Gustaw Diehl

Kazimiera Diehl

Gustaw and Kazimiera Diehl lived in the Jasieniec estate located about 3 km from the penal labour camp and about 4 km from the extermination camp in Treblinka. Gustaw Diehl (1874-1953) was a descendant of French Huguenots who had to emigrate to the Rhineland. From there, they came to Poland in the 18th century. Here they underwent polonization, preserving their evangelical-reformed religion. The Diehl family played a significant role in the Evangelical-Reformed Church in Warsaw, among others, they established a new cemetery and conducted a lively social activity. Gustaw Diehl was an engineer and was very interested in astronomy and mathematics. First of all, he devoted himself to running the Jasieniec estate.

His second wife, Kazimiera (1914-1983), née Abramowicz, was a Catholic. Throughout the occupation and the existence of nearby camps, they were hiding a Jewish woman, Maria, who now lives in Argentina and bears the name Nirenberg. Maria was a fair-haired girl with blue eyes. She took care of the children and the estate. As a result of denunciation, she was arrested and detained in the penal labour camp. After talking to Kazimiera, Gustaw went to the commandant and assured him that Maria was his close relative. This conversation had a positive effect and Maria was released.

In 1998, on the initiative of Maria’s daughter, Dorita Kosman, who currently lives in Jerusalem and teaches Hebrew at the Hebrew University, Gustaw and Kazimiera Diehl were awarded with the medal of the “Righteous Among the Nations”. Their names were placed on the honorary wall of the Yad Vashem Institute of National Remembrance in Jerusalem. Other accounts show that Gustaw and Kazimiera helped escapees from nearby camps. Their help consisted in the fact that they “did not notice” the fugitives in their farmyards or nearby. The fugitives could rest for a while, eat the products found in the farmyard and continue their journey.