Szulc Stanisław & Jadwiga

Szulc, Stanisław Szulc, Jadwiga Mayer Lamet was born in 1916 in Sambor, Poland (today Ukraine), one of five siblings. His father Mordechai and brother Isaac each owned a fabric store, which provided the family with a comfortable income. Mayer attended the renowned Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva. In 1939 the Germans invaded Poland, and then the Russians. In 1941 the Germans returned, bringing with them numerous antisemitic decrees, and eventually creating a ghetto in Sambor in which all the Jews of the town were forced to live. Mordechai and Isaac Lamet transferred their fabric inventory to Stanisław and Jadwiga Szulc, a Volksdeutsche family of loyal prewar customers who lived on a nearby farm with their two young children. In May 1943, the liquidation of the ghetto began. During one of the Aktions, the Lamet family hid in a bunker for three days. Usually after an Aktion, friends would come to let them know that the danger had passed. This time, however, nobody showed up. The Lamets knew at once that the situation was bad. Mayer left the bunker first and some Ukrainians burst inside immediately afterwards, but in the mayhem everyone escaped. They found few Jews left alive in the ghetto. Mayer, Isaac, their sister Necha and another woman ran to the Szulc farm and hid in their wheat fields for six weeks. Jadwiga and Stanisław provided them with food and water. Stanisław then built a shelter for them inside a large stack of bricks he kept in his barn. There was only enough room for two people to sit up and two to lie down at one time. One brick could be removed to make an opening, through which Jadwiga pushed in food every day. The Szulc children were kept unaware of the hidden refugees, in order to keep them from inadvertently revealing the secret. The refugees stayed in the shelter for 15 months, until liberation. Mayer Lamet later testified that the Szulces believed in simply "doing the right thing," as no reward was ever offered or requested for theirbravery. Sadly, the Lamets were unable to find their rescuers after the war. On June 5, 2007, Yad Vashem recognized Stanisław and Jadwiga Szulc as Righteous Among the Nations.