The Tyz Family
Grzegorz Tyż Husband
born 1 May 1908 – died 22 August 2000 in Cieszyn (śląskie)
Maria (Michalina) Tyż née Kureniuk Wife
died 22 June 1976
Recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations:
25 May 1988
- Maria (Michalina) Tyż née Kureniuk
- Grzegorz Tyż
Help Was Extended to:
Nusia (Anna) Stenshutz (Sten) Mother
Fryderyk Efraim Stenshutz (Sten) Son
born 1928 in Złoczów (inne) – died 8 March 2004
Barbara Horowitz Mother
Elżbieta Tennenbaum Daughter
Samuel Tennenbaum Husband
Selma Tennenbaum Daughter
Edyta Tennenbaum Daughter
Weiss
Herzug
Edmund Kin
Edyta Weinstock Mother
Ewa Weinstock Daughter
Zofia Roth
Parille'owie
Raiserowie
Story of Rescue
April 2011, Zuzanna Benesz/translation: Beata Murzyn
During the Nazi occupation, Grzegorz and Maria Tyż hid in their house in Złoczów (presently Ukraine) altogether 16 people of Jewish origin. The house, located near the forest, constituted a safe hiding place. There were only 7 neighbors living in the vicinity of the Tyżs’ house. They eschewed the family, knowing that a Navy Blue policeman (a member of the Polish collaborationist police of the General Government) lives with them from time to time.
From fall of 1942 to 1944 when Kresy (Borderlands) were liberated, the Tyżs gave shelter to the following people: the Stenshutz family, the Tennenbaum family, Barbara Horowitz (Elżbieta Tennenbaum's mother), Mrs. Herzug, Raiser and Roth and the Parilles, Edyta and Ewa Weinstock, Edmund Kin and Mr. Weiss. The Tyżs prepared for the fugitives a hiding place in the cellar with the separate entrance. When the number of the runaways increased, some of them moved to the room located on the first floor of the house with the window shutters constantly closed. Many a time, German troops marching to the eastern front stationed in the Tyżs’ house. As a result, it sometimes happened that German officers slept under the same roof with the Jews.
“For two years nobody noticed that there were so many people living in our house. The worst thing happened when Germans wanted to deport me to a forced labor camp in the Third Reich. I was rescued by a chef, a German He procured a special stamp saying that he needed me as a worker and I stayed at home. It was good that my house was constantly occupied by German officers. When German troops departed for the eastern front, the other houses in the vicinity were visited by Ukrainians, who murdered its Polish inhabitants. Even when the eastern front moved closer, the last of Germans left my house just half an hour before Russians arrived" – remembers Grzegorz Tyż.
After World War II, the Tyż family was deported to Przemyśl. Grzegorz, on the other hand, settled in Cieszyn. He maintained contact with the Rescued. Mr. Tennenbaum became a neighbor of Grzegorz Tyż. They lived in the same tenement house at 49 Głęboka Street. Fryderyk Efraim Stenshutz paid a call to the Righteous in 1991.I n 1992, Grzegorz Tyż became paralyzed and since then he stayed in a nursing home run by the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God, and later by the Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo.
The motion to award the medal of Yad Vashem Institute to the Tyż family was put forward by another Jew rescued by the family, mainly Mr. Parille. Grzegorz and Maria Tyż were awarded the title “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1988.