The Righteous
Jadwiga Jóźwik was born into the family of smallholders in the village of Morzyczyn near Sadowne, which is now located in Mazowieckie Voivodeship, 18 kilometers south of Ostrów Mazowiecka.
The Jews
Before World War II, the region was inhabited by many Jews. According to the data from the general census taken in 1921, 245 inhabitants of Sadowne declared that they were of either Jewish origin or Judaic faith, which amounted to 25 percent of the whole population of the village. In September 1939 Sadowne was home to 380 Jews.
In Jadwiga’s native village, Morzyczyn, the census mentions 27 Jews living there at that time. In her interview for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Polish abbreviation: MHŻP) Jadwiga recalled that she was on good terms with the Jews: “After all, I was living together with them! And, my goodness, there was one beautiful small Jewish girl. She was so cute… my God! I always cry for that Jewish girl. Marysia, she was so nice.”
World War II
Sadowne lies near the railway line of Małkinia – Kosów Lacki. This was they way which Germans used for the transportations of prisoners to Treblinka. Initially, from 1941 Treblinka was the location of a labor camp, and a year later – also of an extermination camp. Sometimes a few prisoners were lucky enough to escape from the transportations, but the Germans used to catch and execute them. One of the places of such executions was the school in Sadowne. In 1941 the Jewish inhabitants of Sadowne were deported to the ghettos in Stoczek and Łuków, and later they were transferred to the extermination camp in Treblinka. In Morzyczyn, Jadwiga was a witness to many cruelties to Jews, committed by the German occupants. She was so moved with their fate that she helped them as much as she could: “I watched the Jews approaching me and asking for bread (…). They wanted me to put them up for the night. My father? Not for all the tea in China, he was so terrified! And my mother was clamorous (…) she would drive them away! But I took a half loaf of bread from her, wrapped it, then cut it in half and gave it to them. I also took a churn of milk from a well. I poured the milk into a jug, and I added some water to the rest of the milk for my mother. I hid them in the barn, left the gate open and said: »When the sun starts coming out, go and run away! Nobody can see you, nobody can notice you!«” The tragedy of her Jewish neighbors became the main reason for Jadwiga’s escape to Warsaw. She recollects: “I could not look at all of that, but what could I do? How can I explain that only I survived? (…) That was why I ran away. I just could not watch it any longer. My heart was breaking when I saw what was happening.”
In Warsaw Jadwiga stayed with Maria and Edward Teski at 12 Noakowskiego Street. She worked there as a babysitter of their little daughter named Żaneta. While in the capital city, she did not stop helping the Jews: “Whenever I passed the walls of the ghetto, I always gave something to those children. I was only careful that there was no Boche standing in the corner, otherwise he could beat me. He could kill me. So I gave them whatever I had. Rolls… anything I had. I took some food from Mrs. Teska (…), sandwiches or other things, and brought it all to the Jews. (…) Oh, how many times the Boche hustled me away from there!”
The help
The Muszyński family
In 1941 the Teskis were visited by their friends, who planned to stay with them at their apartment on Noakowskiego Street: Stanisław Muszyński, his wife Irena and her mother Lea, who was already over eighty years old. Stanisław was a lawyer, while both ladies – dentists.
The Muszyński family and Mrs. Teska became acquainted in Mędzyrzec Podlaski, where the mistress of the home was born. In 1940 the Germans created a ghetto in the town, which lasted until 1942. Its inhabitants – according to different sources the ghetto was inhabited by 17 to 24 thousands of Jews – were deported to Treblinka and then exterminated. The Muszyński family was luckily able to flee Międzyrzec a year before these events took place.
When Jadwiga was informed by the landlady that three new people were going to stay in the apartment, she quickly guessed that they must be a Jewish family.
Life in hiding
The Muszyński family stayed in a separate room. Due to their characteristic physical features, both women preferred to stay at home, but Stanisław could move around the city without any restraints. Jadwiga continues her story:
„Mr. Muszyński was a lawyer. He also earned some extra money, but not officially. Not that he appeared before court, but unofficially he drew up some documents for his acquaintances. But they were rich Jews, so he did not have to work like this, but only for his entertainment. He could wander around Warsaw, walk or drive anywhere he wanted. Normally, without any problems. He underwent treatment, because his heart was sick. He received treatment, went to doctors.”
Jadwiga cared for the Muszyńskis like for the rest of the household members by cooking for them, washing their clothes and ironing. But three additional persons also required additional food, so Jadwiga often traveled to her family living in the countryside and smuggled food from them. In the General Government, such activity was severely punished, which included death penalty.
„[I traveled] to the countryside for life [i.e. for food – editorial note], because living in Warsaw was very hard. I carried food such as bags of flour, pork fat, and I hid everything under my apron… My apron was quite big. I carried it, sometimes on my back, and smuggled it to Warsaw because there was no other way to do it. So I went to Sadowne for life.”
