Narrative of Jadwiga Gawrych

“Save the World”

    “Save one person, you save the world,” Jadwiga Gawrych stated when she received her Yad Vashem medal or Righteous among the Nations. She remembers her mother telling her that all humans have the right to live in a just world and that no one should be treated like the Nazis treated people during World War II. On the 22nd of March, the 8th graders in the American School of Warsaw had the pleasure of meeting someone who risked herself for the safety of others who had been banished from their own lives and separated from their families. We heard the first hand experience of not only a story, but a true time of sorrow.

    In a forest near the small city of Charna, next to Minsk, lived the Gawrych family which included Jadwiga, daughter of Aleksandra Gawrych and John Gawrych, and her siblings Stanislaw, Joseph, and Wencelaus. The family lived in a wooden and straw house in the middle of the forest due to the father’s job as a forest caretaker during World War II. As of the rounding up of the Jews into concentration and death camps intensified during this war, Jews tried to escape from the horrible fate that Hitler planned for them. The Jews took cover in the forest and it was common for them to knock on the windows or the door of the Gawrych home and ask for food or shelter. One day, the family heard a knock on the door and opened it to find a man with a miniature suitcase on the doorstep. As the man explained that his name was Abraham Sunak and he would give haircuts for food. He noticed violins hanging on the wall and asked, “Who plays the violin?” Mrs. Gawrych answered, “I was going to get a musician to teach my children but there’s no teacher.” The nearest music school was five kilometres away and it would be challenging for the family to reach the school because they didn’t have a car and it wasn’t safe for the children to walk. Abraham reached for one of the violins andstarted to play a Hungarian piece. Mrs. Gawrych asked Abraham if he would be able to teach the children. Abraham explained that he didn’t have a place to stay so there was no way for him to be able to stay and teach them. Mrs. Gawrych then pointed out that Abraham would be able to live in the house and receive food if he would teach the children to play. Abraham revealed that he was a Jew who had escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto. The Gawrych family adopted him, knowing that if a German soldier found out, it would be their death sentence.

    During the next few weeks, Abraham taught the children and expanded their knowledge about the violin by creating books and teaching them the notes. During this time, Abraham would also work as the town hairdresser to bring home food for his new family. Whenever people came to the door, Abraham ran upstairs to make sure that no one saw him. One day, a Jewish family consisting of two sisters and two parents showed up from their hiding place that was 3 kilometres away. The oldest daughter’s name was Helna and the youngest daughter was Friana. Because Friana was very young, the Gawrych family offered for her to stay in the house instead of hiding in the forest were the German soldiers could easily catch her. Friana’s parents agreed, believing it was the safest option for their youngest daughter. As the days passed, the two families grew closer together and Jadwiga and Helna became great friends. One day the Gawrych family had a visit from Helna’s family with an unexpected message. The family explained that the next morning, they would be taken to Treblinka, a death camp in Lublin. Mrs. Gawrych. who already had Friana living with them, told Helna, “Come and stay with us like your sister”; Friana had made the decision to stay with the Gwarychs because she didn’t want to die yet. Helna had the features of a typical Jewish girl with long, dark hair, darker skin and long nose which made it harder for her to hide from the German soldiers.

    However, Friana looked completely different with blond hair and blue eyes. Helna refused the offer, declaring, “Where ever my parents are, I want to be there too” knowing that in Treblinka she would die. At this moment of the interview Jadwiga turned red and teary eyed because of her great friend Helena who chose death rather than survival like her sister Friana.

    In the Gawrych forest home lived another run away couple named Teresa and Haska. Jadwiga could see them only at night because during the day they were hiding in a rich Christian man’s barn without his permission. One night while the couple was making its way to the house, the pair saw a few men with sticks in their hands but the men didn’t harm the two in any way. When the ouple reached the house, they found Mrs. Gawrych cooking soup on the stove and spoke to her about the men. Gunshots broke into the sky over the house. The men in the woods were carrying machine guns, hoping that whoever was hiding in the house would jump out at the sound of gunshot and that is what exactly happened. Abraham, Teresa, Haska and Friana ran out of the house into the snowy, cold weather of March.

