Wilczkiewicz Teresa (Tekiela)

Burza-Wilczkiewicz, Teresa Julia Bernklau was born in 1935 in Kolomyja, Poland, to schoolteacher Malvina Sturm and engineer Ozius Bernklau. She was their only child. Her grandfather, Ignaz Sturm, had a live-in housekeeper, a Polish woman named Teresa Wilczkiewicz. When the Germans occupied Kolomyja, the Bernklau’s situation immediately became impossible. From the comfort of their own home, which the Germans plundered, they were transferred to the confines of the ghetto. Soon Malvina was taken away in an Aktion (mass execution), and she died in Belżec, as Julia later learned. The 5-year-old child remained with her father and three uncles, who decided to smuggle her into Hungary. There was an altercation at the border, and they were all shot, with the exception of Shimon, Ozius’s brother, and Julia, who was probably hidden from sight by one of the bodies. Shimon took Julia to her grandfather Ignaz’s house, where faithful Teresa had remained with Ignaz and was hiding him in the attic. Julia joined her grandfather and the two were cared for by her. Not only did she feed and tend to them for several years, she did it with several Nazi officers living in the same house. They had taken over the ground floor, so for years Ignaz and Julia could only speak in whispers. Luckily, the Nazis retained Teresa as housekeeper and cook, so she was able to smuggle food to the grandfather and child. Ignaz, meanwhile, managed to educate Julia, and she remembers making dolls out of paper to play with. One day Teresa overheard the Nazis planning to search the attic. She got Ignaz and Julia out of the house just in time; after the danger passed, they were able to return and spend the rest of the war there, with the Nazis none the wiser. When the Russians came, the family left the attic. They found a new house to live in, and Teresa remained with them. After a while Julia moved to Australia to join Maurice Bern, her uncle, while Ignaz stayed in Poland and eventually marriedTeresa. Julia was raised by her aunt and uncle, and in her testimony to Yad Vashem, she described the family she had created later, adding that “none of that would have happened to me were it not for the heroic and selfless efforts of Teresa Wilczkiewicz all those years ago.” On January 10, 2012, Yad Vashem recognized Burza-Wilczkiewicz, Teresa as Righteous Among the Nations.