During World War II, Katarzyna Froehlich and her daughter Dorota Kuc lived in the village of Wilcze (Śląskie Province). They helped the Lindenbaum family, prisoners in Auschwitz, the German Nazi concentration camp and the extermination centre. With the Froehlich family's help, the Lindenbaum family escaped from the Death March.
The winter, in January 1945, was uite severe. As the Red Army was taking over lands occupied by Germany, the Nazis began moving prisoners from concentration camps into Germany.
Józef Lindenbaum and his son Szlomo (Shalom after the war) were in one of the groups evacuated from Auschwitz. Along the way, many of the evacuated prisoners died from starvation and exhaustion. When the German decided to shoot all the people who remained alive, the Lindenbaums decided to flee.
“It was a real chaos. People were running in all directions”, said Shalom, years later. The Lindenbaums, hungry and exhausted, reached the village of Wilcza near Gliwice. Here, they met a woman, who took them to Katarzyna Froehlich and her daughter Dorota Kuc who, in an interview for the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, recalled:
It was winter, January, it was freezing. It was Monday, a very sunny day, but the frost squeaked and whistled. When they came in, they were wearing the camp’s striped uniforms […]. They had tied some towels over their ears in order avoid frostbite. There were icicles hanging all over them. It was a real miracle that they had survived.
The Lindenbaums received food and warm clothes. They spent two days among the hay in the attic. They then lived with the rest of the household. They helped with the farm work. Shalom fed the cattle. They managed to survive until the Red Army marched in.
After the War, they emigrated to Israel. For many years, Shalom Lindenbaum maintained close contact with Dorota.
On 18th November 1992, the Yad Vashem Institute, in Jerusalem, honoured Katarzyna Froehlich and her daughter Dorota Kuc with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
