Humane reasons only

The Righteous among the Nations title has been awarded by Yad Vashem Institute in Israel since 1960s. Among people honoured with this title there are few citizens of Sokołów Podlaski and people strongly connected with the town.

Kazimierz Miłobędzki

Being recognized as “Righteous among the Nations” is a special award given only to the exceptional people. This most prestigious civil prize in Israel is distributed to those who managed to rescue others during the World War II putting their own life at high risk.

The first Sokołów’s inhabitant awarded with this title was Kazimierz Miłobędzki (1919-2007). He spent the beginning of War in Warsaw where he worked as a trainee in the Magistrate Court. – In the first days of September Chief Scout gave the mobilization order to all the scouts over 16 years old – he recalled. – That meant me as well.

A group of scouts was supposed to reach Włodawa to be on auxiliary duty there. On their way they quartered in Chełm Lubelski.– After a few days a courier arrived with the message that Chełm would not defend. Some scouts returned to Warsaw, others headed for Hungary and Romania.

Kazimierz Miłobędzki appeared in Sokołów on the 12th of October. –After the Germans had announced that everybody had to report to their place of work, I arrived at the Magistrate Court, but being the youngest employee I wasn’t hired. I was only given a certificate stating I worked as a clerk in the court. I lived at my aunt’s house. It was difficult for us to make ends meet as I wasn’t earning any money. One day I met an acquainted professor who helped me, I got an odd job selling flour and groats.

Kasprzaks family – Roman, Stanisława with four children, came from Rogoźno Wielkopolskie. After the outbreak of war they were resettled to Sokołów. They used to live in one room apartment. They needed help of Central Welfare Council to get by. Roman Kasprzak worked as a caretaker in town council. Later he dabbled in technical supervision of the roads. In March 1940 Kasprzaks’ daughter Zofia started a job in the confectionery on Piękna St. Cakes were delived to the shop by Skowrońskis family who lived in the ghetto. The family came from Poznan. After the outbreak of war they moved to Warsaw and then to Sokołów. When in the summer of 1941 rumours about the liquidation of ghetto started to spread, they decided to leave the town hiding their daughter Ruth in one of the neighbouring villages.

Kazimierz Miłobędzki returned to Sokołów in April 1941. He had worked as the administrator of the region in the Litigation Trust of Secured Estates since 1st of July. There were two entrance doors to his office, one on the side of the ghetto, the other on Długa St. Jews and even the houses’ owners used to pay their rent there. There were two Jews working in the office, errand-boy Perec Bocian and a teenage girl Gołda Hochberg. – I knew them since I was a child. Gołda’s father used to have bicycle repair shop whereas Perec’s father was a merchant. There were two other administrators besides me: Zdzisław Wójciak and Jan Joachimczyk – he recalled. – I had I a permit to the ghetto so I was able to walk through the town freely and have five Jews to accompany me. Life in the ghetto was miserable, people lived in extreme poverty, there was typhus epidemic spreading and everyone had lice. Ghettos similar as the one in Sokołów were created in villages nearby, Sterdyń and Kosów. There was also a working party in Czerkwisko, which was later moved to Szczeglacin to do river-control work. Kazimierz Miłobędzki was the one who delived food or even linen and underwear to them.

Before the ghetto was liquidated medicine doctor Holcer asked Miłobędzki to help him organize a leave for work to Germany for his cousin. –Having some connections in the Office of Employment I succeeded. The woman got Polish Kennkart stating her surname was Korczak. I don’t remember the name. I didn’t know that person at all, because she didn’t live in Sokołów. I escorted her to Warsaw, we spent the night at my aunt’s place. The next morning I walked her to the transitional camp on Skaryszewska St. where the rallying-point was. She probably survived. Had she betrayed, the Germans would make her reveal who had organized her departure to Germany. It would be obvious somebody helped her with that as her Semitic features were clearly noticeable. Therefore she couldn’t go to Arbeitamt by herself for she would have been recognized as a Jew in an instance.

In July 1941 Zofia Kasprzak discovered that the hosts hiding little Ruth had brought her back to the ghetto. The girl was all by herself there. Zofia decided to take care of her. Kasprzaks took Ruth to their house which she couldn’t leave at any times. Little Ruth became Krysia from now on.

Cywia Elster and her daughter Sara (r)

The ghetto in Sokołów was liquidated on the 22th of September 1942. This was the day after Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), one of Jewish most important holidays. Ten year old Aaron Elster, his six year old sister and their father hid in a secret place in their house. There were also other people in the hide-out, mother with a child among them. “The elders insist that the mother must quiet the infant’s outburst, or they fear the Gestapo will discover us and we will all be murdered (…). Distraught mother places her palm over her daughter’s mouth and nose and exerts pressure. The baby’s legs begin to violently flail and kick until they move no more. Silence fills the room as the infant takes her final gasp for air and suddenly goes limp. Tears fill my eyes, and I wonder instantly if my mother would do the same to me in such a impulsive action.” – Elster recalls in his book “I still see her haunting eyes”.

