When Soviet troops, approached Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, a German Nazi concentration camp which was also a centre for the extermination of Jews, the Germans ordered its evacuation. In January 1945, a death march began and many prisoners did not survive it. Among the evacuees were three Hungarian Jewish women, Olga Lengyel and her two friends, Magda and Luiza. What was their fate?

During their forced migration, the three Jewish women managed to escape and hide on a Polish farm belonging to Maria and Ludwik Paszek, inhabitants of the village of Brzeźce near Pszczyna. Later, hidden in a hay wagon, they were transported to the household of Augustyn and Zofia Godziek.

Augustyn, worked in the local police force, known as the Landwache, which provided additional protection, as no one thought that this officer could keep Jewish women at his home. The women not only found a shelter, but also human contact and support. Olga often shared her memories with the Godziek family.

Even so, danger could arise at any time. One day Olga was baking a cake, and a German soldier who lived nearby entered the Godzieks’ kitchen. The woman quickly made up a story telling him that she was a relative of the family. She had not appeared before because she was caring for her sick mother. The German believed Olga.

After the end of the war, the Jewish women left their family addresses. Augustyn kept them in a hidden box, which was unfortunately destroyed by humidity. Olga later moved to New York and founded an institution to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust – the Memorial Library and Art Collection of Second World War. In 1981, she returned to Poland to personally thank the families who saved her.

The Godziek family was awarded the title “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem in 1992 for saving Jews. Unfortunately, both Zofia Godziek and her husband Augustyn were dead by then. The woman died in 1961 and the man in 1979. The medal was accepted by their daughter Jadwiga, who was also awarded the distinction.