Last revised august 30, 2004

. A large group of Jews led by Bielicer, based in forests near Zaczepicze about ten kilometres from Bielica, received extensive assistance from the surrounding population. See the testimony of Lejb Rajzer, dated 1945, Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw), no. 301/555. Shimon Kantorowicz was sheltered for two years by the Krepski family in Helenów near Stłopce and, even though this was known to almost the entire village, no one betrayed him. Information from Yad Vashem file no. 5844. Another Jew recalled the assistance he and his father received from the villagers of Powiłańce near Ejszyszki, on numerous occasions: “The village was composed of some forty houses strung out side by side on a single street. Each house was inhabited by Poles, but my father knew many of them and had done favours for them in the past. At each house, we knocked and explained our plight. Only a few turned us down … Very soon our wagon was filled with butter and eggs and flour and fresh vegetables, and my father and I wept at their kindness and at the realization that we had been reduced to beggars. The people of Powielancy [Powiłańce] were so generous … Now we sent out a food gathering group each evening to beg in the neighbouring villages where most of the people felt kindly toward us. One of the villages in this area was Powielancy whose people had filled our cart with food when father and I had come from the Radun [Raduń] ghetto. They helped us again most willingly for they sympathized with our plight.” See Kahn, No Time To Mourn, 55, 124. The nearby village of Mieżańce is mentioned in several accounts as friendly to the Jews. See Martin Gilbert, The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust (Toronto: Key Porter, 2003), 19; testimony of Beniamin Rogowski, March 14, 1965, Yad Vashem Archives, file 03/2820. Meir Stoler, who escaped the German massacre of Jews in Raduń on May 10, 1942, managed to reach the tiny Polish hamlet of Mieżańce, where the villagers took him in and gave him food. See Martin Gilbert, The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust (Toronto: Key Porter, 2003), 19. Boris and Gitel Smolnik were sheltered by the Korobiec family in Porzecze near Grodno. Their neighbours were aware of the Smolniks’ presence, but no one denounced them. See Emilia Korobiec, the Righteous Database, Yad Vashem, Internet: . Shulamit Schreyber Żabinska, a teenage girl who was sheltered by Poles in the Wilno countryside, recalled that many Poles brought food to the ghetto, “otherwise everyone would have starved to death. It was dangerous, and people were shot for this.” After escaping from the ghetto she was taken in by Weronika (“Wercia”) Stankiewicz and her mother, passing as Wercia’s niece. Although the villagers knew she was Jewish no one betrayed her. See Tomaszewski and Werbowski, Zegota, 117–18; Żegota, 2^nd edition, 110; and Code Name: Żegota, 3^rd edition, 117. Similarly, Estera Bielicka was taken in by the Myślicki family in Matejkany (Motejkany) where she lived openly. Although the villagers knew about her Jewish origin, no one betrayed her. See Wiktor Noskowski, “Czy Yaffa Eliach przeprosi Polaków?” Myśl Polska (Warsaw), July 20–27, 1997. Joanna Malberg lived openly in the town of Niemenczyn under an assumed identity, working as a private French teacher. Since she had a marked Semitic appearance, it was widely suspected she was of Jewish origin. See Gutman and Bender, The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, vol. 4: Poland, Part 1, 58–59; Antonowicz Family, The Righteous Database, Yad Vashem, Internet: ; Testimony of Wacława Dobrzyńska, Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw), no. 301/5427. After miraculously surviving a mass execution in Ponary, Ita Straż wandered in the countryside without documents near Nowa Wilejka, Witaniszki and Gajluny, sewing for farmers in exchange for food. A pharmacist survived in the vicinity of Kiemieliszki by healing sick villagers and livestock. See Barbara Engelking, Jest taki piękny słoneczny dzień…: Losy Zydów szukujących ratunku na wsi polskiej 1942–1945 (Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum