{"id":12582,"date":"2018-11-26T09:09:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T08:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/informacje\/rodzina-karczmarczykow\/"},"modified":"2019-07-01T15:23:54","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T13:23:54","slug":"the-karczmarczyk-family","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/informacje\/the-karczmarczyk-family\/","title":{"rendered":"The Karczmarczyk family"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ewa Karczmarczyk<\/p>\n

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House of Karczmarczyk family in 1935. Brz\u00f3zka<\/p>\n

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Tadeusz Karczmarczyk<\/p>\n

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Tadeusz Karczmarczyk<\/p>\n

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Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations awarded to the Karczmarczyk family<\/p>\n

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Honorary Diploma granted to the Karczmarczyk family<\/p>\n

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RIGHTEOUS: Tadeusz Karczmarczyk<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Born in 1922; the son of Tomasz (died in 1945) and Ewa (born in 1889, died in 1973). Brother of Stefan (born in 1915, died in 1983), Boles\u0142awa (born in 1926), Halina and Stefania.
\nHe received the medal in 1996 together with his mother Ewa and two brothers \u2013 Boles\u0142aw and then deceased Stefan.
\nTadeusz Karczmarczyk is a kind of man who mentally does not give in to the passage of time \u2013 he has kept a cheerful and sharp gaze, jokes and does not try to worry about what is not needed. Although he is approaching his nineties, he is still in good health and is not lacking in enthusiasm. It was these qualities that helped twenty-year-old Tadek save the lives of a few friends Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

He comes from an agricultural family who had a nine-morgen farm in the 1940s. The farm was not large, but \u201cFor some people there was scarcity, but never in our home\u201d<\/i>, says Tadeusz.
\nThere was also enough bread to share with those in need. They lived a group of Jews who lost their belongings fleeing from the Germans to the Soviet-occupied zone. After the German attack on the USSR, these people were accommodated in one of the rooms of a small house of the Karczmarczyks. When the extermination of Jews from the nearby Stoczek, Kosowo Lackie and W\u0119growo began in the summer of 1942, the hosts decided to help their tenants \u2013 first Tadeusz led them out of the guarded house, then he and other family members hid them on the farm.
\nTadeusz Karczmarczyk sent Chana and Josek Szczupakiewicz to serve at the friendly hosts estate, hiding the fact that they were Jews. While helping on the farms, they waited until the end of the war.\u00a0Chana\u2019s and Josek\u2019s mother \u2013 Chaja and her sister Aida Wr\u00f3blewicz (Midzi\u0144ski after her husband) survived on the Karczmarczyks\u2019 farm. The Karczmarczyks also helped Mosze Szczupakiewicz, Chaja\u2019s husband and their youngest child, Srulek. Srulek lived to see the end of the war, hidden as a foster child in the vicinity of Stoczek. Chaim, a tailor from Kalisz who was murdered a few weeks before the Germans withdrew, also relied on this help.
\nAfter the war Tadeusz kept in touch with the survivors who lived in Ostr\u00f3w Mazowiecka for some time. There he met his wife Regina, who came back from an exile in the vicinity of Voronezh. Regina had been composing songs for whole her life. In one of them she tells a tragic story of exile.
\nThe couple lived in Brz\u00f3zka, in Tadeusz\u2019s family home. They worked as farmers. From people who were helped by Tadeusz\u2019s family Aida, or as the Karczmarczyks called her, Irka, and Srulek still live. Regina and Tadeusz remain in correspondence and telephone contact with Aida. Srulek also wrote a few letters to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

