Lisieczynski Jan & Lisieczynska Julia

Lisieczyński, Jan Lisieczyńska, Julia Benzion Reiber was born in 1928 in Włodzimierz Wołyński to Sara and Icchak Reiber. In 1930, his sister Bela was born, and in 1933 – a brother, named Jechezkiel. When the German army arrived in the town, Icchak Reiber was sent to forced labor at the local dairy farm. His boss was a Pole named Jan Lisieczyński, and the two men soon became good friends. Each day after work, Lisieczyński sent his two granddaughters with food for Icchak and his family. This kind deed continued even after the ghetto was established. With the pressure on the Jews in the ghetto mounting, and conditions becoming unbearable, the scattered members of the Reiber family did their best to fend for themselves. One day, Jan Lisieczyński approached Icchak and offered to shelter him in his house. Icchak had grown to trust Jan so much that he not only agreed to hide in his home, but also entrusted him with his entire savings, 30,000 rubles. Meanwhile, someone told Benzion that a Polish man was looking for him by the ghetto wall. When he arrived at the appointed spot, he saw the two girls who used to bring his family food, together with a man who turned out to be Jan Lisieczyński’s son. The man told Benzion that that his father was sheltering Iccak, and that he was there to rescue the rest of the family. Benzion did not know where his mother and sister were, so only Benzion and Jechezkiel left with him. When the Germans established a new ghetto for Jews with professions, including assigned living quarters, Icchak Reiber, a professional painter, decided to return. The family remained there from October 1942 until December 1943, although the two children often returned to the Lisieczyńskis' house when the situation was particularly dangerous. When the ghetto was finally liquidated, everyone in it was killed, including Icchak Reiber. From that day on, Benzion and Jechezkiel were kept and lovingly brought up by Jan Lisieczyński and his wife Julia.One day, Benzion overheard a discussion taking place next to their hideout. Some members of the family were opposing the children’s presence, but Jan put an end to the conversation, saying that as long as he was alive, the children would live with him. They stayed with the Lisieczyńskis until liberation in June 1944. After the war, Włodzimierz Wołyński became part of the Soviet Union, and the Lisieczyńskis moved to Poland. They left the house and everything in it in the care of the two young Reibers. Furthermore, Jan returned to them the 30,000 rubles their father had given him for safekeeping. Six months later, the boys went to Lublin where they found a Jewish organization that helped them. After a brief separation, both arrived in Israel in the early 1950s. On March 7, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Jan and Julia Lisieczyński as Righteous Among the Nations.