Irena Droździkowska completed her pharmacy degree at the University of Kraków in 1935, and began working at Tadeusz Pankiewicz’s Pod Orłem pharmacy in September 1939. The German occupiers set up a ghetto in Kraków in March 1941. The pharmacy was located inside the ghetto, on its central square. Irena Droździkowska witnessed in horror how the ghetto inmates were mistreated by the occupying German forces. Droździkowska and her co-workers helped persecuted Jews as best they could, risking the death penalty. She smuggled food and medications into the ghetto and passed them on to people imprisoned there. She exchanged valuables, delivered letters to family members hidden outside the ghetto, and also found hiding places outside it. Droździkowska worked in the Pod Orłem pharmacy until 1951.
The staff at the Pod Orłem pharmacy, Kraków, 1942; left to right: Helena Krywaniuk, Aurelia Danek-Czort, Tadeusz Pankiewicz, and Irena Droździkowska. Source: Zbiory Muzeum Krakowa, MHK-Fs 15436-IX
Helena Krywaniuk, Irena Droździkowska, and Aurelia Danek-Czort (left to right), Kraków, 1942. Source: Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem, Gerechte unter den Völkern
Tadeusz Pankiewicz with co-workers: (left to right) Irena Droździkowska, Helena Krywaniuk, and Aurelia Danek, Kraków, 1942. Source: Zbiory Muzeum Krakowa, Fs15465-IX
In front of the pharmacy (from left to right): Marceli Grüner, Helena Krywaniuk, Aurelia Danek-Czort, and Tadeusz Pankiewicz, around 1942. Source: Zbiory Muzeum Krakowa, MHK-Fs 15432-IX
