SEWING MACHINE
Barbara Górecka, a resident of Ostrów Lubelski, whom we met to hear about the history of saving the Tondowski family during World War II, is the daughter of Józef and Janina Wojtczak.
What can a sewing machine be used for in a tailor’s house? The answer seems obvious, although in the case of the one where Józef Wojtczak, a tailor from Ostrów Lubelski, used every day, its use exceeds the function indicated in the name of the device itself. In fact, it could be described as a „machine for sewing and camouflaging the entrance to the cellar”. And not just any other cellar, but one in which the Jewish Tondowski family was hiding from the Nazis’ crime in the years 1941-1942.
While Józef Wojtczak was moving the rolls of cloth under the rattling foot of the machine, Janina, his wife, was preparing food for her family and the one under the planks of the floor. This is how Barbara Górecka, the daughter of Poles from Ostrów Lubelski, remembers that time.
Thanks to the help of the Wojtczaks, the Tondowski family survived the war and most likely moved to Israel.