nad Zagładą Żydów, 2011), 124, 126. The neighbours of a Polish family in Białozoryszki near Wilno were aware that that family was sheltering a Jewish boy. See Chodorska, Godni synowie naszej Ojczyzny Part One, 104–109. Particularly moving are the rescue accounts involving children found in Bartoszewski and Lewin, Righteous Among Nations, 391–97; Wiktoria Śliwowska, ed., The Last Eyewitnesses: Children of the Holocaust Speak (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1998), 307–22; Grynberg, Księga sprawiedliwych, 308–309. Four-year-old Rachel Friedman (later Varejes) was found wandering around in the village of Jaszuny on the edge of Rudniki forest. She was sheltered by Antoni and Maria Kruminis-Łozowski and survived the war. See “Yad Vashem Posthumously Honors Antoni and Maria Kruminis-Łozowski as Righteous Among the Nations from Poland,” Internet: . Two young sisters from Lida, Raquel (Rachel) and Ester Mowszowicz, were sheltered by a Polish Catholic family named Zapula. See Pedro Luque, “Un pasado para armar,” La Voz (Córdoba, Argentina), April 26, 2009. Boris Ulman, who escaped from the ghetto in Brasław after he was declared wanted and no one there wanted to shelter him, was assisted by many Poles on his way to Wilno. He stayed in several Polish villages where he received help, but was expelled from the Opsa ghetto where his presence was thought to endanger the residents and was rounded up for deportation to Ponary by Jewish policemen in Stare Święciany. Afterwards, he joined the Soviet partisans based in the Koziany forest. He stated that their relations with Polish partisans were bad, and that the Polish partisans fought both the Germans and the Soviet partisans. See the testimony of Boris Ulman, dated June 21, 1962, Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw), no. 301/5873. Ettie Blitz Miller, who was born in the Wilno ghetto in August 1941, was sheltered by a family of Polish farmers while her parents hid in the forest. See her testimony in the Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Interview code 8875. A Jewish woman from Butrimonys [Butrymańce] near Alyta [Olita], on the territory of interwar Lithuania, recalled the widespread assistance of the Polish minority in that area, in particular a hamlet named Parankowa: “Parankova became known among us unfortunate Jews as a Polish hamlet where nobody would hand you over to the murderers; ‘to me Parankova is truly the Jerusalem of Lithuania’.” See Rivka Lozansky Bogomolnaya, Wartime Experiences in Lithuania (London and Portland, Oregon: Vallentine Mitchell, 2000), 75. See also If I Forget The…: The Destruction of the Shtetl Butrimantz. Testimony by Riva Lozansky and Other Witnesses (Washington, DC: Remembrance Books, 1998), passim. Many other examples of rescue can be found in the following publications: Dawidowicz, “Shoah Żydów wileńskich,” in Feliksiak, Wilno-Wileńszczyzna jako krajobraz i środowisko wielu kultur, vol. 1, 243–76; Bauer, “Nowogródek—The Story of a Shtetl,” Yad Vashem Studies, vol. 35, no. 2 (2007): 60–61; Gilbert, The Righteous, 6–7, 16–19, 21–24, 75–83; Gutman and Bender, The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, vols. 4 and 5: Poland, Part One, 56, 57, 68–69; 74, 98–99, 108, 110, 126–27, 132, 159–60, 164–65, 200–1, 212, 219, 283, 290, 302–3, 355, 360–61, 394, 411–12, 417, 434–35, 443, 447, 458–59, 481, 483, 487–88, 489–90, 497, 511–12, 517–18, and Part Two, 539–40, 544, 546, 572, 584–85, 586, 588–89, 607, 624–25, 644–45, 646, 650–51, 656, 662, 669–70, 677, 697, 705–6, 715, 724–25, 739–40, 748, 768, 780, 783–84, 786, 793–94, 798, 799, 815–16, 828, 834, 853–54, 913–14, 917–18, 922, 932, 939–40; Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union, 433; Rima Dulkinienė and Kerry Keys, eds., Su adata širdyje: Getų ir koncentracijos stovyklų kalinių atsiminimai; With a Needle in the Heart: Memoirs of Former Prisoners of Ghettos and Concentraion Camps (Vilnius: Garnelis and Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, 2003), 111–12, 362–63, 380–81. Only a tiny fraction of these rescuers have been formally recognized by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem as “Righteous Gentiles.”

