Pruski Michał & Pruska Anna ; Daughter: Siemiątkowska Kazimiera (Pruska); Daughter: Leszczuk Bronisława (Pruska); Daughter: Stemerowicz Izabela (Pruska)

Pruski Michał Pruska Anna Leszczuk-Pruska Bronisława Siemiątkowska-Pruska Kazimiera Stemerowicz-Pruska Izabela In 1942, after the Germans conducted an Aktion in the Tłuste ghetto, in Eastern Galicia, Bluma Wagner, 16, was deported to a forced-labor camp in the village of Różnówka. Wagner soon realized that this camp, too, was about to be liquidated, and on the eve of the liquidation of the camp, a Polish guard warned her and helped her escape from the camp. All alone, Wagner fled to the forest near Jezierzany, the village where she had been born, in the Tarnopol district. There she joined up with a group of Jews, including relatives of hers, hiding in a bunker deep in the forest. The fugitives bought their provisions from farmers in the area, including from the Pruski family of Jezierzany. Having been born in the village, Wagner knew the family and had been friendly with their older daughters. Ukrainian nationalists eventually discovered the presence of the Jewish families in the forest, and, together with the Germans, brutally murdered them all. Wagner, who miraculously survived, was taken in by a Pole that had known her father, and after he allowed her to wash up and gave her to eat, took her to the Pruski family. Michał and Anna Pruski and their grown daughters Bronisława, Kazimiera and Izabela received Wagner warmly, arranged a hiding place for her in their cowshed where they cared for her as if she were a member of the family. Nine-year-old Shalom Etzion, a cousin of Wagner, later joined her. The Pruski family hid him together with Wagner and they remained there until the liberation in the spring of 1944. Because they were orphans with nowhere to go, the two Jewish fugitives remained with the Pruski family until 1945, and after the Pruski family moved to Silesia, the two orphans were transferred to the care of the local Jewish community. The Pruski family’s actions to save Wagner and Etzion were motivated by humane principles, without asking for orreceiving any compensation in return. Wagner eventually immigrated to Israel and her cousin immigrated to England. On May 15, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Pruska, her husband Michał Pruski, and their daughters Bronisława Pruska-Leszczuk and Izabela Pruska-Stemerowicz as Righteous Among the Nations. On February 11, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Kazimiera Pruska-Siemiątkowska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 4909