Dr Antoni Docha, together with his wife Dr Janina née Bartoszewicz, lived and ran a medical practice in the village of Indura (now in Belarus). From 1943, they cared for the family of Dr Chaim Blumstein - himself a doctor, his wife Estera, as well as their sons Alex and Nataniel.
In his diaries, Dr Docha wrote, “In Grodno, I had a Jewish colleague, Dr Blumstein. He asked me to save his life and that of his family. That was easy to say, but so hard to do. In the event of failure, it meant certain death. But he was my colleague.
We rented a German truck operated by a Polish car driver. We placed Dr Blumstein's entire family on the floor. We covered them with rags over which we placed various pieces of equipment, mostly wooden, and ... off we went”.
Passing one German military checkpoint, the driver could not stand the pressure and threw all of them out of the truck, including Dr Docha. They reached the Docha house on foot.
Initially, with his older son Nathaniel, Dr Chaim Blumstein planned to reach Warsaw and to live there on the “Aryan side”. Dr Docha found a hiding-place for Estera and Alex in the home of the Staniewski family, whom he had visited in order to treat their paralysed father. The Staniewski family lived in Staniewicze, around 40 km away from Grodno.
When, in February 1943, Frania Broide escaped from the Grodno ghetto which was at that time being liquidated, she already knew about the doctor from Indura who helped Jews.
Frania turned to Dr Docha and asked him to help her to rescue her little daughter. They agreed that he would leave her daughter on the steps of the house of a family whom he knew would care for her. The girl remained with that family until the liberation. Frania, on the other hand, joined Estera and Alex.
Unfortunately, Chaim and Nataniel did not make it to Warsaw. They also took refuge in the Staniewski family's home.
Nine months later, Frania’s husband, Hilel Broide, who had been hiding on his own, also joined the group. In his testimony for the Yad Vashem Institute he wrote, “For a year and a half, Dr. Docha took care of the whole group. Despite the danger, he visited and comforted us. He brought medicines and took care of us”.
Alex Blumstein recalled, “The Staniewski family, together with their seventeen-year-old cousin Helena (Zaniewska after the War), sheltered us for one year and a half until the liberation in July 1944.”
In 1942, Dr Docha also found a hiding-place for Helena Bibliowicz (née Szewach) and her friend Fania Halpern (then Lubitch). The women took refuge in a house of the family Strzałkowski. Stefania Strzałkowska built for them a hiding-place in which they stayed for two years. Throughout that time, Dr Docha gave Stefania small amounts of money every month so that she could look after them.
During the occupation, Dr Docha, as a reserve officer, was sworn into the Home Army [AK] and, probably in 1943, became head of the medical service for the Grodno region.
After the War, the family Docha lived and worked in Sokółka. They maintained close and warm relations with some of the Jews whom they had rescued. In the difficult post-War period, they would receive packages, from them, containing clothing and food.
In the 1980s, Dr. Blumstein suggested to Dr. Docha’s daughter, Teresa, that she should leave, together with her husband and children, for the US, where, with his help, they could live and practise as doctors.
Helena Bibliowicz found the family of Antoni Docha already after his death.
