Zegota - Part 2
From Wikipedia
PART 1: Arczyński - Kwiatowska
PART 2: Legiec - Ziebowa - See Below
Żegota Council to Aid Jews
Legiec, Stanisława
Legiec, Władysław
“During the occupation, Stanisława and Władysław Legiec, members of the Polish Workers Party (PPR) in Warsaw, let their apartment be used as a temporary shelter for fugitives from the ghetto, who later joined the partisan units. The Legieces’ apartment also served as a place where the ghetto fighters met members of the Polish underground, to discuss help for the ghetto fighters. On May 10, 1943, the Legieces, on behalf of the Gwardia Ludowa (People’s Guard), planned an operation to get Jewish members of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) out through the sewers in Prosta Street. The survivor’s testimonies show that the Legieces later hid over ten underground members and fugitives in their small apartment, sometimes for several days at a time. One of the fugitives was Dorka Goldkorn, a ŻOB fighter, who jumped from the train taking her to Treblinka. Goldkorn stayed with the Legieces for about three weeks until she was well enough to join the partisans. In December 1944, the Gestapo found out about the Legieces’ activities, but the caretaker warned them, and they managed to escape. Even after they left the city, the Legieces kept up their ties with the underground. In risking their lives for the refugees, the Legieces were guided by ideological and humanitarian considerations only, and never expected anything in return.
“On March 23, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Stanisława and Władysław Legiec as Righteous Among the Nations. File 5406.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Koźmiński, Jerzy
Koźmińska, Teresa (later Ruth Lindner)
“In late 1942, a representative of Żegota (the Council for Aid to Jews) turned to Jerzy Koźmiński, an 18-year-old underground activist, who lived in Wawer, a Warsaw suburb, with his stepmother, Teresa Koźmińska, asking him to shelter a number of Jews who had escaped from the local ghetto. With his stepmother’s consent, Koźmiński agreed, and in April 1943, after the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 14 Jews, most of them member of the Glazer family, turned up and hid in a well-concealed underground shelter which had been specially prepared for them. In the course of time, they were joined by other refugees, mostly for short periods. Jerzy and his stepmother cared for all the refugees devotedly and did everything to ensure their safety. In risking their lives for the Jewish refugees, Jerzy and his stepmother were guided by a feeling of obligation to fight against a common enemy, and never expected anything in return. In early 1944, the authorities, alerted by informers, arrested Koźmiński who, despite being subjected to a cruel interrogation, refused to betray the refugees. After he was sent to a series of concentration camps, his stepmother, Teresa, continued to look after her Jewish charges. In September 1944, when the Germans retreated across the Vistula River, she bravely left her house amidst falling bombs and burning houses, in order to find food for her charges. All the Jews who hid in the Koźmińskis’ apartment were liberated by the Red Army in September 1944 and, after the war, most of them immigrated to Israel.
“Teresa herself moved to Israel, converted to Judaism, and married a Jew.
“On February 16, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Jerzy Koźmiński and Ruth Lindner (formerly Teresa Koźmińska) as Righteous Among the Nations.File 2/115
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Sister Makryna, Catholic Mariavite convent, found shelter and hiding places for Jews.
“Jerzy Matus, codenames: "Bocheński", "Lech" and "Zagroda", (1910-1972). A lawyer and peasant activist. During the War, he was a member of the 6th Farmers Battalion. From 1943, he was active in the Kraków branch of the Council to Aid Jews "Żegota", in which he represented the peasant movement. A legalisation cell was located in the Matus home.
Matus, Jerzy
“Dr. Jerzy Matus was a member of the People’s Party (Stronnictwo Ludowe) and was active on behalf of it in the Polish underground in the city of Krakow. The Council of Aid to Jews (Zegota) appointed Matus to head the department in charge of finding places of refuge for Jewish fugitives hiding out on the Aryan side of Krakow. Dr. Matus made every effort to find hiding places in the city and outside it for the Jewish fugitives, and in addition supplied them with “Aryan” papers and financial support. Matus was the address for the contact people who worked for the Zegota in the area, who would come to him with dangerous and complex cases, knowing that he would immediately find a solution to their problems. Dr. Matus earned a reputation as one of the most active and resolute fighters against the phenomenon of antisemitic informants among the Polish population, and he did not hesitate to demand that justice be done with those who collaborated with the German occupation forces. Everything Dr. Matus did to save the lives of persecuted Jews was motivated by his human values and his patriotic duty as a member of the underground to fight against a common enemy.
“On February 18, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Dr. Jerzy Matus as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2229.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Mazur Jan
Mazur Helena
“In the years preceding the war, Jan and Helena Mazur worked in a clothing factory owned by Jews in Krakow. After it was transferred to German administration following the German occupation in 1939, the Mazurs continued to work in the factory, Jan as a wagon driver and Helena as a cook. After the establishment of the Krakow ghetto, 250 Jews – mostly women – worked in the factory. They were eventually imprisoned in the Płaszów camp, where they continued their work. Mazur brought raw materials into the camp on his wagon, later returning the finished goods to the factory. He used this opportunity to smuggle in food and medicine to the prisoners despite the searches the Germans made in his wagon at the camp gates. Mazur collaborated with the Council for Aid to Jews (Żegota) and with the Jewish Fighting Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa - ŻOB), which occasionally used his daring services. Jan’s wife Helena also helped the factory workers, especially the women, as best she could, and kept up contact between two mothers who worked in the factory and their children, who had found asylum on the Aryan side of the city. The Jews who benefited from the help provided by Jan and Helena Mazur remembered them as kind people with strong humane values who risked their lives, and neither asked for nor received any payment for their efforts.
“On December 28, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Helena Mazur and her husband Jan Mazur as Righteous Among the Nations. File 4052.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004, .
(Siwadłowska)-Mianowska, Aleksandra
“Dr. Mianowska Aleksandra, during the occupation times was active in several underground Polish organizations, such as: the Polish Red Cross (pl. PCK- Polski Czerwony Krzyż), AK (pl. AK- Armia Krajowa; en. Home Army), Council for Aid to Jews- Żegota (pl. RPZ- Rada Pomocy Żydom- Żegota), Central Welfare Council also known as- Main Social Services Council (pl. RGO- Rada Główna Opiekuńcza) and at the Alliance of Democrats (pl. SD- Stronnictwo Demokratyczne). [A Jagellonian University student (she studied four different directions, by achieving the following diplomas: the Pedagogical studies (1934), School of Political Sciences (1936), The Department of philosophy (Polish philology and classical- 1937) and The Department of Law and Administration (1938)].
“During the war times, Mianowska provided help to the persecuted Jewish population. Her first step (beyond to the help that was extended by her to Jews, through her conspiracy at the underground movements), she helped a Jewish student and his father, both refugees from Austria, who escaped it at 1938 (after the “Anschluss”). The student’s name was- Garde Hugo (as for his father’s one, there is no information on it), he enrolled to the Faculty of Medicine at the Jagellonian University; and started his studies. Meanwhile, he attended to Maniakiwska’s private lessons in History and Polish literature (he was accepted to the University; but he was obligated to undertake matriculation exams in both History and Polish literature; as he completed his original matriculation exams in Vienna); as her brother- Siwadłowski Witold was also at that time, a medical student and his friend.
“In 1941, Garde Hugo, with his father turned to Mianowska for help. They have decided that the best way in order to save theirs lives was, to join voluntary to the building-services “Baudiensten,” in a guise of Polish men (pretending to be two brothers; due to the reason that Hugo’sfather looked much younger than he appeared to be). With the help from the Alliance of Democrats organization (pl. SD), which provided them an identity documents (known as- “Kennkarte’s”) on the names: (Hugo received the identity of-) Grabowski Bronisław (Bronek), as well his father’s family name was Grabowski. They were living at Krakov (pl. Kraków) and working at building-services. Hugo was constantly visiting Mrs. Maniakowska’s house and mother at 5 Orzeszkowa Street (apartment number 21). Afterwards, (in 1942) they were frequently sent (Hugo and his father) with the- “Baudiensten” to the eastern area of the occupied Polish territories (as for their own security, it was even better), whereas Hugo was killed (he stood in protect of some Polish or Ukrainian peasant, whose last cow was confiscated by the Nazis; thus, in protecting her, he was immediately shoot. He died as a Pole, on the name of Grabowski Bronisław), while his father (guised to his brother at that time) managed to survive the occupation and returned to Krakov (pl. Kraków). Four other Jews, who were saved by Mianowska were: the “Kwiatkowski” (their real family name was Feldman) family members (mother and two young girls- Mrs. Feldman Rozalia (née: Zwanziger), Ewa and Janka) and Seifert-Manor Ela (Felicja). The “Kwiatkowski” family (their real family name was Feldman) was saved by Mianowska and her underground friends: Kamiński Stefan, associate professor- Mr. Oszastan Zbigniew, Marszałek Edward (“Felek”), RGO director- Seyfried Edmund and Kossak-Szczucka Zofia. The mother Feldman Rozalia (née: Zwanziger), (“Kwiatkowska”) was a pharmacist by a profession and owner of pharmacy, from the city of Dębica. She managed to escape with her two daughters from Kraków ghetto thanks to kind “inattention” of the Blue policeman (also known as the Navy-Blue Police). Thanks to SD organization (en. Alliance of Democrats) cell, which acquired for the fugitives “Kennkarte”; and found for the three ashelter. They have traveled by a hansom-cab to the Congregation of Albertine Sisters at Krakowska Street, where Mrs. Krakowska stayed for night. The older girl (named Ewa) had a typical Semite appearance and in addition, she had a third-degree frostbite on her feet. Kamiński Stefan asked the help of a known dermatologist Mr. Oszastan Zbigniew, who obtain the permission to locate the girl in dermatology clinic. Kamiński located the girl by himself and hand his name and address at the clinic (unfortunately, some of her foot-fingers were amputated). Moreover, there was a need to transfer both the mother and the second daughter- Janka (who had an “Aryan appearance”) to Warsaw. The whole operation was organized by RGO organization. While Mianowska during the whole operation, was accompanying the girl (Janka) sitting with her in the same train wagon. Mrs. Feldman (“Kwiatkowska”), was sitting in a separate wagon, accompanied by Mr. Kamiński Stefan (originally there supposed to be other member of the Alliance of Democrats organization, a railway man; but he didn’t appear on time at Czapskich Street; where Mrs. Porębska was hiding Jews; therefore, Mr. Kamiński decided to accompany Mrs. Feldman (“Kwiatkowska”) during her journey to Warsaw). Before their travel, a telegram was sent to Kossak-Szczucka Zofia (at Warsaw); that: “this and this day, it they are delivering, with that and that train, searched by her book” [Mianowska Aleksandra 1990, 157]. While Kossak-Szczucka Zofia recieved them and found for them a hiding place. Afterwards, Ewa (the young girl) was operated; Mianowska took her to Warsaw (the whole operation was again arranged by RGO Director- Seyfried Edmund; who arranged for Ewa a certificate, which directed her to specialist clinic in Warsaw for allegedly preformed test for sick child. Due to her Semite appearance, Mianowska bandage the child’s head; and accompanied her during theirs travel in the train), where Kossak-Szczucka Zofia received thechild. Unfortunately, the mother of the girls didn’t survive, although she was treated well, when she was ill. Janka was taken to a respectable family in Płock; while Ewa was taken by Kossak-Szczucka’s friends, a couple named Sadowki and Sadowska from the village of Biała Góra nad Pilicą. Another girl’s life, which was saved by Mianowska, was Seifert-Manor Ela (Felicja). Her parents were killed in the Kraków ghetto (her father was a lawyer in Bielsko-Biała), and she was hiding at Mrs. Wojnarowiczowa’s estate (located in the village of Wawrzeńczyce); until they were forced to escape from the Gestapo. A member of the RGO organization- Czochron Elżbieta; announced Mianowska that the two arrived at her mother-in-low house (Mrs. Myszczykowska). Immediately, Mianowska took the girl to priest- Machaya Ferdynard; who found for her a forged baptism and birth certificates (and on that they could prepared and identity document) on the name of Smoleń Elżbieta. Afterwards, the girl lived together with Mianowska, till she was baptized at Wiluszówna’s Maria acquaintance apartment. This event was organized by Mianowska and Kamiński Stefan (an owner of a bookshop); whereas they have managed to baptize Elżunia (Elżbieta) with the help from a priest. Althought, the owner of that apartment arrived to earlier, that they thought she would; they managed to finish the ceremony and to say her that they are leaving. The owner never informed on them, and even on the person who delivered them the key- Wiluszówna’s Maria. Afterwards, the RGO organization together with Mianowska arranged for Seifert-Manor Ela (Felicja) [then, Smoleń Elżbieta] allocation at sisters house at Kostowiec. This operation was arranged, in the guise of the existing at that time operation named: “dziecko wyłońskie”; children whose parents were killed by Ukrainian were delivered to convents. Just like that in the village of Kostowiec. Elżunia, stayed at Kostowiec even after the war ended; till, her cousinKornfeld Lola took her to Bielsko-Biała; where she was taken to her relatives in Czechoslovakia (in the city of- Prostĕjov), and in 1949 she immigrated to Israel.
“On the 17th of November 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Mianowska Aleksandra, as a Righteous Among the Nations.
(1). This information was taken from: ”Janina Pietrasiak, (born in 1934), I Am One of the Lucky Ones” in The Last Eyewitness Volume 2: The Children of the Holocaust Speak, pp. 197, 200. (2). Aleksandra, Mianowska. 1990. "Żołnierze Żydzi w Szpitalach Jenieckich w Krakowie,” in Przegląd Lekarski, 47, (1): 157. File 2/1892.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004, .
Mroz, Eugeniusz, teacher, active with Zegota. File 13367.
