Franciszek and Magdalena Banasiewicz
The family of Franciszek and Magdalena Banasiewicz and their children Jerzy, Tadeusz, Antoni, and Maria lived on a farm in Orzechowce near Przemyśl during the Nazi German occupation of Poland in World War II. In July 1991 they were bestowed the titles of Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem for rescuing fifteen Jews escaping the Holocaust from the ghetto in Przemyśl. Background Franciszek Banasiewicz (2 April 1884 – 5 February 1954) was a decorative painter before the war. His wife Magdalena née Lenar (7 July 1884 – 28 September 1957) was a homemaker. Two of their sons, Antoni and Tadeusz, were sent by the Nazi Germans to forced labour in the Third Reich when the war broke out. Tadeusz escaped, and after returning home hid in barns and in the fields. His father, Franciszek, organised many heroic rescue missions with his aid. Initially, Franciszek Banasiewicz was approached by Salomon Ehrenfreud, who escaped the ghetto massacre of June 1942 having witnessed the death of his wife and children. He was hiding at the home of Jan Kościak a bit earlier. Tadeusz, hiding, took it upon himself to hide along with Salomon around the farm. Meanwhile, Franciszek started taking in other