Tadeusz Pankiewicz
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Tadeusz Pankiewicz (November 21, 1908, Samborze, Poland - November 5, 1993), Polish pharmacist in the Kraków Ghetto, a "Righteous Among the Nations" who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.
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[edit] Early life
Pankiewicz studied at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. In 1933 he took over the proprietorship of the "Pod Orłem" (Eagle's) Pharmacy, founded by his father Jozef in 1910, on Plac Zgody (formerly Mały Rynek, the market square) in the Podgórze suburb. Its clientele included both Poles and Jews.
[edit] In the Kraków Ghetto
When under the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II, Podgórze was closed off in March 1941 as a ghetto for Krakow Jewry, there were four pharmacies owned by non-Jews within its walls. Pankiewicz was the only one to decline the Germans' offer of relocating to the "Aryan" side of the city. He was given permission to continue operating his establishment and reside on the premises, and his staff were given passage permits to enter and exit the ghetto.
The often-scarce medications and pharmaceutical products supplied to the ghetto's residents, often free of charge, substantially improved their quality of life. In effect, apart from health care considerations, they contributed to survival itself. In his published testimonies, Pankiewicz makes particular mention of hair dyes used by those disguising their identities and tranquilizers given to fretful children required to keep silent during Gestapo raids.
The pharmacy became a meeting place for the ghetto's intelligentsia, and a hub of underground activity. Pankiewicz and his staff, Irena Drozdzikowska, Helena Krywaniuk, and Aurelia Danek, risked their lives to undertake numerous clandestine operations: smuggling food and information, and offering shelter on the premises for Jews facing deportation to the camps.
[edit] Post-WWII
After the war, Tadeusz Pankiewicz was awarded recognition as a "Righteous Among the Nations" for his wartime activities in rescuing Jews. He is buried in Krakow's Rakowicki Cemetery.
The "Pod Orlem" pharmacy, located at No. 18 Bohaterów Ghetto Square, has been designated a branch of the Krakow municipal historical museum (Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa). The wartime activities of Pakiewicz and his staff are featured in an exhibition on the history of the ghetto.
The pharmacy features in the Oscar-winning film, Schindler's List. The film's director Steven Spielberg donated $40,000 for the building's preservation, for which he was honored by the city of Krakow with its prestigious "Patron of Culture" award for the year 2004.
[edit] Bibliography
- The Cracow Ghetto Pharmacy (translation by Henry Tilles of Apteka w getcie krakowskim). New York: Holocaust Library, 1987. ISBN 0896040860 0896040879
[edit] References
- Bartoszewski, Wladyslaw and Zofia Lewin, Righteous Among Nations: How Poles helped the Jews, 1939 - 1945. London: Earlscourt Publications, 1969, pp. 222-226. Includes first-person testimony by Pankiewicz.
- Bartoszewski, Wladyslaw and Zofia Lewin, The Samaritans: Heroes of the Holocaust (translated from the Polish: Ten jest z ojczyzny mojej, 1966), ed. Alexander T. Jordan. N.Y.: Twayne Publishers, 1970, pp. 173-178.
