Leopold Socha

Leopold Socha was a Catholic man, a professional thief, a sewer worker, and a hero. When the Chinger family chipped away at the floor of a basement in the Lvov ghetto and fled to the sewers ten people survived. Socha was entrusted to keep the group alive by bringing them food and supplies with the small amount of money that the group had brought with them. However, even after the group ran out of money, Socha continued on his mission to save and protect these ten people.  

 A survivors thoughts: “I loved him so much. Children have some instinct. I clung to him. I knew that when he came everything would be O.K. I believed in him. My mother said it was like an angel sent to save us, like that was his destiny.   

 In 1946, Socha was accidently killed by a Russian Military vehicle as he pushed his daughter out of its path.  A survivor saved by Socha recalls the irony of how Socha’s blood, as he lay over a street drain, ran from his body into a sewer.

 After hearing of the death of her rescuer, a survivor stated: “Socha was the monument,” she said. “We couldn’t have done it without him. He was like a father. I remember the day we received the message that he died. It was devastating.”