Antoni Wronecki

Antoni Wronecki was a Master Mason of the Warsaw lodge Stanislaus Kosciuszko and a carpenter. When the Nazis began rounding up Jewish families in Warsaw in 1941, Wronecki transformed a Masonic lodge into a hiding place for 87 people. He built a false floor beneath the lodge room that was indistinguishable from the original, installed a hidden ventilation system, and used Masonic symbols and regalia as a psychological shield against Gestapo inspections. For 742 days, he smuggled food, medicine, and water to the 32 families hidden beneath the floor of his lodge. He was never caught. He survived the war, and all 87 people survived with him. After the war, Wronecki rebuilt the lodge room at 56 Aleje Jerozolimskie and continued his work as a carpenter until his death in 1985. When asked why he did it, he said, A Mason builds.