100 years of Józef Walaszczyk

Józef Walaszczyk was born 100 years ago. He is the oldest Pole honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations and is Vice-President of the Polish Association of the Righteous. During World War II, he was the director of a potato flour factory in Rylsk (Łódzkie Province). Thanks to being fluent in the German and being an efficient manager, he enjoyed a good reputation amongst the Germans. He exploited his position in order to help Jews - he employed almost thirty people from the ghetto in Rawa Mazowiecka, paid the ransom for twenty-one Jews arrested by the Gestapo in Warsaw and obtained false identity papers for Irena Front. To mark Józef Walaszczyk’s 100th birthday, we present his story from the oral history collection of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Read about Józefa Walaszczyk on Polish Righteous Portal:
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See more stories of Righteous Among the Nations:
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Interview: Józef Markiewicz (researcher & camera operator), POLIN Museum (2015);
Directing: Artur Królicki, TakTo (2018);
Translation: Andrew Rajcher;
Music: Kevin MacLeod licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 (CC BY 3.0).
// VISUAL DESCRIPTION OF THE FILM //
00:00 Logotype of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews - Polish Righteous Project.
00:04 Józef Walaszczyk is talking about about his story.
00:16 Black subtitles on a white background.
00:34 Photo: Józef Walaszczyk in his youth.
00:54 Photo: Irena Front in the arms of Józef Walaszczyk in Zakopane during the German occupation.
00:58 Photo: Irena Front sitting on a fence in Zakopane during the German occupation.
01:02 Photo: Irena Front in the arms of Józef Walaszczyk during the German occupation; in the background is a forest.
01:17 Photo: the building of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education at Szucha Avenue in Warsaw; during the German occupation the Gestapo headquarters.
01:21 Photo: German soldiers in front of the Gestapo headquarters at Szucha Avenue in Warsaw.
01:25 Photo: a collective cell (the so-called “Tram”) at the Gestapo headquarters at Szucha Avenue in Warsaw.
01:21 Photo: German soldiers sitting on bench in the Saxon Garden in Warsaw, in the background is the Marconi Water Tower.
01:39 Photo: German soldiers on the street in occupied Poland.
01:40 Photo: people waiting for a tram in front of the Adam Mickiewicz monument at Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw during the German occupation.
01:53 Photo: the corner of Jerozolimskie Avenue and Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw.
01:57 Photo: a cab ride in Warsaw during the German occupation.
02:02 Photo: trams No. 23 and No. 26 standing at the tram stop in Warsaw during the German occupation.
02:54 Photo: a group of German soldiers against the background of the destroyed building of the Free Polish University at Opaczewska Street in Warsaw.
02:58 Photo: the entrance to the Central Station in Warsaw during the German occupation, visible inscription: “Warschau Hauptbanhof / Warszawa Główna”.
03:02 Photo: women selling bread and flowers on the street in Warsaw during the German occupation.
03:11 Photo: people jumping into a two-car tram in Warsaw during the German occupation.
03:15 Photo: German soldiers sitting in a cafe garden.
03:19 Photo: people selling bottles on the street.
06:34 Photo: Polish Righteous Among the Nations in front of the White House in Washington in 2009.
06:38 Photo: Polish Righteous Among the Nations and Holocaust Survivors in Congress in Washington in 2009.
// MORE //
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