Polish Righteous Among the Nations - Part 3
From Wikipedia with citations from Yad Vashem
PART 1: Adamowicz - Gut
PART 2: Iwanski - Krepec
PART 3: Latoszynski - Rudnicki - See Below
PART 4: Sendler - Zagorski
Jerzy and Eugenia Latoszyński
“Jerzy and Eugenia Latoszyński were a Polish husband and wife who saved the life of a Jewish boy named Artur Citryn, during the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland in World War II. They were posthumously bestowed the title of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem on May 23, 2005.[1] The medals and a diploma were presented by the Israeli ambassador, David Peleg, to their two surviving daughters, Teresa and Elżbieta, at the Branicki Palace in Warsaw.[2][3]
“The family of Artur Citryn, including his mother, sister, and a female cousin, managed to escape from the Warsaw Ghetto (pictured) in 1941, before the mass deportations began. They went to a temporarily freer Jewish ghetto in Adamów,[4] from where Mrs. Citryn began a prolonged search for a safe hiding place for her children. She succeeded only two years later, in the summer of 1943. Together with Artur, she arrived at the house of the Latoszyński family living in the village of Lendo Wielkie. According to the testimony of one of Latoszyński's daughters, towards the end of July 1943, they were visited by a young-looking Jewish mother with a thin 10-year-old boy who was introduced as Antoś Cytryniarz from Warsaw. His mother, Mrs Citryn explained that she had heard from their neighbors about Jerzy Latoszyński who owned the largest farm in the area, frequently in need of additional help. The boy, Artur Citryn, was taken in with their blessing.[2]
“Depending on the season, Artur slept in the gardener’s room, in the attic, in the family kitchen in winter or in a barn on bales of hay during the summer. His responsibilities included grazing cattle and looking after them. The Latoszyńskis had a fair–sized library of Polish books, and Artur spent a lot of time reading, which soon became his most beloved pastime. He read adventure stories by Karl May and children’s magazines, and while distracted, would allow his cows to cause considerable damage on occasion.[2]
“Patrolling Germans as well as local partisans raided the farm numerous times in search of money and provisions. At such times, Artur would hide behind Mrs. Latoszyński along with her own children, pretending to be her son. In the spring of 1945, as soon as the Nazis retreated, Mrs Citryn returned to the farm to take back her child. The boy didn’t want to leave and cried. He had grown accustomed to his new place in life and wanted to remain with the Latoszyńskis, who had since become his second family”.[2][3]
Notes
Jerzy and Eugenia Latoszyński at Yad Vashem website
1. Wręczenie Medali i Dyplomów "Sprawiedliwy Wśród Narodów Świata", Miasto stołeczne Warszawa, May 23, 2005. Official ceremony in Warsaw, Poland. Bestowing the medals of the Righteous among the Nations.
2. Magazyn Internetowy Forum, Kolejni Sprawiedliwi FKCh "ZNAK", 1999-2008
a. Jewish Historical Institute (Instytut Naukowo-Badawczy), The Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture, Getto in Adamów (50 km south of Siedlce): Inhabitants deported to the Łuków Ghetto in October 1942 and exterminated at Treblinka in October–November 1942. Łuków Ghetto was liquidated on 2nd May 1943.
b. Yitzhak Arad, "Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka." Deportations from Generalgouvernement, Jews from Adamow and Lukow: Date of Deportation October 5-8, 1942. Number of Deportees: 7,000 (in Polish) Miasto stołeczne Warszawa, Wręczenie Medali i Dyplomów "Sprawiedliwy Wśród Narodów Świata", May 23, 2005. Official ceremony in Warsaw, Poland. Bestowing the medals of the Righteous among the Nations.
Latoszyński, Jerzy
Latoszyńska, Eugenia
“At the time of the liquidation of the ghetto in the town of Adamów (Łuków County, Lublin District) in the fall of 1942, 12-year-old Arthur Cytryniarz (later, Citrin) with his mother Hana fled to the surrounding villages, pretending to be Polish fugitives from Warsaw. After wandering for months, in the spring of 1943, they came to the farm of the Latoszyński family in the village of Wielkie Lendo (near Ryki). Hana, who had "Aryan" documents, asked the owner of the farm, Jerzy Latoszyński, to take her son Arthur for work on the farm as a shepherd and farmhand, and he agreed. The boy was blonde and, having an excellent Polish accent, did not arouse any suspicion. He looked like a Polish boy in every way. His mother's Polish accent, however, gave her Jewish identity away. Seemingly, however, this did not trouble Jerzy who agreed to take in the boy and even signed a kind of document with his mother on his conditions of employment. He knew well that this was only for the sake of appearances. Jerzy Latoszyński and his wife Eugenia were then in their thirties and had a two-year-old daughter. In the human landscape of the poor area in which they lived, they were certainly unusual people given their education and their ownership of land. Jerzy was politically aware, and had already been arrested for a period by the Gestapo. His relatives were also involved in anti-Nazi activity. Eugenia's father and her two brothers had paid with their lives for helping persecuted Jews and escaped Russian captives.
“Their farm served to some extent as a refuge for various people who were wanted by the Germans. The Jewish boy Arthur Cytryniarz also joined this group. Among the people on the farm, it was never openly said that he was Jewish, but everybody knew it. Arthur proved to be an industrious and dedicated boy and endeared himself to the farm owners who treated him as one of the family. He looked after their small daughter and read books from their library. Arthur stayed with them from April 1943 until December 1944. His mother was hiding in the vicinity under a false identity and visited him from time to time. This area was liberated in the summer of 1944, but Arthur preferred to stay on the farm until the end of that year. Only then did his mother come to collect him. On October 10, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Jerzy and Eugenia Latoszyński as Righteous Among the Nations”.
Jerzy Jan Lerski (George J. Lerski), informed political circles abroad about the extermination and persecution of Jews [55]
“Jerzy Jan Lerski (nom de guerre: Jur; also known as George Jan Lerski; 1917-1992); was a Polish lawyer, soldier, historian, political scientist, and politician. After World War II he emigrated to the United States, where he became a full professor at the University of San Francisco.
“Born 20 January 1917 in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), Lerski studied law at Lwów University. In interwar Poland he joined the Stronnictwo Demokratyczne (Polish Democratic Party); he became known for his strong opposition to anti-semitic events.
“Jerzy Lerski first saw action in World War II during the 1939 Polish September Campaign. He fought in the Battle of Brześć Litewski in the rank of officer cadet (podchorąży, ensign). Taken prisoner by the Soviet Army during the Soviet invasion, he managed to escape from a train transport. He joined the anti-Soviet resistance but, with the NKVD (the Soviet Secret Police) actively looking for him, he escaped via Hungary to France, joining the Polish Armed Forces in the West. After the fall of France on 25 June 1940, Lerski went to Great Britain. In 1941, after taking a commando course, he became a "cichociemny" (a member of a secret unit of the Polish Army in exile). Parachuting into occupied Poland in February 1943, he served as one of the couriers for the Polish Government in Exile – individuals who risked their lives, moving between the Polish Government in Exile, in London, England, and the Polish Secret State in occupied Poland. After collecting information from the Secret State, he returned to London.
“In November 1944 he was appointed secretary to the third Prime Minister of Poland in Exile, Tomasz Arciszewski (1877–1955). At a meeting between Arciszewski and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, Lerski gave a detailed report on the plight of the Jews in Poland. After 8 May 1945, when World War II ended in Europe, Lerski decided to remain in London instead of returning to Soviet-dominated communist Poland. He was active in the Polish political movement, Polski Ruch Wolnościowy Niepodległość i Demokracja. In July 1947 he resigned as Arciszewski's secretary.
“On the eve of the Cold War, Lerski moved from the United Kingdom to the United States. He obtained his Ph.D. in history from Georgetown University in 1953 and taught at several US universities before in 1956 joining the faculty at the University of San Francisco.
