LOOKING FOR "RIGHTEOUS CHRISTIANS" IN BEDZIN

POLAND . The Unofficial Guide

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Jul 6, 11, 23:37 #1

Hello,

I am traveling to Będzin on July 24th and am looking for the "righteous Christians" who hid my (Jewish) aunt and her young son during all of World War II.

After the war, my aunt corresponded regularly with these people. My aunt has since died. I would like to thank these people for the risks they took and for the courage they showed and thank them for saving my aunt's life.

The addresses I have are:

Halina (Ligia) Cyganek and her daughter, Matgarzata Chmura, ul. Al. Zwycięstwa 18/88 42-500 Będzin and

Kazimierz Gruszczynski Al. Drierzynskiego 19 42-500 Będzin

I tried using the internet but wasn't successful. Could someone kindly look them up in a Polish telephone book or suggest another way that I might be able to find them?

Needless to say, coming to Poland for the first time is very emotional for me. Despite having been born and raised in the USA, I have always felt like a piece of me has been missing. I am looking forward to walking the same streets that my father walked. Being able to have a connection to these amazing, brave people or their descendents who saved my family's life would mean so much to me.

Thank you for any assistance you can offer.

Mark

joepilsudskiThreads: 44 Posts: 2,529 Joined: Apr 27, 07 ♂	Jul 7, 11, 00:04 #2
I cannot offer any assistance except to say if you go there you will find them or friends of theirs...Best of luck to you, you will find something good on your journey to bring back with you.

ShawnHThreads: 9 Posts: 3,056 Joined: Jul 2, 09 ♂	Jul 7, 11, 00:08 #3
markmblogier: Matgarzata Małgorzata. The ł is different from the t. The ł is more like the sound made by a w in English. Not sure if your searches would have been for Małgorzata or Matgarzata.... Good luck in your search!

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,188 Joined: Jun 7, 07 ♂	Jul 7, 11, 01:07 #4
markmblogier: Thank you for any assistance you can offer. I am afraid i can,t help you much with your search , but i do wish you luck with it , and hope you can find what you seek....

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Jul 7, 11, 01:47 #5

markmblogier:

Halina (Ligia) Cyganek and her daughter, Matgarzata Chmura, ul. Al. Zwycięstwa 18/88 42-500 Będzin and
Kazimierz Gruszczynski Al. Drierzynskiego 19 42-500 Będzin

It is not ul. Al. Zwycięstwa try this: 42-500 Będzin, ul. Zwycięstwa 18/88

Here is the list for the streets http://pl.wikisource.org/wiki/Lista_kodów_pocztowych_w_Polsce/Duże_mia sta/Będzin

Hope it helps, you could also contact a TV station, they may be interested in your story.

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Jul 7, 11, 01:51 #6

warszawski:

Hope it helps, you could also contact a TV station, they may be interested in your story.

Thats a great idea....

Write a brief account of your story , i am sure one of the nice peeps on here will translate it into Polish for you , then send it to radio , tv and newspapers in Poland...get it on the internet too...

Somebody somewhere is going to know these folks you are looking for....

PennBoyThreads: 157 Posts: 3,440 Joined: Dec 7, 08 ♂	Jul 7, 11, 01:51 #7
markmblogier: ul. Al. Zwycięstwa markmblogier: Al. Drierzynskiego If the street names are from pre-war or communist times they are probably different now. Street names changed in 1993.

warszawskiThreads: 60 Posts: 2,386 Joined: May 21, 10 ♂	Jul 7, 11, 01:59 #8
PennBoy: If the street names are from pre-war or communist times they are probably different now. Street names changed in 1993. ul. Zwycięstwa 18/88 - still exists I have just found the building on google maps, the area looks like there has been a lot of construction, a carrefour has been built and shopping center. Al. Drierzynskiego 19 42-500 Będzin - I am coming up a blank with.

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Edited by: skysoulmate Jul 7, 11, 03:39 #9

What a great idea! I agree with Wildrover that a letter in Polish might help in case you run into people who speak little or no English (pretty common with older folks).

I'd love to read about your experiences, hope you'll share them with us.

Good luck to you!

Nesi'ah tovah (no, I don't speak Hebrew :)

PS. Contacting a radio or a tv station sounds like a good idea too, they might be able to do some research for you.

skysoulmateThreads: 41 Posts: 3,039 Joined: Jan 10, 10 ♂	Edited by: skysoulmate Jul 7, 11, 03:49 #10
warszawski: Al. Drierzynskiego 19 42-500 Będzin - I am coming up a blank with. Sounds like a street named after the KGB (NKVD) founder Felix Dzierzynski? If that's the case I sure hope that with the fall of communism all streets named after him have been renamed. Soviet War-Crimes Alley would be a good new name. ...but I'm digressing. Sorry.

wildroverThreads: 180 Posts: 8,188 Joined: Jun 7, 07 ♂	Jul 7, 11, 04:00 #11
skysoulmate: If that's the case I sure hope that with the fall of communism all streets named after him have been renamed. Yep...for sure that sign would have been ripped off the walls as soon as the Russians pulled out of Poland....

