Jagiełłowicz Michał

Jagiellowicz, Michal Yurechko, Ostap Michal or (Mieszko) Jagiellowicz, a Pole, resided in the town of Rozniatow, Stanislawow (later Ivano-Frankivsk) District. With the start of the German occupation of Rozniatow, at the beginning of July 1941, Mieszko did not remain indifferent to the fate of the persecuted Jews and put much effort in saving the human lives. On August 27, 1942 the Jews of Rozniatow were ordered to leave their homes and belongings and move to Halicz, Kalusz, Bolechow or Dolina, where ghettos have been established. Only four Jewish families remained in town – the doctors and the druggist, to be murdered later. The majority of the Rozniatow Jews shared the fate of the Jewish communities they joined after the expulsion. But Some 50 people managed to hide during numerous Aktionen and to survive until the liberation. 18 out of them found refuge at Mieszko’s home. With the help of his Ukrainian assistant, Ostap Yurechko, Mieszko found some of those people in forests where they have been hiding after their runaway from ghettos. Others found their way to Mieszko’s home alone. Mieszko found Ida, the daughter of a local manufacturer Hersh Landsman, at the gathering point of the Jews right before the deportation and released her, bribing the guards. She was living openly at the house of her benefactor, under the guise of a maid, helping Stefka, Mieszko’s niece, with the house chores. Among the Jews that were hiding at Mieszko’s home were Aharon Vaidman, Ishaya Lutvak, Meir Ungar with his wife Dozia and two children, Mendel and Hana Landerman, Blima Horowicz, Yakov Laufer, a ten-year-old David Halpern from Kalusz, Baruch and Sara Widman and others. In Spring 1944 Mieszko, now himself persecuted by the Ukrainian Bandera gangs, had to flee from his own home and search refuge with his friends. The care for the Jews, still hiding in his house, fell on Ostap Yurechko’s shoulders. He supplied them with food and safeguarded them until the liberation ofthe area in August 1944. In 1945 the Bandera people wounded Ostap Yurechko; a few days later he died of wounds. The Jewish survivors left Ukraine and dispersed over the world, some of them settled in the USA. They kept in touch with Mieszko and his wife Ida (nee Landsman) who were living in Poland after the war. On September 28, 2006 Yad Vashem recognized Michal (Mieszko) Jagiellowicz and Ostap Yurechko as Righteous Among the Nations.