Jan Pitkon — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Jan Pitkon, the Polish savior of Jews walks around Israel in a dream state "I walk around in a dream state, like a wonderful fairy tale. During my short stay here I have repeated the wonderful Israeli greeting "shalom" a number of times every day. I make an effort not to drink too much in order to remain sober among the very sober Israelis. It seems as though the soil here is a reddish color; perhaps because so many of Israel's sons both in the distant past and in our times have given their lives for their country. Even the stony soil is covered with wonderful spring flowers and so much greenery. I would love to take some of the plants back to distant Poland but I know how much blood and sweat has gone into their cultivation, so I feel it would be too great a burden. Everybody here is very polite and my hosts surround me with unlimited heartfelt warmth. And all I did was to only fulfill my obligation to mankind in those crazy days when my country was occupied by the cruel invader."

These first impressions of Israel were written by Jan Pikton; a handsome man with an intellectual face, married with nine children and a mother-in-law. He lives in Pashchov near the OderNeisse East German border where he works for "The Friends of Soldiers' League".

Not only do his nine children owe their existence to their father but also a family living in Tel Aviv regards him as their father-savior. Thanks to Mr. Pikton. Mr. David Bubilski, one of the owners of the "Gomadin" factory and his wife were saved from the bitter fate of the eighty thousand Jews in Vilna who were slaughtered at the Ponary forest, tortured in Nazi concentration camps or shot when the ghetto was liquidated. He was merely fulfilling his "obligation to mankind", he said, by hiding them in his home. Indirectly, they are also thankful to him for their two sons who were born in a free country.

The amazing story of the rescue of the Bubilskis and their friend, Mr. Lipa Shteinauer, who now lives in Argentina began many years ago.

After the First World War, an impoverished carpenter, Kazimej, lives in Vilna; he can barely support his young family. He is kind-hearted but unlucky: his wife and daughter have contracted tuberculosis because of their poor living conditions but he cannot afford the medication and food to save them. When he sees that they are near death and there is nothing he can do, he goes to the "Ostra Brama" church and pours out his heart to the portrait of the Holy Mother who watches mercifully over her flock from above. While he is standing at the gate of the church, crying his heart out, a Jewish man, who owned one of the largest sawmills in the city, happened to walk past. Mr. Shteinauer was affluent and the carpenter used to buy wood to make tables from him. He asked Kazimej why he was crying. When he heard the story, he took a bundle of notes out of his pocket and gave them to Kazimej who had never seen so much money in his life. Mr. Shteinauer told him to run home and find a good doctor, buy medication and nourishing food and, for goodness sake, send the younger children away. It was too late to save his wife and eldest daughter but his children wanted for nothing because the generous Mr. Shteinauer made sure that he would get cheap wood and the carpenter was able to earn a decent living.

The years passed and World War Two, which was many times worse than World War One, raged in Vilna. Mr. Shteinauer, by then an elderly man, was one of the first victims of the Nazi monster. However, his son lived in the ghetto and Kazimej, remembering how his father had helped him, smuggles bread and potatoes, which were priceless, to his place of work. As the Vilna Ghetto is about to be liquidated, the younger Mr. Shteinauer sends a desperate message to Kazimej asking him to rescue him and two of his friends. The elderly Polish carpenter is very worried: how can he rescue the son of the man who had been so good to him? Mr. Jan Pikton, his wife and two baby daughters, lived in the same neighborhood. The elderly Kazimej immediately realized that this charitable person would be the person to turn to. Pikton's response was: "If it is necessary to rescue these people, there is no time to waste. Tell them to come to my house. I will take care of everything." The ghetto is already surrounded by Ukrainian soldiers and their Nazi masters in Gestapo uniforms. The three men scramble through secret alleys, climb roofs and reach Pitkon's house under the cover of darkness. The situation is drastic and Pitkon had not even had time to tell his wife that he planned to hide three Jews in their home. His wife blanches when the three people entered the house; she realizes that she, her husband and their two daughters will suffer a similar fate to the unfortunate Jews if the men are discovered in their home. However, she doesn't dare object to her husband's decision, and from the first moment was a loyal partner to her husband's activities. First thing in the morning, she sends her two daughters to her parents so that they would not tell their friends about the new "uncles and aunt" who had come to live with them. Jan Pitkon digs a hiding place under his house that was on the ground floor. Mrs. Pitkon goes shopping far from where they lived, so as not to arouse suspicion because her shopping basket is heavier than it had been. The German Luftwaffe headquarters for the Vilna region are on the fifth floor in the same building. The three Jews who are hidden in the underground pit quite literally live under the nose of the beasts. Jan Pikton realizes that he cannot keep them there for very long.

His brother, Vitold is a priest in the "All saints" church opposite the gate of the demolished ghetto. All the prisoners have left the ghetto. Emptiness and death are present in the five bereft alleys of the ghetto. Even the local Polish residents are reluctant to walk past the ghetto; near the church there is an abandoned house that looks as though it is about to collapse. Jan Pitkon shares the secret with his brother, the priest, and asks him to open up the closed house to see if he can put the three survivors up there. The place looks suitable. The staircase is high and at the top there is a small window facing the street; there are also two other entrances to the house. He had already calculated that if he blocked the staircase and left a hidden entrance to the apartment, it would be suitable for three people and there would also be fresh air from the upper window.

And here, opposite the demolished ghetto he builds a shelter for the three Jews. He has supposedly finished the renovation of the abandoned house, really only blocking the staircase with a brick wall, plastering it from the outside so that it looks as if there is nothing in the house beyond the staircase.

The Bubilskis and Lipa Shteinauer hide behind the concealed staircase for eleven months. Every rustle, every suspicious movement outside scares the three of them and there is the additional worry that if they are caught, their rescuers, God forbid, will also meet a tragic end.

Jan Pitkon frequently sends his wife and daughters to his in-laws to distance them from the constant danger. But he stands on guard all the time, taking care of all the needs of his hidden guests.

Today, while he is sitting in the Bubilskis' pleasant apartment in North Tel Aviv, there is only one thing he is pleased about: during almost a year that they were in hiding, they did not need a doctor: Thank God, they were all well and what would I have done if one of them had needed medical attention? Even today, seventy years later, it is obvious that that was what worried him then more than anything else. His gracious act was successful because only three people knew about it –his wife, his brother and Kazimej the carpenter.

The years passed; Mr. and Mrs. Bubilski live happily and freely in Israel. There is no longer a darkish staircase, no longer any fear and threats, no more meager meals; they are happy and affluent in a spacious, bright, airy apartment decorated with pot plants in every corner. But they have never forgotten the person to whom they really owe all this. They wanted very much to meet up again with their savior. They had been in regular contact by mail with the Pitkon family which, by now, had grown considerably. This year, as Pesach approached, their dream was realized and Jan Pitkon found a return ticket to Israel in one of the latest letters.

This year when the Bubilski family sits to the Seder and the younger son asks "Why is this night different from all other nights?" his father will answer "because once we were slaves in Egypt." The boy will know that, not only were his ancestors slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but also his parents, his mother and father, were slaves sentenced to death in the evil kingdom that arose in our generation. It is thanks to the man sitting beside him, that they were able to go from slavery to freedom and the naughty sabra will know that it is still possible "to believe in man, and also in his spirit, a strong spirit" whereas Jan Pitkon walks around the Holy Land "in a dream state, in a wonderful fairy tale".

Written by Haim Lazar