Rozalia Socha, who lived alone in her home in Wola Rafałowska, hid as many as 10 Jews at different times. On 19 December 1942, she was murdered with a shot to the back of the head by German gendarmes.

Rozalia Socha, born in 1886, lived alone in a small house by the main road in Wola Rafałowska near Rzeszów, now part of the Chmielnik municipality. In the summer of 1942, after the Germans began gathering the Jewish residents of nearby villages in ghettos and then deporting them to Rzeszów, Rozalia gave shelter to people she knew: the Goldman siblings, Regina and Izaak, and their niece, Fajga. At the same time, a group of Jews from Albigowa whose surnames are unknown was also hiding there. In total, Rozalia Socha may have sheltered as many as 10 people at various times.

“There was an extension next to the house, a kind of outbuilding where grain from the farm was stored. The woman was a farmer. There was also straw there, the kind left after the corn harvest. That was the outbuilding in which she hid us. We stayed there, not knowing that on the other side of the house two mothers and three children were also hiding,” (1) Fajga Goldman recalled in 1994.

As a result of a denunciation by a local collaborator, Antoni B., occupation officials discovered the hiding place on 13 September 1942. Of the eight Jews then staying on the property, Regina and Fajga Goldman managed to escape. The Germans murdered Izaak Goldman, as well as two women and three children whose names are unknown, several dozen meters from the house.

The homeowner was not at home at the time, but she was placed on a list of nine village residents designated for execution. On 19 December 1942, again accompanied by the traitor Antoni B., German gendarmes came to Wola Rafałowska and found Rozalia Socha. They led her near the grave of the Jews she had hidden and shot her there. That day, they also murdered two other village residents from the list. The Germans warned the local population that if any harm came to the collaborator, they would shoot 20 residents in retaliation.

Regina Goldman and her niece Fajga survived the war. The German collaborator Antoni B. was shot after liberation in 1945 by the militia while attempting to escape from custody.

After the execution, Rozalia Socha’s body was secretly exhumed and buried in the cemetery in Wola Rafałowska. In 2019, her gravestone was renovated thanks to the efforts of the “Nasza Wola” Association for the Promotion and Development of the Village of Wola Rafałowska. The road to the grave was also marked.

Rozalia Socha was commemorated as part of the “Called by Name” program on 2 June 2026 in Wola Rafałowska near Rzeszów. A report from the ceremony is available at the link below.