Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and institute in Jerusalem will posthumously honor Wojciech Wołoszczuk, from Poland, as Righteous Among the Nations from.
His daughter, Janina Wołoszczuk, will come from Poland to accept the medal and certificate of honor on his behalf. The event will take place in the presence of the Polish Ambassador to Israel, gnieszka Magdziak Miszewska, the survivor Frances Schaff who lives in the United States, as well as family and friends.
A memorial ceremony will be held in Yad Vashem’s Hall of Remembrance followed by the awarding of the medal and certificate in the Synagogue.
Between the two world wars, the Jewish population of Kosów, (then part of Poland, and today in Ukraine) constituted about half of the city's total population. The murder of the Jews began immediately after the German occupation in September 1941.
Feiga Bader, today Frances Schaff, was born in Kosów in 1936, the youngest of ten children. Her mother died when Feiga was only two years old. Shortly after the occupation, she witnessed her father being murdered. Feiga escaped to the house of her brother Chaim, and stayed with him for several weeks.
In the second aktion in Kosów, Chaim’s family was deported, and Feiga found herself alone and on the run again. She approached the family of her friend Genka for help, but they allowed her to stay with them for only one night, after which Feiga was asked to leave.
Feiga remembered that her brother Nissan had made arrangements to hide in the house of his good friend Wojciech Wołoszczuk. Feiga managed to reach the Wołoszczuks and joined her brother, his wife, their two children and two other Jews who were all hiding in the barn attic.
Every night, Wojciech would bring them food. As time went on, wartime rationing made it difficult to feed so many extra mouths, and the food supply dwindled. To alleviate their hunger, Nissan would secretly go to milk the cow or search for food in neighboring homes. After having emerged from hiding twice, Nissan was caught and shot.
Wojciech Wołoszczuk kept the Jews hidden on his farm until after liberation.
When they came out of hiding, Feiga’s sister-in-law and her children were murdered by a group of peasants. Now alone, Feiga was taken to an orphanage. From there she was moved to Lena Kuechler’s children’s home, immigrated to Israel, and later moved to the United States.
In 2009, Feiga traveled to Kosów with her son. After returning home, her family decided to apply to Yad Vashem for Wojciech Wołoszczuk to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
Wojciech Woloszczuk died in 1963. Earlier this year, the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous Among the Nations decided to recognize Wojciech Woloszczuk as Righteous Among the Nations.