Wanda Ajdels and her father, Leopold Pawłowski lived in Radom, at 20 Prosta Street.
Many Jews lived near their home - in the Glinice area. It was in this area that, in March 1941, the Nazis established a ghetto. A second ghetto was set up around Wałowa Street. Wanda helped Jews imprisoned there, leaving them food, from time to time, near the bank of a dried-up fish pond which was on their property.
In 1942, the began liquidating the ghetto. The majority of Radom's Jews were then deported to camps at Treblinka, Bliżyn and Buchenwald, while about one thousand perished in mass executions. The remaining Jews were placed in a local slave labour camp. Their gradual extermination took until midway through 1944.
One evening, in 1942, on the bank of the dried-up fish pond, Wanda discovered an unconscious man. He was Bernard Ajdels. The Pawłowski's hid him in their home and took parcels of food to his parents who were still in the ghetto. At the end of that year, she obtained an identity card for Bernard in the name of "Edward Jarosz". She had obtained the birth certificate for it from the office of the church on Rydwańska Street.
In 1943, as the result of being informed upon, Bernard and Wanda were arrested. Wanda, cruelly beaten during interrogation, was placed in the prison hospital and was later put into the hospital on Malczewska Street. From there, with the help of nuns, she managed to escape after four months. She hid with friends until the end of the War.
Bernard was taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp and then later to Sachsenhausen. In November 1945, he returned to Radom and found Wanda. Shortly afterwards, they were married.
