Holocaust survivor's kin share holiday with hero

When the Mitzmacher family gathers in Melville Thursday to eat a Thanksgiving meal, it will be because of the selfless actions of one Polish man more than 65 years ago.

Wladyslaw Misiuna, 85, used his position as a supervisor on a Nazi-controlled rabbit farm in Radom, Poland, during the Holocaust to shield several young Jewish women from the harsh conditions of slave labor camp.

One of those women was Rachela Mitzmacher, who died in 1997. Tuesday, her son Akiva Mitzmacher and other members of her family waited at Kennedy Airport to greet the man who saved her.

"We're looking at four generations that basically are here because Wladyslaw was a hero and did the righteous thing," said Mitzmacher, 64, of Dix Hills.

His sister, Chana Fried, 61, of Bayside, clutched a black and white picture of her mother with some of the other women Misiuna helped on the farm.

"Because of him, we are here," Fried said. Misiuna gave the women beets, carrots and other nutritious food meant to go to the rabbits. At one point, when Rachela Mitzmacher got sick, Misiuna purposely infected himself with the same illness to get medication that he could share with her, Fried said. The women were eventually sent to concentration camps, but survived, in part because they were so healthy after being protected by Misiuna, family members said.

"How could you repay somebody that saved your life?" Fried said.

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Rachela Mitzmacher was able to meet Misiuna several times before she died. But for Sara Marmurek, who worked in the forced-labor camp along with Mitzmacher, Tuesday marked the first time since the Holocaust that she saw him.

Marmurek, 88, of Toronto, stood with a bouquet of flowers and smiled broadly as Misiuna emerged into a conference room at Kennedy Airport. The two leaned into a long hug.

"My mind is now back in Radom," Marmurek said. "Because of him, I lived to have great-grandchildren."

Misiuna, speaking through a translator, was modest about his actions, saying that he acted out of a sense of humanity.

He was tortured by the Nazis after someone denounced him to them, and was sentenced to death, but he escaped and hid until after the war.

Misiuna said he recalled Rachela Mitzmacher as always cheerful, even in harsh conditions. "Rachela was the happiest of all," Misiuna said.

Misiuna came to New York with the help of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting non-Jewish people who helped Jews during the Holocaust. Misiuna, his wife, and Marmurek's family will join the Mitzmachers for a Thanksgiving feast Thursday.

"I'm so happy to have a chance to see him again, especially for Thanksgiving," Fried said. "I have something to be thankful for."