Bielatowicz Bronislawa

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Story of Rescue - Bielatowicz Bronislawa

During the Nazi occupation Bronisława Bielatowicz-Knyszewska lived in Warsaw. Until the outbreak of World War II, she had worked as a babysitter of five-year-old son of Janina Wrześniewska. In October 1940 the ghetto, where Wrześniewska and her child lived, was closed, but Bielatowicz provided them with food. In August 1942 she successfully brought Wrześniewska’s son out of the ghetto. Later she also rescued the children of Helena Meszorer, Wrześniewska’s sister: ten-year-old Józef and four-year-old Ludwika. After some time Helena Meszorer also escaped from the ghetto. Janina Wrześniewska wrote in her testimony: “When Nazi Germans started the deportation of the ghetto Jews in August 1942, Mrs. Bielatowicz-Knyszewska led the following children out on the Aryan side: first my little son, and then my sister’s children […]. While getting through onto the Aryan side of the city, and while looking after […] the kids, she was blackmailed a lot of times […]. Thanks to her dedication and bravery, she saved from death my son and my sister’s children. She did not take any financial advantage of her activity.” 

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Bibliography

  • Archiwum Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego, 349, 73
  • Gutman Israel red. nacz., Księga Sprawiedliwych wśród Narodów Świata, Ratujący Żydów podczas Holocaustu
  • Grynberg Michał, Księga Sprawiedliwych

    The lexicon includes the stories of Poles honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations in the years 1963-1989. The list of entries is preceded by a preface by Icchak Arad and Chaim CheferThe Righteous of the World.