Wartime Rescue of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy

A few months after the war we were taken from the Polish family by an aunt, who had been liberated from a concentration camp.
The Rozman family, consisting of parents, Edward and Stefania, and their three children, Leopold, Adam and Stanisława, remained in their home in Wyciąże near Kraków until 1942. When policemen showed up to deport them, they fled to the nearby village of Branice, where they found a place to hide. After someone informed on them, they were forced to leave the village and wandered about. During that time they were helped by Rev. Leon Katana, the pastor of Ruszcza, who provided them with food and allowed them to stay in his barn. Eventually, they were taken in by a former acquaintance, Julia Piękosz, who lived in the village of Borzęcin near Brzesko. At times, the Rozman family had to hide in the nearby forest to avoid German raids. The entire family survived the war and converted to the Catholic faith. Rev. Katana and his vicar, Rev. Jerzy Iżowski, also extended their protection to six Jews (four men and two women) who were evacuated from Warsaw to the village of Ruszcza after the failed uprising of August 1944. The priests instructed them on Catholic religious practices and assisted them in passing as Catholics.²³⁰
An entire network of Poles, including members of the clergy and the Home Army, took part in the rescue of Sabina Honigwachs (born in 1921, later Bruk). After escaping from the ghetto in Gorlice, Sabina and family hid for a short time in an empty tomb in a cemetery, where they had been directed by the local pastor, Rev. Kazimierz Litwin. Her parents and siblings returned to the ghetto and were deported in a subsequent German raid. Jan Benisz, a Home Army officer, placed Sabina with several Polish families connected with the Home Army (Wroński, Puchajda, Horodyński, and Tokarski), and she was furnished with a false identity document in the name of Maria Wójcik. Both Jan Benisz and his wife, Helena, helped the Honigwachs family as well as other Jews, among them, Irena Aleksandrowicz, the daughter of a lawyer from Gorlice, who was placed in a convent in Warsaw where she survived the war. (Jan Benisz was caught by the Germans in October 1943 and executed together with his two sons for their underground activity.) From early 1943, Sabina was sheltered by the Sisters Servants of the Virgin Mother of God Immaculately Conceived at their convent in Dominikowice near Gorlice, where she was disguised as a nun. The superior of the institution at the time was Sister Serapiona (Zofia Liszka), who died in May 1943. The nuns who were directly responsible for Sabina were Sister Czesława (Stefania Kądzielawa) and Sister Chrystiana (Julia Mikoś). While at the convent Sabina was under the protection of the La Salette Missionaries, who were in charge of the nearby parish in Kobylanka, and she received visits from Poles from the underground who continued to care for her. To maintain her cover as a Polish nun, Rev. Stanisław Łach, the convent’s confessor, visited her regularly, and the local pastor, Rev. Julian Filoda, allowed her to receive Communion when she attended mass even though she had not been baptized. After Sister Czesława’s death in August 1943, Sabina left the convent and again stayed with various Polish families connected with the Home Army (Habela, Stankowski, Tokarski, “Jurek”). Sabina returned to the convent towards the end of the summer of 1944. The new superior, Sister Ambrozja (Marcjanna Łączniak), entrusted Sabina into the care of Sister Atanazja (Zofia Śliwka). On her own insistence, Sabina was drawn into the activities of the Polish underground, delivering arms for the Home Army dressed as a nun. At the end of the occupation, in January 1945, Sabina was transferred to the order’s mother house in Dębica. According to the order’s chronicle, another unidentified Jewish woman was also sheltered at the convent in Dominikowice.²³¹ Of all Sabina’s many benefactors, only Sister Serapiona and Jan Benisz were recognized by Yad Vashem in 2015. Sabina Honigwachs deposited an extensive testimony of her rescue with Yad Vashem. (Kalisz and Rączy, Dzieje społeczności żydowskiej powiatu gorlickiego podczas okupacji niemieckiej 1939–1945, pp.153–55.)
Apart from the superior [Sister Serapiona—Zofia Liszka], only two senior sisters, namely, Czesława [Stefania Kądzielawa] and Chrystiana [Julia Mikoś], knew about me and were aware of my Jewish origin. The superior made them privy to everything. During the first few days of my stay at the convent I remained in the room where I was put when I first arrived there. There were many workers and novices at the convent, therefore appropriate preparations had to be made before I could be brought into that company. So I was confined in my room for several days. …

After a few days, Sisters Czesława and Chrystiana came to my room and informed me that from then on I was to lead a normal life in the convent. They brought with them a nun’s habit and told me that they were entrusting it to me, and that I should never sully or bring shame to it. From then on I was to behave like a good nun. At that time they placed the appropriate clothing on my head and allowed me to keep my hair. As I mentioned, all of the sisters except for the novices had their heads shaved. This was therefore a great distinction for me. My hair was cut very short, they then placed a coif on my head that held my hair tightly in place, and afterwards the veil and tunic.

