The Babinski Family
Zofia Karolina Babińska née Mader Mother
Danuta Babińska Daughter
born 1923 – died 1944
Krystyna Kościałkowska née Babińska Daughter
born 25 February 1925 in Warszawa (mazowieckie) – died 1 December 2009
Recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations:
5 February 1985
- Danuta Babińska
- Zofia Karolina Babińska née Mader
- Krystyna Kościałkowska née Babińska
Help Was Extended to:
Janina Wolman née Kauffman
Julian Wolman
Alina Prądzyńska née Wolman
Hanna Wodzińska née Landau
Melania Przepiórko
Wacław Wolman
Story of Rescue
August 2010, Joanna Król
Zofia Babińska and her two daughters Danuta and Krystyna ran a boarding house at Bracka Street in Warsaw. They helped Jews during World War II; the daughters smuggled food into the ghetto and the mother helped financially by lending money which she did not demand back. Alina Prądzyńska, one of the survivors, recalls: “They never hesitated to help people, even strangers who, tracked down, came to the boarding house straight from the street in search for refuge.”
During the Nazi occupation Babińskas helped Alina Prądzyńska’s family – the Wolmans. Alina, who used “Aryan papers” – fake documents, spent many nights in the boarding house at Bracka Street. Babińskas helped her parents and brother escape from the ghetto just before the great expulsion operation in the summer of 1942. Until the end of the war they helped the family financially.
Also Marlena Przepiórkowa, an elderly Jewish woman, found refuge in the boarding house. Unfortunately, she was killed during the Warsaw Uprising. Zofia Babińska helped also her pre-war neighbor,Mrs. Goldberg,and her son. She tried to arrange for them false identity papers. Mrs. Goldberg decided to go to the ghetto. She and her son were killed.
The Wolmans survived. Survived also Hanna Wodzińska. In case of trouble she could always count on a meal and board at the Babińska’s boarding house. Zofia Babińska ran her establishment until 1949. Her older daughter, Danuta was killed during the Warsaw Uprising. The younger one, Krystyna, stayed in touch with the persons who had survived also thanks to her help.