Murdered

During the German occupation Michał Kruk was already a retired railway- man and lived in the house at 36 Kopernika Street in Przemyśl. That street bordered on the ghetto, which decreased systematically in result of diseases, numerous executions and deportations of Jews to extermination camps. Michał Kruk mediated in contacts of the Jews from the ghetto with the Poles. He organized escape of a large group of Jews to the Banasiewicz family living in Orzechowce, a few kilometres away from Przemyśl. He also provided help to Alexander Hirschberg, a member of the Jewish Labour Union “Bund”. On September 1943 the Germans under the command of SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Schwamberger came to the Kruk’s flat. They conducted the search in the Kruk’s flat and in the flat of his nephew Teodor Cais looking for things remained after Jews. Then they arrested Michał Kruk. Two days later Kruk and Hirschberg were shot in the Kopernika Street. Their bodies were hanged publicly in order to intimidate inhabitants of Przemyśl. The burial place of Michał Kruk is unknown.