Wanda Muszynska, 17, courier for Zegota.
Muzolf, Władysława
Muzolf, Stanisław
Franio, Zofia
“Before the war, Anna Aschkenasy taught in a sewing school at Vilnius; which was administered by Władysława Muzolf. In 1941, after the Germans occupied the city and established a ghetto for the local Jews, Aschkenasy appealed to her former employer, for help. Władysława Muzolf, opened her door to the Jewish fugitive without setting any conditions, and with the full agreement of her husband Stanisław. When one of the neighbors (“…a polish widow of a policeman, Mrs. Nowakowska…”) discovered Aschkenasy’s presence and threatened to inform on them to the Gestapo, the Muzolfs were forced to move Aschkenasy from their house. Despite the danger to their lives, the Muzolfs moved together with Aschkenasy to a farm which they leased not far from town. After providing Aschkenasy with “Aryan” papers, they introduced her as a relative and cared for her with kindness and endless devotion. It soon became clear that, the farm was not very safe because the owners apparently knew Aschkenasy from the past. Consequently, in the autumn of 1941 (the 18th of September), Aschkenasy decided to move to Warsaw. Using her assumed identity and a letter of recommendation written by the Muzolfs, (afer a journey of 7th days) Aschkenasy arrived to the apartment of Dr. Zofia Franio, an activist in the AK (Armia Krajowa– Home Army) who worked with the children’s department in the Council for Aid to Jews, the Żegota.
“Franio found shelter for Aschkenasy, but fearing that she would be informed on, Aschkenasy was forced to keep finding new places to hide; until Dr. Franio found her a job in a hospital. Aschkenasy was able to stay there until the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, afterwards she was forged to move with other civilian population to Pruszków (a town near Warsaw); eventually she was hiding in Zakopane, until the area was liberated by the Red Army in January 1945. Furtheremore, Dr. Franio also helped Mrs.Aschkenasy’s ant’s son, named- Edward Cudnowski. Edward was hiding in Lwów until he was taken to Auschwitz. He jumped from the train and managed to escape; afterwards, he arrived at Warsaw and went straight to Dr. Franio’s apartment (at the 6th Falata street). Dr. Franio, provided Edward with forged documents of a young man who died, and located him at Saint Stanislaus Hospital for Infection Diseases (Szpital Zakaźny Miejski św. Stanisława) at Wolska street (he was ill, and suffered from typhoid and typhus) in Warsaw, where she had reliable friends among the staff. Due to the new order, that was instructed by the German authorities, all the infectious patiens were deported to the Infection Hospital at Chocimska street. Unfortunately, while the nurses were washing Edward, they have noticed that he was circumcised. Therefore, they have deported to the head of the hospital- Prof. Dr Görtner; that their patient is Jewish. After an inquiry that was done by Prof. Dr Görtner; Dr. Franio said: “And assuming that you yourself had come across such a case what would you have done as a doctor and human being?” Prof. Dr Görtner, was speechless; eventually he answered: “OK, do not worry about your patient, you will have him all right”. After Edward has recovered from his illness; Dr. Franio asked Mrs. Anna Aschkenasy-Wirska to collect a suitcase for her cousin, from Mrs. Irena Wyrębowska, at Wilcza street. Anna collected the suitcase and found in it “an overcoat, a hat, a good quality suit, 2 sets of shirts and underwear, shoes, socks, a leather belt, a tie, cuff links, handkerchiefs and cash zł 1.000 – (one thousand złoty)”. Unfortunately, despite the help that was provided to Edward; he didn’t manage to survive the war. Moreover, Edward’s and Anna’s names, are mentioned in the book of Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski and Zofia Lewinówa- “Ten jest z ojczyzny mojej”; on page 147. All what have Władysława, Stanisław Muzolf and Dr. Zofia Franio did, in order tosave them, was motivated by pure altruism and a sense of patriotic duty, to help those persecuted. After the war, the Muzolfs moved to Poznań; while Anna Aschkenasy-Wirska, has immigrated to England.
“On the 26th of December 1971, Yad Vashem recognized Stanisław Muzolf, his wife Władysława Muzolf and Dr. Zofia Franio, as a Righteous Among the Nations.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Helena Nagórzewska
“Helena Nagórzewska, a teacher by profession, became known during the occupation as a rescuer of Jews in Warsaw. According to various testimonies, Nagórzewska participated in the rescue of some fifteen Jewish adults and children who scattered in all directions after the war. These Jews, after fleeing from the ghetto, lived temporarily in Nagórzewska’s apartment until placed in safe shelter. Nagórzewska concealed some of them, and placed others with relatives, but at all times there were some Jewish refugees staying in her two-room apartment. After the war, Dorota Żelazo of Warsaw described in her testimony how her young son, Waldemar, smuggled out of the ghetto in a rucksack, reached Nagorzewska’s home with the assistance of a Polish acquaintance. About a month later, his mother joined him, and Nagórzewska, whom the child already called “Grandma” ;(pol. "Babcia"), accommodated her as well. Nagórzewska was aided in her rescue efforts by her son-in-law Leon Czubczenko* who obtained a birth certificate for Waldemar as his son. Only in late 1943 did Dorota Żelazo obtain some money from Żegota, (the Council for Aid to Jews), to support the people who were hidden in Nagórzewska’s home. After the war, Dorota Żelazo undertook to provide for Nagórzewska, a noble-minded woman who acted in the rescue of Jews for no material reward and for altruistic motives, in her old age.
“On May 27, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Helena Nagórzewska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 3289a.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Przemysław Antoni Ogrodziński (4 May 1918 – 11 May 1980), also known by his pseudonyms 'Stanisław', 'Dyplomata', and 'Agapit' was a Polish diplomat and activist.
“Przemysław "Przemek" Ogrodziński was born to a Polish family in Lemberg (modern Lviv, Ukraine) in the Austrian Empire. Lemberg was the capital of the Austrian province of Galicia, a region that spanned modern southeastern Poland and western Ukraine. Galicia was populated by a mixture of Poles, Ukrainians, and Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews. Shortly after Ogrodziński's birth, Galicia became part of the newly re-established Poland and Lemberg became the Polish city of Lwów.
“Ogrodziński graduated in law from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, before returning to his hometown, where he became active in the Związek Niezależnej Młodzieży Socjalistycznej (Union of Independent Socialist Youth).[1] As a young socialist activist in Lwów, Ogrodziński had many Jewish friends who were active in the Socialist movement.[2]
“In September 1939, the Soviet Union joined Germany in invading Poland. Polish Galicia was annexed to the Soviet Ukraine and Lwów was again renamed, now as Lvov. Under Soviet rule, Ogrodziński together with his father were imprisoned under charges of falsifying documents.[3]
“In June 1941, Germany invaded the USSR and captured the Soviet half of Poland on the way. The Germans restored the Galician capital's Austrian name: Lemberg. Under the German occupation, Ogrodziński became involved in resistance activities, as a member of the Polish Socialist Party – Freedom, Equality, Independence and as the editor of the underground socialist newspaper O wolność i niezależność (For Freedom and Independence).[4] Under the German occupation, the entire Jewish population of the city was forced to live in a ghetto, in dismal conditions. In August 1941, Ogrodziński assisted with the publication of an underground newspaper in the ghetto: Lwowski Tygodnik,.[5] In May 1943, Ogrodziński was a founding member of the Lwów branch of Żegota, the Council to Aid Jews.[6] He served as the treasurer to the local branch of Żegota that sought to hide Jews outside the ghetto and smuggle food to those still inside the ghetto.[7] Working closely with the local chairwoman of Żegota, Władysława Choms, later known as the "Angel of Lvov", Ogrodziński worked to obtain the money that bought the extra food for the ghetto and which bought materials to make the false papers for Jews to escape the ghetto.[2]
“During his dangerous work for Żegota, Ogrodziński adopted the alias 'Stanisław'.[8] Many Ukrainians in Lemberg believed the Reich would establish an independent Ukrainian state after its expected "final victory" and the city became a dangerous place in which to operate.[9] The Polish historian Teresa Prekerowa wrote the sheer number of Ukrainian collaborators in the city made Lemberg a particularly dangerous city for Polish resistance work.[9] On 3 June 1943, the Germans liquidated the Lemberg ghetto, sending in Ukrainian police units to round up most of the Jews. They were sent to the Belzec death camp, where almost all of them were exterminated immediately on arrival.[10] A few thousand "work Jews" (skilled laborers) were retained at a camp on Janowska street until October 1943, when they were killed in turn.[10] Żegota's work was limited to helping the few hundred Jews who had escaped from either the ghetto or the Janowska street camp.[10] It cost about 500 złotys to support one Jew in hiding per month.[10] Despite the difficulties, it is estimated that Ogrodziński as the treasurer of the Lwów branch of Żegota was able to extend financial assistance to between 100–200 Jews living in hiding in the city.[9]
“During this time, Ogrodziński married a fellow Żegota worker, Halina Jacuńska-Ogrodzińska.[11] She later recalled: "Żegota had its headquarters in Warsaw, under the auspices of the underground government which represented several political groupings. In Lvov there was a parallel union of political parties. Przemek acted on behalf of the PPS. The PPS played an important role because, among other things, it had a lot of Jewish members...we sent as many people as possible away from Lvov. We needed documents [fake identity cards, called ‘Aryan papers’] for this."[11]
“At considerable risk to her life, Halina Jacuńska-Ogrodzińska hid two Jewish women, Maria Glass and Olga Lilien, for she which was recognized by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem as one of Righteous Among the Nations on 28 June 1979.[11]
1. Stępień 1998, p. 69.
2. Piekałkiewicz 2019, p. 229.
3. Żygulski, Kazimierz. "Część trzecia". Jestem z lwowskiego etapu.
4. Urzyńska 2000, p. 20.
5. Khonigsman 1997, p. 44.
6. Zimmerman 2015, p. 313.
7. Prekerowa 1982, p. 318.
8. Lewinówna 1969, p. iii.
9. Prekerowa, Teresa (19 December 2018). "Medical assistance for Jews hiding in Warsaw, 1942–1944". Medical Review – Auschwitz: 113–119.
10. Piekałkiewicz 2019, p. 230.
11. Dzięciołowska, Karolina. "The Szymański Family". Stories of Rescue. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
References
Kelly, Brendan (2019). The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Khonigsman, Iakov Samoĭlovich (1997). The Catastrophy of Jewry in Lvov. Lviv: Solom-Aleichem Jewish Society of Culture.
Lewinówna, Zofia (1969). Righteous among Nations: How Poles helped the Jews, 1939-1945. London: Earlscourt Publications Ltd.
Piekałkiewicz, Jarosław (2019). Dance with Death: A Holistic View of Saving Polish Jews during the Holocaust. Lanthan: Rowman & Littlefield.
Prekerowa, Teresa (1982). Konspiracyjna Rada Pomocy Żydom w Warszawie 1942-1945. Warsaw.
Zimmerman, Joshua (2015). The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Halina Oleksiuk
“At the time of the German invasion in 1941, Helena Sygal (b. 1919) was living in Lwów. She and her elderly parents were expelled from their apartment, and Helena was sent to work at the Stättische Verkstäte factory making sweaters for the German army. She was able to find a job at the factory for her father as well. On August 10, 1942, the Great Aktion began in Lwów. Three days later, on August 13, both of Helena’s parents were killed. Helena remained alone, mentally, and physically traumatized. One day, coming out of the factory, she ran into Halina Oleksiuk, an acquaintance whom she’d met in 1939 after the Russians occupied the city. The two women had studied together at the Ukraine State Musical Academy, where Halina was good friends with the Jewish violinist, Jakub Seidl. Helena and Halina had fallen out of touch since then, but now Halina insisted that Helena save herself by escaping to Warsaw. She recommended that Helena visit a young Jew who was selling original Aryan identity papers. Helena scraped together the necessary fee and became Jadwiga Matuszkiewicz. For three days she stayed with Halina, and then on September 19, 1942, she was accompanied by a Ukrainian friend of Halina’s on a train to Rawa Ruska. From there she traveled to Warsaw.
“In Warsaw, "Jadwiga" received help, again thanks to Halina, from a Jewish woman named Jula who had contacts in Żegota, the Polish underground organization that helped persecuted Jews.
“Jula recommended a place for her to stay, helped her register and find work, and supported her until liberation. After the war, Jadwiga Matuszkiewicz moved to Szczecin, where she worked as a music teacher. Then she moved to Warsaw, where she lived for five years. She found out that Jula and her entire family had not survived, but never discovered what had become of Halina, whom she’d last seen before her escape from Lwów.
“On June 5, 2007, Yad Vashem recognized Halina Oleksiuk as Righteous Among the Nations. File 11098.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004, .
Osiński Czesław
Osińska Julia
Osiński Bogdan
Osiński Wiesław
“The members of the Osiński family from Opole-Sabinka, near Siedlce, in the Warsaw district, were known for their warm relations with Jews even before the war. Czesław Osiński had been the principal of an elementary school that had dozens of Jewish students. Osiński was persecuted in the 1930s by Polish nationalists of the ND party (National Democratic Party) because of his socialist views and his protection of Jews. Osiński and his family remained faithful to their beliefs and continued to live up to their humane values during the occupation as well. From the earliest days of the occupation, they extended assistance to Jewish friends that were in trouble. The Osiński family helped over ten Jews coming from various circles at different times and in different ways. The Osińskis’ home served as a temporary refuge for Jewish friends, to whom they gave food and medicines, providing them with the money they got for them from the Council for Aid to Jews (Żegota). In early 1944, most of the Jews hidden by the Osiński family were discovered and policemen from the nearby Niwiski police station murdered them. Of those hidden by the Osiński family, Regina Gilgun survived, and after the war, she immigrated to France.
