Jozeph Menker

A carpenter who lived in Lviv and was hiding in Antonina Żyłowska's apartment during the Nazi occupation.

Jozeph Menker was born on 8 July 1907 in the family of Bernard Menker and Joanna Hafternas. He lived all his life in Lviv. Before the war, he lived with his wife, Irena Menker, née Altstok, on Levytskoho street 10. After the arrival of the Germans, he moved to the ghetto, where he lived with his wife till the day it was eliminated (indicated as 1 June 1943). During an anti-Jewish action, he escaped from the ghetto and went to Antonina Żyłowska and Franciszek Kuszner, who lived together on Ozarkevycha street 6. Menker found refuge in this couple's place and remained there from July 1943 till 21 June 1944.

For this shelter he paid Franciszek Kuszner 3,000 zloty each month, or the corresponding amount in currency and valuables (in the apartment, the police seized 35 paper dollars, a 10-dollar gold coin, a gold bracelet, two rings). After Kuszner's death in June 1944, Żyłowska refused to further conceal Menker, since he had come to an agreement with her lover, so it was not her duty and, in addition, he had run out of money.

Having lost the refuge, Menker, according to him, "spent nights in fields, parks, and wherever he could find a place." On June 30 he went to the Św. Zofii square (now the Stryyskyi market) to buy some bread, and it was there that he was arrested by policemen of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, Myron Tykhlivets and Stepan Brodyk, and taken to the 4th commissariat. He was mercilessly beaten there, being demanded names and facts. As Menker himself testified, to stop the beating, he gave up the first familiar surname and address in Lviv that crossed his mind, those of a neighbour of him named Dwernicka, and said that he had given her two 20-dollar gold coins. On the following day, July 1, Dwernicka and Antonina Żyłowska were arrested. During searches, 2,172 zloty and decorations were seized from them. The case was referred to the criminal police. Żyłowska was found guilty. There are no court's findings in the case file. The policemen were awarded for their work.

On July 3, Jozeph Menker was transferred to the Janowska concentration camp. His fate is unknown. Menker's wife, as well as his parents were killed.