A CARD FROM THE CALENDAR - MARIA AND ANTONI JĘDRZEJEWSKI
Antoni, incredibly skilled musician that he was, taught music and singing to the young people of Przystajń. He was the parish organist, widely-known as a member of the local intelligentsia. He lived with his wife not 500 metres from the town square, inhabited largely by Jews. Early in the spring of 1942, Mrs Herszlik, a Jew, knocked on the door of the Jędrzejewskis house, desperately looking for help and shelter. The day was quiet and nothing heralded the tragedy that was to strike the Jews after dark. In the night, the air filled with desperate screams, sound of rifle butts hitting the door, cries of children, and lamentations of their mothers. The Germans forcibly evicted all the Jewish citizens and crammed them into cars. Mrs Herszlik was safe during all that, just a couple of hundred metres away from the tragedy underway in the market square. The next day, there were no more Jews in Przystajń. Mrs Herszlik survived in Maria and Antoni Jędrzejewski’s house.