Kazimierz Miłobędzki remembers the liquidation of the ghetto as well. – They gathered the first group of people in the warehouse on Piękna St. Then they were taken outside, ranged by newly dug grave and executed. The other were ranged in units and led to the station where the trains were waiting for them. Their destination was Treblinka.

Aaron, his father and little Sara were in the Market square too. Their hiding place was discovered by the Germans. “Tears fill my eyes, I can see the dread and panic on her face - Elster recalls his sister. – She looks at me as if I could do something… anything.”

The view of his little sister’s eyes full of despair would haunt Elster for the years coming. Standing in the crowd in the Market – this was the last time they saw each other. His father told him to run away and get to the house where his elder sister Irena was hiding. However when the boy dashed away from the Market, the first thing he wanted to do was to find his mother. She then sent him to the family hiding Irena. Aaron had a grudge against his mother for forbidding him stay with her. Nevertheless he did what she told him. Franciszka and Hipolit Górski had been hiding Elster for two years in their attic before the Russians bombed the town.

- A few days after the liquidation of the ghetto, when the most dangerous time was over, I got a visit from my employee Gołda Hochberg and Jewish policeman Rubin Figowy – said Kazimierz Miłobędzki. – They wanted to go to Szczeglacin to obtain information about he working group their families were in. My father harnessed a horse to a chaise and so they left. On their way near Skrzeszew they noticed a convoy of German vehicles. My father instantly turned into the nearest farmyard pretending he was unhitching the horse and the passengers had hid. While the vehicles were passing them they noticed some tools- spades, shovels and pickaxes. It became obvious for them that the working party was liquidated. Judging from the information gathered, the group must have been murdered by the Germans, Treblinka’s staff.

In consequence Rubin Figowy had an accommodation secured. Besides that there was also a working group in Sokołów which ordered and cleaned up the site of the ghetto.

With help from friends working in the Office of Employment, Miłobędzki organized papers for Gołda Hochberg to be sent for work in Germany (under name of Franciszka Drewicz). She lived in Berlin, probably worked in the ammunition factory. The other person saved by Miłobędzki was Perla Morgenstern, the granddaughter of Sokołów’s rabbi. Perla was a friend of Jan Wrotnowski’s wife, secretary of the borough Korczew. Perla belonged to the working party in Szczeglacin and she visited her friend from time to time. During one of these visits she lingered so long that she decided to stay there for the night. If it wasn’t for that she would have been killed that night. This was the night the Germans murdered everyone in the working group from Szczeglacin. Perla left for work in Germany too. Her new name was Genowefa Głowacka.

In the year of 1943 Kasprzaks got ananonymous letter. Sender advised them to “get rid of the redundant piece of furniture”. They suspected the secret sender might have been an acquainted Polish policeman, who paid them visits from time to time. Despite the fact that Ruth had new papers by then, it was clear for the family that they cannot stay in Sokołów anymore. Hanna Skowrońska worked as a domestic help in Warsaw at that time. Her husband was killed by Gestapo in Polish Hotel a few months before. Hanna managed to find a room for Kasprzaks in Warsaw, then in Skolimowo and after that in Konstancin. However there wasn’t a place where they would feel safe.

The only one from Skowrońskys family who survived the War was Ruth’s mother. They both left to Kalisz and then to France. In 1949 Ruth and her mother moved to Israel. Kasprzaks returned to their hometown Rogoźno Wielkopolskie.

“The days pass and survivors are coming back to town – Aaron Elster recalls the after-war period. – Out of 5000 Jews having lived in Sokołów before the war, only 29 survived! The only two children who survived the war on their own were me and my sister Irena.” Soon after the war Aaron was taken to the orphanage in Łódź. He spent some time in a refugee camp in Germany and then emigrated to United States, where he lives today. He gives lectures in American school telling the story of extermination seen with the eyes of a child.

After the war Gołda Hochberg and Perla Morgenstern returned to Sokołów. Perla married a rabbi from Siedlce. Her new name was Newman. They both left to United States. –I have never expected any reward. I did it all out of humane reasons only – said Kazimierz Miłobędzki. He was awarded with the title Righteous among the Nations in 1999. Kasprzaks family were awarded with the medal in 2009. The relatives of Franciszka and Hipolit Górski will receive their medal in June 2010.

Katarzyna Markusz