“At my gymnasium in Busko Zdrój, I became friends with a classmate named Samuel Lederman from Chmielnik, whom we called Szmul,” recounts Antoni. “As the war loomed, we made a plan that, if there was any danger, Szmul’s family would come to us for shelter. And they did, several times. And I visited them in Chmielnik. Nobody could predict that on October 2, 1942, after a raid on Chmielnik organised by the German Military Police, the Polish police and the Judenrat, Lederman family would come for good and stay with us for two years.”
Until late July, 1944, the Żals hid not only the Lederman family of four, but also Edzia Gutman, who discovered that she could obtain shelter with the Żals from Szmul’s younger brother. He had told her that if she ever needed assistance – the Żals could be trusted.
After the Red Army arrived, the Żals didn’t want anyone to know that they had hidden Jews; they were afraid that people would suspect them of having done so for profit.
