During the German occupation, Feliks Widy-Wirski and Marta (nee Wołyńcewicz), with the help of their daughter Krystyna, aided Jews, among them Janina Poswolska and her son Romek. Thanks to their Polish acquaintances, they found refuge following their escape from the Warsaw Ghetto.
They hid on the "Aryan side" of Warsaw and, later, in it surroundings, changing hiding places in order to remain safe.
In August 1943, Janina's husband, Henryk Poswolski, survived the revolt in Treblinka - a Nazi extermination camp - where he had been a forced labourer in the crematorium. Following his escape, he, too, received medical help and shelter from the Widy-Wirski family.
"I still remember how I locked him [ed: Romek Poswolski] in the cupboard. Those big, dark eyes looking at me, wondering why it was hime and not me", said Krystyna Widy-Kierska in the documentary film about her parents, which was created in 2022 by her grandson, Aleksander Antoni Kierski.
A doctor and a pharmacist - the story of Feliks and Marta Widy before the war and during the German occupation
The Widy couple met while studying at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Feliks, born in Lwów, studied medicine. Marta, who came from Horodzec (now within Belarus), studied pharmacy.
Even then, Feliks was politically active, being involved with the Lewica Akademicka [Academic Left] and, later years, he belonged to the Front Ludowy [Popular Front].
Afterr graduating, the young couple remained in Poznań, where Feliks worked in the Gynecological Hospital. They married in 1933 and, three years later, their daughter Krysia was born.
In September 1939, Feliks was called up into the military ass a second lieutenant in the reserve sanitary service. Wounded, he ended up as a prisoner-of-war. Attempts to escape were unsuccessful. He was sent to the Gross-Born prisoner-of-war camp and then to the Pawiak prison in Warsaw.
In June 1940, he was released due to being a doctor and began working at the Social Insurance Office in Warsaw. Together with Marta, who worked at the pharmacy of pharmacist Radomski on ul. Nowy Świat, they both engaged in underground activities.
They were involved with the "Independent Poland Cadre", an organization which, among other things, printed false identity documents. The pharmacy served as one of their contact points. Questions about medications withdrawn from circulation served as a code for discussions about documents. Feliks adopted the operational identity of "Rosław Wirski".
Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto - the help given by the Widy family to the Poswolski family during the Holocaust
„[…] we were hidden,protected and fed by this couple, who risked their lives as well as those of their children Rosław and Krystyna”, wrote Henryk Poswolski in a testimony, given after the war to the Yad Vashem Institute.
Janina Poswolska and Marta Widy became friends while studying pharmacy in Poznań. At the end of 1941 and beginning of 1942, Marta met a mutual acquaintance and, from her, found out that Janina, with her son and husband, had found themselves in the Warsaw Ghetto.
"At that time, I'd paid a larger amount of money to the chief of the blue police, who brought Janina Poswolska (nee Potok), with her little son, but without her husband, to my home in Warsaw, at ul. Żulińska 3/9 [ed: that section of ul. Żurawia, between Marszałkowska and Poznańska was named that way in 1935]. Unfortunately, Henryk Poswolski was deported to a camp (which later turned out to be Treblinka).”
Janina, with Romek, spent the night, after leaving the ghetto, in a tomb in the Powązkowski Cemetery. In the morning, they made contact with Marta.
"Mrs. Poswolską, after studyig biology and pharmacy […], had to be taught a few vulgar songs and given some appropriate clothes", recalled Krystyna in the documentary. "She acted like a maid, with her hands on her hips, singing strange songs and moving her hips and legs, while laughing. She was very close to my mother. I called her 'Auntie'”.
The boy had a "bad appearance". Whenever someone, from outside the family, such as underground couriers, appeared at the Widy home, it was Krysia's duty to ensure that he had a place to hide.
"He felt desperate, but sat quietly in the cupboard and made no sound. […] I remember my father discussing, with my mother, whether to lighten the boy's eyelashes and eyebrows and, if they started doing it, how often they would have to do it again. In the end, they decided not to lighten them.”
Despite the strict secrecy, the building's tenants realised that someone was hiding in the Widy home, and "szmalcownicy" (blackmailers) began appearing on ul. Żulińska. In 1943, after receiving warnings from the caretaker, Janina took her son (about five-years-old at the time) and relocated him to the outskirts of Warsaw, entrusting him into the care of nuns.
The everyday life of the Poswolski family in hiding - threats from the Poles and fear of the Germans
The Widy family moved several times, for their own safety and that of those they were hiding. The move from the inner suburbs to Saska Kępa was forced because of blackmail.
Several times, in the pharmacy, Marta was threatened, by a distant acquaintance, of a possible denunciation. The visits stopped, when Feliks informed him that the underground organisation, with which he was a part, would issue a judgement against the man. Despite this, the family left ul. Żulińska and rented an apartment on the other side of the Wisła River.
