The video was recorded by the Pilecki Institute as part of the “Witnesses to the Age” project.
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Our today’s interviewee:
Krystyna Rudnicka (born 1949), granddaughter of Katarzyna and Sebastian Kazak from Brzóza Królewska, who were murdered by the Germans for aiding Jews in 1943. Rudnicka’s mother and her older sister Agnieszka survived the massacre by fleeing. Her grandparents had a farm in the village of Brzóza Królewska near Leżajsk. In the autumn of 1942 a Jewish woman by the name of Chana Stiller - their acquaintance - came to their house and asked for help. Sebastian Kazak set up a hiding place in the barn, where the woman stayed during the day. At night she would go to the house to get warm, eat, wash and sleep. Chana Stiller was visited by two Jewish acquaintances - one of them was Chyla Chym, the name of the other is unknown. One time they stayed for the night - Sebastian Kazak put them up in the attic. The next day, early in the morning, Germans assisted by the blue policemen arrived in the Kazak family farm. They had been informed that the Kazaks were hiding Jews. The Germans killed the two men in the attic, then they dragged Chana Stiller out of the barn and shot her in the yard. In the meantime, Józefa Kazak (Krystyna’s mother) and her sister Agnieszka escaped, unnoticed by the perpetrators. Katarzyna and Sebastian Kazak were arrested, and the Germans called the German police station in Jarosław to find out what to do with them. They were given the order to kill the couple, which they did immediately, in front of the house. The village leader Franciszek managed to convince the Germans to allow the Kazaks to be buried in the cemetery. The Jews were buried in the yard, and their bodies were exhumed many years later. The village head warned Józefa and Agnieszka Kazak that they had been sentenced to death, giving them a chance to run away. They women went to Kraków, from where the Germans sent them to Austria for forced labor. They survived the war and returned to Brzóza Królewska.
Copyright by Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego.
23 мар 2022
