Szczepan Bradło (died 1960) was a Polish farmer who lived in Lubcza, a village in

Tarnów Voivodeship Tarnów Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in years 1975–1998, superseded by a much larger Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Its capital city was Tarnów. Located in southeastern part of the country, ...

, with his wife Klara (d. 1953), daughter Franciszka and sons: Antoni, Eugeniusz and Tadeusz. Together, they saved thirteen

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

during

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

German-occupied Poland German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration. The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...

. In 1986, the Bradło family were awarded the honorary title

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

. Szczepan and his wife were recognized posthumously. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Bradło lived on a three-hectare farm. According to the

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

deposition, two Jews from Slotowa who were forced to leave their hideout at the home of a peasant named Ryba asked Bradło for shelter for themselves and their families. Their families consisted of six Bochners, three Reichs, Izrael Hamel, Abraham Einspruch, and Bochna and Beniamin Dereszewicz. With the aid of the Bradłos, the families created a dugout in which they spent over two years, until the end of the war. According to the testimony of one of the survivors who, in the words of Gustavo Jalife, performed the "patient and agonizing count,",Gustavo Jalife
Righteous Among the Nations; Szczepan Bradlo
August 3, 1997. this amounted to 26 months, 10 days and eight hours. Franciszka aided the refugees by cooking for all of them. Although poor, the Bradło family shared what they had. All thirteen refugees survived the war, five of whom signed the deposition through which the

title was bestowed on the Bradło family including Szczepan, Klara, their three sons and daughter Franciszka Bradło-Kozioł. Antoni Bradło became a priest and for many years rendered his services in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Footnotes

References

* Righteous Among the Nations recognized by Yad Vashem as of 1 January 2008
Bradlo, Szczepan & Klara & sons Antoni, Tadeusz, Eugeniusz, 1986
* Lubcza village

2006/09/05. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bradlo, Szczepan 1960 deaths Polish Righteous Among the Nations Year of birth missing 20th-century Polish farmers

Footnotes

See also

References