, offered to hide the three Perelmans in their apartment, despite the danger, without expecting anything in return. The Perelmans stayed with the Zawadzkas until March 1944 when the area was liberated, after which they moved to an area within Poland’s new borders and later to the United States. The Zawadzkas stayed in the Ukraine, and Elena Zawadzka and Sara Perelman corresponded regularly for many years after the war. On September 29, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Elena Zavadskaya (Zawadzka) and her mother, Konstancja Zavadskaya (Zawadzka), as Righteous Among the Nations.