During the inter-War period, Kroszowiec was a village in the Wołyńskie Province. Its inhabitants were mainly Ukrainians. There were only three Polish families, among them, the Ostrowski family. Teofila (widowed at the end of the 1920’s) worked on a farm, together with her sons, Reces and Jan.
Almost half the inhabitants of nearby Łuck was Jewish. ”There was an untold number of synagogues. On a Friday, there was a great washing of pots in the Styr River because, on Saturday, it was not allowed”, recalls Maria who, in 1942, married Jan.
She had had Jewish friends at the Łuck high school. In Kroszowiec, her future mother-in-law observed the Ukrainian holidays. There were also Czech and German settlements in the area.
The War destroyed that multicultural world. Following the entry of the Germans in June 1941, the same ritual as elsewhere took place. A ghetto was established in Łuck. Deportations and executions began. ”The leaders of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) became daring. Bodies began floating down the Styr River – naked Jews with swastikas or crosses cut into them. There were Polish bodies also.”
Some Jews managed to escape and look for a hiding place.
One night, in August 1942, Ludwik Fikowski, with his wife Zofia and her sister Liza Zlotak (or Złotak), appeared at the Ostrowski home. ”We didn’t turn them away”, says Maria. Her mother-in-law knew the Fikowski family. ”Before the War, there were no grain elevators, so that Jews would travel to buy grain. Their father was actually a grain merchant”. The Ostrowski family hid these fugitives in the barn.
In September 1942, others came also - Jan (a doctor in Łuck) and Chana Kaszkiet, with their son Jurek who was around three years old. ”They had been with someone else, but had been thrown out”.
The Ostrowski family did not know this family, but took them in anyway. They created a hiding place in the attic for the Kaszkiet family – near the chimney so that it would be warmer for them. When visitors came, they would raise their voices as a warning. When it was peaceful, usually at night, the Kaszkiet family would descend into the house for ”just a moment”.
However, the rules were not always adhered to. Neighbours saw the little Jurek playing in the yard. It became dangerous. To the neighbours, Teofila explained that the child was her daughter’s, from another town.
The Kaszkiet family were there for a short time, only a few months. It is not known why they changed hiding places. It cost them their lives. ”Members of the Bandera organisation (Ukrainian ultra-nationalists) took Kaszkiet to operate on their seriously wounded leader. Under primitive conditions, the doctor saved his life. We later heard the news that, together with his wife and child, he had been murdered”, says Maria, in recalling occupation-time stories.
Other fugitives also passed through the Ostrowski farm. Natan and Cipa Rozenfeld, with their five year old daughter Mania, stayed with them in September 1942. ”They only stayed for 2-3 days”, recalls Maria Ostrowska, who did not know their ultimate fate. She doesn’t remember the name of a man who hid with them ”for a certain time” and later joined the partisans.
By 1943, it was extrenmely dangerous in Kroszowiec. Ethnic cleansing continued. According to Maria, ” To this day, I can see before my eyes a picture of those terrible nights – the flickering glow of the fires. Where should we hide and would we survive one more day?”.
One Benadera group moved into action from a nearby farm.
”On the 17th June”, says Maria, ”together with my mother-in-law, we decided to escape to Łuck – to my husband’s sister. Three Jews came with us – the Fikowski family and their sister (Liza)”.
Maria’s husband and Reces stayed in Kroszowiec. They were to guard the property. ”But, already by the next day, Jan managed to save himself from death at the hands of the Ukrainians by diving into the river in his shorts”. His brother was murdered.
The Russians entered in February 1944. A great migration of people began. Jan Ostrowski ws conscripted into the 2nd Polish Army. He was seriously wounded. He only managed to find his wife again in 1949 – in the so-called Regained Territories (Ziemia Odzyskana).
Among other places, they lived in Wałcz and in Trzebiatów. In 1956, they moved permanently to Szczecin. There, they were joined by Jan’s mother, Teofila, who had earlier been with her daughter in Dolny Śląsk.
The Fikowski family and Liza also headed eastwards, to the new Poland. Following the Kielce pogrom, they moved to Germany, to Hamburg. They later moved permanently to Israel..
”Jan Ostrowski”, writes the Fikowski family, ”endangered his own life and that of his family by hiding us. He did this with no self-interest. We are immensely grateful to him”.
After the War, they exchanged correspondence. They sent postcards, rather than letters. There were also greetings from friends and a parcel was sent from Poland to Israel, containing a linen tablecloth and napkins.
”Ludwik Fikowski did not live long. He had a heart attack and died”, said Liza Zlotak, who settled in Baltimore, USA.
Today, Kroszowiec lies in the Volyn province of western Ukraine.
