Background
During World World War II, 18-year-old Gawryłkiewicz lived in the village of Korkuciany in Eastern Poland where he worked as laborer on a farm of Kazimierz Korkucz and his mother.
During World World War II, 18-year-old Gawryłkiewicz lived in the village of Korkuciany in Eastern Poland where he worked as laborer on a farm of Kazimierz Korkucz and his mother.
Their baby brother, Shaul, did not survive. Kazimierz Korkucz agreed to hide the Sonensons around his house as well as the other two families who came along: Kabaczniks and Solominanskys. Antoni Gawrylkiewicz, a shepherd employed by Korkucz, took it upon himself to do most of the caring.
Little Sonia Sonenson became Professor Yaffa Eliach of New York"s Brooklyn College.
She collaborated with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, District of Columbia, and wrote a volume called There Once Was A World, tracing the history of Jews from Ejszyszki. She successfully appealed to Yad Vashem to grant its medal of honor to Antoni Gawryłkiewicz.
However, the rationale for the award in the custody of Yad Vashem contained a series of errors. stated erroneously that Gawryłkiewicz was severely beaten by the Polish underground for helping Jews, a story which Gawryłkiewicz never corroborated, as explained by Anna Ferens (among others) in “Głowy na wietrze” (Heads in the Wind) published by Gazeta Wyborcza. Gawryłkiewicz signed the Yad Vashem deposition written in Hebrew, a language he does not understand.
Other serious errors and omissions included the account of 1944 home invasion at Sonenson"s house in Eishyshok, a vicious robbery resulting in the murder of Zipporah and Hayyim, in which the Polish underground never participated contrary to allegation.
The members of the Sonenson family, who survived the war thanks to Gawryłkiewicz and his employer as well as their numerous neighbors, emigrated to the United States.
