Savin Jews : Polish Righteous

GALAS, Jan
GALAS, Stanislaw, son

David Efrati, having blue eyes and blond hair, lived in a close-knit family of eight children in the Jewish quarter in Warsaw, where his parents had a business with materials for shoemakers. David was sent to the Jewish school, but once punished by the teacher, he refused to continue and his parents had to move him to a Polish school, where he learned the language. The Germans made on him a very good impression, but soon he suffered from them. He started to make a living by smuggling goods and met a Polish colleague, Stanislaw Galas, called Stasiek. He had many brushes with death, but being very decisive and resourceful, when he was in utter danger and despair, he always got help from Stasiek and his family: father, Jan and his daughter Niusia. Jan was a janitor of a building where he gave refuge to six Jews with a little girl in the cellar. But as the Jews quarreled much among them, David did not want to stay any longer there and told Stasiek that either he will take him to his home or he, David, will return to the ghetto; they can kill him. And Stasiek took him home. After a few days all the Jews in that cellar were killed and Jan, Stasiek's father with them. But Jan's wife and children did not show David that they are afraid of keeping him. David traveled to many cities in order to escape Jews' enemies, be it the Germans, Lithuanians, Latvians or Ukrainians. He even jumped from a train going to Treblinka, escaped from the Trawniki camp, went to Lvov, met thieves who wanted to teach him how to steal, worked on Ukrainian peasants farms, always presenting himself as a Pole and Catholic. Finally he found a Jewish family who was happy to meet him. He lost contact with Stasiek and Niusia in 1948, when he went to Israel. He returned to Poland in 1963 and found only Niusia, ill and unhappy. He found Stasiek in Warsaw only in 1960. Niusia and her mother were not living any more. David took care of Stasiek and helped him as he could. Stasiek married and has a son. In 1984(5) Stasiek and his father got the recognition as "Righteous"





text from : http://www.savingjews.org/righteous/gv.htm