When the Germans entered the town of Borysław, near Drohobycz, and created a ghetto in it, Mr. Grzegorczyk decided the Jews needed to be saved. At first, the Grzegorczyks hid their neighbour, Paulina Zylberberg and her two-year-old niece. Soon after, Mr. Grzegorczyk was able to retrieve the sick sister of Paulina‘s husband from the ghetto.
In 1941 the Grzegorczyks were given a few-week old infant – Lily Fuchsberg. The girl was given the assumed name Zdzisława. Her real parents decided to hide in the forest. The attic of the Grzegorczyk house was not very spacious, but – as the rescued recall – “there was always someone new hiding there.” Little Zdzisława was christened and entered into the records as a child of the Grzegorczyks. Later on, her eleven-year-old sister Minka joined her in the hideout, brought in by their brother Aleks. “He was 13 – Zdzisława recalls. – He never came back, and our parents were denounced and shot a few days later.”
After some time the old hideout turned out to be too small. A new one was made. Zdzisława recollects: “That was where they took the rich Blum family in order to give shelter to the poor. The money helped very much in the search for food. Denouncement, however, was still a very real threat.” In the course of three years, the Grzegorczyk couple hid 18 people. After the war little Zdzisława was adopted by them.
