The Righteous Władysława Paprota passed away

On Friday, May 7th, 2010 in the Wrocław Old Town Hall she was granted the honorary citizenship of Israel. Due to her sickness, the Righteous was not able to take part in the ceremony – the Ambassador of Israel to Poland, Zvi Rav-Ner, handed the distinction over to her sons Jan and Stanisław, her daughter Krystyna, her grandchildren Anna and Paweł and her great-granddaughter Natalia.

Władysława Paprota was awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations on November 14th, 1988. Yad Vashem also awarded this title to her mother Anna Kowalik, her brother Władysław Kowalik, and her sister Waleria Przybyłko with her husband Bronisław.

During the Nazi occupation the Kowalik and Przybyłko families lived in the village Rajbrot in the Bocheński county (Krakow district). In 1943 Bronisław and Waleria Przybyłko have been hiding seven Jews who managed to escape from the Bochnia ghetto and the Płaszów concentration camp. At first, they stayed in a hiding place built by the Przybyłkos. When the number of hiding Jews started rising, some of them – Jente Wulf and her six-year-old son Dawidek, her brother Aleksander Weinfeld and her aunt Sabina Hollander – were moved to the house of Anna Kowalik, the mother of Waleria. She was living with her son Władysław and her daughter Władysława in a cottage on the outskirts of the village. Seventeen-year-old Władysława Paprota, risking her life, took care of the Jews, delivered food to them and cleaned their hiding place. Together with her family she helped about a dozen of people save their lives. After the Second World War Aleksander Weinfeld left to Israel and the other rescued emigrated to Sweden.