“The State of Israel recognized him as a Righteous Among the Nations, an honor given to non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from murder by the Nazis. The citation read, "Jerzy Jan Lerski ... informed political circles abroad about the extermination and persecution of Jews."[1]
“George Lerski died following coronary bypass surgery on 16 September 1992 at the Veterans Hospital in San Francisco, California.”
Works by Jerszy Lerski
Jerzy Lerski Emisariusz Jur (autobiography), Warszawa 1989, wyd. I krajowe, wyd OW "Interim"
Jerzy Lerski The Economy of Poland Washington 1954, Council for Economic and Industry Research.
Jerzy Lerski A Polish Chapter in Jacksonian America: The United States and the Polish Exiles of 1831; Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1958
Jerzy Lerski Origins of Trotskyism in Ceylon; a documentary history of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, 1935-1942. Stanford 1968, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace,
Jerzy Lerski Herbert Hoover and Poland: a documentary history of a friendship / compiled and with an introd. by George J. Lerski; foreword by U. S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Stanford 1977: Hoover Institution Press,
Jerzy Lerski Historical dictionary of Poland, 966-1945 / George J. Lerski; with special editing and emendations by Piotr Wróbel and Richard J. Kozicki; foreword by Aleksander Gieysztor. Westport 1996, Greenwood Press,
Jerzy Lerski Jewish-Polish coexistence, 1772-1939: a topical bibliography / compiled by George J. Lerski and Halina T. Lerski; foreword by Lucjan Dobroszycki. New York 1986, Greenwood Press,
Lerski, George-Jerzy
“Even before the war, Jerzy Lerski, a student at Lwow University, was known as a staunch opponent of discrimination against Jewish students at Polish universities, such as the “Jewish benches” ("getto ławkowe" – special seating arrangements for Jews), and the "numerus clausus" that restricted the intake of Jewish students to university. Lerski also organized Polska Młodzież Społeczno-Demokratyczna (Polish Social-Democratic Youth), a movement that fought nationalism and antisemitism. Despite being beaten by antisemitic students in 1938, Lerski continued his activities. Lerski spent the German occupation of Poland in England, where he was active in the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). In due course, Lerski was dispatched to Poland as an emissary of the Polish government-in-exile. He was parachuted into Poland and reached Warsaw, equipped with a large sum of dollars for the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB). The money was delivered to Adolf Berman ("Borowski"), who introduced Lerski to Jewish underground leaders in Warsaw and Krakow. While in Warsaw, Lerski took part in dangerous missions to smuggle Jews out of prison and concentration camps. Upon his return to London, he handed over a report to the leader of the Polish government-in-exile and to Dr. Schwarzbart, its Jewish representative. Lerski also took microfilms of the Jewish underground press in Warsaw back with him to London. Lerski saw his underground activity as his contribution to the war against a common enemy, and as an obligation toward the Jewish citizens of Poland.
“After the war, Lerski emigrated to the United States, where he later became a well-known professor of History at the University of San Francisco. On January 14, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Dr. George-Jerzy Lerski as Righteous Among the Nations.
Eryk Lipiński, involved in production of forged documents for the Jews in hiding.
“Eryk Lipiński (Polish pronunciation: [ˈɛrɨk liˈpiɲskʲi]; 12 July 1908, Kraków - 27 September 1991) was a Polish artist. Satirist, caricaturist, essayist, he has designed posters, written plays, and sketches for cabarets, as well as written books on related subjects.
“Eryk Lipiński studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts from 1933 to 1939.[1] His debut as a caricaturist was made few years earlier, in 1928, in magazine Pobudka.[1] In 1935 he cofounded with Zbigniew Mitzner [pl] a satirical newspaper Szpilki (czasopismo) [de]; he was its chief editor for several years (1935–1937 and 1946–1953).[1] During World War II he was one of the artists working with the Polish resistance, involved in production of false documents.[1] He was arrested by the Nazis and imprisoned in the infamous Pawiak prison, in Mokotów prison and in the Auschwitz concentration camp.[1]
“After the war he joined the Polish United Workers' Party.[1] He contributed to many newspapers and magazines, such as Przekrój, Przegląd Kulturalny [pl], Trybuna Ludu, Panorama, Zwierciadło [pl] and Express Wieczorny [pl]. In 1966 he organized the First International Poster Biennale [pl].[1] In 1978 he founded the Museum of Caricature in Warsaw and was its first director (it would be named after him in 2002).[1] In 1980 he formed the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Monuments in Poland.[1] Active in preserving Polish Jewish culture; in 1987 he founded the Association of Polish Cartoonists (Stowarzyszenie Polskich Artystów Karykatury, SPAK).[1]
One of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations, he received this title in 1991.[1][2]
· Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta [3]
· Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta [3]
· Gold Cross of Merit [3]
· Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945[3]
· Order of the Banner of Work [3]
· Medal of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland [3]
1. (in Polish) ERYK LIPIŃSKI (1908-1991): KALENDARIUM ŻYCIA I TWÓRCZOŚCI
2. Eryk Lipiński – his activity to save Jews' lives during the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem website
3. Kto jest kim w Polsce 1984. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Interpress. 1984. pp. 534–535.
Lipiński, Eryk
“Eryk Lipiński, an editor of the satirical-political weekly Szpilki, and famous Polish caricaturist, was known already before the war as a person with humanitarian views and as a staunch opponent of antisemitism. True to his reputation, Lipinski began helping Jews already at the start of the German occupation. When the Jews of Warsaw were interned in the ghetto, he took to entering the ghetto in order to help Jews, only some of which he knew. Among the Jews whom Lipiński helped were the photographer Nosanowicz. After helping him escape from the ghetto, Lipinski helped him find work in a photography studio on the Aryan side of the city. When Dr. Stanisław Rubinrot, Lipiński's friend, escaped from the ghetto, Lipiński looked after him, and obtained Aryan documents for him and a place to live in the Warsaw suburbs. From 1940-1943, Lipiński's apartment served as a hiding place for Jerzy Wint, the former producer of a popular, satirical radio show. For various periods, the apartment served as a hiding place for the three members of the Spirlein family, Krystyna Rutkowska, and the graphic artist, Olga Bidner, who managed, with Lipiński's help, to reach Częstochowa, where she was liberated. Despite the danger, Lipiński obtained Aryan documents for Lida Birstein, Ignacy Grycendler and for the artist, Jakub Bickels and his wife, and arranged for the latter to stay with his brother-in-law. On one of his forays into the ghetto, Lipiński was arrested, and imprisoned for four months in the infamous Mokótow prison.
“Even after the war, Lipiński continued his contacts with the remnants of the Jewish community in Poland and in 1980, set up a committee to preserve Jewish cemeteries and heritage in Poland, of which he was chairman. On April 16, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Eryk Lipiński as Righteous Among the Nations. File No. 4891
Wanda Makuch-Korulska
“Wanda Makuch-Korulska (1919–2007) was a Polish medical doctor, specialist in neurology. Member of the Armia Krajowa Polish resistance during World War II; received the Righteous Among the Nations in 1995.”
Makuch-Korulska, Wanda
“Wanda Makuch-Korulska risked her life by entering the Warsaw ghetto to help Halina Walfisz, her longtime friend. By obtaining Aryan papers for her, Makuch-Korulska was able to help Walfisz escape the ghetto, and she found her a place to live with Chaya Gutkowska, a Jewish refugee, who, through Makuch’s contacts, received help from the Polish underground. With her false credentials, Walfisz began working in a factory making house slippers, but the Gestapo arrested her, and in July 1943, she was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After the camp was evacuated and she was liberated near the city of Magdeburg, in 1945, Walfisz returned to Warsaw and remained close friends with Makuch. Makuch regarded her acts of rescue as the national duty of an underground fighter, and she neither asked for nor received any remuneration.
“On December 14, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Wanda Makuch-Korulska as Righteous Among the Nations.” File 6308
Czesław Miłosz, took in Tross family and supported them financially.
