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Stefania Podgórska was only seventeen when the world she knew crumbled. She had left her family’s farm near Przemyśl and started working in a grocery store run by the Diamant family. They took her in like a daughter, especially after her own father died. They fed her, made her laugh, gave her a place to belong. Then the Nazis arrived in 1939. The Diamants were pushed into the ghetto. Stefania’s mother & brother were hauled off for forced labour in Germany. Her little sister Helena, just a young child of about eight, came to live with her. Suddenly this teenager was looking after a girl and trying to survive. Most people would have kept their heads down. But Stefania could not. She started smuggling food through the ghetto fence. She traded the Diamants’ jewellery for bread. When the deportations to Belżec death camp began in 1942, things got even darker. One night Max Diamant, son of her old employers, turned up at her door. He had jumped from a train bound for the camp, bleeding and desperate. She knew the penalty for hiding Jews. Poles caught doing it were hanged in the town square. Yet, she bravely opened the door. Max was meant to stay one night. He stayed two and a half years. Soon his brother and others joined. A doctor and his daughter. A dentist and his son. A widow with two children. In the end thirteen people were hidden in the attic of a small cottage the sisters rented at Tatarska 3. Max built a false wall from old planks so it would not look suspicious. The space was tiny, airless in summer and freezing in winter. Their toilet was a bucket that Helena carried downstairs each day. Their bath was a basin of water she hauled up. No fresh air, no walks, just absolute silence and fear. Stefania got a job at a German factory. Every penny bought food. She shopped at different markets at different times so no one would notice the extra loaves. Helena, still a child, became her quiet partner. She washed clothes, carried water, stood guard & never complained. An SS officer moved in next door. The hidden group took turns listening for danger. Then in early 1944 a German officer knocked. The area was becoming a military hospital. They had two hours to leave. The Jews begged the sisters to save themselves. Stefania knelt and prayed & decided to stay. Hours later another knock. Plans had changed. She could keep the house, but two German nurses moved into the room directly below the attic. For eight months those nurses lived there with their SS boyfriends, throwing parties while thirteen people held their breath in hiding upstairs. One night the nurses heard noises and sent a soldier up. He climbed the ladder, looked around, and came down saying the attic was empty. Somehow they had managed to go unoticed. On 27 July 1944 Soviet troops arrived. The thirteen stepped down from their tiny airless hiding place & into daylight for the first time in years. Of the roughly 20,000 Jews in the Przemyśl area before the war, only about 300 survived. Thirteen of them owed everything to two sisters who refused to look away. Max, who later took the name Józef Burzminski, married Stefania after the war. They moved to America in 1961, had two children and he became a dentist. Helena stayed in Poland and trained as a doctor. Both sisters were named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1979. Stefania never called herself a hero. She simply said she did what had to be done. Stefania passed away in 1993. The little house on Tatarska Street still stands, its attic a quiet reminder of Stefania’s incredible courage. 1/2⬇️

LiquidFaerie's tweet photo. Stefania Podgórska was only seventeen when the world she knew crumbled. She had left her family’s farm near Przemyśl and started working in a grocery store run by the Diamant family.

They took her in like a daughter, especially after her own father died. They fed her, made her laugh, gave her a place to belong.

Then the Nazis arrived in 1939. The Diamants were pushed into the ghetto. Stefania’s mother & brother were hauled off for forced labour in Germany. Her little sister Helena, just a young child of about eight, came to live with her. Suddenly this teenager was looking after a girl and trying to survive.

Most people would have kept their heads down. But Stefania could not. She started smuggling food through the ghetto fence. She traded the Diamants’ jewellery for bread. When the deportations to Belżec death camp began in 1942, things got even darker.

One night Max Diamant, son of her old employers, turned up at her door. He had jumped from a train bound for the camp, bleeding and desperate. She knew the penalty for hiding Jews. Poles caught doing it were hanged in the town square. Yet, she bravely opened the door.

Max was meant to stay one night. He stayed two and a half years. Soon his brother and others joined. A doctor and his daughter. A dentist and his son. A widow with two children. In the end thirteen people were hidden in the attic of a small cottage the sisters rented at Tatarska 3.

Max built a false wall from old planks so it would not look suspicious. The space was tiny, airless in summer and freezing in winter. Their toilet was a bucket that Helena carried downstairs each day. Their bath was a basin of water she hauled up. No fresh air, no walks, just absolute silence and fear.

Stefania got a job at a German factory. Every penny bought food. She shopped at different markets at different times so no one would notice the extra loaves. Helena, still a child, became her quiet partner. She washed clothes, carried water, stood guard & never complained.

An SS officer moved in next door. The hidden group took turns listening for danger.

Then in early 1944 a German officer knocked. The area was becoming a military hospital. They had two hours to leave. The Jews begged the sisters to save themselves. Stefania knelt and prayed & decided to stay.

Hours later another knock. Plans had changed. She could keep the house, but two German nurses moved into the room directly below the attic.

For eight months those nurses lived there with their SS boyfriends, throwing parties while thirteen people held their breath in hiding upstairs.

One night the nurses heard noises and sent a soldier up. He climbed the ladder, looked around, and came down saying the attic was empty. Somehow they had managed to go unoticed.

On 27 July 1944 Soviet troops arrived. The thirteen stepped down from their tiny airless hiding place & into daylight for the first time in years.

Of the roughly 20,000 Jews in the Przemyśl area before the war, only about 300 survived. Thirteen of them owed everything to two sisters who refused to look away.

Max, who later took the name Józef Burzminski, married Stefania after the war. They moved to America in 1961, had two children and he became a dentist. Helena stayed in Poland and trained as a doctor. Both sisters were named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1979.

Stefania never called herself a hero. She simply said she did what had to be done.

Stefania passed away in 1993.

The little house on Tatarska Street still stands, its attic a quiet reminder of Stefania’s incredible courage.

1/2⬇️

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Susie @prizequeen

4 months ago

@merlisa @DocMellyMel They declined their invitation.

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Susie @prizequeen

4 months ago

@ByTheSeaJersey @RoKhanna 👆libel vomit

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Susie @prizequeen

4 months ago

@ONEPLANETparty @EnglerYves @neveragainlive1 You literally said, nope not possible for a Jew to be poor. ie. all Jews have money. Erasing Jewish voices, denying Jewish lived experiences, calling Jews liars, and call antisemitism paranoia. Classic, like I said. I won’t respond to you further. Pointless.

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Susie @prizequeen

4 months ago

@GreatBa65924430 @EnglerYves @neveragainlive1 Sorry you have a problem with the Jewish community & ignore the numerous Jewish run organizations that provide for all. Look it up! Next time you go to a hospital, Art gallery, museum, university, etc please ignore the support from the Jewish community that helped build this city

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Susie @prizequeen

4 months ago

@ONEPLANETparty @EnglerYves @neveragainlive1 There’s classic antisemitism in play here.

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Susie @prizequeen

4 months ago

@HeathLerr @EnglerYves @neveragainlive1 You know zero about the Jewish community or Jewish values. The Jewish community provides plenty to all! Ve ‘ Ahavta Toronto, Mazon Canada, JVS, JACS, Reena Foundation, to name a few.

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Susie @prizequeen

4 months ago

@EnglerYves @neveragainlive1 This charity provides food vouchers for Canadian Jews living in poverty, tuition support for those who cant afford it, programs for bereaved families. Maybe you will personally provide that support now since u think this charity should disappear.

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