Among the many Catholic priests—often with ties to the Home Army—in the Wilno region who, with the encouragement of Archbishop Romuald Jałbrzykowski of Wilno, came to the assistance of Jews were: Witold Bancer (Niemenczyn), Rajmund Butrymowicz (Wilejka), Leopold Chomski (Wilno), Andrzej Gdowski (Wilno), Henryk Hlebowicz (Wilno), Edmund Ilcewicz (Wilno), Rev. Jagodziński (Wilno), Julian Jankowski (Wilno), Władysław Kisiel (Wilno), Jan Kretowicz (Wilno), Kazimierz Kucharski (Wilno), Antoni Lewosz (Wilno), Tadeusz Makarewicz (Wilno), Florian Markowski (Wilno), Hieronim Olszewski (Wilno), Leon Puciata (Wilno), Michał Sopoćko (Wilno), Bolesław Sperski (Wilno), Juozas Stakauskas (Wilno), Romuald Świrkowski (Wilno), Ignacy Świrski (Wilno), Bronisław Wąsowicz (Wilno), Bronisław Żongołłowicz (Wilno), Antoni Grzybowski (Albertyn), Kazimierz Mitka (Balingródek), Rev. Petro (Belmont), Mieczysław Akrejć (Brasław), Rev. Kowalski (Brasław), Res. Szlenik (Brasław), Rev. Wasilewski (Brasław), Stanisław Żuk (Budsław), Paweł Dołżyk (Derewna or Derewno), Feliks Kaczmarek (Duniłowicze), Bolesław Moczulski (Ejszyszki), Albin Jaroszewicz (Grodno), Michał Klimczak (Father Dionizy, Grodno), Gedymin Pilecki (Hermaniszki), Józef (Antoni?) Chomski (Holszany), Bolesław Gramz (Idołta), Władysław Maćkowiak (Ikaźń), Stanisław Pyrtek (Ikaźń), Kazimierz Kułak (Landwarów), Tadeusz Grzesiak (Kleck), Lucjan Pereświet-Sołtan (Kolonia Wileńska), Józef Zawadzki (Kolonia Wileńska), Witold Sarosiek (Kundzin), Kazimierz Kułak (Landwarów), Józef Pakalnis (Łyntupy), Józef Szołkowski (Mejszagoła), Hilary Daniłłowicz (Mickuny), Michał Badowski (Mir), Antoni Mackiewicz (Mir), Karol Lubianiec (Mołodeczno), Paweł Dabulewicz (Nacza), Józef Bajko (Naliboki), Józef Baradyn (Naliboki), Leon Bujnowski (Niedźwiedzica), Aleksander Ciszkiewicz (Niedźwiedzica), Jan Grodis (Nieśwież), Mieczysław Kubik (Nieśwież), Stanisław Miłkowski (Nowa Wilejka), Stanisław Tyszka (Nowe Troki), Michał Dalecki (Nowogródek), Jan Niemycki (Ostrowiec), Jan Wienożyndzis (Pielasa), Piotr Pruński (Połusza), Aleksander Grabowski (Pozorowo), Aleksander Hanusewicz (Raków), Witold Szymczukiewicz (Rukojnie), Adam Sztark (Słonim), Kazimierz Grochowski (Słonim), Michał Michniak (Słonim), Antoni Udalski (Soleczniki), Stanisław Tyszka (Troki), Józef Obrembski (Turgiele), Władysław Kaszczyc (Werenowo), Dominik Amankowicz (Widze), Stanisław Szczemirski (Widze), Zygmunt Miłkowski (Wiszniew), Romuald Dronicz (Wołkołata), Antoni Udalski (Wołożyn), Jan Sielewicz (Worniany), Hipolit Chruściel (Worniany), Ignacy Kardis (Worniany), Edward Żórawski (Worniany), Józef Kuczyński (Wsielub), Bernard Kowalewski (Zadoroże), Paweł Czapłowski (Żodziszki), as well as unidentified priests from Borodzienicze, Iszczołna, Lida, Łyntupy, Ossowo, Ostryna, Pielasa, Raduń, and other localities. The orders of Catholic nuns involved in rescue activities include: the Benedictine Sisters (Nieśwież, Wilno), Dominican Sisters (Kolonia Wileńska, Wilno), Daughters of Mary Immaculate (Lida, Wiszniew), Daughters of the Purest Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Wilno), Franciscan Sisters of the Agonizing Christ (Kozińce, Wilno), Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary (Mickuny, Raków, Wilno, Wołkowysk), Sisters of the Most Holy Name of Jesus under the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Help of the Faithful (Połkunie, Wilno), Sisters