Jan Miniewski was one of the four children of Stefan and Agrypina. His parents farmed a small patch of land in the village of Smarżów, near Tarnopol. Stefan was blind. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, the Miniewskis lead a peaceful life and had good relations with all their neighbors.
In the summer of 1941 the Nazis attacked the USSR and shortly after that German soldiers entered Smarżów. At first, the Miniewskis did not believe the rumors about their cruelty, but they soon found out that these were not exaggerated. They witnessed the persecutions of the Jews, the humiliations they suffered, the forced labor and the increasing hostility of the Ukrainians. The Miniewskis helped Jews as much as they could, most frequently sharing food with them.
When two Stefan’s friends from before the war, the Sterling and the shoemaker Parnas, knocked to their door, the Miniewskis decided to help them. They arranged a hiding place in their shed, where they hid the fugitives and took care of them, enabling them to meet their basic needs. Despite the numerous dangers, both Jews stayed with them until the end of the war.
The postwar story of Jan, his mother and younger siblings, is a story of wandering around the USSR in quest for work, constantly longing for Poland. Jan’s older brother Józef and both Jews decided to get to their homeland during the first repatriation. It was only ten years later that Jan himself managed to get out of the USSR.
Although at first the contact with the rescued was close, it loosened when both Jews left Poland: Parnas went to the USSR and Sterling to Germany, and towards the end of his life he emigrated to Israel.