Krystyna has memories of nighttime activity in the garden, when she and her father dug a hole in which to bury secret documents. When it was realised that the apartment owner was a Jewish woman, Feliks took the decision to move homes again. Marta, who was pregnant at the time, needed peace and quiet. They moved to Sulejówek and, from there, to Podkowa Leśna, where their house was located opposite a meadow of "Stawisko", an estate owned by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz.
"I always stood in front of the house as a lookout", recalled Krystyna Widy-Kierska. "In case of danger, I was to quickly alert them that the Germans were coming. At that moment, they would move a large wardrobe, under which there was a trapdoor leading to the cellar. I would shout that the Germans were coming and they would move the wardrobe and open the cellar door. The Jews, who were hiding with use, - Auntie Janka and an older boy [ed: Roman Kocen], would go into the hiding place. The wardrobe would then be pushed back and we would greet the Germans.
"Once, I was too late warning them that the Germans were coming. So, they hid behind the wardrobe, but their legs were visible. But, the Germans searched and left. Many times, we discussed whether they had not noticed the legs or whether they had noticed them and decided not to take any action."
On that day, Janina Poswolska and Romek Kocen had hidden behind the wardrobe. Apart from the Poswolski family, the boy was one of the people who had found shelter with the Widy family. Among those, who also sought refuge with them, were Jul Bryl, a professor in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Warsaw, his wife Rózga, Lola Rabe, and the lawyer Siemięcki.
Henryk Poswolski – a survivor of the revolt in Treblinka
"Just before the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, a peasant from the outskirts of Warsaw came to us with the news that Henryk Poswolski was lying injured in his barn", wrote Marta Widy-Wirska, in a testimony for the Jewish Historical Institute.
"At that time, together with my husband, I transported the injured Mr. Poswolski, who had escaped from Treblinka, to Podkowa, where he received medical assistance (a cheek torn by shrapnel)."
Before being deported to the extermination camp in Treblinka, Henryk Poswolski served as a policeman in the Warsaw Ghetto. In the camp, he was forced to work in the crematorium. His hands had to handle the body of his own sister.
In August 1943, he took part in the revolt in Treblinka, becoming one of the few who had managed to survive and escape. The Widy family decided that it would be safer for him to be in Kraków. So they contacted a doctor, who was known to them, and arranged for Henryk to be transported there for treatment. He remained in Kraków until the end of the war.
The Escape from Persecution and memories - the Poswolski family emigrate to Brazil
As a result of being denounced by a friend of Janina's, to whom she had confided that her son was hiding with nuns, the Germans conducted a search on the convent. The circumcised boys were transported to a Jewish orphanage on ul. Ogrodowa in Warsaw, which was later liquidated during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Romek features in records of children, who were taken from Polish families by the Germans, to be "Germanised". However, this information was never confirmed. The boy disappeared.
W 1946 r. Poswolscy zdecydowali się na emigrację z Polski, chociaż Henryk zajmował stanowisko kierownika finansowego w jednej z łódzkich fabryk. Janina spotkała na ulicy znajomą, która zadenuncjowała Romka i inne dzieci w klasztorze. Według Krystyny Widy-Kierskiej małżeństwo wybrało na wyjazd Brazylię ze względu na możliwość „zgubienia się w tłumie” i nie bycia posądzanym o żydowskie pochodzenie.
In 1946, the Poswolski family decided to emigrate from Poland, despite Henryk holding a position as finance manager at a factory in Łódź. On the street, Janina encountered the acquaintance, who had denounced Romek and other children hiding at the convent. According to Krystyna Widy-Kierska, the couple chose Brazil as their destination, because it offered the opportunity to be able to "disappear in the crowd" and avoid being suspected of being Jewish.
Janina accepted an offer of work from Helen Rubinstein. She managed a company, in Rio de Janeiro, which produced lipsticks and creams. Henryk became a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company. Their second son, Andre, was born.
In the 1960s, Mr. Poswolski was a witness in the trial of the Treblinka camp commander, Franz Stangl. "The Germans threatened him that, if he testified, they would do to his second son what they had done to the first", Krystyna recalled.
Honoured with the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" - the post-war fate of the Widy-Wirski family
After the war, Feliks added the pseudonym "Wirski" to his surname. He joined the Polish Workers' Party and was involved in government work in various positions. From 1953 to 1955, he spent time in prison, having been arrested on false charges. Following his release, he worked as the director of the No.2 State Clinical Hospital in Warsaw and continued his scientific work, focusing on the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. He remained very active until his death in 1982.
"The lives of many people were saved by a sense of solidarity amongst Poles, like the Widy-Wirski family, who spared no effort to keep us alive and nourished, so that we could survive the difficult and bitter moments of our lives. We admit that, without the help of these people, whose actions in many cases were braver and more courageous than those of our own relatives, we would have sadly perished at the very end of World War II", wrote Henryk Poswolski.
On 26th July 1992, the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, honoured Feliks (posthumously) and Marta Widy-Wirski with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