“On February 12, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Julia Osińska, her husband Czesław Osiński and their sons Bogdan Osiński and Wiesław Osiński as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2/4561.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004, .
Stanisław and Maria Ossowscy
Ukalo, Walter
Korolczuk, Mr.
Pacholska, Mrs.
“Before the occupation, Walter Ukalo, who lived with his family in the town of Brody, in Eastern Galicia, was on friendly terms with his neighbor, Dorothy Taub, and her family. When the Germans occupied the city in 1941, the ties between the two families grew stronger, and when the eight members of the Taub family had to leave their apartment, Ukalo hid them in his family’s apartment, until he found a better hiding place for them. He hid them with a Ukrainian women named Pacholska, and then later with another Ukrainian man named Korolczuk. In 1943, Ukalo joined Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews) in Lwow and Brody and supplied the Jewish refugees with “Aryan” documents, found them hiding places, and gave them money for their upkeep. Ukalo’s rescue operation saved the lives of at least eight people: Dorothy Taub and her daughter, Sabina, Klara Chotiner and her daughter, Bronia Roth, Frieda Ahl, Herman Halpern and Ian Lustig. In risking his life for the Jewish refugees, Ukalo was guided by humanitarian considerations and a friendship that triumphed over adversity, and never expected anything in return. After the war, Ukalo married Dorothy Taub and they immigrated to the United States. Jan Lustig immigrated to Australia and the other refugees immigrated to Israel.
“On September 21, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Walter Ukalo as Righteous Among the Nations.
“On November 30, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Pacholska and Korolczuk as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2/1438/1.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004, .
Papuziński, Stanisław
Wędrychowska-Papuzińska, Zofia
“The modest apartment of Zofia and Stanisław Papuziński, who lived in the Ochota neighborhood of Warsaw, served as an “address” and temporary hiding place for Jewish children hiding on the Aryan side of the city. From December 1942, after the establishment of the Council for Aid to Jews (ŻEGOTA), Zofia and Stanisław Papuziński worked untiringly, risking their own lives to save Jewish children. Motivated by national duty, and although they themselves were parents to two young children, they placed themselves, disregarding the very real danger to their lives, at the disposal of the ŻEGOTA. Dozens of Jewish children brought to their apartment were treated with warm devotion until they were taken to other places to hide. In her book about the ŻEGOTA, Teresa Prekerowa writes that the Papuzińskis were among the most active members of the organization. Among the children helped by the Papuzińskis were (Chaja) Ester Sztajn (later Teresa Körner), Stefania Wortman and her mother, Krzysztof Groniowski, Halina Złotnik (later Kesler) and Basia Markow, who was the eight-year-old daughter of a theater actor. Following information provided by informants, the Gestapo raided the Papuziński apartment in February 1944. Those hiding in the apartment at the time were shot and Zofia was incarcerated in the Pawiak prison, where she was executed. Her husband Stanisław survived and passed away after the war.
Parapura, Adam
Parapura, Janina
“The relationship between Adam Parapura, a driving teacher from Warsaw, and Jerzy Geldbard, a Jewish architect whom Parapura taught how to drive, developed in time into a very close friendship, which led Parapura to come to the aid of Jews during the occupation. After the Jews of Warsaw were imprisoned in the ghetto, Parapura maintained close contact with the Geldbard and Wajnbaum families. After he began working as the driver of the Jewish hospital in the ghetto with a special permit, he brought his Jewish friends vital supplies and removed valuables of theirs from the ghetto to be sold or hidden on the Aryan side of the city. After the beginning of the large-scale deportation from the ghetto in the summer of 1942, Parapura tried to do what he could to save his friends’ lives. The first one was baby Wanda Wajnbaum (later Esterman) and her ten-year-old cousin Jan Wajnbaum, whom Parapura smuggled out of the ghetto and took to his own apartment. At the time, Adam and Janina Parapura lived in a one-room apartment in an old building without a kitchen or bathroom. Because they did not have any children of their own, they feared that any noise the Jewish children made would awaken the suspicions of their neighbors. Under these circumstances, Janina decided to try and find the young fugitives a hiding place outside the city (Mińsk Mazowiecki), but when her efforts failed, Parapura used his connections to get the baby into a home for foundlings run by Father Boduen and hid the boy with friends.
“After places were found for the children, Parapura began to smuggle their families out of the ghetto, and more than ten of them managed to get to the Aryan side of the city. Using his connections in the underground, Parapura obtained "Aryan" documents and hiding places for them in different parts of the city. He maintained contact between them, brought them money allocated to them by the ŻEGOTA, and served as their address intimes of trouble. Adam and Janina Parapura temporarily hid their Jewish friends in their tiny apartment on a number of occasions, and despite their own impoverished circumstances, were always willing to help their Jewish friends. Motivated by pure altruism, they never asked for or received anything in return. In the wake of Adam Parapura’s death a short time after the war, his widow found herself in very difficult circumstances. The Geldbard and Wajnbaum families, who remained in Poland, came to her assistance and for many years after remained in touch with her, treating her like a member of the family.
“On January 3, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Janina Parapura and her husband Adam Parapura as Righteous Among the Nations. File 4403.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004, .
Miriam Peleg, Jewish courier for Zegota.
Piotrowska, Jadwiga
“Jadwiga Piotrowska was a member of a devout Catholic family. During the occupation, Piotrowska lived with her parents in Warsaw and worked in the social department of City Hall. Piotrowska, who faithfully assisted Jan Dobraczyński*, who was responsible for street children in the same department, happened to find herself in the Warsaw ghetto in her professional capacity, where she saw the hardship of the Jewish children firsthand. In the context of her work, Piotrowska made contact in the ghetto with people who cared for children, including Janusz Korczak, whom she considered, as she put it, “A saint, although he was not a Christian.” In time, Piotrowska joined the Council for Aid to Jews (Żegota) and helped smuggle children out of the city and save them on the Aryan side of the city. Piotrowska was one Żegota’s most active members and personally cared for many Jews who came over to the Aryan side without any address or money. She provided them with places to hide and financial support. Her home served as a transit station for Jews, both adults and children, and they found a respite there from the terrible anxiety and fear they suffered. She helped prepare them for their life on the Aryan side of the city. She personally took a number of Jewish children to hide with Polish families and convents. Among those she saved were Pola Monat, and her two children, their niece, Halina Złotnik, Josek Buchsbaum, a youth that stayed in her home from 1943-1946, (whom she considered adopting), daughter of the Rapaczyński family, girls Maria and Joanna Majerczyk, and others.
“Piotrowska considered the help she extended to Jews her moral duty, and the saving of their lives both a patriotic duty and a religious calling. She would later say that she acted as any moral human being should have acted, and those whom she saved always remembered her with admiration and kept in touch with her for many years.
“On October 22, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Jadwiga Piotrowska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 3742
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Polechajłło, Aniela (Sister Stanisława)
Manaszczuk, Antonina (Sister Irena)
Romansewicz, Józefa (Sister Hermana)
“The Turkowice convent, in the Hrubieszow county, in the Lublin district, was one of the largest children’s convents in Poland, known for having provided asylum for Jewish children during the occupation. Some arrived in the convent from the immediate surroundings, but most were sent there from distant Warsaw by the Council for Aid to Jews (Żegota). The efforts to save children were spearheaded by the mother superior of the convent, Aniela Polechajłło, known as Sister Stanisława. She collaborated with Jan Dobraczyński*, the head of the department for abandoned children in Warsaw city hall and an active Żegota member. Polechajłło was an educational role model, and she inspired her students with her own spirit of tolerance. Helped by nuns Antonina Manaszczuk (Sister Irena) and Józefa Romansewicz (Sister Hermana), she received the Jewish children warmly and never forced any to accept the Catholic religion. The three nuns worked to save Jewish children in full cognizance of the danger they had taken on themselves. A number of German soldiers were always stationed in the convent, some of whom knew that Jewish children were hiding in it but were willing to turn a blind eye because of their sympathy for the nuns. The Żegota chose to send children of particularly Jewish appearance there due to the convent’s remote location in a forest far from any central roads.
“Whenever Żegota activists came across children difficult to hide because of their appearance, they would inform the Turkowice convent and nuns Romansewicz and Manaszczuk would set out on the long journey to Warsaw to rescue them. All the boys and girls brought to the Turkowice convent were saved, and not a single case of a Jewish child being denounced or handed over to the German authorities is known. Those saved by the three nuns have very fond memories of them and the convent – of how they caredfor them with kind devotion and without any discrimination, motivated only by their conscience and religious faith.
“On November 15, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Mother Superior Aniela Polechajłło (Sister Stanisława) and nuns Antonina Manaszczuk (Sister Irena) and Józefa Romansewicz (Sister Hermana) as Righteous Among the Nations. File 4394
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Karolina "Irena" Flora Solska (née Poświk; 27 October 1877 — 8 March 1958) was a Polish actress and stage director. She was a member of the Young Poland modernist artistic movement. During the German occupation of Poland, Solska was a member of Żegota ("Polish Council to Aid Jews"). While living in Warsaw during the war, Solska helped to rescue Jews by making her apartment available as a hiding place. According to Joanna Michlic, Solska was known for offering help when all other avenues for rescue had been exhausted.
Prekerowa, Teresa (1982). Konspiracyjna Rada Pomocy Żydom w Warszawie 1942-1945. PIW. p. 100.
Michilic, Joanna (2011). ""I will never forget what you did for me during the war": Rescuer — rescuee relationships in the light of postwar correspondence in Poland, 1945–1949". Yad Vashem Studies. 39: 169–20.
Przetaczek, Rudolf
Przetaczek, Zofia
“Rudolf and Zofia Przetaczek lived in Wieliczka, near Krakow, where Rudolf Przetaczek worked as a miner in the local salt mines. Mr. and Mrs. Przetaczek, members of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), were among the few families in Wieliczka that responded favorably to the request by the Council for Aid to Jews (Zegota) to help Jews and hide them in their home. Between June 1943 and January 1945, they hid Yitzchak Birenbaum and Yisrael and Frieda Elster in a special hiding place they prepared in their home. Because the four-member family was unable to bear the costs of supporting an additional three mouths to feed for long, they were helped by the Zegota, which paid for some of their expenses. With the exception of this help, the Przetaczeks received no additional support for the risk they took upon themselves and their two young children, to save the lives of the three Jewish fugitives, and everything they did to save them was motivated by the goodness of their hearts. After the war, the three survivors immigrated to Israel.
“On June 7, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Zofia Przetaczek and her husband Rudolf Przetaczek as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2/2599.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Janina Raabe, administrator at the Zegota headquarters at 24 Zurawia Street
Tadeus Rek, Deputy Chairman Zegota
Rek Tadeus
Rek, Wanda
“Before the war, the jurist Tadeusz Rek was a leading activist in the People’s Party (Stronnictwo Ludowe), and during the occupation was named the Party’s representative to Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews. In this function, Rek displayed initiative and practical skill in helping Jews who had been interned in the Warsaw ghetto. As time passed, he expanded his assistance activities to fugitives on the Aryan side, for whom he arranged housing and regular economic support as his wife Wanda, his partner in these actions, provided advice and practical aid. As the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto drew near, Rek presented the “Delegatura” (Delegatura Rzadu na Kraj), the Delegate’s Office of the Polish government-in-exile operating in Poland, with a demand from the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB, Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa) for assistance in the form of weapons and equipment and called for action against denunciations and extortion. Rek’s name has appeared in all publications concerning organized assistance to Jews in occupied Poland, and his photograph hangs in the “Jewish block” (Block 27) in Auschwitz.
“On October 22, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized Tadeusz Rek and his wife Wanda as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2/2145/14.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Rosloniec, Julian Stefan
“Julian Stefan Rosloniec was an activist of Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews), in Warsaw. Two weeks before the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Fryda Hofman, in coordination with Rosloniec, smuggled her baby niece out of the ghetto and left him on Rosloniec’s doorstep. Rosloniec took in the baby and placed her in a Christian orphanage, where she survived. Rosloniec also rented an apartment in the building where he lived with his mother, to serve as a shelter for Bronka Frydman, Fryda Hofman, Lola Marek, and Edzia Stawenczyska, four Jewish refugees who had escaped from the ghetto. Rosloniec protected them, looked after them devotedly, and liaised between them and the outside world. When the concierge realized that Rosloniec was hiding Jewish women, she reported him to the police, and he was arrested and interrogated. Undaunted, however, he continued sheltering his protégés, thereby saving their lives. Rosloniec also distributed money provided by Zegota to more than twenty Jews hiding in various places on the Aryan side of Warsaw. In risking his life to save Jews, Rosloniec was guided by humanitarian and Socialist considerations, and never expected anything in return. After the war, Rosloniec married Bronka Frydman.
“On January 2, 1974, Yad Vashem recognized Julian Rosloniec as Righteous Among the Nations. File 811.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Ludwik Rostkowski (1894-1973). An ophthalmologist, an Associate Professor of the Łódż Medical Academy and, from October 1943, Chairperson of the Medical Department of the Council to Aid Jews "Żegota".
Rothenburg-Rościszewski Witold
Rothenburg-Rościszewska Anna
“Before the war, Witold Rothenburg-Rościszewski, an attorney from Warsaw, was known for his anti-Jewish views, but after the German occupation, his attitude toward Jews underwent a radical change. He severed his ties with the antisemitic circles he had been involved with before the war, devoted himself to underground activity, and became an AK officer. Together with his wife, Anna, he helped Jewish refugees hide on the Aryan side of the city and provided them with forged documents. The Rothenburg-Rościszewskis supported needy Jews materially, found them hiding places, and saved them from the hands of various extortionists. Among the Jews who were helped by the Rothenburg-Rościszewskis were: Wacław Tajtlbaum, an attorney, and Helena Kuligowska. Thanks to Witold’s underground activity, and his familiarity with entrances to, and exits from, the ghetto via the law court in Leszno Street, Irena Sendlerowa*, a Żegota activist, was able to smuggle out Jewish children to the Aryan side of the city. In her subsequent testimony, Sendlerowa testified that Witold arranged for Jewish children to be sent to the Chotomów convent near Warsaw, and to acquaintances of his, and paid for their upkeep. In April 1943, the Germans arrested Rothenburg-Rościszewski and he was executed for his underground activities.
