The Ryniewicz Family
Stefan Ryniewicz Father
born 1889 – died 19 April 1971
Bronisława Ryniewicz née Kieliszczyk Mother
born 15 August 1883 – died 28 January 1959
Maria Jankowska née Ryniewicz Daughter
born 6 September 1929
Danuta Korzanecka née Ryniewicz Daughter
born 2 September 1921 in Siennica (mazowieckie)
Helena Gos née Ryniewicz Daughter
born 2 March 1932 – died 1960
Recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations:
6 July 1992
- Helena Gos née Ryniewicz
- Maria Jankowska née Ryniewicz
- Danuta Korzanecka née Ryniewicz
- Bronisława Ryniewicz née Kieliszczyk
- Stefan Ryniewicz
Help Was Extended to:
Pinkus Messing
born 1905
Rachela Messing née Kiejzman
born 1916
Story of Rescue
August 2010, Alicja Placha
Before the World War Two Bronisława and Stefan Ryniewicz lived in Siennica, a village located near Mińsk Mazowiecki. They ran a grocer’s shop there. They had five children.
Their house was burnt at the very beginning of the war. The whole family moved to a farm building at the border of Świder and Otwock, in Słowackiego Street, at number 15 of the present Kołłątaja Street. Their new place consisted of a room with a kitchen, and the third, unfinished room was used as a pigsty.
On August 19, 1942 the Nazis began the dissolution of the ghetto in Otwock. Pinkus Messing and Rachela Klejzman managed to escape. In October Pinkus came to the Ryniewicz family living nearby asking for shelter for him and Rachela. He knew the family as they smuggled meat to the Warsaw ghetto together.
Bronisława and Stefan agreed to hide the runaways. The couple spent 22 months in a special bunker dug by Ryniewicz. His oldest daughter, Danuta describes the hideout as follows: „There was no entrance to the cellar, just a hole of about a 30 cm diameter, through which we passed food and took away excrements". Pinkus and Rachela practically did not go out of that hiding place in the ground, they remained there until liberation.
They both survived the war and emigrated from Poland to the USA.
