Landau Wacława (Grudzień); Sister: Grudzień Lucyna

Grudzień Landau Wacława Liliana Grudzień Lucyna Jerzy Rabiner (later - Giora Bar Nir) was born in 1936 in Warsaw, to mother Jadwiga Roza Landau Rabiner; his father was an officer in the Polish army, was captured by the Russians and killed at Katyń. Jadwiga and Jerzy stayed in Warsaw and were subsequently imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto until January 1943, when Jadwiga’s friend Feliks Finkelsztain helped them escape to the Aryan side. They were all taken in by Liliana (Lilka) Grudzień, girlfriend of Adolf Landau, Jadwiga’s brother, who was already hiding at Lilka’s. All five lived in one room on the 5th floor, Lilka taking care of everyone. Lilka had two sisters. The younger, Lucyna, took in Jadwiga and Feliks when living in the same room became unbearable for the group. They stayed with her until April 1943, whereupon they were all three discovered and sent to Treblinka, never to be heard from again. Meanwhile, Jerzy stayed with his uncle Adolf at Liliana’s. Eventually another, safer place was found for him outside Warsaw, for a fee paid by his grandmother who was then taken prisoner as a Polish woman and sent to Germany to work. In mid-1944, Jerzy returned to Liliana’s house. She was now married to Adolf. The three survived the war together. Eventually, Liliana and Adolf had two daughters together, Jolanda and Jadwiga, named after Jerzy’s late mother. Jerzy was collected by a Jewish orphanage at the end of the war, and sent to Palestine via France. He grew up in Israel and became a navigator for the air force. On 11.11.2008, Yad Vashem recognized Liliana Wacława Grudzień Landau and her sister Lucyna Grudzień as Righteous Among the Nations. #11448