Dąbrowski Franciszek & Dąbrowska Maria

Dąbrowski, Franciszek Dąbrowska, Maria Genia Zeifert, née Schifer, was born in 1925 in Vladimir-Volynsk. She was the youngest of six children. Her family owned a small chocolate factory that was nationalized by the Soviets in 1939, after that part of Poland had been annexed by the USSR. Following the German occupation, Genia’s family was incarcerated in the ghetto (only one sister, Mala, immigrated to Eretz Israel prior to the war and thus survived). In December 1943 Genia escaped. She intended to reach a certain farmstead where her elder sister Hana was hiding, together with her fiancé and his family. But the farmers refused to accept Genia: they did not want to take in more Jews. She wandered the rural area for 10 days, trying to find shelter, but no one was ready to help her. In her desperation, Genia decided to return to Vladimir-Volynsk and give herself up to the police. She crossed the guarded bridge at the entrance to the town with a group of farmers and sat down to rest near someone’s house; she felt dizzy from hunger. After some time a man came out, holding a dog, and asked Genia what she wanted. She responded that she would only like to warm herself a bit inside the house, if he would let her. To her joy and surprise the man ushered her in. Inside the house a woman seated Genia near the fire and served her a warm dinner. Then she was invited to stay overnight in the barn. The house that Genia was welcomed to belonged to a Pole Franciszek (Franc) Dąbrowski, and his Russian wife Maria. Franc had a job on the town council and a good salary; Maria was a housewife. She liked Genia from the start and pleaded with Franc to allow the girl to stay. Because of her Jewish look Genia could not stay with the family openly, so Franc put her in his hideout: a double wall in one of the rooms with a narrow space in between, where the Dąbrowskis kept their money and jewelry – Franc was afraid they might be robbed, since they were considered wealthy. Genia spent thenext seven months in that hiding place; during the day she slept or sat quietly, listening to what was going on outside. At night, when the doors were locked and the shutters closed she would spend time with her hosts, dining with them, having long conversations with Maria and planning her future. Seven months later the Russians arrived, and Genia was liberated. She soon found out that none of her relatives had survived, and so decided to stay with her rescuers, who treated her like their own daughter. But her plans changed after an encounter with Halina Shraga, a Jewish girl of Genia’s age. Halina, her parents and several other Jews survived in hiding thanks to the Polish Ziental* family. The Shragas intended to go to Eretz Israel and Genia decided to join them, hoping to find her sister there. In 1946 she left the Dąbrowskis and headed to the West. While still in Poland and later in Germany, she exchanged some letters with Maria, but then their communication stopped. Many years later Genia found out that Franc and Maria had passed away in Vladimir-Volynsk in the 1970s. On June 15, 2009 Yad Vashem recognized Franciszek (Franc) and Maria Dąbrowski as Righteous Among the Nations.