March 24th marks National Day of Remembrance for Poles who rescued Jews under the German occupation. Among the Righteous Among the Nations are four members of the Wrona family from Nowa Wieś.
During the German occupation, Józef Wrona was a civilian employee at IG Farben where Auschwitz prisoners also worked. Józef, with the help of his mother Anna Wrona and sister Helena, secretly supplied them with food and medicine. He also acted as an intermediary in the transmission of secret messages. Among the helpers was Józef’s brother Eugeniusz (Gienek).
“One day as [Józef] was leaving for work he said to his brother: listen Gienek. Either I’ll bring you two friends, or I’ll die today,” recounted Eugeniusz’s son Antoni Wrona.
On September 20th 1944, Józef Wrona organized the escape of two prisoners. They were German Jews – Max Drimmer and Hermann Scheingesicht. They ended up at the Wrona farm in Nowa Wieś, who, despite the threat of a death sentence for hiding Jews, provided them with shelter and care.
“There was a place for storing straw in the stable. They could sit and sleep in peace in a hideout built there. But the hiding place was so low that they could not stand there. My father had to take them out at night so they could straighten their bones.” recalled Antoni Wrona.
After November 15th 1944, Max and Hermann were transferred to a hiding place in Gliwice. After the war ended, they both left for the United States. Many years later, they found the Wrona family.
In 1990, Józef Wrona was awarded the medal “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem. 16 years later, Anna Wrona, Helena Wrona and Eugeniusz Wrona were awarded the medals posthumously.
The National Day of Remembrance of Poles Rescuing Jews under German occupation on the initiative of Polish President Andrzej Duda was established by the Parliament in 2018. The date is related to the events of March 24th, 1944. On that day, the Germans murdered the Ulma family in Markowa: Józef and Wiktoria, their children, and the Jews hidden at the Ulma family home.
Stories of other Righteous from the Oświęcim area