JonnyMThreads: 16 Posts: 4,487 Joined: Mar 9, 11 ♂	Jul 7, 11, 13:37 #12
The Polish Association of Righteous anong the Nations should have up to date contact details if they are still living.

JonnyMThreads: 16 Posts: 4,487 Joined: Mar 9, 11 ♂	Edited by: JonnyM Jul 7, 11, 14:50 #13
The organisation is called: Polskie Towarzystwo Sprawiedliwych Wśród Narodów Świata Here's a link to their website with contact details. Remember that most of them are very old so a reply to a query in English might not come back immediately - their office isn't open every day: http://www.sprawiedliwi.org/

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Jul 7, 11, 15:32 #14

Thanks to all of you who responded with suggestions for how I might be able to contact the "Righteous Christians" who hid my aunt and her son during World War II.

I will be coming to Bedzin July 24th (will actually be in Krakow from 24/7 until 29/7). Some of you suggested contacting a TV, radio or internet and having the story translated into Polish. If any of you can help with specifics, I would greatly appreciate it.

Briefly, this is my aunt's story:

My aunt, Esterka "Edzi" Blogier Wekselman was one of 5 children in an observant Jewish family in Bedzin. Her father, an upholsterer, died in his 50's of a heart attack. The family was poor and Esterka became a milliner's apprentice at a shop in Katowice. She became friends with one of the Polish Catholic girls who worked in the shop (I assume that was Halina "Ligia" Cyganek but am not certain).

Esterka married and had a son named Mark (he survived the war but tragically died of cancer at the age of 17 after they immigrated to the USA. I am named for him----it is a Jewish custom to name babies after someone who has died). Somehow (I do not know the details), Esterka made arrangements for her son Mark to hide with Ligia during the war. By this point Esterka was in the Bedzin Ghetto.

My aunt told me the story of being discovered hiding in a basement with others in the Ghetto by a Nazi and being led out by the Nazi. My aunt intentionally was at the end of the line and she decided that she had nothing to lose and ran away. She often wondered why the Nazi didn't shoot her. My aunt went to the house where her son was and this family took her in. She and Mark stayed together until the end of the war.

Esterka's husband and my father managed to stay together in Oświęcim Concentration Camp and were liberated from Dachau Concentration Camp (they were in other ones as well). My father traveled to Będzin and found my aunt and her son. All of their other siblings and their mother had perished. The smaller reunited family stayed in Munich, Germany, until they were able to immigrate to the USA in 1949.

I always remember my aunt sending packages to "her saviors" in Poland and receiving letters. Over the years, photos of weddings (Matgosia and Yarek Chmura ----I think this is Halina's daughter), pictures of babies and older children (David, Dariusz, Krzysztof), and of a funeral crossed the ocean. I was always extremely close to my aunt (after all I was a "replacement child" for her son which incidentally is a legacy that we adult children of Holocaust survivors deal with) and used to study these pictures and the letter despite not being able to read Polish.

Despite having been born and raised in the US, I have always felt that a part of me was missing and was somewhere in Poland (and Lithuania where my mother came from). That my aunt continued to keep her relationship alive with the people that saved her life only reinforced this feeling. While I don't know where my family lived in Będzin (both my father and aunt are dead), it will be meaningful to walk the streets of the town and see the castle (I did hear about this from my aunt). Being able to meet the descendants of my aunt's saviours and being able to thank them would be a dream come true.

Any assistance you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

skysoulmateThreads: 41 Posts: 3,039 Joined: Jan 10, 10 ♂	Jul 7, 11, 19:31 #16
markmblogier: Over the years, photos of weddings (Matgosia and Yarek Chmura ---- Just two name spelling corrections. Matgosia - it's Małgosia (or Małgorzata) ( The letter looks like an L with a slash NOT a T, and is pronounced like the english W - if Whiskey was spelled in Polish it'd be Łyski :) Yarek - it's Jarek (or Jarosław)

markmblogierThreads: 1 Posts: 2 Joined: Jul 6, 11 ♂	Jul 8, 11, 04:58 #17
Thank you for clarifying that. I have resent the letter with the correct address. I appreciate your help! Mark

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BartolomeThreads: 2 Posts: 1,345 Joined: Sep 14, 06 ♂	Edited by: Bartolome Jul 7, 11, 18:38 #15
Wikipedia says Dzierżyńskiego is now Modrzejowska.