The Righteous Honorata Mucha has passed away

Honorata Mucha lived in Bronów (Świętokrzyskie Province) for her whole life. Towards the end of 1942 the brothers Josek, Chaim and Pinkas Federman from Dzieduszyce came to the house of her parents: Marianna Matuszczyk née Bryła and Stanisław Matuszczyk. They asked them for shelter.

The Matuszczyks hid them in their barn, covering their hiding place with clothes and straw. The brothers only left their shelter at night, to wash, get a breath of fresh air and to stretch.

During the day, the Matuszczyks brought them food, pretending they were going to the pigpen with a bucket or to get some vegetables with a basket. Despite these measures, one of the neighbors denounced the farmers and the Germans carried out a search at their house. They did not find anything.

The Federmans left Poland right after the war. They were not in touch with the Matuszczyks. It was only 60 years after the war that Chaim’s daughter Ryfka and her husband Menachem Daum visited the house of Honorata Mucha.

The story of hiding and of the relations between the two families was presented in the film „Hiding and Seeking. Faith and Tolerance After Holocaust” (2004), directed by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky.

The authors of the film tried to answer the question why the rescued did not get in contact – of were not able to do that – with the people who risked their lives to save them during the war. The meeting after years allowed the two families to find themselves once again. Since that time Menachem Daum visited Honorata Mucha every year and the Federmans set up an educational fund for her great-grandchildren.

Menachem Daum wrote: “I visited Mrs. Mucha every year […]and she always made me feel like a member of  her family.  Every year, as we would part, she would cry and say this is probably the last time we will see each other. […] She was a great person whom I will greatly miss.”

More about the Matuszczyk family on the portal „Polscy Sprawiedliwi”.