Ida and Mojżesz Gliksztejn, a Jewish married couple, lived in Lublin with a son and a daughter. Until September 1939, Mojżesz had been the deputy manager of the Chamber of Crafts (Izba Rzemieślnicza) in Lublin and his wife looked after their children and ran their household.
Ernst Zörner, the governor of the Lublin area, in a special regulation published on 24 March 1941, ordered all Jewish people in the city to move to a ghetto created in Lublin. The Gliksztejn family moved to the ghetto. They managed to avoid the many deportations organised by the Germans but, eventually, Ida’s husband and their son were transported to KL Lublin in October 1942.
Ida and her daughter Rut managed to escape from the ghetto and hide on the “Aryan side.” At first, they ended up in the house of Ryszard Postowicz and his wife Kazimiera. He knew the Gliksztejn family before the war, having worked together with Mojżesz at the Chamber of Crafts in Lublin. Postowicz was also an active member of the Polish underground resistance and, due to this, he could not himself shelter Ida and her daughter. Instead, he led them to the house of his cousin, Stefania Parczyńska. The women used to know one another before the war.
Ida and Rut hid with Stefania from September 1942 until August 1944. Ida was registered at Parczyńska’s house as her sister and stayed there under an assumed name of Genowega Krzyszowiec. Her daughter’s name was changed to Teresa. It was Ryszard Postowicz who procured fake documents for them. The women earned a living together by working in the gardening sector. Ryszard would provide them with food from time to time. Ida’s recollections: “Parczyńska hid us completely selflessly: she lived from hand to mouth herself and yet she shared everything she had with us. She took no heed of the danger she put herself in and saved the life of myself and my daughter with her bravery.”
Stefania helped other people, too, not only Ida and Rut Gliksztejn. “I also provided selfless and short-term assistance to Józef Rozen by making it easier for him to reach Warsaw. Thanks to my help, he managed to live through the occupation.” He stayed at Stefania’s house for several days and then left for Warsaw. After the war, he left Poland and moved to Israel, never contacting Parczyńska again.
When the German occupation ended, Ida and her daughter moved to Bytom. Her husband having been killed during the war, Ida re-married and then moved to Israel. Ida and Stefania remained in contact.
