Wojczys Paweł & Józefa (Cycan)

Wojczys, Paweł Wojczys, Józefa Early in April 1943, David Mogilnik and his three big children, Jakob, Sara, and Gita, fled from the Święciany ghetto (Wilno District), which was soon to be liquidated, after his wife, Asna, and his son, Boris, and other members of the family had been murdered. They wandered from village to village and hid in the forests throughout that spring and during the summer seeking a permanent hiding place. Finally, they came to the village of Mieleniszki, near the town of Widze in the same district, and found a haven in a bathhouse that belonged to one of their acquaintances, Paweł Wojczys. When they came to his place, the seasons had already changed and the fall had set in, with the days getting colder. In the evenings, the Mogilniks would go into the Wojczys’ home to warm up a bit and to eat supper with them. However, when the Mogilniks asked for permission to dig a shelter in the yard before winter, the Wojczys refused at first, because they were afraid of endangering their family – Paweł and Józefa Wojczy had four children between the ages of 7 to 14. Poor, but compassionate and devout Catholics, they were moved to pity one evening when the Mogilniks came into their home. Józefa turned to her husband and said, “I cannot bear to see the Mogilniks suffering any more. Let them dig a shelter in the barn and God will help us.” Paweł agreed and allowed the Mogilniks to dig a camouflaged shelter inside the barn. His son, Kazimierz, who was 12-years-old at the time, was put in charge of bringing them food, and he carried out this task faithfully. During that entire period, the Wojczys’ neighbors suspected them of hiding Jews and that made Paweł very anxious that they might inform on him. When spring came and the weather improved, he asked the Mogilniks to vacate the shelter, but they tarried. As a last resort, the Mogilniks gave Paweł a letter addressed to the community priest in Widze describing their plight and asked him to be the judge. The priest gave Paweł a sum of money and some flowers and instructed him to leave the Jews in the hideout and said he would pray for all of them, and that in the meantime the war would end. Paweł followed the priest’s instructions and left the Mogilniks in their hideout until the liberation in July 1944. On December 9, 2002, Yad Vashem recognized Paweł and Józefa Wojczys as Righteous Among the Nations.