The man in the photograph is Leopold Socha, a criminal turned sewer worker who lived in the Polish city of Lvov. In the summer of 1943, as the Nazis murdered the last Jews remaining in the Lvov ghetto, Ignacy Chiger dug a tunnel from his room in the ghetto and smuggled his wife, children and fifteen others into the sewers beneath the city. Leopold Socha and three other sewer workers discovered them there. They knew that helping Jews to hide from the Nazis was punishable by death, and also that the Nazis rewarded those who betrayed Jews in hiding. But in return for money Socha and the others found these 21 Jews hiding places in the sewer network and brought them food, water and news.
Eventually the money ran out, but Socha continued to help them anyway. Every day he brought them food and once a week he took away their dirty clothes and washed them. Ten of the group survived for nearly a year with Socha's help; and, when the German army finally retreated from Lvov it was Socha who at last led them out of the rat-infested tunnels.
Perhaps 200,000 Jews survived in hiding thanks to the courage of people like Leopold Socha who risked their own lives to give them shelter, food and clothes. However, many tens of thousands, including Anne Frank and the others in the 'Secret Annex', were betrayed to the Nazis and it is estimated that about one in three of Jews in hiding didn't survive. About 1,000 rescuers were also executed for hiding Jews, and many more were sent to concentration camps. |