of the Countenance of the Most Holy Redeemer (Wilno), Sisters of the Merciful Mother of God (Magdalene Sisters—Werki, Wilno, Wołokumpie), Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (Werki near Wilno), Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially Marta Wołowska and Ewa Noiszewska (Słonim), Sisters of the Family of Nazareth (Gulbiny, Nowogródek), Sisters of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Visitation Sisters—Wilno), Ladies of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Wilno), Sisters of the Resurrection of Our Lord (Mir), Pallotine Sisters (Nowogródek), Ursuline Sisters of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus (Czarny Bór, Wilno), Sisters Servants of the Most Blessed Mary Immaculate (Wilno), Sisters of the Angels (Wilno, Wyszary). See Zygmunt Zieliński, ed., Życie religijne w Polsce pod okupacją 1939–1945: Metropolie wileńska i lwowska, zakony (Katowice: Unia, 1992), 44, 51–55, 83–84, 406–407; Zygmunt Zieliński, ed., Życie religijne w Polsce pod okupacją hitlerowską 1939–1945 (Warsaw: Ośrodek Dokumentacji i Studiów Społecznych, 1982), 244–45; Cyprian Wilanowski, Konspiracyjna działalność duchowieństwa katolickiego na Wileńszczyźnie w latach 1939–1944 (Warsaw: Pax, 2000), 112–13, 115–16, 118, 120, 123–25, 129–30, 131, 135; Aleksander Dawidowicz, “Shoah Żydów wileńskich,” in Feliksiak, Wilno–Wileńszczyzna jako krajobraz i środowisko wielu kultur, vol. 1, 263–66, 269; Bartoszewski, The Blood Shed Unites Us, 191–92; Bartoszewski and Lewin, Righteous Among Nations, lxxxiii, 396–97, 513–17; Bartoszewski and Lewinówna, Ten jest z ojczyzny mojej, 229–32, 1022, 1023; Andrzej Chciuk, ed., Saving Jews in War-Torn Poland, 1939–1945 (Clayton, Victoria: Wilke and Company, 1969), 33–34; Wacław Zajączkowski, Martyrs of Charity, Part One (Washington, D.C.: St. Maximilian Kolbe Foundation, 1987), Entries 77, 322, 377, 378, 463, 643, 665; Ewa Kurek, Your Life Is Worth Mine: How Polish Nuns Saved Hundreds of Jewish Children in German Occupied Poland, 1939–1945 (New York: Hippocrene, 1997), 125–26, 131, 132; Jasiewicz, Europa nieprowincjonalna, 150, 366; Wiktor Noskowski, “Czy Yaffa Eliach przeprosi Polaków?” Myśl Polska, July 20–27, 1997; Wojciech Cieśla, “Ojciec od spraw beznadziejnych,” Gazeta Wyborcza, December 29, 2000; Franciszek Kącki, Udział księży i zakonnic w holokauście Żydów (Warsaw: Adiutor, 2002), 14, 17, 30–33, 38, 43, 45, 58, 103, 122–23, 132, 140; Jan Żaryn, Dzieje Kościoła katolickiego w Polsce (1944–1989) (Warsaw: Neriton and Instytut Historii PAN, 2003), 17–19; Laryssa Michajlik, “‘Sąsiedzi” obok ‘sąsiadów’? Ratowanie Żydów przez chrześcijan na terytorium Białorusi w latach 1941–1944,: in Krzysztof Jasiewicz, ed., Świat niepożegnany: Żydzi na dawnych ziemiach wschodnich Rzeczypospolitej w XVIII–XX wieku (Warsaw and London: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN, Rytm, and Polonia Aid Foundation Trust, 2004), 733; Teresa Antonietta Frącek, “Ratowały, choć groziła za to śmierć,” Part 3, Nasz Dziennik, March 15–16, 2008 (Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary). For Jewish sources confirming Polish accounts see: Friedman, Their Brothers’ Keepers, 16–17, 125–26, 140; Tatiana Berenstein and Adam Rutkowski, Assistance to the Jews in Poland, 1939–1945 (Warsaw: Polonia Publishing House, 1963), 40; Kowalski, A Secret Press in Nazi Europe, 217–18; Simon