A photographer accompanied the sisters into my room, and he was told to wait. (He was a member of the Home Army, the Polish underground.) When I was fully dressed, he took my photograph. Afterwards I put my fingerprints on the Kennkarte [an official German-issued identity card] I was presented. This time my Kennkarte bore the name Janina Bularska, a resident of Przemyśl. My previous Kennkarte was issued in the name of Marja Wójcik. When I came to the convent I hid it between some beams and I could no longer find it. The photographer made me a new Kennkarte as a nun in the name of Janina Bularska as well as a duplicate of the Kennkarte I had lost. I hid the duplicate Kennkarte, since in the convent I needed the new Kennkarte as a nun. …

In the village of Kobylanka, [adjacent to Dominikowice] where the convent was located, there was a young priest from Krosno [Rev. Stanisław Łach (1914–1981)]. The nuns visited him from time to time and made their confessions to him. When the superior learned that I would be taken into the convent, she went to that priest for counsel as to how to act in this situation, not concealing the fact that I was a Jew. The priest counselled her to take me into convent at once. Thus this priest, the superior and the two senior sisters knew that I was Jewish. In time, the prelate [Rev. Julian Filoda (1899 – 1989], who also served in the same parish and lived in the rectory in Kobylanka, also learned that I was Jewish. He was an elderly man, 73 years of age, who had been expelled from Poznań. His attitude towards me was especially cordial. He came to the convent every Sunday, he looked after me, and at every opportunity he demonstrated his heartfelt attitude towards me. Only these few individuals I mentioned knew about my true origin. For the rest of my surroundings I passed as a Pole who had entered the convent because she had been persecuted by the Germans for her political beliefs.

One day the local commander of the Home Army known as “Michał” [Mieczysław Przybylski] took shelter (in the convent). [This occurred after Sabina returned to the concent in late summer 1944.] … Michał was a brave and wise person. During the period I had contact with him he tried to help Jews. He hid in the convent for two weeks. At that time [Jan] Benisz was no longer alive. New people were operating in the area whom I did not know—some new cell created within the Home Army, and yet these people, without anyone’s command, continued to care for me and did not abandon me. …

From the time I established contact with Michał in the convent, I could no longer sit idly and lead a tranquil convent life. I wanted to go into the forest in order to take an active part in fighting the Germans. I told Michał about this but he was categorically opposed to it. He said that there was no room in the forest for a girl. The tasks that one carries out there were suited only for men. Besides there were a lot of soldiers roaming around in the forest. When I kept insisting, the superior and senior sisters forbade me point-blank from leaving as they thought that I would surely waste myself away. Since I could no longer sit idly, I was given the task of delivering weapons.

It was then I found out that weapons were being stored in the convent. I received instructions from people in the resistance movement who were engaged in transporting weapons. Weapons were brought to the convent at night. Most often they were brought by unknown persons in carts with hay or wood. Weapons were also concealed in suitcases. There were thick forests surrounding Kobylanka. At night a wagon would come out of the forest and bring concealed weapons to the convent. The senior sisters were privy to everything and received the weapons.

So I started to travel together with Sister Chrystiana delivering weapons. Our most frequent destination was Ciężkowice. ... The weapons were either hidden on our persons or concealed in suitcases. We travelled in our convent habits usually during the day. Someone usually awaited us at the station that was our destination, and there we handed over the weapons. Sometimes we took weapons to a specified address in a particular locality, to some home or people we did not know. Occasionally we delivered weapons to a village near the train station. We would often deliver weapons to Dębica, where our main convent [mother house] was located. We usually travelled in a pair and in addition to weapons we took various brochures and notices. It also happened that we delivered some valuable packages whose content we did not know at all. In Dębica our parcels and instructions were always received by one and the same nun. It was a large convent and only a small part of the sisters knew about its underground activities.