Before the war, Mojżesz Wajcer’s family lived in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, where his father Izrael (1897-1942?) was a butcher. Izrael Wajcer and Sara (nee Bergson) (1898-1942?) had six sons. Apart from Mojżesz, they were Josel (1920-1942?), Icchak (1922-1942?), who worked as a tailor, Heniek (1929-1942?), Jankiel (1932-1942?) and Baruch (1936-1942?). During World War Two, the Wajcer family was moved to the Warsaw ghetto where all of them, except Mojżesz, were killed, probably in the summer of 1942, during the Big Liquidation Operation. Mojżesz stayed in the ghetto, but managed to escape in April 1943, after the uprising broke out.
However, the boy had nowhere to go on the so-called Aryan side. Some young men he met by chance gave him the address of Jerzy Muszyński, who lived with his mother Anna at 33 Solec Street in Warsaw. Anna took care of Mojżesz and he and her son soon became friends. The Muszynskis hid Wajcer selflessly.
Thanks to Jerzy’s help, Mojżesz acquired false documents and started to help his friend sell cigarettes in the Trzech Krzyży Square. The cigarettes manufactured by Anna Muszyńska provided the livelihood for the family.
One day Wajcer was arrested in a round-up. He managed to escape from the remand centre and the Muszyńskis invited him again. He stayed with them until the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising and then he fought with Jerzy as a soldier in the Kryska Home Army Unit. When the uprising was coming to an end, he swam across the River Vistula and Jerzy was taken to a German POW camp.
The two men met again. Mojżesz came to Jerzy’s wedding. After Mojżesz left Poland, the friends lost touch. Mojżesz found Jerzy in 1993, during the ceremonies marking the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In 1997, Jerzy Muszyński gave an interview for the Visual History Foundation.
In 1995, the Yad Vashem Institute granted Anna Muszyńska and her son Jerzy the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
