An ordinary cleaning worker in Lwow became a hero. Leopold Socha turned his workplace and sewers into a room where he helped Jews.
During the occupation of Poland by the Germans, Leopold Socha worked in a sewage treatment plant in Lwow (today’s Lviv). Together with his partner, Stefan Wróblewski, they checked the technical condition of the sewers. However, one visit there in May 1943 turned ordinary work into saving lives.
From the ghetto to the sewers
Two Poles checking the sewers came across a Jew- Icchak Chigier. He was accompanied by other refugees who dug a tunnel in the basement of a building in the Lwow ghetto and went to the sewers, where they intended to hide from the Germans. The occupiers planned to liquidate the ghetto causing death for many Jews. Chigier’s family, his wife and two young children, also hid in the ghetto basement. The Pole’s heart broke at the sight of the escapees, so he decided to help them.
Over a year-long hiding in the sewers
At the end of May 1943, the Germans began the liquidation of the ghetto. At that time, over 20 people, including the family of Icchak Chigier, left the basement and hid in the sewers. In the beginning, Poles took money from Jews to buy them the food needed to survive. Then they organized their own resources. The conditions in the sewers were dire. In such circumstances, one of the Jewish women had to give birth. The child did not survive, and Socha dealt with the funeral.
The Jews spent 14 months in the sewers. They only left them in July 1944, when the Germans left Lwow as a result of the Soviet offensive.
The hero’s sad end
After the war, Leopold Socha moved to Gliwice, where he set up a bar and intended to lead a happy life. Unfortunately, he had bad luck. When in May 1946 he noticed a Soviet truck rushing towards his daughter, he started to save the child. A car hit him and the hero who saved the Jews died.
On May 23, 1978, the Yad Vashem Institute posthumously awarded him the Righteous Among the Nations medal.
Based on the story of Leopold Socha, the movie “In Darkness” was released in the cinemas in 2011.