“On June 24, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Anna and Witold Rothenburg-Rościszewski as Righteous Among the Nations. File 5309.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Zofia Rudnicka (1907 - February 7, 1981, in Warsaw) - Polish lawyer and judge, social activist, member of the Council for Aid to Jews at the Government Delegation for the Country "Żegota".[1][2] After the war, she worked in the judiciary, for twenty years (until 1969) she was the chairman of the Civil and Audit Department of the Provincial Court for the Capital City of Warsaw.
1. Irene Tomaszewski, Tecia Werbowski (2010). Code Name Żegota: Rescuing Jews in Occupied Poland, 1942-1945: the Most Dangerous Conspiracy in Wartime Europe. ABC-CLIO, 2010.
2. Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert. Żegota" Rada Pomocy Żydom 1942-1945: wybór dokumentów/poprzedzony wywiadem Andrzeja Friszke z Władysławem Bartoszewskim. Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa, Warszawa 2002.
Rutkiewicz, Jan
Rutkiewicz, Natalia
File 6345
“Dr. Jan Rutkiewicz and his wife Natalia, a nurse, lived in Warsaw and belonged to the town’s liberal intelligentsia. As a medical student before the war, Jan Rutkiewicz was noted for his liberal views and the very fact of his opposition to anti-Jewish discrimination earned him a large number of Jewish friends. During the occupation, Rutkiewicz joined an underground organization of Socialist-Democratic doctors, and when Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, was established, Rutkiewicz and his wife placed themselves at its service. Risking their lives, status, and social connections, they provided medical assistance to Jews who had fled from the ghetto to the Aryan side of town. They also equipped a large number of Jews, especially doctors, with money, “Aryan” papers, and hideouts and jobs in Warsaw and elsewhere. Those assisted included Drs. Bernard Waksman (subsequently Bronisław Wiśniewski), Mieczysław Tursz, Irena Sieradzka, Gryfenberg, Szymelowa-Szymkiewicz, Maksymilian Hirsz, and the wife of the latter. The Rutkiewiczes considered it a national mission to save Jews and all their actions in this regard were prompted by their conscience.
“On November 14, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Jan Rutkiewicz, and his wife, Natalia Rutkiewicz as Righteous Among the Nations.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Ewa Rybicka
“Józefa Rysińska, codename: "Ziuta" (1922-1993). A member of the Polish Socialist Party, a liaison officer of the Kraków Council to Aid Jews "Żegota". She participated in the liberation of Janina Hescheles from the Janów camp in Lwów. She was arrested by the Germans in the autumn of 1943. She ended up in the camp in Płaszów and, from there, to camps in Pustków and Szebnie.
Rysińska, Józefa
“Józefa Rysińska—known by her nickname, Ziuta—was one of the most prominent and daring liaison officers in the Zegota underground organization. An activist at the Zegota branch in Kraków, Rysińska performed extended missions to places of hiding and to the Pustków and Szebnie forced-labor camps, where she helped Jews escape and provided them with “Aryan” papers. In one of her most audacious feats, Rysińska participated in smuggling a group of Jewish prisoners from the Janowska Street labor camp in Lwow to Kraków. The prisoners Rysińska rescued in this operation included the author and underground member Michel Borwicz, Janina Altman née Hescheles (twelve years old at the time) and the engineer Yehuda Eisman. In the midst of a subsequent operation, Rysińska was arrested by the Gestapo and subjected to brutal interrogation. Although she knew many names and addresses of Jews in hiding on the Aryan side, as well as details on Zegota’s modus operandi, she held her silence and denounced no one. Rysińska was sent to the Plaszów camp, where, ill and physically frail, she was liberated.
“On September 4, 1979, Yad Vashem recognized Józefa Rysińska as Righteous Among the Nations.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Sylwia Rzeczycka
Lubicz-Sadowska, Anna
“In the winter of 1942, ten-year-old Ewa Feldman fled from the Kraków ghetto with her mother and sister. As they wandered outdoors in the harsh winter, Ewa’s feet became frostbitten and Zegota placed her in a hospital, where doctors amputated her toes. After Ewa and her mother and sister were transferred to Warsaw, Zofia Kossak*, a famous author and the founder of Zegota, delivered her to Anna Sadowska of Gory (Promna county, near Bialobrzegi). Ewa’s legs were in such poor condition that the doctors thought it best to amputate them. Sadowska objected to this vehemently, took the Jewish girl into her home over her husband’s objections, and treated her so devotedly that she began to walk. After Ewa’s mother died and her sister vanished, her fate forever unknown, Sadowska adopted Ewa as her daughter. Ewa remained with Sadowska until 1946 and only afterwards moved to a Jewish orphanage. The events of the war had affected Ewa so badly that she could not recover. Sadowska, who had treated her like a loving mother, visited her regularly in her new home, monitored her care, and supported her warmly until she died under tragic circumstances.
“On March 3, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Lubicz-Sadowska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2/2510.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Saloni, Juliusz
Strzelecka, Jadwiga
File 5786
“During the occupation, Juliusz Saloni and his wife Jadwiga, subsequently Strzelecka, lived in Warsaw and remained on friendly terms with Jews whom they had known from their university days. After the Warsaw ghetto was established, they made their home into a temporary refuge for Jewish acquaintances and friends who had fled to the Aryan side, until they could find permanent hideouts. In November 1942, a Jew named Józef Dąb, who left the ghetto each day as a member of a group of laborers, contacted Saloni at his place of work and asked him to help take his wife Barbara out of the ghetto and arrange permanent shelter for Irena, his seven-year-old daughter, who was already on the Aryan side. Saloni and his wife, to whom Dąb was a total stranger, made the rescue of the Jewish family into their personal cause. Within a short time, the Salonis removed Barbara Dąb from the ghetto and placed her with relatives of theirs. In February 1943, they brought Irena to their home and gave her a birth certificate and baptism certificate in the family name of Jadwiga’s brother. From then on, Irena posed as Saloni’s orphaned niece in the care of her aunt, which is how the Salonis treated her. Saloni and his wife registered Irena as a Polish child in the town school and continued to care for her until the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944. In February 1943, Dąb joined them on the Aryan side, and the Salonis equipped him with “Aryan” papers with which he found work and housing.
“In November 1943, the Gestapo arrested Dab and placed him in Pawiak Prison. Out of concern that the Gestapo would also discover his wife Barbara, Jadwiga contacted members of Żegota, who transferred Dąb to a different hideout. In February 1944, Dąb escaped from Pawiak Prison and made his way to the Salonis’ home. The Salonis moved him to the nearby town of Grodzisk Mazowiecki, where his wife was hiding, and in October 1944, they were joined by their daughterand lived together until the liberation in January 1945. The Salonis also concealed eighteen-year-old Jurek Milejkowski for several weeks in May-June 1943 after he had escaped from a train bound for Treblinka. Milejkowski took part in the Warsaw Uprising, and died in battle. By assisting persecuted Jews as they did, Saloni and Strzelecka displayed a nobility of spirit and symbolized the embodiment of humanitarianism for its own sake.
“On July 25, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Jadwiga Strzelecka and Juliusz Saloni as Righteous Among the Nations.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Leszczyńska (Samsonowicz), Eugenia, nee Wąsowska
“Before the war, Eugenia Wąsowska (later Leszczyńska) worked for the Polish Red Cross in Warsaw. During the years 1940-41, on her own initiative, she began to organize help for Jews from among Polish society. In 1942, her activities became more organized and intensive. Her apartment on Żurawia Street became the main headquarters for the Council for Aid to Jews (Rada Pomocy Żydom "Żegota" - RPZ). In her apartment, Eugenia hid members of the Polish and Jewish underground that were wanted by the German authorities. She also hid secret documents there. From December 1942, representatives of the Bund and the Jewish Fighting Organization, which was active on the Aryan side of Warsaw, also used Eugenia’s apartment. From January 1943 until the Warsaw Uprising, she also hid Ignacy Samsonowicz (Tadeusz Leszczyński), a member of the Bund underground leadership. From January 1943, the leaders of the Bund and the Jewish Fighting Organization met in Eugenia’s apartment to arrange the armed uprising in the ghetto. They also used her apartment to plan help for the Jews detained in concentration camps as well as those Jews who were hiding on the Aryan side of the town. Adolf Berman, Yitzhak Cukierman, Leon Feiner, Arie Wilner, and many others visited Eugenia’s apartment. The last conference of the Jewish underground organizations took place at Eugenia’s apartment on August 1, 1944, the day of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising.
“On January 17, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Eugenia Wąsowska-Leszczyńska (Samsonowicz) as Righteous Among the Nations. File 3089.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Tadeusz Sarnecki (pen-name Jan Wajdelota) connected with the Democratic Party. He and his wife Ewa served as contacts with the Jews of the ghettos and concentration camps in the vicinity of Radom and Lublin.
“Irena Scheur-Sawicka (August 18, 1890 – August 1 or 4, 1944) was a Polish archaeologist, ethnographer, and educational and communist activist. During World War II she joined the Polish Workers' Party. She was active in the Polish resistance during World War II and, together with Żegota, in helping Jewish refugees from the Warsaw Ghetto. She died in the Warsaw Uprising.
“Scheur-Sawicka was born in Gucin, Ostrołęka County [pl] in a family of Polish landed gentry. Her father, Jan Scheur, was a French émigré from Alsace; her mother was Maria née Włodarkiewicz.[1] She studied with private tutors and in small courses organized for women in Kraków and Warsaw. She quickly became engaged in educational activism, teaching street children.[1] From 1915 she was married to archaeologist Ludwik Sawicki [pl].[1][2] They had no children.[1]
“In the 1930s she became involved with the work of the Communist Party of Poland.[1] Following the German invasion of Poland, she became active in the non-violent Polish resistance efforts, such as the underground education and rescue of Jews (from the Warsaw Ghetto).[1] She has been described by Adolf Berman as a prominent member of Żegota.[3][4] In 1942, she joined the newly founded Polish Workers' Party, where she was a high-ranking official in the Żoliborz and Mokotów districts and active in providing supplies to the partisans of Armia Ludowa.[1]
“She died in the first days of the Warsaw Uprising, killed by stray German gunfire; her date of death is given as either August 1[5] or August 4.[1]
1. "Irena Sawicka (Scheur-Sawicka)". www.ipsb.nina.gov.pl (in Polish).
2. Zotchłani wieków. Zakład im. Ossolińskich. 1980. p. 290.
3. Jewish Resistance: Konrad Żegota Committee, Jewish Virtual Library
4. Teresa Prekerowa (1999). Zegota: Commission d'aide aux Juifs. Éditions du Rocher. p. 85.
5. Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski (2010). Code Name Żegota: Rescuing Jews in Occupied Poland, 1942-1945 : the Most Dangerous Conspiracy in Wartime Europe. ABC-CLIO. p. 67.
Schultz, Irena
“During the occupation, Irena Schultz, a journalist and social worker with radical, left-wing views, worked in the Social Affairs Department of the Warsaw municipality. Early on in the occupation, Schultz, together with Irena Sendler*, began helping Jews in the ghetto by providing them with medicine, money, and clothes, and was one of the first members of Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews). Schultz’s job involved frequent visits to the ghetto, occasions she exploited to cooperate with Centos, a relief organization for Jewish children. On the eve of the ghetto’s liquidation, Schultz, as a member of Zegota, helped smuggle children out of the ghetto to the Aryan side of the city. Schultz became an expert in the field, so much so that her co-workers later testified that no one could smuggle children out of the ghetto as successfully as she could. Schultz also let her home be used as a transit point and temporary shelter for Jewish fugitives until they found permanent shelter. At her own initiative, Schultz provided a number of Jewish intellectuals and doctors with forged documents, and found them hiding places. Among those who owed her their lives were: Helena Witwicka and her daughter, Mira Pazynska, and Aleksander Dubienski and his sister, Gizela Gebert. In risking her life to defend the honor of persecuted Jews, Schultz was guided by a sense of mission, which arose from her humanitarian worldview.
“On July 8, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Irena Schultz as Righteous Among the Nations. File 559.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Stefania Sempołowska (born 1 October 1869 in Polonisz near Środa Wielkopolska, died 31 January 1944 in Warsaw) was a Polish educator, activist and writer.
“She has been described as the leader of the movement for prisoners' rights in Poland during most of her lifetime.
“At age 17 she passed the Teacher Patent at the Government Commission in Warsaw. Since then she was a teacher, supporter of education, kids' rights activist, journalist, and writer – she wrote many school books. Between the World Wars she became a publicist who fought for equal educational opportunities. She was the Democratic Education Company's "Nowe Tory" member and co-author of the teen magazine "Z bliska i z daleka", later weekly for kids and educators "W słońcu". She died 31 January 1944 in Warsaw.
“Stefan Sendłak, codename: "Stefan" and "Kalinowski" (1889-1978). A social and political activist and socialist. He fought for Polish independence, was a member of the Polish Socialist Party and active in the defence of peasants and workers. For many years, he was employed in local government. He wrote articles for the worker and socialist press. He was the founder and chairman of the Zamojsko-Lubelski Committee to Aid Jews. From 1943, he managed the local branch of the Council to Aid Jews "Żegota".
