In Kalczyński’s accounts, we find a particularly dramatic recollection about the stay of several members of the fishermen commando in another concentration camp in Germany. “While in Oranienburg in the final phase of the war, I met Stanisław Banachowski from our fishermen commando, who was extremely weary from hunger. He recalled our shared experiences in Oświęcim in the fishermen commando and said: Olek, do you remember Mrs. Moroń, what good bread she had. Why didn’t we use her help and escape from the camp?”27
When KL Auschwitz was evacuated in January 1945, several prisoners managed to escape and hid in the Moroń family’s barn. According to Honorata Wawro’s accounts, there were probably eight of them. Years later, she only remembered the names Burak, Klisiński, Kaczmarek, Kobusiński, Kobuszewski from Sosnowiec28. Prisoners called Anna Moroń “Auntie Moroń”. She was born on May 3, 1900 (May 24, 1900), died on September 17, 1978. Many former prisoners came to her funeral.
Helena Kraus, in turn, lived in Warsaw at Inflandska Street until her retirement. She didn’t start a family. Until 1995, she worked as a clerk in the Ministry of Light Industry, and then she returned to Komorowice. Here in her family home at 10 Czereśniowa Street, she died on February 28, 2008. She was buried at the local parish cemetery. On October 16, 1943 Matylda Pikoń married Antoni Linert and after liberation, she worked as a teacher at Primary School No. 1 in Komorowice Krakowskie. She enthusiastically joined in its reactivation, collecting library collections scattered among the residents, running a school theatre, and taking an active part in the work of the Polish Teachers’ Union. At the same time, improving her skills and qualifications, in 1960 she completed a two-year Teacher Training School in Racibórz in the field of Polish philology. From 1965, she served as a probation officer and social inspector at the District Court in Department IV for Juveniles in Bielsko-Biała. She cared for difficult youth from Komorowice, Bestwina and Mazańcowice. Remaining socially active until the end of her life, in the years of her retirement she was actively involved in the work of the Polish Social Welfare Committee. At that time, as part of the Health and Social Welfare Committee, helping elderly, lonely and disabled people, she organized medical care and monthly meetings at the Seniors’ Club for them as part of Housing Committee No. 1 in Bielsko-Biała. Until 1989, she did not seek membership in ZBOWiD (Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy). Only after regaining independence did the spirit of belonging to the group of soldiers of independent Poland emerge in her. In 1993, she received an identity card issued by the Association of Veterans of the Republic of Poland and Former Political Prisoners No. 1823. Two years later, the Office for Veterans and Victims of Oppression awarded her the badge of a Veteran of the Struggle for Independence. Decorated with the Gold Cross of Merit, she died on July 12, 1996 and was buried in the parish cemetery in Komorowice. After her death on December 18, 2019, one of the newly built streets in Bielsko-Biała was named after her.
28 Accounts submitted on October 27, 2003 by Honorata Wawro, née Moroń, born January 2, 1928 in Brzeszcze-Nazieleńce, 6 Młyńska Street. APMA-B. Zespół Oświadczenia, vol. 158, pp. 91-106.
In the middle, Matilda Pikoń, née Linert, on her wedding day on 16 October 1943, and her closest friends. Third from right, Helena Kraus.