The Adamczyk family was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations for saving the lives of Jewish brothers Chaim and Moshe Frimel. Today, the Jewish organization From the Depths provides food packages to the daughter of the family and other righteous gentiles in Poland who are unable or struggle to leave their homes due to the COVID pandemic.
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Jadwiga Szczeszak-Adamczyk and her family were awarded the title of Righteous among the Nations when she and her family saved Jewish brothers Chaim and Moshe Frimel in the Polish town of Denkow.
In 1939, one-sixth of the village of some 400 residents was Jewish. When the Nazis arrived in 1942, they established a ghetto. Jews were either forced into labor gangs or were sent to the Treblinka death camp.
When the local ghetto was emptied, the Frimel brothers were deported to a labor camp in nearby Bodzechow. When the camp was closed, the brothers escaped and returned to Denkow, where they appealed to the Adamczyk family, whom they kept in touch with while in the camp, for help.
The entire Adamczyk family – parents, three daughters, and one son – smuggled food to the brothers, putting their own lives in jeopardy, as the Nazi regime in Poland made it a capital offense to help Jews.
The brothers hid in a bunker that they dug underneath one of the rooms in the family's home until they were liberated by the Red Army in January 1945. Among the Adamczyks' neighbors were German officers, and to make sure that the brothers were not discovered, the family stopped inviting friends to their house and curtailed their social activities. The Adamczyk family did not ask anything in return for saving the brothers.
After the war, the two emigrated from Poland: Chaim to Israel and Moshe to Canada. They maintained contact with the Adamczyks for many years after. Moshe even visited the family after the war.
After Moshe's passing, Jadwiga thought she would never interact with Jews again. But in the last few months, she's been receiving help from Jonny Daniels' From the Depth organization, which provides food packages for righteous gentiles in Poland who are unable or struggle to leave their homes.
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