“Czesław Miłosz (/ˈmiːlɒʃ/,[6] also US: /-lɔːʃ, ˈmiːwɒʃ, -wɔːʃ/,[7][8][9][e] Polish: [ˈtʂɛswaf ˈmiwɔʂ] June 30, 1911 – August 14,2004) was a Polish-American [7][8][10][11] poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy called Miłosz a writer who "voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts".[12]
“Miłosz survived the German occupation of Warsaw during World War II and became a cultural attaché for the Polish government during the postwar period. When communist authorities threatened his safety, he defected to France and ultimately chose exile in the United States, where he became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His poetry—particularly about his wartime experience—and his appraisal of Stalinism in a prose book, The Captive Mind, brought him renown as a leading émigré artist and intellectual.
Throughout his life and work, Miłosz tackled questions of morality, politics, history, and faith. As a translator, he introduced Western works to a Polish audience, and as a scholar and editor, he championed a greater awareness of Slavic literature in the West. Faith played a role in his work as he explored his Catholicism and personal experience.
Miłosz died in Kraków, Poland, in 2004. He is interred in Skałka, a church known in Poland as a place of honor for distinguished Poles.
“Miłosz was in Warsaw when it was bombarded as part of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Along with colleagues from Polish Radio, he escaped the city, making his way to Lwów. But when he learned that Janina had remained in Warsaw with her parents, he looked for a way back. The Soviet invasion of Poland thwarted his plans, and, to avoid the incoming Red Army, he fled to Bucharest. There he obtained a Lithuanian identity document and Soviet visa that allowed him to travel by train to Kiev and then Wilno. After the Red Army invaded Lithuania, he procured fake documents that he used to enter the part of German-occupied Poland the Germans had dubbed the "General Government". It was a difficult journey, mostly on foot, that ended in summer 1940. Finally, back in Warsaw, he reunited with Janina.[33]
“Like many Poles at the time, to evade notice by German authorities, Miłosz participated in underground activities.
“Miłosz's riskiest underground wartime activity was aiding Jews in Warsaw, which he did through an underground socialist organization called Freedom. His brother, Andrzej, was also active in helping Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland; in 1943, he transported the Polish Jew Seweryn Tross and his wife from Vilnius to Warsaw. Miłosz took in the Trosses, found them a hiding place, and supported them financially. The Trosses ultimately died during the Warsaw Uprising. Miłosz helped at least three other Jews in similar ways: Felicja Wołkomińska and her brother and sister.[37]
“Despite his willingness to engage in underground activity and vehement opposition to the Nazis, Miłosz did not join the Polish Home Army.
“As German troops began torching Warsaw buildings in August 1944, Miłosz was captured and held in a prisoner transit camp; he was later rescued by a Catholic nun—a stranger to him—who pleaded with the Germans on his behalf.[41] Once freed, he and Janina escaped the city, ultimately settling in a village outside Kraków, where they were staying when the Red Army swept through Poland in January 1945, after Warsaw had been largely destroyed.[42]
“In the preface to his 1953 book The Captive Mind, Miłosz wrote, ‘I do not regret those years in Warsaw, which was, I believe, the most agonizing spot in the whole of terrorized Europe. Had I then chosen emigration, my life would certainly have followed a very different course. But my knowledge of the crimes which Europe has witnessed in the twentieth century would be less direct, less concrete than it is’.[43] Immediately after the war, Miłosz published his fourth poetry collection, Rescue; it focused on his wartime experiences and contains some of his most critically praised work, including the 20-poem cycle "The World," composed like a primer for naïve schoolchildren, and the cycle "Voices of Poor People". The volume also contains some of his most frequently anthologized poems, including "A Song on the End of the World", "Campo Dei Fiori", and "A Poor Christian Looks at the Ghetto."
Miłosz, Czesław
Miłosz, Andrzej
“Czesław Miłosz, the well-known Polish poet and author of the famous poem Campo dei Fiori about the revolt in the Warsaw ghetto, and later a Nobel Prize laureate for literature, was known even before the war for his liberal views. During the occupation, Miłosz lived in Warsaw, where he was active in the ranks of the underground socialist organization, Wolnosc [Freedom]. As part of his activities in the organization and outside it, he extended his help to Jews hiding on the Aryan side of the city. At the same time, his brother Andrzej Miłosz, who lived in Vilna, was also active in organizing the Polish underground. In 1943, Andrzej smuggled out Seweryn Tross and his wife to Warsaw, hidden in a truck. When they arrived in Warsaw, Czesław received Mr. and Mrs. Tross, found a place for them to hide and supported them financially. Czesław also helped Felicia Wołkominska, her sister and her sister-in-law, Jewish fugitives who had fled from Warsaw on the eve of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Tross couple was killed in the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944, but Wolkominska survived, and in 1957 immigrated to Israel.
“On July 25, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Czesław Miłosz and his brother Andrzej Miłosz as Righteous Among the Nations. File 4118.
Igor Newerly, saved Janusz Korczak's diary of martyrdom, harboured several Warsaw Ghetto journalists [56][57]
“Igor Newerly or Igor Abramow-Newerly (24 March 1903, Białowieża – 19 October 1987, Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish novelist and educator. He was born into a Czech-Russian family. His son is Polish novelist Jarosław Abramow-Newerly. His grandfather Józef Newerly, was a Czech national, who held a title of Lovtchiy (Russian: Ловчий, Polish: Łowczy: "Master of the Hunt") to the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
“Igor Newerly lost one leg as a child. He studied law at Kiev University, but he was relegated for political reasons, arrested and sent to Odessa. In 1924 he emigrated illegally to the newly independent Poland and was active in the field of pedagogy in Warsaw. He worked together with the renowned educator Janusz Korczak, and in 1926 became his secretary. From 1932 to 1939 Newerly worked for Mały Przegląd (Little Review). He married Barbara Jarecka.
“Under the Nazi German occupation of Poland Newerly was a member of the Polish resistance. He helped Janusz Korczak at his Orphanage and saved his diary of martyrdom. He also hid from Nazi persecution several of his Jewish colleagues from Nasz Przegląd daily [1] – among them Kuba Hersztein – and transported Lejzor Czarnobroda to Warsaw after he escaped from the train to Treblinka and broke his leg. Newerly was arrested at the beginning of 1943 by the German Gestapo and imprisoned at Pawiak in Warsaw. Until the end of the war he was an inmate of Nazi concentration camps: Majdanek, Auschwitz, Oranienburg and Bergen Belsen where he was liberated.[2]
“After the war in 1945, he resumed a pedagogical career. Based on Newerly's novel Pamiątka z Celulozy (A Souvenir from the Cellulose Mill), the Polish director Jerzy Kawalerowicz made two films: Celuloza (Cellulose Mill) and Pod gwiazdą frygijską (Under the Phrygian Star).”
1. Igor Newerly – his activity to save Jews' lives during the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem website
2. March of the Living International, "The Warsaw Ghetto"
Newerly, Igor (Abramow, Jerzy)
“Author Igor (Jerzy) Abramow, known by his pen name Igor Newerly, was for many years the personal secretary of educator and children’s author Janusz Korczak, and editor-in-chief of the children’s newspaper Mały Przegląd. Newerly, who did a great deal for Korczak’s orphanage, remained loyal to Korczak even after the occupation. In spite of his disability, he would steal into the ghetto to bring Korczak false papers and money. Newerly took part in finding hiding places for Jews that had fled from the ghetto, and his home was always open to his Jewish friends to be used as a temporary shelter until a safer place could be found. Among those he helped were his colleagues from Mały Przegląd, Kuba Herzstein and Lejzor Czarnobroda. Newerly was arrested for his part in saving Jews, and in 1943, was sent to the Majdanek concentration camp. From there, he was sent to other concentration camps, until he finally ended up in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, from where he was liberated at the end of the war. Newerly’s friends, both Jews and gentiles, remember him as a man who abhorred antisemitism and racism, and who did not hesitate to risk his life to help Jews in distress. In his book Żywe wiązanie, published in 1966, Newerly described his close relationship with Janusz Korczak and his orphanage in Warsaw. On October 26, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Igor Newerly (Abramow) as Righteous Among the Nations.” File 2090
Janina Oyrzanowska-Poplewska and her sister Maria Oyrzanowska provided aid and housing to the Linfeld and Sterling families; their gardener, Jerzy Glinicki; and others, including Wiktoria Szczawińska and Franciszka Tusk (later known as Natalia Obrębka) [58][59]
“Janina Oyrzanowska-Poplewska (2 May 1918 – 16 July 2001) was a Polish academic and veterinarian. A professor at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, she specialized in epizootiology but her main area of research concerned viral diseases of canines, which led to the development of the first vaccine for canine distemper in Poland.