HIDING: Aida Midzi\u0144ski<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Aida Midzi\u0144ski (n\u00e9e Wr\u00f3blewicz). She was born in 1921 in a village near Ostr\u00f3w Mazowiecka. Just before the war her family lived in Ma\u0142kinia. In 1939, she experienced German order and decided to get to the Soviet side (the Soviet-German occupation border ran a few kilometres from Ma\u0142kinia, leaving her on the German side). The escape was successful, but the Germans robbed the escapees from all their belongings. After 22 June 1941, Aida\u2019s family had nowhere to go back. She started wandering until she finally found herself in the village of Brz\u00f3zka at the Karczmarczyk family.
\nAida was then called Idka. Poles called her Irka. Together with her sister Chaja, her husband Mosze Szczupakiewicz, their three children \u2013 Srulek, Chawa and Josek, and father Icchak, she found herself at the Karczmarczyks. Apart from them, the four-person family of an unknown surname, remembered as \u201cMajors\u201d from the name of the head of the family, found shelter at the Karczmarczyks.
\nDuring her stay at the Karczmarczyk family, Idka knitted sweaters, which in part earned her living. She discreetly helped on the farm \u2013 at harvests, liftings. Tadeusz obtained documents for her. He got them from a girl who was to be taken to forced labour in Germany. Idka\/Irka did not have Semitic features. Thanks to this, after pasting the pictures both of them got quite boldly about the area, being stopped several times by German patrols.
\nAfter the war, Aida and other surviving members of her family lived for some time in Ma\u0142kinia. Later, they moved to Ostr\u00f3w Mazowiecka, where a larger Jewish community lived. From there she left for Wroc\u0142aw, where she got married. Together with her husband she left for Israel. She worked there as a pharmacy help. She has two children and grandchildren.<\/span><\/p>\n

HIDING: Chaja Szczupakiewicz<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The elder sister of Aida. When the war broke out, she had three children: Chawa, Josek and Srulek. Together with them and her husband Mosze (hence the name \u201cMo\u015bkowa\u201d, and all members of her family \u201cMo\u015bki\u201d), she found her way to the Karczmarczyks. She was hiding in Brz\u00f3zka at the Karczmarczyks.
\nAfter the war, together with Aida and two surviving children, she settled in Ma\u0142kinia, and later in Ostr\u00f3w, where she engaged in trade. She cooperated with a group of Jews who survived the war and bought crops and slaughter animals in the area, and then took them to the slaughterhouse in Warsaw. These were probably supplies for the army. According to Tadeusz Karczmarczyk, she made herself unpopular with competitors at fairs and soon she was shot by a uniformed group, when she was coming back from the market in Zambr\u00f3w.
\nChaja died in 1946 in front of Tadeusz Karczmarczyk, who saved her life during the war. This time he did not manage to save her. She turns back to Zambr\u00f3w.<\/i> She took two steps \u2013 bang!<\/i> She was shot at the back of her head.<\/i> She fell into the ditch and was lying down.<\/i> And us?<\/i> \u2018Move!<\/i> You\u2019re free to go\u2019.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

HIDING: Mosze (Mosiek) Szczupakiewicz<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Mosiek, Chaja\u2019s husband, was engaged in trade before the war. In Brz\u00f3zka, he initially helped the butcher. He stayed with the Karczmarczyks. The hosts called all members of his family \u201cMo\u015bki\u201d, due to his name. He was captured with his youngest son and killed by the Germans in unknown circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n

HIDING: Chawa Szczupakiewicz<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The daughter of Chaja and Mosze. Tadeusz Karczmarczyk placed her as a domestic help in a household in the village of Wilczog\u0119by, where she was called Hanka. After the war, when she lived with her mother in Ma\u0142kinia, she became associated with a Soviet airman stationed there, with whom she left for the unknown. Nothing is known about her further fate. According to Aida\u2019s information, after the war Chawa could have found her way to Brazil.<\/span><\/p>\n

HIDING: Josek Szczupakiewicz<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The son of Chaja and Mosze. Just like Chawa, he was recommended by Tadeusz Karczmarczyk as help on the farm. As J\u00f3zek, a Polish boy whose family lost everything in the fire, he also found himself in the village of Wilczog\u0119by. He helped a single woman whose husband did not return from the war on the farm. He survived the war, but soon afterwards he fell ill with diabetes. He died in 1947 in a hospital in Warsaw.<\/span><\/p>\n

HIDING: Srulek Szczupakiewicz<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The son of Chaja and Mosze. When the war broke out, he was three months old. He was captured together with his father and taken to Stoczek. The Karczmarczyks were convinced for many years that he was dead. It turned out, however, that several-year-old Srulek was taken in by unknown people and survived the war. He lives in the USA. He contacted the Karczmarczyks in the 1990s by letter.<\/span><\/p>\n

HIDING: Icchak Wr\u00f3blewicz<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The father of Aida and Chaja, the grandfather of Chawa, Josek and Srulek Szczupakiewicz. He did not survive the war. His fate is unknown.<\/span><\/p>\n

