Huzarski Marian & Huzarska Alfreda ; Son: Fryderyk ; Son: Zbigniew

Huzarski, Marian Huzarska, Alfreda Huzarski, Fryderyk-Paweł Huzarski, Zbigniew-Antoni In the autumn of 1942, before the Brody ghetto in the Tarnopol district was closed, Julian Cygielman, a Jewish doctor, told Marian Huzarski, who lived in the nearby village of Sydonowka, how his family had been killed in the massacre the Germans and Ukrainians had unleashed against the local Jews. Dr. Cygielman, who was treating Huzarski’s sick son, asked Huzarski for help. With the approval of the local priest and Alfreda, his wife, Huzarski’s sons, Fryderyk and Zbigniew, who were active in the AK, brought Dr. Cygielman, his brother, and cousin, Menachem Riwkind, home in the middle of the night. The refugees hid in a hiding place that was prepared for them in the stable, with an emergency exit. The three Jewish refugees, who were practicing Jews, observed the dietary laws even in their hiding place. The Huzarskis purchased special dishes for them, and Alfreda prepared their food separately. As raids by gangs of nationalist Ukrainians in the village intensified, and a growing number of Polish farms were being burned down, Huzarski and his sons prepared an underground shelter for their three charges at the edge of the forest. After supplying them with provisions, the Huzarskis took Riwkind and the Cygielman brothers to their new hiding place, where they continued looking after them to the best of their ability. Unlike many farmers from Sydonowka who had moved to nearby towns, the Huzarskis decided not to abandon their charges, but to stay on in the village, and fight back with the few weapons they had if attacked. After laying mines in the farm buildings and lanes and fences surrounding their farm, they spent days guarding their house and the bunker where their charges were hiding, their weapons at the ready. In June 1944, the retreating Germans took cover in the Huzarskis’ farmyard. During the ensuing skirmishes, the entire house and all the farm buildings were burneddown. The Huzarskis took refuge in the nearby forest, and returned home next day to find the entire area swarming with Soviet soldiers who had liberated the area. Fearing for their charges, they hurried to the bunker, and informed them that the area had been liberated. After the war, Riwkind made the Huzarskis a present of his spacious home at 1, Nowogrodska Street, Bialystok, which, during the German occupation, had housed the ghetto head and the city’s rabbi (Riwkind’s son-in-law). Later, the Cygielman brothers and Menachem Riwkind immigrated to Israel where they carried on a correspondence with the Huzarskis. On October 25, 1984, Yad Vashem recognized Alfreda and Marian Huzarski and their sons, Fryderyk-Paweł and Zbigniew-Antoni, as Righteous Among the Nations.