Józef Zwonarz

Who was Józef Zwonarz?

Józef Zwonarz was a Polish-Catholic ironworker from Lesko and one of many Righteous Gentiles who assisted persecuted Jews in spite of the penalty of death if they were caught doing so. Zwonarz housed a total of four Jewish adults in a cell under his small workshop. On the workshop's right boundary was the town’s Gestapo headquarters. On its left boundary were the Schutzpolizei. Across the road were the Ukrainian police.

In July 1942, Zwonarz was approached by a Jewish doctor, Nathan Wallach, whose wife was acquainted with Zwonarz, about taking their three-and-a-half-year-old daughter under his care. Zwonarz agreed to do so, and immediately found accommodation for the little girl with another non-Jew by the name of Jan Kakol. Soon after their daughter was moved, Dr. Wallach and his wife were transferred to the Zaslaw labour camp, as they were amongst the many Jews being liquidated from the Lesko ghetto.

On December 16, 1942, Wallach’s wife was amongst 400 women scheduled to be executed in the main square of the labour camp. The women were lined up and most machine-gunned to death. She was not hit and was able to lay motionless and literally "play dead" until it was safe for her to move. She found her husband and they escaped, unnoticed, from the camp. The following day, the Wallachs arrived back in Lesko and again asked Zwonarz for help. Zwonarz, who was aged 45 at the time, an engineer by profession, and father of five children, now resolved to help Dr. Wallach and his wife just as he had helped their daughter.