HIDING: Chaim<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

He remained in the memory of the Karczmarczyks as a tailor from Kalisz. They don\u2019t know his particulars. He probably escaped from a transport to Treblinka or was resettled due to the displacement by the Germans with other Jews from his hometown that was incorporated into the Reich. He hid near the village of Brz\u00f3zka in the forests and on farms, doing sewing jobs in exchange for assistance. The Karczmarczyk family supported him by providing food and shelter. He came at nights<\/i>, says Tadeusz Karczmarczyk. And many times he sat in the cellar in the alcove, in the barn.<\/i>
\nHearing that the front was approaching, he decided to head back home. Denounced at the train station in Sadowne, he was arrested and killed by the Germans.<\/span><\/p>\n

HISTORY: The story of hiding<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

For about a year, until the summer of 1942, the Karczmarczyk family from the village of Brz\u00f3zka harboured two Jewish families: the \u201cMo\u015bkowie\u201d (the Wr\u00f3blewiczes and the Szczupakiewiczes) and \u201cMajors\u201d. Both families were wandering, having nowhere to go. At least one of them, the Mo\u015bkowie, lost their home, fleeing to the Soviet-occupied region in 1939. After the Germans entered the areas that remained under Soviet occupation between September 1939 and June 1941, the situation of these people changed and they probably had nowhere to return to.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Tadeusz Karczmarczyk, the Jews were sent to them by the commune headquarters in Stoczek (today\u2019s W\u0119growski county, a few kilometres from Brz\u00f3zka). Sharing a home brought the Karczmarczyks and their Jewish tenants close. When the Germans began the planned action of extermination of Jews, the Karczmarczyks offered to help their friends. The \u201cMajor\u201d family chose to believe German assurances and moved to the Kos\u00f3w ghetto, which was liquidated shortly thereafter. The \u201cMo\u015bki\u201d stayed in Brz\u00f3zka.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fate of Icchak Wr\u00f3blewicz, the oldest member of the \u201cMo\u015bki\u201d family, could not be established. He probably died, just like Mosze (Mosiek) Szczupakiewicz (Wr\u00f3blewicz\u2019s son-in-law), who was shot in Stoczek. Mo\u015bek\u2019s son, Srulek, who was a few years old, also disappeared at that time. His wife Chaja (the daughter of Icchak), her two children Chawa and Josek, as well as Chaja\u2019s sister Idka (Aida) remained alive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Karczmarczyk family was also quite numerous, with seven members. Their small wooden house stood out of the way, which allowed for some discretion. The village itself \u2013 surrounded by forest \u2013 was not very often visited by the Germans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ewa Karczmarczyk took the lead in the family. The oldest sons \u2013 Stefan and Tadeusz \u2013 prepared hiding spots. In a small room in the house, under the floorboards; in the cellar, where they kept potatoes, and where I had rats jumping all over my head; in the shed, where they stored wood for the winter; in the barn, under the hay; oh, and one in the attic,<\/i> Idka listed them off in a recording for Yad Vashem.<\/span><\/p>\n

To this day in Tadeusz Karczmarczyk\u2019s house a unique thing has survived \u2013 the entrance to the first of the hiding spots (see photos). Preparing the hiding, Tadeusz took away five carts of soil thrown out of the window into the garden. It could accommodate eight standing people. It saved the lives of Idka and Chaja when the Germans searched the house. A similar burrow was in the barn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clever and resourceful Tadeusz Karczmarczyk found work for two children of Chaja \u2013 Josek and Chawa \u2013 on farms in the village of Wilczog\u0119by by the Bug River They stayed there as Poles until the end of the war. Tadeusz visited them with Idka or Chaja.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only after the war it turned out that the embankment, with which the road to Wilczog\u0119by ran, served as a hiding place for several other Jews. Tadeusz quotes the words of the brothers Kielman and Josek whom he met in Ostr\u00f3w: You were walking above our heads, and we lived under the embankment.<\/i> We were under this embankment and supper was always at Wycech Zygmunt\u2019s, at Stefan\u2019s.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

During the war Tadeusz was to be deported for forced labour. He was already in a transit camp in Warsaw, from where, thanks to his mother\u2019s efforts, he was released. However, he decided not to waste the opportunity and asked a young woman, who was not lucky enough, to give him her documents: Do you need this identification papers?<\/i>, he asked. Tadeusz pasted on a photo of Idka, and after that he could move around the neighbourhood more or less freely [Moving with a hiding Jewish woman who had false documents].<\/span><\/p>\n