Sendler, Irena
“When World War II broke out, Irena Sendler was a 29-year-old social worker, employed by the Welfare Department of the Warsaw municipality. After the German occupation, the department continued to take care of the great number of poor and dispossessed people in the city. Irena Sendler took advantage of her job in order to help the Jews, however this became practically impossible once the ghetto was sealed off in November 1940. Close to 400,000 people had been driven into the small area that had been allocated to the ghetto, and their situation soon deteriorated. The poor hygienic conditions in the crowded ghetto, the lack of food and medical supplies resulted in epidemics and high death rates. Irena Sendler, at great personal danger, devised means to get into the ghetto and help the dying Jews. She managed to obtain a permit from the municipality that enabled her to enter the ghetto to inspect the sanitary conditions. Once inside the ghetto, she established contact with activists of the Jewish welfare organization and began to help them. She helped smuggle Jews out of the ghetto to the Aryan side and helped set up hiding places for them. When the Council for Aid of Jews (Zegota) was established, Sendler became one of its main activists. The Council was created in fall 1942, after 280,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. When it began to function towards the end of the year, most of the Jews of Warsaw had been killed. But it played a crucial role in the rescue of a large number who had survived the massive deportations.
“When the Council for Aid of Jews (Zegota) was established, Sendler became one of its main activists. The Council was created in fall 1942, after 280,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. When it began to function towards the end of the year, most of the Jews of Warsaw had been killed. But it played a crucial role in the rescue of a large number who had survived the massive deportations.
“The organization took care of thousands of Jews who were trying to survive in hiding, seeking hiding places, and paying for the upkeep and medical care. In September 1943, four months after the Warsaw ghetto was completely destroyed, Sendler was appointed director of Zegota’s Department for the Care of Jewish Children. Sendler, whose underground name was Jolanta, exploited her contacts with orphanages andinstitutes for abandoned children, to send Jewish children there. Many of the children were sent to the Rodzina Marii (Family of Mary) Orphanage in Warsaw, and to religious institutions run by nuns in nearby Chotomów, and in Turkowice, near Lublin. The exact number of children saved by Sendler and her partners is unknown. On 20 October 1943, Sendler was arrested. She managed to stash away incriminating evidence such as the coded addresses of children in care of Zegota and large sums of money to pay to those who helped Jews. She was sentenced to death and sent to the infamous Pawiak prison, but underground activists managed to bribe officials to release her. Her close encounter with death did not deter her from continuing her activity. After her release in February 1944, even though she knew that the authorities were keeping an eye on her, Sendler continued her underground activities. Because of the danger she had to go into hiding. The necessities of her clandestine life prevented her from attending her mother's funeral.
“On October 19, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Irena Sendler as Righteous Among the Nations. The tree planted in her honor stands at the entrance to the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations. File 153.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Tadeusz Seweryn, codenames" "Boryna","Białowąs" and "Socha" (1894-1975). An ethnographer, a painter and a graphic artist. He was connected with the Stronnictwo Ludowy (People's Party). He was active in the Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Union of Armed Struggle). In February 1941, he hid under the name of "Bronisław Kozłowski". In 1943, he headed the regional Directorate of Civil Resistance (KOS). He joined the Directorate of Underground Resistance (KWP) and was responsible for civil resistance in the Kraków region. In March 1943, he joined the board of "Żegota" in Kraków and sat on the Audit Committee. As part of his duties, he organised the provision of documents and financial resources, fought against informers and passed on information, overseas, about Jews being persecuted.
Seweryn, Tadeusz
“During the occupation, Professor Tadeusz Seweryn, known by the code name, Socha, was a senior activist in the Polish underground movement, and served as a representative of the Polish government-in-exile in the Krakow district and in southern Poland. When Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews) was established, Seweryn joined it as a representative of the Peasants Party (Stronnictwo Ludowe) and became one of its leading activists. As an area commander for the underground, Seweryn exploited his authority to help Jews, and fought a war without quarter against informers. The underground instructed members who worked as mail sorters at the post office to open letters addressed to the Gestapo, in order to help track down informers. This information was then used to bring informers to trial in an underground court, headed by Seweryn. Some attribute the relatively small number of informers in the Krakow area to Seweryn’s uncompromising war against informers. Thanks to his ties with the AK command, information concerning the extermination of Jews in Poland and requests for help were sent via the AK’s radio station to Jewish institutions and personalities in London and Switzerland.
“On February 18, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Tadeusz Seweryn as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2230.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Jerzy Słupecki (1904–1987) was a Polish mathematician and logician.
He attended the seminar of, and wrote a 1938 doctorate under, Jan Łukasiewicz.
During WWII he was active in Żegota.
In 1963, when at Wroclaw University, where he had been since 1945, he became editor of Studia Logica.
Woleński, Jan; Zygmunt, Jan (1989). "Jerzy Słupecki (1904-1987): Life and Work". Studia Logica. 48 (4): 401–411.
Smólski, Władysław
“The occupation did not undermine the friendship between Władysław Smólski, a Polish author and playwright, and his many Jewish writer friends. On the contrary, he kept up contact with them and tried to help them to the best of his ability. As a member of Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews) in Warsaw, he provided a number of Jews with forged documents, found them hiding places on the Aryan side of the city, and offered them financial assistance. Among the Jews he helped were: Bronisław Elkana Anlen, Tadeusz Reinberg, Wanda Hac, Janina Reicher, Janina Wierzbicka and Natalia Zwierzowa. Smólski’s youngest charge was Jolanta Zabarnik (later Nowakowska), the daughter of friends of his, who was five when she first arrived. At first, Smólski hid her in his home and with relatives, until he found her a safer place in a convent in Chotomow, near Warsaw. In risking his life to save Jews, Smólski, an unassuming man, was guided by humanitarian motives, which overrode considerations of personal safety or economic hardship. Smólski documented the saga of Zabarnik’s rescue in his book A Child’s Fate (Losy Dziecka), which was published in 1964.
“On July 13, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Władysław Smólski as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2286.
Smyczyńska, Anna
Szydłowska-Smyczyńska, Teresa
“In late 1942, Miriam Perkal (later From) and her young brother, Mendel, fled from the labor camp in Minsk Mazowiecki, in the Warsaw district. In late January 1943, after living for a while in temporary accommodation, they met a Zegota activist in Warsaw, who referred them to Anna Smyczyńska, and her daughter, Teresa, who lived in Zbójna Góra, near Radość, not far from Warsaw. Despite their straitened circumstances, the Smyczyńskas, who were already hiding the Bronsztein brothers from the town of Falenica, near Warsaw, agreed to shelter the Perkals. In due course, the Bronszteins and Perkals were joined by two other Jewish boys sent by Zegota, and later by four more Jews who were equipped with “Aryan” documents. The large number of refugees aroused the neighbors’ suspicions and, one day, Polish policemen arrived at the Smyczyńskas’ house, arrested the four refugees with the forged documents, and handed them over to the Germans who killed them. After this incident, the two boys were sent back to Warsaw, but Anna let the Perkals and Bronszteins stay, despite the danger, until August 1944, when the area was liberated. Since Anna and Teresa Smyczyńska were too poor to support them, the Bronsztein brothers, who were professional bakers, worked. As devout Catholics, Anna Smyczyńska and her daughter did not succumb to the pressures of the hostile environment, but did all they could to help Jewish refugees, at great personal risk, without expecting anything in return.
“After the war, Miriam Perkal immigrated to Israel while her brother stayed on in Poland. Indebted to their saviors, they kept up contact with them and helped them out financially. After the liberation, one of the Bronsztein brothers was killed in a road accident while the other brother disappeared and was never heard of again.
On September 10, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Smyczyńska and her daughter, Teresa Szydłowska (nee Smyczyńska), as RighteousAmong the Nations. File 6148
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Walerian and Anastazja Sobolewski
Maria Wierzbowska
“Inka Grynszpan was born in Warsaw on July 31, 1939, to Tadeusz and Halina (née Zylberbart). The next year, the family was incarcerated in the ghetto, where they stayed until March 1943, not long before the ghetto uprising.
“Before being taken to Umschlagplatz, Halina and Tadeusz managed to hide four-year-old Inka in a sewage pipe. There she was discovered by some workers employed by Walerian Sobolewski. The workers somehow knew to take the little girl to the home of Wanda Bruno-Niczowa, a Polish teacher and acquaintance of her parents, who was also hiding her cousins’ child. When Walerian’s wife Anastazja heard that a pretty little girl was being hidden there, she decided try and adopt Inka, as she and her husband were childless.
“At Niczowa's home in Żoliborz, they finally met the blue-eyed, blonde-haired beautiful Inka. They were determined to look after her, but as she was dressed in rags, she drew unwanted attention from onlookers as they travelled home by wagon. The Sobolewskis made an effort to speak loudly about their "cousins sending their daughter to the doctor" dressed in an embarrassing way. Luckily, they were not denounced and got home safely.
“After a while, a Russian neighbor told Anastazja that she suspected that Inka was Jewish. This was very dangerous, so the Sobolewskis asked Niczowa to formally register Inka (under the name of Joanna Kwiecińska) at the G. P. Baudouin Home for Infants in Warsaw. The papers obtained from the home allowed the Sobolewskis to keep up the pretense of having legally adopted a Polish child. In 1943, Walerian was arrested and incarcerated in Pawiak Prison, which was extremely stressful and frightening to his wife, but he survived and returned home. In 1944, the Sobolewskis moved to Miłanówek with their adopted daughter and beloved dog, to live with their relatives. One day, a German officer came by the house, which terrified little Inka, but he endedup holding her and giving her a chocolate bar because the blonde child reminded him of his own. Inka grew up with the Sobolewskis until the 1960s. After the war, the family lived very comfortably, thanks to Walerian’s business enterprise. However, after Walerian was arrested for alleged sabotage, and Anastazja suffered fatal heart attack in 1958, someone revealed the truth to Inka about her adoption. This news set her searching for her blood relatives via advertisements and the Israeli embassy. When she discovered a family of cousins by the name of Prusak, Inka left Walerian and continued her life with her relatives. The Baudouin Home provided sanctuary to more refugees than just Inka. During the war, its head, Maria Wierzbowska, took in many Jewish children. As Irena Sendler*, who was responsible for the saving of children in Żegota, later testified, the Baudouin Home was one of a network of homes serving not only as an orphanage, but also as a transition point for children while Aryan papers were being created for them. Once the documents were ready, Wierzbowska would contact one of the neighboring monasteries, letting the nuns know it was time to come and collect the children. One of these monasteries was in Turkowice, next to Lublin, where over 30 children from Baudouin found shelter and thus survived. Sendler wrote: "Upon their arrival at the Baudouin Home the children were often ill, starved, terrified, after horrible experiences. They found in the staff of the Home support and total care: medical, material and parental. For some of them, the Home was a place of temporary yet safe refuge; for some war orphans it became their own home; but to all it was salvation from the death to which the occupants had sentenced them." Among the children taken in by Maria Wierzbowska and her staff were Michał Głowiński, Katarzyna Meloch-Jackl (both of whom were transferred to Turkowice), and Barbara Guz-Schmid, who survived there until the end of thewar.
“On July 19, 2006, Yad Vashem recognized Tadeusz and Anastazja Sobolewski and Maria Wierzbowska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 10890/1.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Sokołowska, Anna
“With the outbreak of war and the occupation of Poland, Anna Sokołowska, a veteran teacher, was dismissed from her job. Soon, Sokołowska began working for the Polish underground in the town of Nowy Sacz, in the Krakow district. Her activities on behalf of Jews intensified in 1942, with the liquidation of the local ghetto. When Jews began escaping to the Aryan side of the city, Sokołowska let them use her apartment as a transit point and temporary refuge, until they obtained “Aryan” documents, or were smuggled over the Hungarian border. Sokołowska, who, from the start, cooperated with Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews), directed activities on behalf of Jews, which included looking after the sick and wounded, and finding hiding places for Jewish children. Among those who hid in her apartment were two young Jewish women, who were later discovered by the Gestapo, arrested and executed. Sokołowska, too, was arrested, but managed to persuade her interrogators that she had not known that the women were Jewish, and was released. In 1943, Sokołowska was once again arrested, and after interrogation, sent to Ravensbrueck concentration camp, where she fell ill. She was killed by a lethal injection of phenol into the heart.
“On September 6, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Sokołowska as Righteous Among the Nations.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Aniela Zofia Steinsbergowa, (born on June 27, 1896, in Vienna, died on December 22, 1988, in Warsaw) was a Polish lawyer known for her work in defending politically well-known cases.
“In 1931, she was entered on the list of lawyers, which made her one of the first female lawyers in Poland. In 1934 she joined the Polish Socialist Party. During WWII she was active in the Żegota. After the war she became a co-founder of the Workers' Defense Committee and the Social Self-Defense Committee "KOR".
“Robert Jarocki, Aniela Steinsberg, in: Polski Słownik Biograficzny, tom XLIII, 2004–2005 online
Stępniewski, Tadeusz
“Tadeusz Stępniewski (1905–1987), a physician of some renown in the city of Warsaw, was a pronounced democrat, famous for his views, whose enormous efforts during World War II helped save many lives. Not only did he participate in the Żegota council’s (Council for Aid to Jews known by its code-name “Żegota”) actions to save Jewish children by placing them in a variety of hiding places, such as private homes and monasteries, but he also provided medical aid to Jewish refugees, including circumcision reversal operations to hide their origins. He helped Jews obtain Aryan papers and assisted them in escaping the ghetto. At a certain point in 1942, he acted with the aid of a resistance worker, Polish policeman Marian Żebrowski, to rescue his brother-in-law Krzysztof Libin from the ghetto. Libin, Stępniewski’s sister Danuta’s husband, was Jewish. Danuta and Krzysztof’s little son, Jan, were living with their parents (spending time in Tadeusz’s apartment from time to time and supported by him financially), but Krzysztof was imprisoned in the ghetto. Tadeusz managed to get him out of the ghetto and into hiding. Unfortunately, Krzysztof was killed in the Uprising.
