Rabenda family (Maciej with her wife Waleria, son Stanisław, daughter in law Helena and granddaughter Genowefa) lived in the Kolonia Chorzew village. During the war they hid and fed the man of Jewish origin.

When the war started, Stanisław was 25 years old. In the days from 1st to 3rd of September 1939, fought in the front lines, in the battle of Mława. On the third day he got wounded in the leg. „He was crawling on all fours, about an hour and a half – through about 1 km road – on an open battlefield, under the hasty fire of artillery, to a field hospital. My father was the last of the wounded taken to the hospital as its evacuation started.”1. The battle lasted another day. In his life, Stanisław Rabenda guided himself with the patriotism. It was the value that he was raised with.

Rabenda family was relocated to the farm of a man named Ćwiek. In his neighborhood lived a German by the name Rydz2. The daughter of Stanisław – Genowefa, was then only 3-year-old child. Her family cared that she didn’t know anything about hiding in the house Jews. She learned the truth much later: „Well, within a few years after the war, I learned that my Dad hid in his yard Jewish neighbors from Kiełczygłowo village, a couple of people, maybe the whole family.”3 Maciej and his son Stanisław, had with the Jewish family friendly relations. It is not known how long they were hidden, but daughter of Ćwieks’ didn’t handle the pressure and stress associated with knowing that her family is in constant danger. She came to Rabenda family and  asked them to change the hiding place of the Jews. And so it happened.

It is not known how long their were hiding. But it is known that they have prepared shelter in the farm buildings.

Bibliography:

  1. FLV, List od Genowefy Rabendy z 28.01.2014 r., Kolonia Chorzew.