“During World War II, she was involved with Polish resistance, and her family helped a number of refugees. In 1981, she was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for her efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust.
“Janina Róża Oyrzanowska was born on 2 May 1918 in Warsaw, during the German Regency Kingdom of Poland to Maria Elżbieta (née Czarnecka) and Kazimierz Oyrzanowski.[1][2] Her father's family [pl] were Polish nobles, bore the Junosza coat of arms, and owned the Golebie estate near Pułtusk.[3] She was the great granddaughter of Robert Fryderyk Stichel, the first person to earn a master's degree in Poland in veterinary science.[2] Oyrzanowska completed her high school education in 1936 and began taking courses at the faculty of veterinary medicine at the University of Warsaw.[1] Her studies were interrupted by the German invasion of Poland in September 1939.[4]
“Oyrzanowska married the veterinarian Mieczysław Poplewski (1916–1940), who would join the Polish Land Forces at the outset of World War II. Poplewski was a second lieutenant of the 7th Polish Cavalry Regiment [pl] and was executed by the NKVD in 1940 near Kharkiv when the Soviet forces invaded Poland and carried out the Katyn massacres.[5][4][6]
“During the war, Oyrzanowska lived with her mother, younger sister Maria, and older brother Kazimierz in an apartment in Warsaw. They also had other apartments in the city and a small summer hut on a piece of land they rented for truck farming in the Czerniaków neighborhood.[3][7] Her family became involved with the Polish resistance from October 1939, and one of their family apartments hosted an underground printing press and document forgery studio.[4] They helped Jews during the war, including their neighbors, the Linfeld and Sterling families; their gardener, Jerzy Glinicki; and others, including Wiktoria Szczawińska and Franciszka Tusk Scheinwechsler (during the war known as Natalia Obrębka).[3][5][7] Maria, who had just completed her secondary education, and Oyrzanowska, who was attending university,[3] grew flowers and vegetables to support the family.[8] They moved the Jews they were helping, hiding them in their various homes, ensuring that each of them survived the war.[5][7] Her family also offered hiding places to other refugees, including escaped Soviet prisoners of war.[4][6] For their efforts, her sister Maria was arrested by the Germans in 1942 and from March to September that year was incarcerated in the Pawiak Prison. Eventually, the family escaped Warsaw in the latter stages of the Warsaw Uprising.[6]
“Throughout her career, Oyrzanowska received several awards, including the Golden Cross of Merit, Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, and the Order of the Commission of National Education [pl].[4] Based on the account of Franciszka Tusk Scheinwechsler, on 6 June 1981, Oyrzanowska and her sister, Maria, were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.[6][8]
Oyrzanowska died on 16 July 2001 in Warsaw and was buried in the Powązki Cemetery.[1][4]
1. Kita 2011.
2. Tropało 2014.
3. Bartoszewski & Lewinówna 1970, p. 242.
4. Kita 2001, p. 852.
5. Komorowski 2020, p. 200.
6. Gibasiewicz 2013, pp. 191–194.
7. Ciesielska 2014.
8. Gutman, Lazare & Bender 2004, p. 561.
9. Oyrzanowska 1960.
10. Knap 2017, p. 33.
11. Solidarity 2020.
Bibliography
Bartoszewski, Władysław; Lewinówna, Zofia (1970). "Franciszka Tusk-Scheinwechsler". In Jordan, Alexander T. (ed.). The Samaritans: Heroes of the Holocaust (English ed.). New York City: Twayne Publishers, Inc. pp. 237–244.
Ciesielska, Maria (2014). "Story of Rescue – The Ojrzanowski Family". sprawiedliwi.org.pl. Warsaw: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Gutman, Israel; Lazare, Lucien; Bender, Sara (2004). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. 3, part 2: Poland. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem.
Kita, Jerzy (November 2001). "Ex Funebri Charta: Prof dr. hab. Janina Oyrzanowska-Poplewska" [From the Funeral Card of Professor PhD habil. Janina Oyrzanowska-Poplewska]. Medycyna Weterenaryjna (in Polish). Warsaw: Polish Society of Veterinary Sciences. 57 (11): 852.
Kita, Jerzy (2 August 2011). "Janina Oyrzanowska-Poplewska". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish) (178). Warsaw, Poland: Agora Spółka Akcyjna. p. 6.
Ojrzanowska-Poplewska, Janina
Ojrzanowska, Maria
“In December 1942, after all the members of her family had been killed, Franciszka Tusk-Scheinwescher escaped from the Warsaw ghetto to the Aryan side of the city. At first friends and acquaintances from her university days helped her, but these were one-time gestures that did not really solve her problem. Scheinwescher’s life only changed after she encountered Janina and Maria Ojrzanowska, two young sisters she had never met before, on the outskirts of Warsaw. At the time, the Ojrzanowska sisters earned a living from growing flowers and vegetables on a small plot they leased in one of the city’s suburbs. They took in the Jewish fugitive, giving her refuge in their rooms, and until the liberation of the city, took care of all her needs. In 1944, the Gestapo suspected that Scheinwescher might be Jewish, so the Ojrzanowska sisters moved her into their home in the center of Warsaw, hiding her there for many months. Risking their own lives, they took care to provide her with food every day and constantly looked out for her safety, even during and after the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944. Everything the Ojrzanowska sisters did to save Scheinwescher was motivated by pure altruism, for which they neither asked for nor received anything in return. After the war, Scheinwescher stayed in Poland and remained in close contact with the Ojrzanowska sisters, who had saved her life. On June 6, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized Janina Ojrzanowska-Poplewska and Maria Ojrzanowska as Righteous Among the Nations.” File 2098
Tadeusz Pankiewicz, operated the only pharmacy in the Jewish Ghetto of Kraków and distributed free medicine.
“Tadeusz Pankiewicz (November 21, 1908, in Sambor – November 5, 1993, buried in Kraków), was a Polish Roman Catholic pharmacist,[1] operating in the Kraków Ghetto during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. He was recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem on February 10, 1983, for rescuing countless Jews from the Holocaust.
“Pankiewicz studied at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In 1933, he took over the proprietorship of the Under the Eagle Pharmacy founded in 1910 by his father Jozef.[2] The pharmacy was situated on Plac Zgody (formerly Mały Rynek square) in Kraków's Podgórze district. Its prewar clientele included both Gentile Poles and Jews.
“Under the German Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II, Podgórze district was closed off in March 1941 as a ghetto for local area Jewry. Within the walls of the Kraków Ghetto there were four prewar pharmacies owned by non-Jews. Pankiewicz was the only proprietor to decline the German offer of relocating to the gentile (non-Jewish) side of the city. He was given permission to continue operating his establishment as the only pharmacy in the Ghetto, and reside on the premises.[3] His staff were given passage permits to enter and exit the ghetto for work.
“The often-scarce medications and pharmaceutical products supplied to the ghetto's residents, often free of charge, substantially improved their quality of life. In effect, apart from health care considerations, they contributed to survival itself. In his published testimonies, Pankiewicz makes particular mention of hair dyes used by those disguising their identities and tranquilizers given to fretful children required to keep silent during Gestapo raids.
“The pharmacy became a meeting place for the ghetto's intelligentsia, and a hub of underground activity. Pankiewicz and his staff, Irena Drozdzikowska, Helena Krywaniuk, and Aurelia Danek, risked their lives to undertake numerous clandestine operations: smuggling food and information, and offering shelter on the premises for Jews facing deportation to the camps.
