Kryński Stanisław & Kryńska Jadwiga ; Son: Zygmunt ; Daughter: Kryńska Stanislawa

Kryński, Stanislaw Kryńska, Jadwiga Kryńska, Stanislawa Kryński, Zygmunt In November 1942 the Zoltak family—Israel Zoltak, his wife, Henia, and their son, Yehoshua (Sidney)—escaped the liquidation of the ghetto in the town of Siemiatycze, in the Białystok district. For several months they wandered through the surrounding woods and villages, moving from one hiding place to another without managing to find a permanent safe place. In May 1943, while hiding in the forest after being chased out of yet another hiding place, they ran into a young shepherd boy named Zygmunt Kryński. Israel struck up a conversation with him and asked Kryński if his family could help them. The boy went and got his oldest sister, Stanislawa, who recognized Henia as the owner of a clothing store before the war. Stanislawa remembered her fondly because Henia once let her buy a coat when she did not have enough money. Stanislawa said she had to ask her parents. After a few hours she returned with their consent and led the Zoltaks to her family’s farm. Stanislaw and Jadwiga Kryński lived with their five children on a small farm on the outskirts of the village of Krynki-Sobole. They arranged a hiding place in one of their barns, where the three members of the Zoltak family were later joined by Yehoshua Kejles (Henia’s brother) and his friends Chaim Marmur, Chazkel Rozenzweig, and a man called Fayvel. The now seven Jewish refugees made use of several hiding places on the farm—first staying in the barns and later moving to larger, better concealed hideouts dug underground. The Kryńskis were very poor and could barely afford to feed their own family, let alone seven additional people. The task of getting food was charged to Kejles, Marmur, and Rozenzweig. Sometimes they would sneak out at night to look for food on other farms, other times they would get it by trading or stealing. Henia, who grew up in the Polish countryside and could pass for a local, both in her appearance and herspeech, was the only one to come out of the hideouts during the daytime and enter the main house. She was often responsible for cooking for all 14 people staying on the farm. The Jewish refugees and their rescuers lived in fear of searches, not only by German forces but also by anti-Semitic units of the Polish resistance movement. On one occasion one such unit arrived on the farm following rumors that the Kryńskis were hiding Jews. They spent an entire day searching every inch of the farm but fortunately did not manage to find the hideout, which was very well concealed under a cowshed. After this incident the seven wanted to leave the farm, feeling the danger they were putting their rescuers in was too great, but Stanislaw and Jadwiga would not let them leave, saying they were like family. “Jadwiga and Stanislaw believed in helping people no matter who they were,” wrote Sidney Zoltak in his testimony to Yad Vashem. “They were very religious Catholics, kind and compassionate.” The seven Jews stayed with the Kryńskis until the area was liberated by the Red Army in the summer of 1944. After the war they parted ways. Israel Zoltak died in a refugee camp in Italy in 1945. Henia immigrated to Canada with her son. From there she kept up a correspondence with her rescuers but without leaving her real name in the return address, as the Kryńskis still feared their neighbors finding out that they had helped Jews. After his mother passed away, Sidney Zoltak took over the correspondence, and in 1997 he went back to Poland for the first time to visit Zygmunt Kryński. On March 16, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Stanislaw Kryński and his wife, Jadwiga Kryńska, their daughter Stanislawa, and their son Zygmunt as Righteous Among the Nations.