Libich Zofia

Zofia Libich Before the war, Zofia Libich worked for the Ostern family in Łódź. She was a faithful employee, devoted to little Hana Ostern (b. 1933). When the Germans occupied the city and arrived at the house to take away all of its Jewish inhabitants, Libich hid Hana in her attic. She managed to divert attention from her small apartment and thus avoid Hana's discovery. Hana’s parents Freida and Jakub were taken to a transit camp, but managed to escape to Dębica. Thinking they were safe, they contacted Libich and asked her to bring Hana to them. This entailed, among other perils, illegally crossing the border twice between the Nazi-occupied territories and the Generalgouvernement. Soon, a ghetto was established in Dębica and the situation became dangerous once more. Libich heard rumors of this development and stole her way over the border again to steal Hana out of the ghetto, as agreed with her father Jakub. Having taken the child back to Łódź, Libich hid her in her apartment again. All this was done purely out of love for the child; no remuneration was or could have been offered – Jakub was a university professor and had no means to pay Libich for her help. After a while, Hana began leaving the house, sometimes going as far as the factory where Libich worked. Libich told the neighbors that Hana was her relatives’ child. One day, as Libich and Hana were returning from the factory, they saw a Gestapo patrol waiting at the door. Libich gestured to Hana to stay back. The Gestapo men took her and drove away with her, leaving Hana alone with nowhere to go, because Libich's place was sealed. Hana wandered the streets of Łódź until she ran into a Jewish family acquaintance who was living under an assumed identity. The woman decided to take Hana back to her father in Dębica. There the ghetto had been liquidated, with just a men’s labor camp remaining. Hana was hidden there with another little girl, and at the time of the camp’s liquidation, their fathers bribed the guards to let their daughters escape. Shelter was arranged for them in the home of an elderly peasant, but that was far from ideal, as the peasant’s son threatened to denounce the girls. Hana decided to go find her father at his place of labor. Together, they escaped and hid in their former neighbors’ house. Three days later, there was an amazing surprise: Libich, released from prison after three-and-a-half months of torture, had braved every possible risk and come to their rescue again, willing to help at any cost. The journey to Łódź was perilous and difficult. Libich tried to convince Jakub to hide in her apartment, but he refused to endanger her and Hana, and chose to stay behind in Piotrków, where he was murdered several months later. Hana stayed with Zofia until the end of the war, and continued living with her until her rescuer’s death in 1950 at the age of 49. On March 9, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Zofia Libich as Righteous Among the Nations.