Andrzej Garbuliński was a Polish farmer who lived in the village of Czerna with his family: Władysław, Eleonora,Marian,Helena, Kunegunda,Stanisław, Kazimierz, Jan and two wives Zofia and Kazimiera during the Nazi German occupation of Poland in World War II. He was executed by the Nazis with his oldest son Władysław, in late 1943, for aiding and sheltering Jews.[1]
In 1940, a neighboring Jewish family of Alfenbeins from the same village of Czerna—who escaped from the Płaszów concentration camp—asked the Garbulińskis for help and shelter. Among them, Sarah Alfenbein, her daughter Hanna and son Meir. Just before they arrived at the farm, they hid at the nearby home of Stanisław Owce. The Garbulinskis took the Jews in, and cared of them for the next two years.
In late 1943, the Gestapo gendarmerie came to the village. As they headed for the farm, Andrzej Garbuliński asked the hiding Jews to run. However, they were spotted at a field while escaping. The mother and son were killed on the spot. The daughter Hanna managed to keep running and had the Germans chase after her for a while. At the end, she was also murdered. Andrzej Garbuliński and his son Władysław were immediately arrested and taken to the Jasło prison. The father was sentenced to death and executed there. Władysław was transferred to a separate prison where he was also killed. The only family members who survived the war were Eleonora, Helena, Kunegunda, Marian, Stanislaw, Kazimierz and Jan .
In 1997 the Garbuliński family was recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for their daring attempt at saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust; Andrzej and Władysław, for giving their lives in the process.[2][3]