The landed Szulc family owned the Jeziorzany estate, located near Czortków.Before the War, Józef Szulc used the services of Izrael Winter's law firm and was his close friend.On 25th August 1941, Izrael Winter was murdered by the Nazis during a mass execution of local intellectuals. Following Izrael's death, Józef maintained contact with his widow.
In 1942, Netka Winter, née Szternszus, widow of Izrael and her 6-year-old daughter Marta, were sent to the ghetto.In the summer of 1943, a few months after the first "aktions", Józef Szulc suggested to his friend that she give the child into his care.The woman, aware of the fate that awaited them beyond the walls, agreed.
At that time, the Szulc family was already living in Warsaw at ul.Pytlasińskiego 18. The girl hid there until August 1944, for some time together with another Jewish woman, Róża Rozensztok.
During the Warsaw Uprising, she and her maid Helena Czaplińska were sent to the transit camp in Pruszków.After two weeks, they managed to escape.For several months they lived and worked in very difficult conditions in the countryside near Kraków.In January 1945, they returned to the ruined capital.
In the spring of 1945, Marta Winter was found and taken away by her relatives.
In the summer of 1943 Netka, to increase Marta's chances of surviving, handed her over to Józef Szulc who was a client and a close acquaintance of Izrael Winter before the war. The Szulc family owned an estate Jeziorzany close to Czortków but in 1940, during Soviet occupation of the territory, they escaped to Warsaw to avoid deportation to Siberia or prison.
Marta lived with the Shulc family in Warsaw, pretending a Polish catholic girl until the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. Then the Szulc family dispersed and Marta stayed with a maid - Helena Czaplińska.
Both were deported by the Nazis to a transit camp in Pruszków but they escaped. Czaplińska took Marta to a small village near Krakow, where they saw the end of the war. In January 1945, they returned to Warsaw.
In the spring of 1945, she was found by relatives and was taken in by them.
Gutman Israel red. nacz., Księga Sprawiedliwych wśród Narodów Świata, Ratujący Żydów podczas Holocaustu, Kraków / Fundacja Instytut Studiów Strategicznych / 2009