    All of the Jews started running to get away from the two truck loads of soldiers coming for them. As the snow fell onto the ground, Teresa realized that she didn’t have her jacket and turned around to get it from the house. As she turned around and started running, a bullet struck her leg in a split second and she tumbled to the ground. A German soldier strode up to her and in full view of everyone, shot her in the head. That horrible day was March 18, 1943. The soldiers came out of the trucks and circled the house. The soldiers took Mr. Gawrych out of the house, beat him and left him lying on the ground outside of the house. A soldier took Jadwiga away into the forest. Jadwiga thought that she was going to die because of the law that passed that stated all people who helped the Jews would be shot. As the soldier took herfurther and further into the forest, he stopped and asked, “Who was in your house?” Jadwiga, thinking that there was no use lying because the soldiers had already seen the Jews run away, said, “Jews. My mom was making soup for them.” The soldier let her go and she ran to her house to her mother. This was Jadwiga’s second time in a near-death situation.

    Her first time Jadwiga almost met death was when she was younger and she was walking back from school which was in the Jewish area of Charna. Because the town was smaller than Krakow and Warsaw, the Germans didn’t make a ghetto. Instead there were two streets filled with Jewish houses. As Jadwiga started her 5 kilometre walk home, a man starting running towards her. “You have been at a Jew’s house!” he shouted at her. Jadwiga thought that he was a policeman dressed in citizens’ clothing. Jadwiga knew that she was in trouble because even though she was younger and living in the middle of the forest she could still hear Jews being killed. Jadwiga explained that she was at school but the guard still thought that she was lying. The guard grabbed Jadwiga’s shoulder so hard that it pained her. The man still didn’t believe her and said, “May this be the last time you ever help the Jews because next time you will regret it. Now go home to your family.”

    Teresa was the only one who died that day. Abraham, Haska and Friana were able to escape from the trap set for them. Friana hid underneath the bridge in the snowy, cold tunnel for the whole night with only a thin dress on her back while Jadwiga suspects that Abraham hid in a pile of hay.

A German soldier took Mrs. Gawrych aside and told her to gather all the belongings that she could before her house was set ablaze. Mrs. Gawrych ran into her house, grabbed Jadwiga’s little brother from his bed and threw him out of the window. She went back into the house to try to collect clothes before it was too late.

    A German soldier strolled up to Mrs. Gawrych and struck her in the face with the blunt end of his machine gun. Jadwiga said that one of the memories that stand out the most was a local citizen running out of the Gawrych’s house with a violin. Mrs. Gawrych ran out of the house with blood dripping from her face and told Jadwiga to take her brother to their nearest neighbour which was 3 kilometres away. Jadwiga grasped her brother and walked with him in her arms in the frigid weather to her uncle’s house.

Most times when the Germans found a family that helped Jews, they would lock the family in the house and set the house on fire. Jadwiga said it was a “miracle” that it didn’t happen with her family.

When Friana left her hiding place under the bridge, she ran away to a nunnery until the end of the war. Her job at the nunnery was to help the children who were orphand during the war and Friana became a foster mom. When the war ended and the Russians invaded Poland, Friana joined the war effort. She also helped in a military hospital in Lublin, where she met her husband and eventually had three daughters. She then moved to Israel when it became a country in 1948.

    Jadwiga later found out that Abraham fled from the trap but ended up committing suicide by hanging himself because he couldn’t take the pressure of the war anymore and the Germans took his property and destroyed it.

    Friana and Jadwiga are still in touch today. Jadwiga’s brother, who was attending music school in Minsk, turned on a TV station while it was showing the story of children who survived the war and Friana was one of the interviewees. While Friana was telling her story, Jadwiga’s brother called Jadwiga to tell her that Friana was still alive because he saw her on a TV station. Jadwiga thought that Friana had

died. When Jadwiga tried calling the historian, she was told he was in Israel to interview Frania and other survivors about their stories. Jadwiga then received a phone call from the historian’s employee that gave her the phone number of the historian. She found out that there was a book all about the stories of the children, including Friana, who survived the war called Jews and Poland. Afterward, she called Frania and Friana came to Poland two weeks later.

    Because of Jadwiga’s heroic actions, she was given the Presidential award by President Kaczynski for the rebirth of Poland, the Yad Vasham award, and a passport so she can go to Israel anytime she wants because of her actions. Jadwiga also received a diploma for saving lives and a poem written by a Jewish poet. The last few lines state “For your bravely, for your strong hand, before you fair, I thank you.”

    Though the war is over, the quote still lives on: Save one person, save the world.

Frania/Frankia