Turzanska Stefania

Turzańska, Stefania Lidia Weiss, born in 1938, was the only daughter to a Jewish couple living in Prague. When the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939, the Weiss family fled to Turka near Lwów, Poland, their original hometown. At the time, the town was under Russian control. On June 22, 1939, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, and Turka was immediately occupied. The Jews of the area were subjected to various inhumanities and killed in their hundreds. During one such aktion, Lidia and her mother were captured and taken to the nearest ghetto. On the way, Nella Zhantarova, a Polish acquaintance, approached them and offered to help. Lidia’s mother managed to transfer her infant into Zhantarova's hands. Because Zhantarova lived in a densely populated area of town where everyone knew her, she realized she could not keep the girl. She took Lidia to her sister, Stefania Turzańska, whose house was in a remote part of Turka. Turzańska was a devout Catholic, married but childless, although her husband’s son from a previous marriage lived with her. Her husband had been drafted to the Polish army in 1939, and his whereabouts were unknown. Nobody but Turzańska’s stepson and Nella Zhantarova, who was one of four sisters, knew about Lidia and her origins. Eventually the neighbors did realize that a Jewish child was being hidden in the house, and they denounced Turzańska. When German soldiers arrived demanding the girl, Turzańska pointed to her sister’s daughter toddling around the house and said that the neighbors had probably mistaken her for a Jewish child. Lidia was hidden in a sack by the laundry, and the soldiers did not find her. Soon after the war, a family acquaintance found Lidia and told her that her parents had both been killed. She told him the story of her rescue. Lidia remained with Stefania Turzańska, living as her adopted daughter until 1957 when she immigrated to Israel. The two women continued to write to each other until Turzańska’sdeath two years later. On February 27, 2008, Yad Vashem recognized Stefania Turzańska as Righteous Among the Nations.