“On February 10, 1983, Tadeusz Pankiewicz was awarded recognition as a "Righteous Among the Nations" for his wartime activities in rescuing Jews. In April of that year, he was present at the inauguration of the national heritage museum housed in the Apteka Pod Orłem building. Tadeusz Pankiewicz died in 1993 and is buried in Kraków's Rakowicki Cemetery.
“In April 1983, the "Pod Orlem" pharmacy, located at No.18 Plac Bohaterów Ghetta (Ghetto Heroes Plaza, renamed), opened its doors as the Museum of National Remembrance, featuring the history of Kraków Jewry with special focus on the ghetto period. In 2003, it became affiliated with the municipal Historical Museum of Kraków. The wartime activities of Pankiewicz and his staff are featured in an exhibition on the history of the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
“The pharmacy was featured in the Academy Award-winning film, Schindler's List. The film's director Steven Spielberg donated $40,000 for the building's preservation, for which he was honored by the city of Kraków with its prestigious "Patron of Culture" award for the year 2004.”
1. Gilbert, Martin, The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe, p. 356 (1987 Macmillan)
2. Museum of National Remembrance at "Under the Eagle Pharmacy"
3. David M. Crowe, The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath. Published by Westview Press. Page 180.
Bibliography
The Krakow Ghetto Pharmacy by Tadeusz Pankiewicz, translated from the Polish by Garry Malloy. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2013.
The Cracow Ghetto Pharmacy (translation by Henry Tilles of Apteka w getcie krakowskim). New York: Holocaust Library, 1987. The book Apteka w Getcie Krakowskim is also available in Hebrew with reprinted editions, published by Yad Vashem and translated from Polish by writer Miriam Akavia.
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski and Zofia Lewin, Righteous Among Nations: How Poles helped the Jews, 1939–1945. London: Earlscourt Publications, 1969, pp. 222–226. Includes first-person testimony by Pankiewicz.
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski and Zofia Lewin, The Samaritans: Heroes of the Holocaust (translated from the Polish: Ten jest z ojczyzny mojej, 1966), ed. Alexander T. Jordan. N.Y.: Twayne Publishers, 1970, pp. 173–178.
Sara Bender and Shmuel Krakowski, eds., The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. Poland, Volume II. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Publications, 2004, p. 579.
The Eagle Pharmacy: History and Memory: A Collection of Essays Accompanying the Permanent Exhibition Tadeusz Pankiewicz's Pharmacy in the Krakow Ghetto by Jan Gryta, Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa, 2013.
Pankiewicz, Tadeusz
“Tadeusz Pankiewicz, a Polish pharmacist, bribed the German authorities in Krakow to allow him to keep his pharmacy open inside the ghetto and to continue to operate it. In his capacity as druggist, Pankiewicz placed himself at the disposal of the Jews of the ghetto, and in addition to providing those in need with medications, he turned his pharmacy into a meeting place for the intelligentsia of the ghetto. They would gather there to hear news from outside the ghetto and to maintain contact with people on the Aryan side of the city. Despite the danger to his own life, Pankiewicz used his pharmacy to take an active role in helping and saving Jews. During one of the Aktionen the Germans carried out in the ghetto, Pankiewicz hid Dr. Abraham Mirowski in his pharmacy, as well as Irena Cinowicz (neé Halpern), who was trapped in the ghetto in 1942. She escaped from a group of Jews being taken from the ghetto during an Aktion, and Pankiewicz hid her behind the counter and covered her with his own body, thus saving her from the transport. Irena already knew Pankiewicz from the many times she had frequented the pharmacy to purchase medications for her ill mother. Pankiewicz had refused to accept money from her, and she learned that she was not the only one in the ghetto who received medications without payment. Pankiewicz actions to save Jews were motivated by his humanitarian and patriotic principles, and many of those he helped owe their lives to him.
“Mirowski and Cinowicz, who immigrated to Israel after the war, testified years later about Pankiewicz’s many actions to save the Jews of Krakow. The memoir Pankiewicz wrote years later, Apteka w Getcie Krakowskim (The Pharmacy in the Krakow Ghetto), published in Hebrew by Yad Vashem, presented his unique viewpoint on daily life in the ghetto – the suffering and perseverance of the Jews and how they behaved, as well as a description of the German’s brutality in the ghetto.
“On February 10, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Tadeusz Pankiewicz as Righteous Among the Nations.” File 2524
Alfreda and Bolesław Pietraszek, rescued several Jewish families consisting of 18 people.
“Alfreda and Bolesław Pietraszek (both died 1 January 1965 in Jabłonna Lacka) [1] were a Polish husband and wife who sheltered several Jewish families consisting of 18 people during the Nazi German occupation of Poland in World War II. They were posthumously bestowed the titles of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in September 2007. The medals and a diploma were presented by the Israeli vice-ambassador in Poland, Yossef Levy, to their two surviving cousins, Zofia Panfil and Jolanta Okulicz-Kozaryn from Olsztyn. In his speech, Yossef Levy said. "We have the utmost respect for those who risked their lives to save Jews under the threat of death. The rescued will never forget the rescuers."
“Alfreda was a well-educated woman, who spoke four languages including German, which was very helpful during the war, when she had to prevent the Nazi Germans from searching through their property. Her husband was raised with a patriotic spirit; his father participated in the January Uprising at the age of 17, and his brother Marian died as a volunteer in the Polish-Soviet War.[2] Their birthdates are unknown, it has only been established that they were married in 1920. According to the testimony of their relative, Jolanta Okulicz-Kozaryn, their decision to hide the Jews was a conscious one.[2] During the war, Alfreda and Bolesław Pietraszek, a childless couple — both 60 years old — lived on a farm in Ceranów village (pictured) in Sokołów County in east-central Poland. For two years, around their farm, they harbored several Jewish families consisting of 18 people: hiding in their barn, in their basements, and in pig pens.
“To feed the people they sheltered, Alfreda and Bolesław Pietraszek relied on assistance from their neighbors and other inhabitants of the village.[2][3] The rescuers and the rescued were never betrayed, and only one person did not survive — a child — smothered by his own mother with a pillow in order to stop the crying when the German patrol was in the house.[3] "Even now, I can't quite believe this was a true story regardless of how well documented it is" — said Grażyna Panfil-Rogińska, daughter of Zofia Panfil, remembering the telephone call from the elated Bencion Sela from Israel — "he was so moved. Until today, over his own bed he has a portrait of his savior. He sent it to me via email" — she said. Rogińska received a call also from Szaul Kopyto living in Washington, who confessed that he kept silent for years only because he needed to forget the experience.
“The Jews, harbored by Pietraszek couple between 1941–1943 managed to escape from the ghetto in nearby Sokołów Podlaski, a home to a large population of Jews before the invasion. The ghetto was eventually liquidated by the Nazis with all its inhabitants sent to Treblinka death camp. Among those rescued was the whole family of Bencian Sela (his name also spelled as Ben Cjon Sela) including his grandparents. Sela's family, after the war, wanted to present the Pietraszeks with gold and other valuables, but the Poles refused saying that the Selas would need it more.[4]
“After the war, the Pietraszeks lost most of their 100-hectare farm to an agrarian reform in the new communist Poland. The couple was eventually forced to leave the village after being subjected to over two dozen assaults and robberies. Local thieves, aware that the couple had sheltered Jews on their property, believed that there were Jewish valuables there, unaware that Pietraszeks refused any financial help from the rescued. Bolesław Pietraszek was injured by a hand grenade in one of the assaults. They both died in abject poverty in 1965.[4]
“The ceremony at which the Yad Vashem titles were granted to Alfreda and Bolesław Pietraszek took place during the inauguration of the Festival of the Jewish Culture in Olsztyn, popularized by Gazeta Wyborcza and other Polish media.”
1. "Historia pomocy - Rodzina Pietraszków | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl (in Polish).
