The Czechonski Family

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Story of Rescue - The Czechonski Family

Szlomo Gorzyczański was born in Łódź, probably in 1935.

After the ghetto in Łódź had been founded, Szlomo moved with his parents to Tomaszów Lubelski, where his distant relatives used to live before the war. In Tomaszów Lubelski the Gorzyczański family was hiding for some time at Emilia and Piotr Czechoński’s place whom they knew before the war.

During one of the actions against Jews from Tomaszów Lubelski, his parents left him with the Czechoński family and never returned. They were probably killed in the death camp in Bełżec. For two years, the Czechońskis hid the very young Szlomo in a shelter behind a wardrobe in their house. When in 1944, just before the Russians came to Tomaszów Lubelski, fearing that he might be found by the Nazis or Nazi sympathizers, the boy moved out to stay with another family whose name he does not know.

After the Red Army entered Tomaszów Lubelski, and after they liberated Lublin, he went there (assisted by a group of Jewish soldiers), where he found some relatives. He then moved to Łódź, next, to Germany and finally to a kibbutz in Israel. After many years, thanks to Szlomo’s efforts, the Czechońskis received posthumously the medal “The Righteous Among the Nations” in 1999.

The relation was recorded in the framework of the project "Lights In The Darkness - The Righteous Among The Nations", courtesy of the "Ośrodek Brama Grodzka - Teatr NN" in Lublin

Bibliography

  • Dąbrowska Anna red., Światła w ciemności. Sprawiedliwi wśród Narodów Świata. Relacje
  • Czajkowski Tomasz, Interview with Szlomo Gorzyczański, rescued by Czechońscy family, 1.01.2006