After 71 Years a Debt Is Acknowledged

October 11, 2015
Warsaw, Poland


Three days ago, on October 8, 2015, a debt which began on a remote farm in a small village named Bogzaplac (translation: God Will Provide) 71 years ago was publicly acknowledged and the descendants of the man who hid Rywka and Fela Pozmanter were able to witness his name being honored as "Righteous Among the Nations".

To repeat some of the facts:  Antonii Puszkiewicz who was born in 1881 in a small farming village nearby provided safe haven for Rywka and Fela Pozmanter @ 1944; Fela looked and passed as a young Polish girl, but Rywka had to be hidden in the barn behind a false wall built by Antoni;   when the German military police raided the farm at 2 am on a Sunday morning, despite being able to talk their way out of trouble, all knew the noose was tightening; Antoni had his daughter in Germany find work for Rywka and Fela as Polish laborers and transportation to Germany; shortly afterwards, Antoni Puszkiewicz was arrested and sent to Stutthof concentration camp where he died.  No pictures survive of Antoni Puszkiewicz.

This is the foundation of the barn where Rywka had to hide.  It is all that remains of the barn.  The Puszkiewicz farm was approximately 75 acres in size.  Their closest neighbor was an ethnic German farmer (and known maker of alcoholic drinks) and he lived about 150 meters away.  How the Germans found out Antoni was hiding Jews still remains a mystery:  did a neighbor turn him in?  was there a slip of the tongue?  No one knows for sure, but with his death there were three Puszkiewicz children who were now orphans.

After the conclusion of the Righteous ceremony at Skępe's public school the best description heard was "it was intimate and personal".  When Fela began speaking in Polish and crying via Skype to the Puszkiewicz family there was hardly a dry eye in the meeting room.   Following the presentation of the Righteous Proclamation of Antoni Puszkiewicz and commemorative medal by Frances Kummer, daughter and granddaughter of Fela and Rywka, and Ruth Cohen-Dar, Deputy Ambassador of Israel, to three of the Puszkiewicz grandchildren we met the family at a reception.

Frances (kneeling foreground), the daughter of Fela, and Bobbie Fleishman, who initiated the Righteous designation, are surrounded by the Puszkiewicz family at the end of the reception.

This was an event that will not be soon forgotten and we say simply to the Puszkiewicz family:  Thank you!  More than 50 members of our family are living today, because of the difficult choice Antoni made some 71 years ago.  May you all Live and be Well!