Huberband, Kiddush Hashem: Jewish Religious and Cultural Life in Poland During the Holocaust (Hoboken, New Jersey: KTAV Publishing House; New York: Yeshiva University Press, 1987), 373; Mordecai Paldiel, The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust (Hoboken, New Jersey: KTAV Publishing House, 1993), 117–18, 216–17, 227, 241–44; Mordecai Paldiel, Sheltering the Jews: Stories of Holocaust Rescuers (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 117–18, 209; Gutman and Bender, The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, vols. 4 and 5: Poland, Part One, xliii–xliv, 63–64, 108, 124–25, 182, 355, 376, 483, 511–12; Part Two, 656–57, 799, 807, 939–40; Gilbert, The Righteous, 79–82; Tec, In the Lion’s Den, 73, 96, 98–99, 163–77; Riwash, Resistance and Revenge, 144; Silverman, From Victims to Victors, 132, 246–47, 325; Machnes and Klinov, Darkness and Desolation, 571, 572, 575, 595, 596; Wawer, Poza gettem i obozem, 17, 36, 83–84; Abram, The Light After the Dark, 58–59; Cunge, Uciec przed holocaustem, 129, 137–38, 178, 182–83, 273 (Wilno), 193, 234–35, 252–53, 261, 277 (Żodziszki), 207 (nuns); Cholawsky, The Jews of Bielorussia during World War II, 272, 278; Smilovitskii, Katastrofa evreev v Belorussii 1941–1944 gg., 64, 132; Śliwowska, The Last Eyewitnesses, 257–61, 307–22; Stein, Hidden Children, 63–64, 207; Isakiewicz, Harmonica, 96; Tomaszewski and Werbowski, Zegota, 98–99, Żegota, 2^nd edition, 93, and Code Name: Żegota, 3^rd edition, 93 (Kolonia Wileńska near Wilno); Gutman and Krakowski, Unequal Victims, 236–37; Eliach, There Once Was a World, 594, 599 (Ejszyszki, Raduń); Żbikowski, Archiwum Ringelbluma, vol. 3, 356 (Słonim), 474; Anita Brostoff and Sheila Chamovitz, eds., Flares of Memory: Stories of Childhood during the Holocaust (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 121–22, 301; Halperin, Ludzie są wszędzie, 173 (Nieśwież); Grynberg and Kotowska, Życie i zagłada Żydów polskich 1939–1945, 386, 522–23; Yehuda Bauer, “Kurzeniec—a Jewish Shtetl in the Holocaust,” Yalkut Moreshet: Holocaust Documentation and Research (Tel Aviv), no. 1 (Winter 2003): 156; Mordecai Paldiel, The Righteous Among the Nations (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem; New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 18, 62–64, 72–74; Ram Oren, Getruda’s Oath: A Child, a Promise, and a Heroic Escape During World War II (New York: Doubleday/Random House, 2009), 188–95 (Wilno); Israel Gutman, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust: Supplementary Volumes (2000–2005), vol. II (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2010), 614, 623–24, 631, 632; Dean, Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, vol., 2, Part A, 932 (Ostryna), Part B, 1057 (Holszany), 1088 (Łyntupy), 1153 (Worniany), 1170 (Brasław); Michael Kutz, If, By Miracle (Toronto: Azrieli Foundation, 2013), 31–32 (Benedictine Sisters, Nieśwież); Tadeusz Krahel, Archidiecezja wileńska w latach II wojny światowej: Studia i szkice (Białystok: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej–Oddział w Białymstoku, 2014), 76, 101–2, 110–26, 166–68, 195–96, 225. Not all encounters of priests with Jews were favourable. The Jesuit priest Wacław Sęk, who administered the parish of Baturyn near Mołodeczno, was denounced by a Jewish partisan on account of his alleged “reactionary” views. The Soviet partisan