“Tadeusz also hid Jewish children in his own home (including Julek and Krysia Dziedzic) and helped provide Jews in hiding with money. During the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, he worked tirelessly to help the wounded and suffered a serious wound himself. He survived and lived until 1987.
“Throughout his life, he opposed any mention of his heroic deeds on the principle that he had not done anything out of the ordinary and that there were certainly others who had done more than he had for the persecuted.
On March 15, 2016, Yad Vashem recognized Tadeusz Stępniewski as Righteous Among the Nations. File 13231.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Jadwiga Strzałecka, nee Mańkowska, codename: "Niunia" (1903-1947). An educator from a landowning family. During the War, in Warsaw, she ran a home for war orphans, for the Social Welfare Council, at ul. Morsztyńska 45. After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, Strzałecka and the children under her care managed to reach Poronin, where an institution was operating thanks to the support of the Kraków "Żegota". Amongst the forty children were ten Jewish children and two of the carers from the orphanage were also Jewish. All survived the War. Awarded title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
Strzałecki, Janusz
Strzałecka, Jadwiga
“In 1943, Janina Heszeles escaped from the Janowska Street camp in Lwów, and after many vicissitudes, reached Warsaw. Through activists of Żegota (the Council for Aid to Jews), Heszeles found work in an institution for Polish orphans and abandoned children, directed by Jadwiga Strzałecka, who was in close contact with Żegota, and had a reputation for helping Jews. Among other things, Strzałecka employed Jewish women on her staff, including a Jewish doctor called Heller. She also made sure that the ten Jewish children in her institution were properly looked after. After the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, the institution, with its occupants, was transferred to Poronin, in the county of Zakopane, Kraków district. The children were liberated there in January 1945. Jadwiga’s husband, Janusz Strzałecki, was himself an activist in the Kraków branch of Żegota as well as a member of the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne). He was responsible for finding hiding places for Jews, accompanying them there, and providing them with “Aryan” documents. Among the many Jews who owed their lives to Strza;ecki was Artur Nacht. After accompanying him from Lwow to Krakow, Strzałecki found him a hiding place, and provided him with food until January 1945, when the area was liberated by the Red Army. In risking their lives to help Jews, Jadwiga and Janusz Strzałecki, who saw rescuing Jews as part of their mission as underground activists, were guided by altruistic considerations only.
“On July 10, 1973, Yad Vashem recognized Jadwiga and Janusz Strzałecki as Righteous Among the Nations. File 810.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Kossak-Szczucka (Szatkowska), Zofia
“During the war, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka (Szatkowska by her second marriage) lived in Warsaw. From 1939, she was active in the Polish underground movement and from early 1941, she was engaged in the activities of a Catholic organization called Front for the Revival of Poland (Front Odrodzenia Polski). In July 1942, after the Nazis commenced the extermination of the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto, Zofia Kossak wrote an appeal entitled Protest, published in leaflet form. “The world is watching this crime,” read the leaflet, “the most horrible crime that has ever taken place in history and keeps silent. The slaughter of millions of defenseless people is being carried out amidst general and ominous silence… We must not tolerate this silence any longer. He who keeps silent in the face of slaughter becomes an accomplice to murder. He who does not condemn, complies with the murder." Zofia was also one of those who initiated the establishment of the Żegota, set up by delegates’ office of the Polish Government-in-Exile. Zofia was one of the principal activists of Żegota and was involved in the rescue of many people. She devoted herself selflessly to help Jews. "Her individual initiatives and efforts in rescuing the persecuted from death preempted her organizational activities in the field. She herself was wanted by the Gestapo and made a special sortie to Cracow in order to rescue an orphaned Jewish child,” wrote Bartoszewski Władysław* in his book The War Experiences 1939 – 1945.
“On September 25, 1943, Zofia was detained by a German patrol. They suspected her of being Jewish and of having forged papers. After a ten-day stay in the Pawiak prison, she was transferred to Auschwitz and then returned once again to Pawiak in the spring of 1944. (She described her experiences in Auschwitz in her famous book Back from the Abyss.) After the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, Zofia found herself in Częstochowa. In the summer of 1945, she returned to Warsaw.
“On September 13, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Zofia Kossak-Szczucka (Szatkowska) as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2377a
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Szostakiewicz Jadwiga – Zofia
Szostakiewicz Janina - Teresa
“Jadwiga Zofia Szostakiewicz, the wife of a Polish officer, lived in Kochanowska Street in Lwów, together with six children aged seven to twenty-one. In the summer of 1942, a woman introducing herself as Zofia Marciniszyn, rented a room in Szostakiewicz’s apartment. When Szostakiewicz realized that her tenant was a Jewish lawyer by the name of Kamilia Kroch, she insisted she stay with her, despite her straitened circumstances. In her subsequent testimony, Janina, Szostakiewicz’s eldest daughter, spoke of how her mother had declared that she did not want anybody’s death on her conscience. Szostakiewicz also hid Maria Lustig from Brody, who introduced herself as Maria Gawlicka, and her 12-year-old son, disguised as a girl called Inka Gawlicka, who were referred to them by Żegota (the Council for Aid to Jews). One day in 1943, Kroch discovered that informers had betrayed her 14-year-old daughter, Alicia, who was hiding elsewhere in Lwów, to the authorities and, fearing that the Gestapo would arrest her daughter, decided to give herself up. When Szostakiewicz, who was an AK activist, discovered Kroch’s intentions, she herself made her way to Alicia’s hiding place, and called on her AK friends to transfer Alicia to a prearranged shelter. The operation had to be repeated twice before Szostakiewicz managed to find a permanent shelter for Alicia, where she stayed until July 1944, when the area was liberated by the Red Army.
“In 1944, members of the Gestapo, alerted by informers, raided Szostakiewicz’s house but despite being brutally beaten, Szostakiewicz did not betray the Jewish fugitives who had meanwhile been transferred to another hiding place. After the war, Lustig and her son immigrated to Israel, while Kroch and her daughter, moved to central Poland, as did the Szostakiewiczes. Later, Janina Szostakiewicz testified that her mother had acted out of humanitarian considerations, in the belief that: “Onemust do all one can to save others.”
“On August 5, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Jadwiga Szostakiewicz and her daughter, Janina, as Righteous Among the Nations. File 5379
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Palester-Szulisławska, Maria
“Maria Palester was born in Lwów, and during the war lived with her family in Warsaw. After the city was occupied by the Germans, her husband, a Jewish doctor, was dismissed from his job and forced to remain at home in hiding. Maria, who experienced the persecution of the Jews first-hand, joined in the effort to help them from the first days of the occupation. In 1940, when the Jews of Warsaw were ordered to enter the ghetto, Palester convinced a Jewish neighbor, Maria Pogonowska, to remain on the Aryan side of the city and promised to help her in any way she could. She obtained “Aryan” papers for Pogonowska and her 11-year-old daughter Janina, rented an apartment for them in another neighborhood, and from time to time gave them money to help them out. After the liquidation of the ghetto, Palester’s apartment became a transit point and temporary shelter for Jews that had escaped to the Aryan side of the city. Among those who hid for various periods in Palester’s apartment and were helped by her were Pesa Rosenholc and Edmund Basseches. After the establishment of the Council for Aid to Jews (Żegota), Palester worked with the organization and collaborated with Irena Sendler* to save Jews that arrived on the Aryan side of the city. Motivated by pure altruism, Palester found them places to hide, and without asking for or receiving anything in return, provided them with money, food, and medicines. A short time after the war, Basseches died, Rosenholc immigrated to Canada and Pogonowska and her daughter eventually immigrated to Israel.
“On May 18, 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Palester-Szulisławska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 1835.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Teisseyre Styanislaw and Maria, active in Zegota File 13849/3.
On April 24, 2019, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Palester-Szulisławska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 13849/3
Maria Tomaszewska, (18 years old) courier for Zegota.
Eugenia Waskowska, Polish Socialist, her home at 24 Zurawia Street served as Zegota headquarters.
Janina Wasowicz, (“Ewa”), member of the Democratic Party.
Wawrzynska, Jadwiga Dr. Physician, Active in Zegota. Hid and supplied Jews.
Wawrzyńska-Pągowska Jadwiga
Wołowska Anna
“In the summer of 1943, Izabela Szymel’s parents, who had been hiding under a false identity on the Aryan side of Warsaw, succeeded in finding a place for their little daughter in a Christian home for children. Three months later, the child was expelled from the institution and brought to the apartment of Jadwiga Pągowska, a physician and activist in Żegota, who served as a liaison between the child and her parents. Despite the danger involved in helping Jews, Dr. Pągowska, who saw many patients in her home, agreed to allow the Jewish child to remain in her apartment, without asking anything in return. Izabela was hidden in a room, in which, in addition to her and Dr. Pągowska, 17-year-old Anna Wołowska also lived. In an adjacent room, Dr. Pągowska hid another Jewish woman, Ewa Appel, who was later killed in the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. Izabela was treated with great kindness particularly by Anna Wołowska, who devoted much time to her, caring for her as if she were her own child. Izabela stayed with the women until May 1944, when a place was found for her in nearby Otwock, in an institution for tuberculosis patients, where she remained until her liberation in September 1944. Izabela Syzmel, who, in later years became an economics professor, remained in Poland.
“On November 6, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Wawrzyńska-Pągowska, Jadwiga as Righteous Among the Nations.
“On June 23, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Wołowska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 7366.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Walerian and Anastazja Sobolewski
Maria Wierzbowska
“Inka Grynszpan was born in Warsaw on July 31, 1939, to Tadeusz and Halina (née Zylberbart). The next year, the family was incarcerated in the ghetto, where they stayed until March 1943, not long before the ghetto uprising.
“Before being taken to Umschlagplatz, Halina and Tadeusz managed to hide four-year-old Inka in a sewage pipe. There she was discovered by some workers employed by Walerian Sobolewski. The workers somehow knew to take the little girl to the home of Wanda Bruno-Niczowa, a Polish teacher and acquaintance of her parents, who was also hiding her cousins’ child. When Walerian’s wife Anastazja heard that a pretty little girl was being hidden there, she decided try and adopt Inka, as she and her husband were childless.
“At Niczowa's home in Żoliborz, they finally met the blue-eyed, blonde-haired beautiful Inka. They were determined to look after her, but as she was dressed in rags, she drew unwanted attention from onlookers as they travelled home by wagon. The Sobolewskis made an effort to speak loudly about their "cousins sending their daughter to the doctor" dressed in an embarrassing way. Luckily, they were not denounced and got home safely. After a while, a Russian neighbor told Anastazja that she suspected that Inka was Jewish. This was very dangerous, so the Sobolewskis asked Niczowa to formally register Inka (under the name of Joanna Kwiecińska) at the G. P. Baudouin Home for Infants in Warsaw. The papers obtained from the home allowed the Sobolewskis to keep up the pretense of having legally adopted a Polish child. In 1943, Walerian was arrested and incarcerated in Pawiak Prison, which was extremely stressful and frightening to his wife, but he survived and returned home. In 1944, the Sobolewskis moved to Miłanówek with their adopted daughter and beloved dog, to live with their relatives. One day, a German officer came by the house, which terrified little Inka, but he endedup holding her and giving her a chocolate bar because the blonde child reminded him of his own. Inka grew up with the Sobolewskis until the 1960s. After the war, the family lived very comfortably, thanks to Walerian’s business enterprise. However, after Walerian was arrested for alleged sabotage, and Anastazja suffered fatal heart attack in 1958, someone revealed the truth to Inka about her adoption. This news set her searching for her blood relatives via advertisements and the Israeli embassy. When she discovered a family of cousins by the name of Prusak, Inka left Walerian and continued her life with her relatives. The Baudouin Home provided sanctuary to more refugees than just Inka. During the war, its head, Maria Wierzbowska, took in many Jewish children. As Irena Sendler*, who was responsible for the saving of children in Żegota, later testified, the Baudouin Home was one of a network of homes serving not only as an orphanage, but also as a transition point for children while Aryan papers were being created for them. Once the documents were ready, Wierzbowska would contact one of the neighboring monasteries, letting the nuns know it was time to come and collect the children. One of these monasteries was in Turkowice, next to Lublin, where over 30 children from Baudouin found shelter and thus survived. Sendler wrote: "Upon their arrival at the Baudouin Home the children were often ill, starved, terrified, after horrible experiences. They found in the staff of the Home support and total care: medical, material and parental. For some of them, the Home was a place of temporary yet safe refuge; for some war orphans it became their own home; but to all it was salvation from the death to which the occupants had sentenced them." Among the children taken in by Maria Wierzbowska and her staff were Michał Głowiński, Katarzyna Meloch-Jackl (both of whom were transferred to Turkowice), and Barbara Guz-Schmid, who survived there until the end of thewar.
“On July 19, 2006, Yad Vashem recognized Tadeusz and Anastazja Sobolewski and Maria Wierzbowska as Righteous Among the Nations. File10890.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Leon Weiss (“Leon”) Supervised six forgers who produced thousands of birth certificates, identity cards (Kennkarten) issued by the occupation authorities, residence permits, a variety of work permits, etc.
Jan Wesołowski
Wnuk, Marian, Hid, arranged shelter and provided forged documrnts to Jews in Lwow.
On April 29, 2019, Yad Vashem recognized Marian Wnuk as Righteous Among the Nations. File 13849.
Wójcik, Helena
“Helena Wójcik was an activist for the Polish Socialist Party during the occupation. She was one of the liaisons for the Council for Aid to Jews (Zegota) in Krakow. Her task was to visit hiding Jews, to deliver documents to them, to provide them with money and clothes, and, most important of all, to give them moral support and a feeling of security. Among those who directly benefited from Helena’s help were Chana Orbach and Helena Goldman, both of whom eventually left for Israel after the war. Helena was the sister of Wladislaw Wójcik*, the secretary of the Zegota in Krakow. He and his wife Wanda were also recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
“On May 8, 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Helena Wójcik as Righteous Among the Nations. File 1832
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
“Władysław Wójcik, codenames: "Czerski", „Żegociński", „Żegota" (1917-1974). Active in the Polish Socialist Party, Secretary of the Kraków Council to Aid Jews "Żegota" and was a member of the Civil Community Court (Cywilny Sąd Społeczny).
Wójcik, Władysław
Wójcik, Wanda
“Władysław Wójcik was the secretary of the Council for Aid to Jews (Zegota) in Krakow. Apart from the tasks involved with his position, he was also personally active in saving Jews. He often accepted them into his home after they escaped from various camps, sheltering them until he could arrange permanent hiding places. Being a member of the underground Polish Socialist Party, he used his contacts to “legalize” Jews, and when it was possible, he obtained the appropriate certifications needed to make false documents such as birth certificates and kennkartes. He also participated regularly in Zegota conferences held in Warsaw. Władysław’s wife-to-be, Wanda (nee Janowska), also took part in Zegota activities. Her apartment housed a small workshop for falsifying documents made out for Jews who were fleeing the camps and trying to hide on the Aryan side. For a few months, she also hid a Jewish girl named Janina Heschele (born 1931, later Janina Altman), who had escaped from a camp in Lwow.
“On March 28, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Władysław Wójcik and his wife, Wanda Wójcik, as Righteous. File 2/1613.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Henryk Woliński of the Home Army (AK). Headed the Jewish section of Delagatura, lawyer.
Woliński, Henryk
“Henryk Woliński (alias “Wacław” and “Zakrzewski”), a lawyer by profession, was active in the resistance movement during the war. In 1942, he headed the newly established Department of Jewish Affairs, which was attached to the main command of the AK. Due to this position, Henryk was in contact with the underground organizations that were active in the Jewish ghettos. From these contacts he learned about the situation of the Jews in occupied Poland. He sent all the information that he collected to the Polish government-in-exile in London. One of his reports was about the deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka (July-September 1942). As part of his activities in the Department of Jewish Affairs, Henryk was in contact with representatives of the Jewish underground in the Warsaw ghetto, such as Arie Wilner (“Jurek”), Yitzhak Cukierman (“Antek”) and others. During the war, Henryk was also one of the initiators of the Council for Aid to Jews, the Zegota, in the summer of 1942. “Wacław’s attitude towards the ZOB’s armed struggle as well as towards helping Jews was very favorable. He renounced antisemitic positions in the AK command and helped us very much,” wrote Adolf Berman, an activist of the Warsaw ghetto Jewish underground. Before the outbreak of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, Henryk helped with smuggling weapons into the ghetto, as well as Molotov-cocktail production. He constantly demanded an increase in the amount of help given to the Jewish resistance movement.
“In the years 1942-43, [Woliński] provided shelter in his apartment to a few people of Jewish origin, who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto. He did this despite the exceptional risk, taking into account the fact that he was engaged in underground activity, while his wife... was herself of Jewish origin,” wrote Zbigniew Byrski. He added that, “in the years 1942-43 I received various sums from him several times, which I gave to persons of Jewish origin who werehiding in Warsaw.”
“On November 14, 1974, Yad Vashem recognized Henryk Woliński as Righteous Among the Nations. File 511.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Wawrzyńska-Pągowska Jadwiga
Wołowska Anna
“In the summer of 1943, Izabela Szymel’s parents, who had been hiding under a false identity on the Aryan side of Warsaw, succeeded in finding a place for their little daughter in a Christian home for children. Three months later, the child was expelled from the institution and brought to the apartment of Jadwiga Pągowska, a physician and activist in Żegota, who served as a liaison between the child and her parents. Despite the danger involved in helping Jews, Dr. Pągowska, who saw many patients in her home, agreed to allow the Jewish child to remain in her apartment, without asking anything in return. Izabela was hidden in a room, in which, in addition to her and Dr. Pągowska, 17-year-old Anna Wołowska also lived. In an adjacent room, Dr. Pągowska hid another Jewish woman, Ewa Appel, who was later killed in the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. Izabela was treated with great kindness particularly by Anna Wołowska, who devoted much time to her, caring for her as if she were her own child. Izabela stayed with the women until May 1944, when a place was found for her in nearby Otwock, in an institution for tuberculosis patients, where she remained until her liberation in September 1944. Izabela Syzmel, who, in later years became an economics professor, remained in Poland. On November 6, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Wawrzyńska-Pągowska, Jadwiga as Righteous Among the Nations.
“On June 23, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Anna Wołowska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 7366.
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Jan and Antonina Żabińscy
“Jan Żabiński (pronounced [ˈjan ʐabiˈɲski]) (8 April 1897 – 26 July 1974) and his wife Antonina Żabińska (née Erdman) (1908–1971) were a Polish couple from Warsaw, recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for their heroic rescue of Jews during the Holocaust in Poland. Jan Żabiński was a zoologist and zootechnician by profession, a scientist, and organizer and director of the renowned Warsaw Zoo before and during World War II. He became director of the Zoo before the outbreak of war but during the occupation of Poland also held a prestigious function of the Superintendent of the city's public parks in 1939–1945. A street in Warsaw is named after him.[4]
“Jan and his wife Antonina and their son Ryszard used their personal villa and the zoo itself to shelter hundreds of displaced Jews. Additionally, Jan fought during the Warsaw Uprising, was subsequently injured, and became a prisoner of war.
“Following the German takeover of Warsaw in September 1939, Żabiński, a Zoo director, was appointed by the new Nazi administration as the superintendent of the public parks as well. An employee of the Warsaw municipality, he was allowed to enter the Warsaw Ghetto officially, when the ghetto was founded in 1940. Jan and his wife Antonina began helping their many Jewish friends right away. Availing himself of the opportunity to visit the Warsaw ghetto ostensibly to inspect the state of the flora within the ghetto walls, Żabiński maintained contact with his Jewish colleagues and friends from before the invasion, helped them escape and find shelter on the "Aryan" side of the city. Among the many Jews he saved were sculptor Magdalena Gross with her husband Maurycy Paweł Fraenkel, writer Rachela Auerbach, Regina and Samuel Kenigswein with children, Eugenia Sylkes, Marceli Lewi-Łebkowski with family, Marysia Aszerówna, the Keller family, Professor Ludwik Hirszfeld as well as Leonia and Irena Tenenbaum, wife and daughter of entomologist Szymon Tenenbaum [pl] (killed in the Ghetto), as well as numerous others; most of whom survived the Holocaust and nominated him for the Righteous Award years later.
“During the German air assault on Warsaw in September 1939, many animal enclosures had been emptied and the zoo specimens taken elsewhere. The Żabińskis decided to utilize the clean pens, cages, and stalls as the hiding places for fleeing Jews. Over the course of three years, hundreds of Jews found temporary shelter in these abandoned cages on the eastern bank of the Vistula River until finding refuge elsewhere. In addition, close to a dozen Jews were sheltered in Żabiński's two-story private home on the zoo's grounds. In this dangerous undertaking he was helped by his wife, Antonina, a recognized author, and their young son, Ryszard, who nourished and looked after the needs of the many distraught Jews in their care. At first, Żabiński paid from his own funds to subsidize the maintenance costs; then money was received through Żegota: Council to Aid Jews.
“An active member of the Polish underground resistance movement Armia Krajowa (the Home Army) in the rank of lieutenant, Żabiński participated in the Warsaw Polish Uprising in August and September 1944. Upon its suppression, he was taken as a prisoner to camps in Germany. His wife continued their work, looking after the needs of some of the Jews left behind in the ruins of the city.
For this Jan and his wife received the Righteous Among the Nations award in 1965. On October 30, 1968, a tree planting ceremony was held at Yad Vashem honoring them.[10][11]
“Antonina Maria Żabińska, née Erdman (18 July 1908, in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire – 19 March 1971, in Warsaw, Polish People’s Republic), was a Polish writer connected, through her husband Jan Żabiński, with the Warsaw Zoo.
“During World War II, Antonina and her husband Jan sheltered many Jews, including Warsaw Ghetto escapees, in the emptied animal enclosures and their private home on the zoo grounds. For this Antonina and her husband received the Righteous Among the Nations award in 1965. On October 30, 1968, a tree planting ceremony was held at Yad Vashem honoring them.
“After the war, Żabińska's children's books, "Rysice" (Lynxes, 1948) and "Borsunio" (Badger, 1964) were published. In 1968 she released a diary, Ludzie i zwierzęta (People and Animals), with recollections of her activities during the World War II occupation. 1970 saw her last book, Nasz dom w zoo (Our House in the Zoo), about the Warsaw Zoo.
“She was buried at the historic Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.
“In 2008 Antonina Żabińska was posthumously honored with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
"Hiding in Zoo Cages: Jan & Antonina Zabinski, Poland". Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority. "Żabiński Jan & Żabińska Antonina (Erdman)". The Righteous Among The Nations Database. Yad Vashem. "The Zookeeper's Wife"
Natalia Zarembina (née Lipszyc; 1895 – April 30, 1973, in Warsaw) was a Polish writer and journalist, activist of the Polish Socialist Party – Freedom, Equality, Independence, Council for Aid to Jews, and participant in the underground resistance movement in occupied Poland.
“Zarembina's husband was Zygmunt Zaremba. She also used the literary pseudonym "Wita Marcinkowska".
“In December 1942, Zarembina published in occupied Warsaw the book Obóz śmierci (eng. Death Camp), which was the first documentary about the German concentration camp Auschwitz. The author contained the information based on reports of refugees or people dismissed from the camp, mainly Eryk Lipinski (camp number 20022), Henryk Świątkowski (unidentified number) and Edward Bugajski (camp number 16929).
“In 1943, the report was translated into English and published in London under the title Auschwitz: The Camp of Death. In 1944, the book appeared under the same title in New York. In the years 1943-1945, it was also published in seven other languages.
“In 1946, Zarembina left Poland as a political exile. She published books there under the occupation pseudonym "Wita Marcinkowska". In 1970, three years after the death of her husband, who died in 1967 in France, she returned to Poland. She died in Warsaw on April 30, 1973.
“In 2005, after 60 years, a reprint of the book on Auschwitz containing the Polish text printed in 1942 and two English translations was published. The book was distributed to the guests of the anniversary ceremonies in Oświęcim in 2005.
Oświęcim Death Camp, Warsaw (1942), London (1943), New York (1944),
Poland punishing (1943),
Kroniki Generalnej Guberni. Historia kraju pod niemiecką okupacją, (1945),[9]
Cygan, Franciszek
Marciniakówna-Cyganowa, Janina
Cygan-Cyganiewicz, Edward (Jerzy)
Cyganówna-Kuśmierzowa, Helena
Marciniakówna, Klementyna
Ziębowa, Kazimiera [(née: Bachawska)]
Before the war, Cygan Franciszek, was a secretary of the council of village Abramów (today, the village is situated within the Lubartów county; Lublin voivodeship), during the occupation times, he also served as a deputy of the region’s commander of the “BCh” organization (pl. “Bataliony Chłopskie”; en. “Polish Peasant’s Battalions.”) In addition, he had contacts with the AK- Armia Krajowa organization (en. Home Army); and with Żegota (Konrad Żegota Committee). Cygan, knew very well Rajs Józef (Josef), who lived in Łęczna town situated in the Lublin district; and owned large fish-breeding ponds in the nearby village of Dratów. During the occupation, the Jews of Łęczna were incarcerated in the local ghetto (the Łęczna ghetto). A few days before the liquidation of the ghetto, in autumn 1942 (the ghetto was liquidated on the 23rd of October 1942); Cygan Franciszek, sent his sister-in-law, Marciniakówna Klementyna, to the ghetto, in order to warn the Rajs family of the ghetto’s imminent liquidation; and to offer them a shelter in his home. Rajsówna Sara (Sura), (later known as- Zylbersztejnowa) managed to escape with her sister Rajsówna-Rozengartenowa, Rachel (Ruchla) from the ghetto.
Sara, came to the Cygan family who gave her a warm reception; while Rachel, escaped and was hiding at Marciniakówna’s house (afterwards, she was hiding near the village of Milejów, today the village is situated at the administrative district of Milejów*, in Łęczna County, Lublin voivodeship; she was hiding in Polish peasant’s house. She was also saved by Cygan Franciszek, who made for her “Kenkarte.”) Unfortunately, Marciniakówna Klementyna was murdered on the 20th of February 1942; together with other Jewish fugitives who were hiding at her house. Among the hiding fugitives, was a family relative of Rajsówna Sara (her uncle’s son) from Warsaw; named- Rajs Julek, who managed to survive the execution, while he was hiding in a bunker; which was situated near stable. Throughout her stay, Franciszek and Janina Cygan watched over Sara, and saw to all her needs. Although their children, Edward (who was 13-year-old (and Helena (who was at age of 9), kept Sara’s presence in secret; a year after her arrival, neighbors reported on her, to the head of the local Polish auxiliary force, the so-called: “Blue Police”; (pl. Granatowa Policja; gr. Blaue Polizei). The head of the Blue Police, advised Cygan to kill Sara and dispose of her body (to burry her body); but the Cygan family would not hear of it. Instead of it, Sara was equipped by Franciszek with a false identity card-“Kennkarte” (on the name of Grodnik Sabina), and was taken by him to Warsaw; where she made her way to the Warsaw’s suburbs of Praga; where she found a shelter at Dr. Ziębowa Kazimiera (a gynecologist) house. Unfortunately, she had to move to other destination, after the neighbors became suspicious (she was hiding there from October 1943 till January 1944). Ziębowa, found for Sara another hiding place (she gave her an address of her friend), in friend’s house, at Stalowa Street; where she stayed until the area was liberated (that friend, didn’t know anything about Sara’s real identity; that she was a Jew) in the autumn of 1944. In risking their lives in order to save Sara, and by making twenty-two forged identity documents (Kenkarte); the Cygan family was guided by humanitarian motives and a loyalty towards their friends, which overrode the considerations of personal safety, or economic hardship during the war times.
On the 22nd of June 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Cygan Franciszek, and his wife Marciniakówna-Cyganowa, their children: Cygan-Cyganiewicz Edward andCyganówna-Kuśmierzowa Helena; Marciniakówna Klementyna and Ziębowa Kazimiera (née: Bachawska), as a Righteous Among the Nations. [* This information was partly taken from the official site of the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews- The Polish Righteous, for additional information please see: http://www.sprawiedliwi.org.pl/pl/family/82,rodzina-cyganow/article=1019,relacja-edwarda-cyganiewicza (The Audio Collection- “Helena Kuśmierz- Odszukanie Racheli, Siostry Sary 1m26s)]. File 1399
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
Ziębowa, Kazimiera [(née: Bachawska)]
“Before the war, Cygan Franciszek, was a secretary of the council of village Abramów (today, the village is situated within the Lubartów county; Lublin voivodeship), during the occupation times, he also served as a deputy of the regions commander of the “BCh” organization (pl. “Bataliony Chłopskie”; en. “Polish Peasant’s Battalions.”) In addition, he had contacts with the AK- Armia Krajowa organization (en. Home Army); and with Żegota (Konrad Żegota Committee). Cygan, knew very well Rajs Józef (Josef), who lived in Łęczna town situated in the Lublin district; and owned large fish-breeding ponds in the nearby village of Dratów. During the occupation, the Jews of Łęczna were incarcerated in the local ghetto (the Łęczna ghetto). A few days before the liquidation of the ghetto, in autumn 1942 (the ghetto was liquidated on the 23rd of October 1942); Cygan Franciszek, sent his sister-in-law, Marciniakówna Klementyna, to the ghetto, in order to warn the Rajs family of the ghetto’s imminent liquidation; and to offer them a shelter in his home. Rajsówna Sara (Sura), (later known as- Zylbersztejnowa) managed to escape with her sister Rajsówna-Rozengartenowa, Rachel (Ruchla) from the ghetto.
“Sara, came to the Cygan family who gave her a warm reception; while Rachel, escaped and was hiding at Marciniakówna’s house (afterwards, she was hiding near the village of Milejów, today the village is situated at the administrative district of Milejów*, in Łęczna County, Lublin voivodeship; she was hiding in Polish peasants house. She was also saved by Cygan Franciszek, who made for her “Kenkarte.”) Unfortunately, Marciniakówna Klementyna was murdered on the 20th of February 1942; together with other Jewish fugitives who were hiding at her house. Among the hiding fugitives, was a family relative of Rajsówna Sara (her uncle’s son) from Warsaw; named- Rajs Julek, who managed to survive the execution, while he was hiding in a bunker; which was situated near stable. Throughout her stay, Franciszek and Janina Cygan watched over Sara, and saw to all her needs. Although their children, Edward (who was 13-year-old (and Helena (who was at age of 9), kept Sara’s presence in secret; a year after her arrival, neighbors reported on her, to the head of the local Polish auxiliary force, the so-called: “Blue Police”; (pl. Granatowa Policja; gr. Blaue Polizei). The head of the Blue Police, advised Cygan to kill Sara and dispose of her body (to burry her body); but the Cygan family would not hear of it. Instead of it, Sara was equipped by Franciszek with a false identity card-“Kennkarte” (on the name of Grodnik Sabina), and was taken by him to Warsaw; where she made her way to the Warsaw’s suburbs of Praga; where she found a shelter at Dr. Ziębowa Kazimiera (a gynecologist) house. Unfortunately, she had to move to other destination, after the neighbors became suspicious (she was hiding there from October 1943 till January 1944). Ziębowa, found for Sara another hiding place (she gave her an address of her friend), in friend’s house, at Stalowa Street; where she stayed until the area was liberated (that friend, didn’t know anything about Sara’s real identity; that she was a Jew) in the autumn of 1944. In risking their lives in order to save Sara, and by making twenty-two forged identity documents (Kenkarte); the Cygan family was guided by humanitarian motives and a loyalty towards their friends, which overrode the considerations of personal safety, or economic hardship during the war times.
On the 22nd of June 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Cygan Franciszek, and his wife Marciniakówna-Cyganowa, their children: Cygan-Cyganiewicz Edward andCyganówna-Kuśmierzowa Helena; Marciniakówna Klementyna and Ziębowa Kazimiera (née: Bachawska), as a Righteous Among the Nations. [* This information was partly taken from the official site of the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews- The Polish Righteous, for additional information please see: http://www.sprawiedliwi.org.pl/pl/family/82,rodzina-cyganow/article=1019,relacja-edwarda-cyganiewicza (The Audio Collection- “Helena Kuśmierz- Odszukanie Racheli, Siostry Sary 1m26s)]. / File 1399b
Gutman, Israel (Editor-in-Chief), and Sara Bender (Associate Editor). The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations, Vol. 1. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.
In 1963 Żegota was commemorated in Israel with the planting of a tree in the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, with Władysław Bartoszewski present.[38] In 1995 a monument to the organization was unveiled in Warsaw.[39] Another monument was unveiled in 2009 in the Survivors' Park in Łódź.[40][41] Żegota is also commemorated in plaques at places of its regional offices in Warsaw and Kraków.[42] In 2009 a commemorative series of coins was issued by the National Bank of Poland.[42]
List of Żegota members
Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust
Aleksander Ładoś
History of the Jews in Poland
Timeline of Jewish-Polish history
Polish resistance movement in World War II
Occupation of Poland (1939–45)
Notes
1. Gunnar S. Paulsson (2002). Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940–1945. Yale University Press. p. xviii.
2. Yad Vashem Shoa Resource Center, Zegota
3. Władysław Bartoszewski: środowisko naturalne korzenie Michal Komar, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski Świat Ksia̜żki, page 238, 210
4. "The Council to Aid Jews "Żegota" | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews). Warsaw. Retrieved 22 June 2018. The Council to Aid Jews, Żegota, was the only state-sponsored organization in occupied Europe which was set up with the aim of saving Jews.
5. Golarz, Raymond J.; Golarz, Marion J. (25 April 2011). Sweet Land of Liberty. AuthorHouse. p. 95. This was the only organization in German-occupied countries established specifically to save Jews.
6. Pogonowski, Iwo (1997). Jews in Poland: A Documentary History. Hippocrene Books.
7. Winstone, Martin (30 October 2014). Dark Heart of Hitler's Europe: Nazi Rule in Poland under the General Government. I.B. Tauris. p. 181. Żegota was the only organization of its kind in Europe
8. Bartrop, Paul R. (15 September 2017). Bartrop, Paul R.; Dickerman, Michael (eds.). The Holocaust: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. pp. 737–738. Poland was the only country in Nazi-occupied Europe where such an organization, run jointly by Jews and non-Jews from a wide range of political movements, existed... Żegota was a truly unique phenomenon within the horror of the Holocaust
9. "The History of "Żegota" | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews). 2018. By the spring of 1943, the Council had branches in Kraków, Lwów, and the Lublin area. In all of occupied Europe, it was the only institution officially established and supported by a government, with the aim of saving Jews.
10. Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). "Assistance to Jews". Poland's Holocaust. McFarland & Company. p. 118.
11. Marek Ney-Krwawicz (1999). Armia Krajowa: szkic historyczny. Wydawn. Ars Print Production. p. 88. Kierujący referatem żydowskim Henryk Woliński był też współinicjatorem utworzenia w 1942 r. Rady Pomocy Żydom „Żegota
12. Robert Alvis (2016). White Eagle, Black Madonna: One Thousand Years of the Polish Catholic Tradition. Oxford University Press. pp. 212, 214.
13. Kirk, Heather (2004). A Drop of Rain. Dundurn. p. 117.
14. Żydzi w Polsce: dzieje i kultura: leksykon Jerzy Tomaszewski, Andrzej Żbikowski Wydawnictwo Cyklady, 2001, page 552
15. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, volumes 3–4 Israel Gutman Macmillan Library Reference USA, page 1730
16. Zagłada Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej: 1945–1947 – page 129 Aleksander Gella – 1998
17. "Żegota" in Kraków Established 75 Years Ago Mateusz Szczepaniak / English translation: Andrew Rajcher, 14 March 2018 POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
18. Segel, Harold B. (1996). Stranger in Our Midst: Images of the Jew in Polish Literature. Cornell University Press.
19. "Death Penalty for Aiding Jews — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum".
20. Winstone, Martin (2014). The Dark Heart of Hitler's Europe: Nazi rule in Poland under the General Government. London: Tauris. pp. 181–182.
21. Michman, Dan; Dreifuss, Havi; Silberklang, David (5 July 2018). "תגובת ההיסטוריונים של יד ושם להצהרה המשותפת של ממשלות פולין וישראל בנוגע לתיקון מיום 26 בינואר 2018 לחוק "המכון לזיכרון לאומי" של פולין" [Reply by the historians of Yad Vashem to the joint statement by the governments of Poland and Israel on the 26 January 2018 amendment to the law of the "Institute of National Remembrance" of Poland] (Press release) (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. Retrieved 19 July 2020. [Some] Polish resistance fighters, that were willing to fight bravely and faithfully against the German conqueror, contributed on their end to a certain aspect of Nazi policy in occupied Poland to its broad success: the murder of Jews. These trends are also expressed in the words of Righteous Among the Nations and member of the Żegota organization Irena Sendler, that during the Second World War it was simpler to hide a tank under the carpet than shelter a Jewish child."
22. Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust University Press of Kentucky, 1989; 201 pp.; p. 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation, 1939–1944, University Press of Kentucky, 1986; 300 pp.
23. Waldemar Grabowski, "Rada Pomocy Żydom »Żegota« w strukturach Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego" ("Żegota within the Structures of the Polish Underground State"), Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance), no. 11 (120), November 2010, IPN, pp 50–51.
24. Aleksander Gella, Zagłada Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej: 1945–1947 (The Demise of the Polish Second Republic: 1945–1947), 1998, p. 129.
25. ("Żegota Was Established in Kraków 75 Years Ago").
26. Stefan Korboński, Polacy, Żydzi i Holocaust (The Poles, the Jews, and the Holocaust), 1999, p. 58.
27. Marcin Urynowicz, “Zorganizowana i indywidualna pomoc Polaków dla ludności żydowskiej eksterminowanej przez okupanta niemieckiego w okresie drugiej wojny światowej” ("Poles' Organized and Individual Help to the Jewish Population Being Exterminated by the Occupying Germans during World War II"), in Andrzej Żbikowski, ed., Polacy i Żydzi pod okupacją niemiecką 1939–1945 (Poles and Jews under the German Occupation, 1939–1945), Warsaw, IPN, 2006, p. 225–26.
28. Holocaust: Responses to the persecution and mass murder of the Jews. Holocaust: critical concepts in historical studies. 5. book chapter by Antony Polonsky, edited by David Cesarani & Sarah Kavanaugh. London; New York: Routledge. 2004. p. 64.
29. Contested memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its aftermath. Joshua D. Zimmerman (ed.), chapter by Shmuel Krakowski. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 2003. p. 99.
30. Kermish, Joseph. "The Activities of the Council for Aid to Jews ("Żegota") In Occupied Poland". www.yadvashem.org.
31. Waldemar Grabowski, "Rada Pomocy Żydom »Żegota« w strukturach Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego" ("Żegota within the Structures of the Polish Underground State"), Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance), no. 11 (120), November 2010, IPN
32. Aleksander Gella, Zagłada Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej: 1945–1947 (The Demise of the Polish Second Republic: 1945–1947), 1998, p. 129
33. Jewish Resistance: Konrad Żegota Committee, Jewish Virtual Library
34. Teresa Prekerowa (1999). Zegota: Commission d'aide aux Juifs. Éditions du Rocher. p. 85.
35. "Historia pomocy - Buchholtz-Bukolska Janina | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl.
36. [1]
37. "Historia pomocy – Rzeczycka Sylwia | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl.
38. Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert (2002). "Żegota": The Council for Aid to Jews 1942–1945 : Selected Documents : Preceded by an Interview with Władysław Bartoszewski by Andrzej Friszke. Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa. p. 155.
39. "17th Anniversary of the "Żegota" Monument Unveiling | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl.
40. "W Łodzi uczczono pamięć Polaków ratujących Żydów". dzieje.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 27 July 2020.
41. "W Łodzi uczczono pamięć Polaków ratujących Żydów". www.gazetaprawna.pl.
42. "Upamiętnienia "Żegoty" | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl.
General
Various authors. Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert, Andrzej Friszke (ed.). "Żegota" Rada Pomocy Żydom 1942–1945 (in Polish). Warsaw: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa.
Various authors (2003). Joshua D. Zimmerman (ed.). Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Rutgers University Press. p. 336.
Nechama Tec (1986). When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zegota.
Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust. McFarland & Company.
Gunnar S. Paulsson (2002). Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945. Yale: Yale University Press. pp. 2002.
Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski (1994). Zegota: The Rescue of Jews in Wartime Poland. Montreal: Price-Patterson.
Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski (1994). Zegota: The Council to Aid Jews in Occupied Poland 1942–1945. Price-Patterson.
Updated October 31, 2021