2. Alfreda i Boleslaw Pietraszkowie, Webpage of the Treblinka Concentration Camp Museum
3. (in Polish) "Odznaczenia dla Sprawiedliwych," Magazyn Internetowy Forum
4. (in Polish) Alfreda and Boleslaw Pietraszek, Treblinka Concentration Camp Museum
Pietraszek, Bolesław
Pietraszek, Alfreda
“Before the war, the Miedżyński family owned a grocery store in Łuski, Poland. Mosze Miedżyński was well known to the neighbors as a kind and charitable person. More than once, he opened his wallet to help a villager in need. Mosze had six children – their mother, Dova, died in 1939. When war broke out, Mosze’s daughter Miriam returned from Warsaw, where she had been living with her husband Mosze Solersz and infant son Beniek (Ben Zion). The Germans then stationed a tailor in their house, who used one of their sewing machines to make clothes for the army. The tailor advised the family to leave Łuski, because Operation Barbarossa was about to begin, and Łuski was very close to the border. Unfortunately, before they managed to run away the Jews of the region were rounded up and incarcerated in ghettos. The Miedżyński-Solersz clan ended up in Sterdyn. When it became apparent that the Sterdyn ghetto, along with others nearby, was to be liquidated and its inmates sent to Treblinka, the family escaped and hid in the forest. Miriam Solersz went to a monastery in the hopes of hiding her baby there. The monks were afraid of accepting Jewish boys because their Jewish identity was easily noticeable. Then someone recommended that Miriam go to Alfreda Pietraszek, a peasant living nearby, who needed some sewing work done. Alfreda remembered the renown of the Miedżyński family, and asked Miriam how her family was faring.
“Upon learning that they were all in grave danger and hiding in the area, she suggested that they all come and stay with her. Alfreda and her husband Bolesław hid the group of refugees in an attic over their pigsty. Altogether five families hid in the attic: the Miedżyńskis, the Solerszes, the Lenders, the Przepiarkas and the Kopytas – a young couple with a baby. Tragically, when the baby started crying one night, he was accidentally smothered with a pillow by his mother while trying to quiet him down. TheMiedżyński brothers would often go and fetch supplies from their old house, which stood locked and unused as one of the brothers had had typhus and the house was thought to be infected. However, a rumor spread in the neighborhood that some of the Miedżyńskis were alive, so Alfreda, fearing discovery, forbade them from leaving the attic. Instead, she began providing for them on her own, giving them bread, potatoes and milk daily, as well as an egg for little Beniek once in a while. The refugees remained in the Pietraszeks’ home for almost two years. After liberation, their rescuers asked them not tell anyone about their part in saving them for fear of retribution on the part of Polish nationalists. The fear was well grounded; the mere suspicion that they had helped Jews resulted in a grenade being thrown into the Pietraszeks’ house. Bolesław was wounded but survived. In 1997, Ben Zion Sela (ne Beniek Solersz) went looking for his roots in Poland. He found the house where his entire family had hidden and met the rescuers’ daughter Józefa. He wanted to bring Józefa out to visit Israel, but she passed away soon afterwards. On December 10, 2006, Yad Vashem recognized Bolesław and Alfreda Pietraszek as Righteous Among the Nations. File 10966
The Podgórski sisters: Stefania (16, now Burzminski) and Helena (6), hid 13 Jews for two and a half years in an attic in Przemyśl; Stefania married one of the rescued who later changed his name to Burzminski. Television film "Hidden in Silence" was made about this rescue mission.
“The Podgórski sisters, Stefania Podgórska (June 2, 1921 – September 29, 2018) and Helena Podgórska (born 1935), came from a Catholic farming family living near Przemyśl in south-eastern Poland.[1] During the Holocaust, sixteen-year-old Stefania and her seven-year-old sister harboured thirteen Jewish men, women and children in the attic of their home for two-and-a-half years. Both were later honored as the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem as well as by the Jewish and Polish organizations in North America, for their wartime heroism.[2]
“Before the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Stefania Podgórska (Born June 2, 1921 in Lipa - Died September 29, 2018 in Los Angeles) worked in a grocery store owned by the Diamants, a Jewish family.[3] Her father had died in 1938 after an illness. Soon after the arrival of the Nazis, her mother and brother were taken to Salzburg for forced labor, while the Diamants were forced into a ghetto. The two Podgórski sisters lived in Przemyśl alone in an apartment rented by Stefania, who was 17 at the time.[4] She got a job in town as a machine-tool operator.
“The border between the two invaders ran through the middle of Przemyśl until the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. In 1942 the news spread about the Jewish Ghetto in Przemysl being liquidated by the Nazis.[1] Stefania's prewar employer's son, Max Diamant, appeared on their doorstep. He escaped with his brother and cousin from the train to Belzec extermination camp.[5] The girls were terrified but gave Max permission to hide in the attic. He contacted his family in the Ghetto, and asked Stefania to accept them also, including his younger brother Henek and Henek's wife Danuta, Dr. William Shylenger and his daughter Judy, and a friend of his, a dentist with his son. In order to accommodate the fugitives Stefania soon rented a semi-detached cottage with two rooms, a kitchen, and an attic, on Tatarska Street.
“Helena with her sister Stefania moved in first, followed by Max Diamant. Then came Dr. Schillinger with his daughter, and the dentist with his son. The dentist's friend, a widow from the ghetto came also with her son and daughter. She wrote a threatening note that she would denounce the girls if she was refused. The dentist begged Stefania to admit his nephew with his wife. Max's younger brother, Henek, with his wife arrived later, finally there came a Jewish mailman: thirteen Jews in total. Max made a wall in the attic from boards bought by Stefania, securing a sleeping quarter for everybody.
“After a few weeks they were completely without money. Stefania started to knit sweaters and take orders for them, from her friends and acquaintances. She was trading clothes for food and buying it, if necessary, on the black market. An SS man moved in next door. Max kept vigil with others to eliminate any noises. In early 1944 a German officer entered the apartment and announced that Stefania and Helena must vacate the place in two hours. The Jewish fugitives begged the two sisters to flee as they felt that all of them were doomed.[6] But Stefania - after praying to the Black Madonna of Częstochowa - thought otherwise. "I am not leaving you", she said. German nurses and their boyfriends lived underneath Stefania and her refugees for eight months. After these eight months, the nurses had to evacuate to follow the German army; the 13 Jewish residents had successfully stayed undetected.[7]
“On July 27, 1944, the Soviet Army entered Przemyśl. The thirteen Jews, though emaciated and weak, were free. Max, who took the name Josef Burzminski, proposed to Stefania (Fusia) and was accepted.[7] In 1961 the couple emigrated to the United States, where Burzminski became a dentist.[1] They have a son and daughter. Helena Podgórska remained in Poland, married, and became a physician in Wrocław. In 1979 the sisters were honored by Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, as Righteous among the Nations.
“Stefania died on September 29, 2018, at the age of 97 in Los Angeles, California.[8]
“A television movie called Hidden in Silence which tells their story, was made in 1996 by Richard A. Colla with screenplay by Stephanie Liss, featuring Kellie Martin as Fusia (Stefania), Gemma Coughlan as Helena, and Tom Radcliffe as Max. [9]
Notes
1. Podgorska Stefania (1925) at www.podgourski.net via Internet Archive.
2. Margaret Walden, "Teacher's Guide", Richland School District 2, Columbia, South Carolina. Video Synopsis: Josef Burzminski, The Other Side of Faith.
3. Garry Buff "Stefania (Fusia) Podgorska, Poland"
4. Holocaust Encyclopedia, Stefania Podgorska and her younger sister Helena. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
5. Atwood 2011, p. 51.
6. Atwood 2011, p. 54.
7. Atwood 2011, p. 55.
8. "Obituary – Stefania Podgorska Burzminski".
9. "Hidden in Silence (1996)". IMDb.
Bibliography
Atwood, Kathryn (2011). Women Heroes of World War II. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.
Podgorska Stefania (1925) at Podgorski Family Club webpage, including photographs.
Stefania and her younger sister Helena Podgorska, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., 2008.