headquarters, however, was not as convinced of the priest’s harmful ways because they released him after a brief interrogation. On another occasion, a Jewish partisan defended Rev. Sęk, who was pursued by the Germans, as a friend of the partisans when a local Soviet commander ordered his execution. See Wacław Sęk, Proboszcz z gorącego pogranicza (Lublin: Norbertinum, 2003), 72, 81, 98, 94–95. Rev. Sęk’s memoirs are replete with graphic descriptions of the cruel and rapacious exploits of the Soviet partisans, who engaged in few confrontations with the Germans, and the bind the civilian population found themselves sandwiched between the Nazi hammer and Soviet anvil. Russian partisans even stole rosaries from Rev. Sęk, thinking they were necklaces with which they could impress their girlfriends. The Germans in turn took their revenge by burning villages and homesteads of those suspected of aiding the Soviet partisans in any way, including food confiscations.

631 Kahn, No Time To Mourn, 94–96. It is worth noting that there were many Jews who were assisted by Poles in the Grodno area (some examples were provided earlier). See also Spector, Lost Jewish Worlds, 180–85. Sympathy for outsiders was not a hallmark of ghetto life. In Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, for example, the Judenrat moved energetically to rid the ghetto of Jewish deportees from Vienna, who were relatively well off, and in the process confiscated much of their possessions. See Waldemar R. Brociek, Adam Penkalla, Regina Renz, Żydzi ostrowieccy: Zarys Dziejów (Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski: Muzeum Historyczno-Archeologiczne, 1996), 101. The example of relative prosperity in the Grodno ghetto is not an isolated one. Conditions in ghettos varied from place to place and could change overnight. A resident of the ghetto in Raduń near Ejszyszki recalled: “there was no instance of actual starvation. Mutual help was commonplace, and all the needy would receive daily food rations, contributed and distributed voluntarily by the Jews of Radun.” See Aviel, A Village Named Dowgalishok, 92. In the Wilno ghetto trade flourished as late as March 1942: “Now, people carry on free and open [commerce] … Little shops opened … Peasants who come in to take out garbage bring merchandise into the ghetto, and there is trade in the ghetto the likes of which have never been seen. … Outside the ghetto, they say that the Jews in the ghetto live better than the residents of the city. There’s some truth to that. In this respect, the ghetto is much livelier and more active than are the inhabitants outside the ghetto.” See Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania, 243. For information about the wide-scale smuggling of goods from the “Aryan” side see pp. 595–96. Kruk mentions other paradoxes of the German occupation: “Aryans who want to save themselves from Aryan-German hands come for asylum to … the ghetto”; “Germans have no trust in the Aryan Poles, Russians, and Lithuanians. But, on the contrary, their Jewish slaves are their best…co-workers.” Ibid., 479.

632 Testimony of Alina Colle, dated December 15, 1947, Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw), no. 301/4009.

633 H. Abramson, ed., Sefer zikaron le-kehilat Rakow (Tel Aviv: Former Residents of Rakow in Israel and the U.S.A., 1959), 141ff., translated as Rakow Community Memorial Book, Internet: