Before the war, about 100 people lived in the village of Stawki, including only two Jewish families. The Hondrys lived in unison with one of them in one house and gave them shelter during the war.

The village of Stawki is situated on the left bank of the Bug River, right on the border with present-day Belarus. Before the war, three families lived in one of the buildings in this village – two Polish families, the Hondrys, the Chomiczuks, and a Jewish family, the Wakiermans. The Hondrys, i.e. Michał, Anastasia and their children – Stanisław, Władysław, Jan, Adela and grandmother Oksenia were tenants of the said house, while the Wakiermans and the Chomiczuks jointly bought it before the outbreak of the Second World War. Stawki, after the Third Reich and Soviet Union’s aggression against Poland, became part of the German occupation.

When the Nazi extermination policy entered its final phase, Itka Wakierman and her children Moszek (about 12 years old) and Bronia (about 9 years old) began a fight for life. The Jewish woman turned for help to the Hondrys to hide her and her children. The Poles consented to Itka’s request. They found shelter initially at the home of a widow named Orenczuk, with money provided by Michal to support the Polish woman. When she declined to help, the Hondrys hid the Wakiermans at their home. At the time, Shmul Wakierman, Itka’s husband, was staying with the Poles elsewhere.

The Polish family organised a hiding place on their farm above the attic of the barn, where hay was stored. The location proved to be unfortunate, as a German border guard patrol walked very close to the hiding place every day. Their presence there was a result of the fact that Stawki is situated about 800 m from the Bug River. For the people in hiding, who carried food to the family of three every day, this posed a huge risk. This risk was taken mainly by Adela Hondra.

All the Jews survived the occupation.