Interview with Stefania, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., 1989.
Margaret Walden, Video Synopsis ETV. The Other Side of Faith. Teacher's Guide: Richland School District 2, Columbia, South Carolina.
The Podgórski sisters - their activity to save Jews' lives during the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem we- Stefania Podgorska Burzminski Obituary, 2018.
Burzmińska-Podgórska, Stefania
Podgórska, Helena
“Stefania Podgórska lived in Przemysl and worked for the Diamant family before the war. The friendly relations between her employers and herself did not cease even when the family was interned in the ghetto. In an exchange of letters with the brothers Munio and Henek Diamant, it was agreed that Stefania would prepare a hideout for them after they had succeeded in escaping from the ghetto. For this purpose, Stefania and her ten-year-old sister, Helena, left their city apartment and moved to a rented one-family house with a roomy attic in the suburbs. In September 1943, during the liquidation of the Przemysl ghetto, the Diamant brothers arrived at Stefania’s home together with another 11 Jews. All the fugitives were hidden in the attic and cared for devotedly by the Podgórska sisters. Stefania worked in a factory, and in her spare time she and the women in hiding knitted articles of clothing, which were then sold. From her salary and the proceeds of the sales, she purchased food for all the residents of the house. As the amounts she bought were large enough to arouse suspicion, she exercised great care and ingenuity in their purchase. Her younger sister, Helena, removed refuse from the attic, washed the fugitives’ clothes, and brought them water for washing. The Podgórskas were motivated solely by humanitarian considerations and received no recompense for their actions, despite the danger involved. They continued to look after their protégés until the liberation in July 1944.
“After the war, Stefania married Munio Diamant (subsequently Josef Burzmiński), and most of the survivors remained in contact with the two sisters, to whom they owed their lives. On January 11, 1979, Yad Vashem recognized Stefania Burzmińska-Podgórska and her sister, Helena Podgórska, as Righteous Among the Nations. File 1524
Jan and Anna Puchalski hid 6 Jews at their house for 17 months in Łosośna.
“Jan and Anna Puchalski were a Polish husband and wife who lived in the village of Łosośna in north-eastern Poland on the outskirts of Grodno (now 20 km into Belarus) during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. Together, they rescued Polish Jews from the Holocaust, including escapees from the ghetto in Grodno before its brutal liquidation. The Puchalskis were posthumously bestowed the titles of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in June 1986.[1] Their medals of honor were presented to their surviving children at a ceremony in Jerusalem on June 14, 1987, during which Irena Puchalska-Bagińska, Zdzisław, son of Sabina Puchalska-Kazimierczyk, Władysław Puchalski and Krystyna Puchalska-Maciejewska planted a tree in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem.
“At the onset of World War II, Jan Puchalski worked at a tobacco company, where he earned a small salary. The Puchalskis resided as innkeepers in a summer cottage, in the Łosośna forest. The cottage was owned by an entrepreneurial Zandman family who leased similar cottages to city tourists before the war, with Grodno’s reputation as a retreat, confirmed by its century-old summer palace of the Polish kings. The Puchalskis were very poor, having to support five children: 15-, 16-, and 17-year-old daughters and two toddlers (Władysław and Wanda) age 1 and 2. On the evening of the Nazi German murderous raid on Grodno Ghetto which took place on February 13, 1943, six Jews who escaped, showed up at Puchalskis door. Among them, much-loved Felix Zandman of the Zandman family (age 15) who used to play with their children before the war, Sender Freydowicz (his uncle) who lost his wife and two children to the Nazis, Mottel Bass, and his wife Goldie, and two more Jewish fugitives.[1] They stayed with the Puchalskis for 17 months. Meanwhile, the ghetto in Grodno was razed by the Germans with all of its 29,000 Jews deported in Holocaust trains and murdered in gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka.
“At first, the six Jews hid outside the house in a cellar, which was not safe enough, with the Nazi threat of the death penalty looming over everyone, including the Puchalski children. Subsequently, with the help of the family, a dugout was built under one of their two bedrooms, occupied by three elder sisters (Sabina, Irena, and Krystyna) who kept watch. The dugout was very small. The entrance was through a narrow opening beneath the bed and covered with a wooden trap. An air duct was made leading out to the garden with an opening covered under the bushes. For added security, Jan Puchalski moved the dog kennel to that place. Sabina used to bring food down for the runaway fugitives and take their waste away. The Jews soon realized that the hide-out was too small to contain six people. The insufficient air supply prompted two of the hiders to leave and seek help elsewhere.[1] Mottel Bass, a lawyer by profession, had some money, which helped the Puchalskis with their new expenses.
“When German soldiers retreating before the advancing Russian front settled in the house, four Jews slipped out at night and wandered for several days. They caught-up with the Soviets and were liberated on July 24. Felix Zandman and Sender Freydowicz soon emigrated to France, where Felix obtained an engineering degree and earned a doctorate in physics at the Sorbonne. He became an entrepreneur in aeronautics. In 1986 Zandman submitted his testimony to Yad Vashem with other survivors. As a result, in June 1986 the Puchalskis were posthumously awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations. A year later, on June 14, 1987, their surviving children visited Jerusalem and planted a tree in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem.[1] Felix Zandman who was at the ceremony remarked: "The Puchalskis never lost courage, never. We lost courage. They built our morale up." Also, Jan and Anna Puchalski were awarded the Anti-Defamation League's Courage to Care Award in the form of a bronze plaque by artist Arbit Blatas, presented to their children by the ADL's National Director, Abraham Foxman.
Notes
1. Mordecai Paldiel, Saving the Jews Chapter: Sheltering and Hiding. Page 82-83. Published by Schreiber
Bibliography
(in Polish) Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich, Sprawiedliwi wśród Narodów Świata, 1987. Puchalski, Jan i Anna.
Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, "The Face of the Other: Reflections on the Motivations of Gentile Rescuers of Jews" (PDF). (83.7 KB) Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
Anna Puchalska and her son Stanilsaw
Jan and Wiktoria Puchalski
“Joseph Buch Feit was about 4 years old in 1942 when the ghetto in native Rozwadow in Galicia was liquidated. His parents gave him to Anna Puchalski in nearby Nisko in order to save him. Feit told Yad Vashem that he remembered seeing his parents staying behind on the San river shore, as Anna took him across the river in a boat. The child stayed with Anna and her son Stanislaw for a short time, and then was transferred to relatives, Jan and Wiktoria Puchalski, who lived on a farm in a secluded area. The family was very poor, but they lovingly took care of their charge and he stayed with them for two years until liberation. Joseph’s parents, Benno, and Mania Buch, perished in the Holocaust. A relative told Yad Vashem that Mania Buch had tried to escape with false papers that were provided to her by Stanislaw Puchalski, but was caught and murdered. After the war Joseph was taken back to his hometown, where a Jewish family of survivors took care of him until his uncle and aunt, Chaim and Rachela Feit, found him and adopted him. The family emigrated to the United States. In his letter to Yad Vashem Joseph Feit wrote: “It is gratifying that even in a time of great cataclysm and sudden catastrophe, when misfortune sprinkles ashes on the heads of man, when everyone around you destroys, there are people who heal and build”.
“On March 13, 2000, Anna Puchalska and her son Stanilsaw and Jan and Wiktoria Puchalski were recognized aas Righteous Among the Nations.
Maria Roszak (Sister Cecylia) Dominican nun with Anna Borkowska (Sister Bertranda) sheltered Jews from Vilnius Ghetto
“Maria Roszak (Sister Cecylia, March 25, 1908 – November 16, 2018) was a Polish nun, Dominican sister, Righteous Among the Nations, and supercentenarian.