During the war, the neighbours guessed that the Karczmarczyks had Jews. Some wanted to confirm this fact, but, as Tadeusz claims, the village was in solidarity and it remained a secret. Tadeusz\u2019s daughter, born after the war remembers hearing the warning words: Hey Karczmarczyk, what are you up to?,<\/i> older villagers would ask Ewa. But her grandmother would only drop her gaze and continue on her way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chaja and Idka tried to help the Karczmarczyks. We worked in the field, scythe the crops, they picked it up, tied in sheaves.<\/i> And they also dug potatoes.<\/i> And when it was warm, they slept the night in the field<\/i>, recalls Tadeusz. Women were able to behave with such certainty that the Germans, who once drove through the village in search of Jews, didn\u2019t even pay attention to them when, together with Ewa Karczmarczykowa, they were digging potatoes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Work \u2013 help on the farm and in the field, grinding on querns, weaving on looms, knitting sweaters and sewing \u2013 was the only form of payment that the hiding people had to offer. Chaim, a tailor who probably jumped out of the train going to Treblinka and was hiding near Brz\u00f3zka, paid off in a similar way. He sew for the hosts, including the Karczmarczyks \u2013 looking at Tadeusz\u2019s jacket, he must have been successful at work. The outfit, cut to shape, with the original sewn back, was the fantasy of the fashion of that time.<\/span><\/p>\n

At that time, the Karczmarczyks and the Jews, whom they helped, knew well what fate the Germans prepared for the \u201csubhumans”. The village of Brz\u00f3zka was about a dozen kilometres from Treblinka. On quiet days in that area, when the wind blew from the right direction you could hear screams, whimpers, and human yelps.<\/i> \u2018Help, help, help!\u2019<\/i> they would cry<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chaim, who managed to save himself from death in the Treblinka gas chambers, did not live to see the end of the war. He hid in various places, also in the buildings of the Karczmarczyks, in the potato pits, where the Karczmarczyk brothers brought him food. In the summer of 1944, hearing that the front was approaching, he decided to head back home. His hope that the Germans were distracted by the retreat and did not pay attention to the Jews turned out to be delusive. Denounced at the train station in Sadowne, he was arrested by soldiers. Before dying under torture, he revealed his guardians, giving the names, details of the hiding spot under the house and the names of two Jewish women who stayed there. Before leaving, he met with them and said goodbye. They gave him their photograph.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Germans decided to use his information. It was then that the most dangerous situation that happened to the Karczmarczyks took place. They owe much to the consciousness of the village leader\u2019s mind, to whom two soldiers ordered to be taken to the house indicated by Chaim before his death. With a loud tap on the door, the village leader signalled the danger and deliberately led the Germans to another room, thus allowing time for Chaja and Idka to hide. They quickly hid under the floorboards, and Ewa Karczmarczykowa was able to conceal the hiding spot entrance with a trunk. The Germans, tapping the floor with rifle butts, did not move the chest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Idka and Chaja survived, as the Karczmarczyks.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the war, Chaja, Idka, Josek and Chawa settled in Ma\u0142kinia. Looking for livelihood, Chaja started to trade in moonshine, which could be sold to Soviet soldiers in any amount. Chawa entered into a relationship with one of them \u2013 they left Ma\u0142kinia together, and to this day there is no certainty about her fate. The remaining members of the family moved to Ostr\u00f3w, where a larger group of Jews lived. Chaja continued to trade, now buying up mainly slaughter animals and agricultural produce. The forefront of the surviving group of Jews was led by several men who, fearing to move around the area, employed trusted Poles for this purpose, including Tadeusz Karczmarczyk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerns were justified, because in 1946 Chaja Szczupakiewicz was shot dead. A year later, her son Josek died of diabetes. Idka, who stayed alone at that time, left Ostr\u00f3w for Wroc\u0142aw with the rest of the Jews. There she got married and emigrated to Israel with her husband. She led a rather modest life there. She maintained a correspondence with the Karczmarczyks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several dozen years after the war it turned out that Srulek also survived. He was found in the USA and also wrote a letter to the Karczmarczyks. He sent us a kilogram of sugar, a kilogram of semolina and probably a kilogram of rice. He thought that even now there is such poverty.<\/i> And he thanked us for hiding him<\/i>, reports Regina Karczmarczyk, Tadeusz\u2019s wife.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prepared by: Rafa\u0142 Zubkowicz (based on an interview with Tadeusz Karczmarczyk, conducted for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews-www.jewishmuseum.org.pl)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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