“Not Just Karyn”, And Also Not Just Germany: One Victim Of the Holocaust In The Soviet Union

 

This is a picture of** my cousin Witold Andrulewicz (ה״י״ד). He was murdered with at least two other cousins, Franciszek and Janina (ה״י״ד) being among them (Both already lost their parents, ה״י״ד, at the hands of the Nazis, ימ״ש). All three were hidden Jews; all three were b’nei Aharon; and all three knew that they would probably never be recognized as Jews or Holocaust victims because they were hidden Jews and the Nazis didn’t murder them. They attempted to fight off the Stalinists (ימ״ש) at Augustów, anyway. As far as I know, they weren’t even thinking about the “You don’t count, anyway, because the Nazis didn’t murder you” drek when they attempted to stop the Holocaust in the Soviet Union from continuing in Soviet-occupied Poland.

According to multiple sources, Witold was born to Yosef (Jozef) Andrulewicz and his wife (Bronisława Pilecka Andrulewiczówa*) on April 25, 1925 and baptized on September 21, 1925 (which wasn’t the first or the last time that an Andrulewicz would have the apparent mortal sin of having a baptism delayed, either. If you understand that, you understand the date discrepancy.). He was born in the Jewish Exile in Posejanka, Giby, Poland; and he was resident there for his 20 short years. He was murdered during the Antisemitic and Polonophobic Pogrom at Augustów (“the Augustów Roundup”) between July 5, 1945 and July 22, 1945.

Shortly thereafter, the Soviet equivalent of what the Nazis named “The Final Solution” began; and it did not end until Stalin died in 1953, with the gulag closing in 1960 and the Holocaust in the Soviet Union ending only then. Witold and the rest of the Resistance at Augustów nonetheless prevented the Soviets from perpetrating more evil than they already perpetrated, and what would’ve been perpetrated had the  Resistance at Augustów failed to push back the Soviets can only be imagined. 

*I don’t know whether Bronisława was Jewish. I’d need to look into that, though I think that she probably was because most of us made sure to stick with fellow Jews (whether hidden or open). The Andrulewiczes also previously left hints of being kohanim. e.g., Cyprian Andrulewicz did not leave his married daughter an inheritance, although he did leave his minor children and his widow inheritances. Per Torah, b’nei Levi altogether are not to have permanent inheritances—notwithstanding that the Exile (and the New Covenant) changed this a little bit.

**I did the best that I could to restore Witold’s photo using Ancestry’s photo tools.