“Sister Cecylia was born on March 25, 1908, as Maria Roszak in the town of Kiełczewo, German Empire, now in Kościan County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland.[1] Roszak graduated from the State Trade and Industrial School of Women in Poznań.[1] At age 21, she joined the convent of Dominican cloisters in Kraków, Church of Mary of Snow in Kraków.[1] On February 7, 1931, she made her first religious vows, taking the name of Cecylia, and she took her final vows in 1934.[2] In 1938, she went to Vilnius to establish a new monastery with a group of Dominicans in Kolonia Wileńska.[2] The sisters worked on a five-hectare (12-acre) farm, away from the city. They lived in a wooden house with a small chapel.[1]
“During the World War II occupation in Vilnius, with other nuns, she helped many refugees. The nuns also sheltered fifteen Jewish refugees from the Vilna Ghetto from the youth scouting group Hashomer Hatzair including Abba Kovner, Izrael Chaim Wilner, Haika Grossman, Elye Boraks, Chuma Godot, and Izrael Nagel.[3] The nuns' monastery became a base of the local Jewish resistance, where the Jewish resistance organization Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye was formed. In 1943, the Germans arrested the mother superior and closed the monastery, but the nuns, though deprived of their main base, continued their activities. In 1944, Sister Cecylia became a prioress.[2] That year she also took in two children whose parents were murdered during the war.[4] After the war, due to the borders' change and the loss of Vilnius by Poland, she returned to Kraków.[2]
“She had many functions in the Dominican convent in Kraków. She was a porter, organist, and cantor—she taught and initiated choral singing. She was also a prioress of the monastery several times.[2] She learned foreign languages and took care of the monastery correspondence.[1] In recognition of her merits, she was awarded the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" in March 1984, at age 76.[3] On March 25, 2018, she celebrated her 110th birthday, and was [2] called "the oldest living Cracovian" (inhabitant of the city of Kraków).[5]
“Maria Roszak died in Kraków on November 16, 2018.[6]
1. Starzak, Grażyna (October 6, 2017). "Trzeba nauczyć się pięknie żyć". dziennikpolski24.pl.
2. "Urodziny s. Cecylii Marii Roszak – najstarszej zakonnicy na świecie". niedziela.pl.
3. "Historia s. Cecylii Marii Roszak Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl.
4. "Zawsze ufałam Bożemu Miłosierdziu". niedziela.pl (in Polish).
5. "Kim jest i gdzie mieszka 109-letnia krakowianka?". news.krakow.pl (in Polish).
6. dominikanie.pl. "Zmarła Matka Cecylia – najstarsza dominikanka – Info.dominikanie.pl" (in Polish).
Borkowska, Anna
Ostreyko, Jordana
Roszak, Cecylia Maria
Neugebauer, Imelda
Bednarska, Stefania
Adamek, Malgorzata
Frackiewicz, Helena-Diana
“In 1941, during the German occupation, Anna Borkowska (Sister Bertranda), mother superior of a Dominican convent in Kolonia Wilenska, about 15 kilometers from Vilna, together with six other nuns, helped save a group of Hashomer Hatza‘ir members looking for a hiding place in the area. Through the mediation of Jadwiga Dudzic, a representative of the Polish Scouts, Borkowska offered them temporary shelter in the convent. Among the fifteen Jews taken into the convent by the nuns were many who later became members of the underground in the Bialystok, Warsaw, and Vilna ghettos, such as Arie Wilner, Aba Kowner, Israel Nagel, Chuma Godot, Chajka Grosman, and Edek Boraks. Borkowska (who was affectionately known as “Mother”) did all she could to ensure the safety of the Jews in her care. In the winter of 1942, a group of young activists left the convent and returned to the ghetto in order to organize an underground resistance cell. During their stay, the young activists had, with the knowledge and agreement of Borkowska and six other nuns, turned the place into a hive of activity for the Jewish underground. Aba Kowner was subsequently to relate that the first manifesto calling for a ghetto revolt was drawn up in the convent. After leaving the convent, the members of the underground maintained close ties with Borkowska, their “mother,” who visited them in the ghetto, helped them obtain weapons, and brought them their first hand grenades.
“After rumors that Jews were hiding in the convent reached the ears of the Gestapo, Borkowska was interrogated, and the convent shut down. The ties between the surviving members of the underground and Borkowska continued after the war, until her death. They even invited her to visit them in Israel, but due to ailing health, she was unable to take up their offer. On March 29, 1984, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Borkowska and the nuns Imelda Neugebauer, Stefania Bednarska, Malgorzata Adamek, Jordana Ostreyko, Helena-Diana Frackiewicz and Cecylia Maria Roszak as Righteous Among the Nations. File No. 2682 Borkowska's helping hand was never forgotten by the Zionist pioneers who had immigrated to Israel after the war, but only in 1984 was contact with her reestablished. By that time, fshe was 84 years old and living in a small apartment in Warsaw. The same year Yad Vashem awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations to Anna Borkowska and six nuns of her convent, and Abba Kovner planted a tree in her honor in the Avenue of the Righteous on the Mount of Remembrance. Abba Kovner traveled to Warsaw to present Anna Borkowska with the medal. "Why do I deserve this honor?" asked Borkowska, to which Kovner answered: "You are Anna of the angels". He went on to explain: "During the days when angels hid their faces from us, this woman was for us Anna of the Angels. Not of angles that we invent in our hearts, but of angels that create our lives forever."
Konrad Rudnicki and his mother Maria harbored the Weintraubs family during World War II.
“Konrad Rudnicki (born 2 July 1926 in Warsaw, Poland, died 12 November 2013 in Kraków, Poland) was a Polish astronomer, professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and a priest of the Old Catholic Mariavite Church.[1]
“He was a member of the Free European Academy of Science, of Commission 28 (Galaxies) of the International Astronomical Union, and of the Mathematical-Astronomical Section at the Goetheanum in Switzerland.
“In World War II, Rudnicki fought as a partisan in the Gwardia Ludowa. While they were living in Piotrków Trybunalski, he and his mother Maria gave shelter to a Jewish family, the Weintraubs, who thus escaped the Holocaust.[2] In January 1996 Konrad and his mother were recognized at Yad Vashem as Righteous among the Nations.[3]
“Rudnicki was at the California Institute of Technology from 1965 to 1967 and at Rice University from 1988 to 1989.
“He discovered several supernovae. One of them, found between two galaxies, was the first such discovery to be made in the history of astronomy. He also advanced a new hypothesis on the structure of galaxy clusters.
“His areas of interest included extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, and the philosophy and methodology of science.
“He discovered comet C/1966 T1, known as "Rudnicki's Comet."
Notes
1. "Zmarł astronom Konrad Rudnicki | Urania - Postępy Astronomii". urania.pta.edu.pl (in Polish). Toruń, PL: Polskie Towarzystwo Astronomiczne. 2013-11-13.
2. www.mateusz.pl - interview with Konrad Rudnicki (Polish).
3. Konrad Rudnicki – his activity to save Jews' lives during the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem website
Rudnicka, Maria
Rudnicki, Konrad
“The Rudnickis of Sulejów (near Piotrków Trybunalski) were among the esteemed families of the Polish nobility. Lucjan Rudnicki was an author and journalist, and he and his wife Maria had been active before the war in the illegal Communist Party. They were friendly with their neighbors, the Weintraubs and Rozenthals, who owned a sawmill in the town. During the occupation, Lucjan Rudnicki was away from home and his wife was alone with her young son Konrad. The two of them assisted the Weintraubs and the Rozenthals to the best of their ability; among other things, they copied the birth certificates of family members—living and dead—to help their Jewish friends obtain “Aryan” identity cards. In late 1942, as the Jews of Sulejów were being deported to Treblinka, Rudnicka and her son rescued their Jewish friends by finding hideouts for them in nearby villages. After an informer denounced the concealed Jews to the authorities, the Germans discovered and murdered all of them except for Liza Taksin, who survived thanks to the papers that the Rudnickas had given her. After the war, Liza adopted the name of Elzbieta, the Rudnickis’ daughter, who had died. Everything that the Rudnickis did to save their Jewish neighbors stemmed purely from humanitarianism and true friendship. On January 2, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Rudnicka and her son, Konrad Rudnicki, as Righteous Among the Nations.
Updated October 24, 2021