First and last name: Józefa Kryczka-Cichoń
Place during the war: Żarówka, Podkarpackie Voivodeship (former Krakowskie Voivodeship)
During the German occupation Władysław Kryczka, his wife Bronisława and their seventeen years old daughter Józefa lived in a small one-room house in the village Żarówka close to Radomyśl Wielki. Since the beginning of 1943 to August 1944 two Jews – Wiktor (Ignacy) Marek and Władek (Juliusz) Marek were hiding in the Kryczka family’s house. Józefa Cichoń reminisced:
I remember when one evening my father has come with two boys and has said that these boys are from Cracow, […] and they will live with us.
The neighbour Jan Cichoń who after the war became Józefa Kryczka’s husband also joined in help to Jewish refugees. When in August 1944 the Germans resettled the population from the front-line village Żarówka to the village of Smyków, Kryczka family, although did not live in the same house any longer, still cared for Marek brothers. After the end of German occupation the brothers returned to their hometown. In the spring of 1945 they went to the so-called Recovered Territories and then they emigrated from the Poland.
On June 29, 1997 Bronisława and Władysław Kryczka as well as Józefa and Jan Cichoń were awarded the medal of the “Righteous Among the Nations”. On Feb. 9, 2010 Józefa Cichoń was awarded the Commander’s Crosses of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of the Republic of Poland Lech Kaczyński.
Józefa Cichoń nee Kryczka, daughter of Władysław and Bronisława
(born on Sept. 1, 1926). The photo from 1952.
From collections of Józefa Cichoń.
See also:
Fragments of interview with Józefa Cichoń