Szkilnik Jadwiga (Sokalska); Mother: Sokalska Helena

Szkilnik, Jadwiga Sokalska, Helena Dr. Markus Boruch Szmajuk was a medical doctor living with his wife, Nina, and daughter, Zuzanna, in Zbaraż, Poland. When the Nazis arrived in July 1941, they established a ghetto, and the Szmajuks lived in it from the outset. However, Dr. Szmajuk had official permission to leave the ghetto because a typhus epidemic had broken out in the area, and he needed to administer vaccinations and treat the infected. This enabled Dr. Szmajuk to reach out to Jadwiga Szkilnik and her mother, Helena Sokalska, Polish women who lived in the nearby village of Kretowce. He had known them before the war, having treated both Jadwiga’s little daughter and Helena in the past, and the family was very grateful to him. Dr. Szmajuk asked them to take in his wife, Nina, and protect her. Little Zuzanna was hidden with someone else at the time. Dr. Szmajuk remained in the ghetto working as a physician, and every day, walking out to work, he would smuggle out some bricks in his bag so that a wall could be built in front of the hiding place, made behind the oven, in Helena and Jadwiga’s house. At night, Jadwiga would dig up clay, mix it with straw, and make additional bricks. Slowly and painstakingly, they built the wall and made an entrance into the room, fearing only that the neighbors would notice. Jadwiga and Helena lived just across from the local Nazi headquarters, which, they reasoned, was good—the Nazis might not think to look under their own noses for hidden Jews. Still, Jadwiga had to take great care not to make any noise while forming the passage into the hideout. Once the place was ready, Nina arrived, and after the liquidation of the ghetto, so did her husband. It appeared that the little girl’s presence in the other hideout had been discovered, so she too needed to be transferred to the house. It was agreed that the man who had the child would bring her to the market, where Helena would come to fetch her. Zuzanna was to stay silent and follow her without anyone noticing. Surprisingly, Zuzanna understood and came with Helena without saying a word, and together they walked to the house where Nina was waiting. “There are no words to describe their meeting,” wrote Jadwiga in a letter of testimony, “Tears still fill my eyes as I write of this, for our fates have been linked forever.” The danger involved was immense, but despite it Jadwiga and Helena painstakingly cared for the refugees until the liberation. Jadwiga brought them food and took out their waste every day, while Helena kept a lookout, cared for Zuzanna, and made sure she stayed in the chicken coop. Only at night would the child go inside and sit in the oven nook. Most days the three refugees stayed inside, leaving the hideout only very rarely, to get some air. Once a week Jadwiga would organize a way for them to wash. Helena did the shopping, and twice during the approximately two-year period they hid there (1942–1944), Nina managed to sneak over to acquaintances of hers and bring back food or a little money. In this way they continued until the liberation of the area. Then fate separated them, because the Szmajuks went straight to Poland and asked Jadwiga to join them, but Helena became paralyzed and soon passed away, and in the time it took Jadwiga to care for her and say goodbye, the family had already moved on to France. They managed to stay in touch and would sometimes send small packages to their rescuer. “I am not looking for fame and honor,” wrote Jadwiga, “I want this to remain a romantic notion: I managed to hide three Jews under the noses of the policemen.” On August 20, 2013, Yad Vashem recognized Jadwiga Szkilnik and Helena Sokalska as Righteous Among the Nations.