Jadwiga spent a lot of time with Lea and Irena, talking about her pre-war life and preparing meals. “[We] were very close to each other, me and Irena, and we treated each other like a friend” – says Jadwiga. “I helped them, and they did the same for me. (…) When I cooked a sauerkraut soup, Irena praised me for its good taste. And they were laughing all the time. She was so funny. And her mother was so nice.”
The families sat together at the table: „They ate the same things we did. They did not consume pork, but they liked veal – it was very good veal I brought from the countryside. And they ate it. But when it comes to pork, black pudding, they did not want such things.” All the household members celebrated religious holidays together. Jadwiga remembers that they often talked about plans of emigration: “They dreamt all the time about America, and how to get there.”
Despite living in difficult conditions, Jadwiga does not remember any conflicts that might have occurred between the rescued and the rescuers. She also does not know much about financial matters – these problems were discussed only between the Muszyńskis and Maria Teska.
Inspection
Three months after the Muszyński family came to the Teskis’ apartment, the rescuers experienced the first visit of the Gestapo police. Jadwiga suspects that it was one of their neighbors who tipped the Gestapo off about the presence of the Jews. When the girl opened the door and saw the German officers, she immediately shut it. In spite of her terror, she acted very efficiently: she led Stanisław and Irena out through the kitchen door, which she then concealed with a cupboard. Lea could not run away due to her advanced age, so Jadwiga wrapped her in sheets and hid in the bed: “I put [her] on the side of the bed and covered her with bedding and cushions. Carefully, so that she would not be hurt. She was not able to escape.”
Jadwiga let the Germans, who were already banging on the door, into the apartment. To this day she is astounded with her presence of mind at that time: “They made my flesh crept so much, (…) when I shut that door, when I let them out, when I ran all over the apartment. I was not running, but almost flying. Everything happened so quickly, because the Boche would not wait too long behind closed doors. Eventually, they would surely force them open (…)”
The Gestapo searched the whole apartment for over an hour. All that time Jadwiga was sitting on the couch, inside of which Lea was hiding. What did she feel in that dramatic moment? “Well, I was laughing, but inside my heart of course, because I was so terrified” – she says. “I was thinking, if he kills me, (…) then let it be. (…) I was only worried about Teska and Żaneta. (…) [I was praying] in my heart: »Please, God, save us all, just do not let them find that Jew, because if they do, we will be all dead: me and all of them«”.
But the Germans did not find any traces of the presence of Jews in the house, and they also did not discover the door, which Jadwiga used to lead the Muszyńskis out. A few hours after the Gestapo left, in the middle of night, the Muszyńskis returned home. “They were as white as a sheet (…), they did not say a word, they could not eat anything. The supper was late at night. It was one o’clock in the night, so we ate in the dark; we did not have time to eat earlier. They [the Gestapo police] had come before we had supper” – recounts Jadwiga.
After this incident, the families decided to box off a section of the apartment and prepare a hiding place with a concealed entrance. The Muszyński family hid there whenever someone knocked at the door. The families also decided to stop using the main light after dark, and instead to switch on a small lamp for fear that people from outside would notice what was happening inside the apartment.
Kon
After some time a new guest appeared on Noakowskiego Street. Janusz Kon was a Jewish boy aged 10-13 years old. To move safely in the city, Jadwiga brought him from her home the birth certificate of her dead brother, thanks to which the boy received a new identity. Janusz Kon became Ryszard Stankiewicz and he used this name until the very end of the war. According to Jadwiga, he spent all that time with the Teski family.
The follow-up
Jadwiga experienced one more difficult moment in her life, when she received the summons the forced labor in Germany. She was transported to the transitory camp of Skaryszewska, which was a staging area of the German employment agency, from where Poles were deported for labor on the territory of the Third Reich. Luckily, the girl, always full of energy, was able to flee from the transportation and return to the Teski family.
In 1944 Jadwiga got married and left Warsaw. She was still in contact with Maria Teska, however, and from her she learnt that all the Jews she had tried to rescue survived World War II.
After the war
For a long time she was unaware of what happened to the Muszyński family, who six years after World War II were able to make their dream come true and emigrated to the United States. It was as late as in the 1990s when Stuart, Irena’s son, contacted the rescuer. Thanks to his efforts, Jadwiga Jóźwik received the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations.
“He knew about all of this, because his grandmother had told him the whole story, and so he took care of everything” – says Jadwiga. “He arrived. I did not expect his arrival, not at all… I did not know that they would come and thank me. Not at all.” Since that moment both families have still been in contact, even after Irena’s death.
Jadwiga could not share her war story with anyone, not even with her nearest and dearest: “In the past one could not pride himself on this, because one could lose his life for it. It was not possible. My father died and my mother passed away. They never knew that I took the birth certificate of my brother. They did not know.” But now, her family is proud of her.
When asked why she risked her life helping the Jews, she answers: “Because I was so terribly compassionate (…), and I knew that the Jews were murdered and beaten, and so I thought that I had to hide them. They must survive.” In her relation for Yad Vashem she wrote: “I was always perfectly aware of the danger, but I felt so sorry for those people. That is why I did what I did, never expecting any reward.”
Would she do the same today? Her answer is yes.
