Feliks Kwarciak: awarding of the honorary citizenship of Israel
On February 22nd, 1989 the Yad Vashem Institute honored the Kwarciak family with the title “Righteous Among the Nations” for saving Jews during the Second World War.
In May 2010 the honorary citizenship was presented to the last of the living Heroes, Alfred Kwarciak from Bolesławiec.
The distinction for Feliks Kwarciak was presented by Nadav Eshcar, Viceambassador of Israel in Poland, to the daughter of the Hero, Halina Karolik.
The ceremony, held as part of the Wrocław Days of Mutual Respect, is co-organized by the Wrocław Center for Jewish Culture and Education of the Bente Kahan Foundation and the Jewish Communities Union in the Republic of Poland – Wrocław department.
During the Nazi occupation Maria and Piotr Kwarciak and their sons Alfred, Feliks and Anatoliusz rescued 15 escapees from the ghetto in Dubno, in the Volhynia region.
Before the liquidation, Fiszer, a Jew working outside the ghetto, met Piotr Kwarciak – his old friend. He offered to hide his whole family in his house on the outskirts of the village.
During the liquidation of the ghetto in Dubno, 8 members of the Fiszer family managed to escape, as well as their relatives from the Szender, Półtorak and Sznajder families. In the autumn of 1942 the Kwarciaks hid them in a hiding place on their farm and took care of them for a year and a half.
The Kwarciaks were hiding them under a brick pigpen, located on their courtyard. They took care of the Jews, providing them with food and clothes. In the beginning, the Jews paid for the food, but when they ran out of money, the Kwarciaks kept hiding them, motivated by compassion and sympathy. Their children also participated in the rescuing.
In the spring of 1944, when the front was approaching and the Germans started to deport Poles to forced labor in Germany, the Kwarciaks left their house and hid together with the Jews. The liberation came 25 days later, in April 1944.
After the war, most of the rescued emigrated to Israel. Piotr and Maria Kwarciak together with their children settled within the new borders of Poland.
