Vale Lech Michał Rościszewski (1925–2019)

Redakcja / Editorial staff / English translation: Andrew Rajcher, 16 May 2019

With great sorrow we learned of the passing of Lech Michał Rościszewski, Righteous Among the Nations, a soldier in the Home Army, a professor of architecture and urban planning, awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. He passed away on 28th April 2019 in Kraków, aged 94. His funeral service too place on 11th May 2019 in the parish cemetery in Będkowice (Małopolskie Province).

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Dr Bierzyński appears and asks if he and his family could stay with us. We replied, “Of course, why couldn’t you stay here? There’s plenty of room”. A moment later, it turns out that Bierzyński’s close friend, Mrs Wagner and little Pawełek also need refuge. In the end, her distant friends from Kraków need help too. And so they all ended up with us.
– Lech Michał Rościszewski.

During World War II, Lech Michał Rościszewski, his parents, Lech Maria and Janina (née Śmieciuchowska) and his sister Janiną, helped Jews in Dolinia Będkowska (Małopolskie Province). Among those hidden in the Rościszewski home was young Paweł Wagner.

On 15th January 1990, in recognition of the help they provided, the Rościszewski family were honoured, by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. Their story was published on the Polish Righteous website. It was based on interviews given by Lech Michał and Janina Rościszewski to POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on 4th and 11th May 2009.

Lech Michał Rościszewski passed away on 28th April 2019 in Kraków at the age of 94.