Marianna Banaszek - Instytut Pileckiego
Marianna Banaszek was commemorated by Pilecki Institute on 15 September 2020 in Marki.
She lived with her adolescent children Władysław, Wiktoria and Stanisława in a small house with a garden in Pustelnik, near the Warsaw suburb of Marki. She was a widow; her husband, Jan Banaszek, died before the war in 1938, and her family lived in poverty. The difficult personal situation and the dramatic events of the war made her agree, in exchange for a fee, to hide Jews who had escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto in their home. Among them were Rubin Feldszuh’s wife and daughter, who found shelter there in March 1943 (with time, Rubin Feldszuh himself also came to the Banaszeks), as well as the Szpak family. Feldszuh’s daughter Josima was an extremely talented young pianist and composer. Unfortunately, she fell ill with tuberculosis while in the ghetto, and she died in the Banaszek house in April 1943. The Jews found themselves with the Banaszek family thanks to the work of Bolesław Turchetti, the leader of a Polish-Jewish group that organized hiding places. After a few months, the Gestapo began to take interest in the house. In autumn 1943, after a warning from the head of the village, the Jewish family fled, and the Banaszek family believed that the threat was over. However, the day after the Jews had fled, Marianna returned home from church and found German gendarmes there. She was shot on site. Moments earlier, in her absence, the Germans had arrested her son Władysław and daughter Stanisława, taken them to a brickyard in Marki and shot them.