Leszczynska Helena

Leszczyńska, Helena Popiel, Matrena Popiel, Vasili Popiel, Stefania Before World War II, the Lipman family, parents Abraham and Etka and their son Józef, from Borysław (today in Ukraine), owned a sawmill, and was integrated in the local community. They had both Polish and Ukrainian non-Jewish friends. The three managed to survive the war in a hostile environment thanks to their help. Among these were the Polish woman Helena Leszczyńska and the Ukrainian Popiel family. Helena had been a neighbor of the Lipmans before the war, and she and Etka, and their children were friends of longstanding. This friendship was not affected during the occupation period. When the Germans restricted the movement of Jews, Helena helped Etka to sell family belongings in order to purchase food. During the murder operation perpetrated against the Jews of the city in the fall of 1942, Etka, with her son Józef, found refuge in Helena's apartment. Those days of terror were etched in their memory as a shared experience. Helena with her two children sang church hymns during the German roundup of Jews in order to overcome their fear together. Another family that helped the Lipmans was the Popiel family, who were also their close neighbors. The Popiels were a family of three, the widowed mother Matrena who lived with her son Vasili, then in training to become Greek-Catholic religious teacher, and his young wife Stefania. In the winter of 1942, Etka and her son hid for about two months in the farm buildings in their yard. After the liquidation of the ghetto in 1943, they went back to hide with them during the months of June-October 1943. The hiding conditions were extremely harsh and Matrena did everything in her power to make them easier. In the evenings, she invited them into her home to sit in comfort for a while andlessen their solitude. In the summer of 1944, a few weeks before the liberation, the Lipman family had to hide in the fields near the village of Górny Potok. Then too, the Popiel home continued to serve as a support base, and they would arrive there at night in order to receive food staples. On June 4, 2003 Yad Vashem recognized Helena Leszczyńska, Matrena Popiel, her son Vasili Popiel and her daughter-in-law Stefania Popiel, as Righteous Among the Nations.