75: Tadeusz Rajszczak

Tadeusz Rajszczak:

(From the left Tadeusz Rajszczak « Maszynka », Kazimierz Gabara « Łuk », Mieczysław Lach from the Miotła Battalion during the Warsaw Uprings -  September 2, 1944 - Warsaw, Poland)

Tadeusz Rajszczak was born on January 15, 1929. Before the war,  Tadeusz’s father, Feliks Rajszczak, a builder, and Stefan Grajek, a Jew who lived in Warsaw, were close friends. In April 1943, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Rajszczak helped Jewish fighters who belonged to the Jewish Fighting Organization escape through the sewers to the Aryan side of the city. From May 1943 until January 1944, Rajszczak, his wife, Weronika, and their children, Mirosława and Tadeusz, hid Eliezer Lewin, his little boy, his sister-in-law, Stefan Grajek, and Tuvia Borzykowski in their home. In January 1944, after a young Pole informed on him, Rajszczak was arrested by the Germans and tortured. With great resourcefulness, he managed to bribe a Polish Policeman to warn his charges, as well as members of the Jewish underground living on the Aryan side of the city, that the Gestapo was after them. Thanks to this warning, his Jewish friends survived, and the Jewish Fighting Organization managed to secure his release. In risking their lives to help persecuted Jews, Rajszczak and his family were guided by humanitarian motives, which overrode considerations of personal safety, and identified with the Jewish fighters. On November 28, 1978, Israel’s Yad Vashem recognized Weronika and Feliks Rajszczak, their son, Tadeusz, and daughter, Mirosława, as Righteous Among the Nations.

During the 1944 Warsaw Uprising Tadeusz was part of the Polish Home Army Group "Radoslaw" in the "Miotła" Battalion, the "Torpedo" Platoon. He was 15 years old when he volunteered and joined the unit on August 6, 1944 in Wola (Warsaw.) After the dissolution of the "Miotła" Battalion, and still in the "Torpedo" Platoon in the "Czata 49" Battalion; he fought: in Wola, the Old Town, in Śródmieście Północ and Śródmieście South. The "Czata 49" Battalion lost 200 fighters.  After the Warsaw Uprising ended he did not go into German captivity.  He left Warsaw when the civilians of the city were expelled by the Germans instead of the surrendered Polish Home Army fighters. He died on March 26, 1996.

https://historiaija.blogspot.com/2015/08/warszawskie-dzieci-poszy-w-boj-03.html
http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4035224