YOUR STORY
18 August 2010
Our website is a place where we recount the aid given to Jews during the Nazi occupation of Poland. This site is dedicated above all to those who were awarded the honorable title of Righteous Among the Nations. We would like it, however, to help gather various stories of the intertwined Polish and Jewish wartime fates, even those not directly related to persons awarded the Righteous Medal.
Many people still alive today carry stories of the relations of Poles and Jews during the occupation: the stories of their own lives, or those of their families, friends, neighbors... These stories are often unknown to anyone other than the participants or their close ones, and they are no less important than the stories of the Righteous and the persons they saved. These stories also bring out the truth of both the noble and the wicked in mankind and in our history.
We encourage every one of you to send in such slivers of human fate, still preserved by memory. We will do everything in our power to verify them, confront them with the existing documents, and publicize. With them, we will write new pages of the endless story of the struggle between good and evil – where the names of the Righteous are written already.
These pages have a place for Your Story..
STORIES
Story of Bencjon Gipsz (Drutin)
Bencjon Gipsz was born on 31 December 1931 in Stołopie near Chełm. His parents, Gerszon (born around 1900) and Ruchla (Rachela) nee Weintraub (born in 1909), ran a small general store in Chełm. In the mid 1930s, they began to build a house in Chełm together with their friend,...
Helpful neighbors - the story of Shoshana Neuhaus
Róża Steinlauf (later Shoshana Neuhaus) was born on 6 December 1930 in the Krasne Potockie village near Nowy Sącz. Her parents, Emil and Sala (nee Reibszaid), had a small farm, which was the family’s main source of income. Her father also served as a basic medical provider,...
My attitude and consistent telling of my story have saved me – account of Chana Hellman
Chana Hellman nee Bodner was born in the village of...
Story of a house in Saska Kępa in Warsaw
The house, which still stands, at 29a Berezyńska Street in...
The story of my father, Kazimierz Sikorski
For over a year, the Sikorski family had hidden in their home Etia, a Jewish girl, who was able to escape from the ghetto in...
I want to find witnesses to this rescue, says Ludwik Szul
We present the story of the Szul family who, during the War, came to the aid of Jews in their local area. Despite the efforts of Ludwik Szul, the only remaining member of the family, the title of “Righteous Among the Nations” has not been bestowed upon the Szul family...
Danuta Dąbrowska (Jakoba Blidsztejn)
Jakoba (Kubusia) Blidsztejn was born in Berlin in 1925. Her parents, Henryk Blidsztejn (born in Nowogródek) and Idalia Jurzdycka (born in 1890 in Samochwałowice near Mińsk Litewski) were Polish Jews, who had met and married in Germany. Both of them...
Children from the photo. A letter by Elżbieta Buczyńska
For several years now I have attempted to make contact with people, who might be interested in a story which my mother, Wanda Bortnowska, had told me. In the 1920s, my mother attended a female middle school in Łomża, where she became friends with a girl seen in...
Ready to Help Anyone. About Małgorzata Palester
Małgosia and Janina met in school before the war. Małgosia used to defend Janina, whose schoolmates teased her for being Jewish. For Małgosia, one’s origin did not matter. She was raised in a home, in which all forms of discrimination were...
A Ticket to Life
Shalom Lindenbaum, a Hebrew literature historian, professor emeritus of Bar-Ilan University, translator of Polish prose and poetry, expert in, inter alia, Bruno...
Lusia Schimmel (Lusia Pinczuk)
Year 1946. "I am a Jewish girl who survived the death camps. I was rescued here!” Lusia Schimmel cried out after the liberation of Pomieczyna, where Monika Szwertfeger had given her shelter. A man who lived in the area saved Lusia from the death...
Looking for Jańcia
The story begins in 1941 in Wiśnicz. Anna Hendla Singer Mandelbaum leaves her daughter, Chana, there with a Polish family. The little girl was to stay there for only a few days, until the situation had settled down. Unfortunately, in the end, no one returned to claim her. Luckily,...
One potato per day – an account by Anatoliusz Inowolski
Mrs. and Mr. Inowolski from Zalesie Dolne provided shelter to a Jewish boy and his sitter, Mrs. Janina. After World War II, the boy and his mother emigrated to Canada. “I would like to plant a tree together with the boy...
Death for a Good Deed. The Story of Aleksander Sosnowski
Aleksadner Sosnowski was a teacher in the village of Zawadka, Stanislavyv Voivodeship. During the War time for a year and a half he was hiding at the attic of his house two Jewish women, Ucia Fuks and Cunia Fuchs. This help cost him his life. Aleksander Sosnowski...
I Wish it Could be a Dream. Memoirs by Maksymilian Jarosz
This is a summary of the story. Full version of the text will be available soon. We are sorry for your inconvenience. Maksymilian Jarosz was the youngest of all nine children in the family of Anna and Ignacy Jarosz. A few...
A Prayer for Rain. Abigail Shahar's story
My name is Abigail Shahar. I was born as Jadwiga Bauman. The following are the names of people who risked their lives in helping me and my family survive the War: Wanda Korniłowicz Szczerbetko, Krystyna Szczerbetko, Janina Michońska, Zofia Topińska, Jan Topiński, Bronia, Kazimierz...
Memories of Barbara about her nanny Stasia
Barbara Biran née Kryńska was born in Warsaw on 30 May 1935 into the family of wealthy and assimilated Jews. At home, the members of the family spoke Polish. Her mother, Maria née Disterbach, born in Warsaw, was not...
Chaja's story - first child of Irena Sendler
An account by Teresa Tucholska-Körner (Chaja Estera Stein), “the first child of Irena Sendler”, compiled by Jadwiga Rytel on the basis of the interview with the Rescued conducted in Israel in March 2010. Chaja Estera Stein was born in Cegłów in Mazovia. Her date of...
The Righteous without a medal - about Gregorious family
A short story by Gabriela Gregorius, a student from the Jan Paweł II Junior Secondary School in Kudowa-Zdrój about Stanisław and Cecylia Gregorius, her great-grandparents who kept four Jews in hiding. April. The year 1944. A cold and wet night had already fallen in...
The story of my grandmother Julia Lisieczyńska who rescued Bolesław Rajber
Julia Lisieczyńska hid Bolesław and Henryk, sons of her Jewish acquaintances, in the attic of her house. Their father was a head of a distillery before World War II, and their mother was a doctor. Julia Lisieczyńska’s daughter knew German well so she frequently served as a...
The story of Hanna Langer
Hanna Pinkert was born in Warsaw on July 20th 1927. Her father, Zygmunt, was a clerk in Credit Bank. Her mother did not work. A few years before the war, Hania's mother, Syma (Ala) Pinkert, fell ill with tuberculosis and the family moved to Otwock. Actually, it was only Hania and her...
Lesser Poland's pharmacists rendering great service to the Jewish people during the Nazi occupation
Knowledge about history and its plenteous stories may be acquired from various sources – most often it is form textbooks or memoirs, and nowadays, more and more, the Internet. It might seem implausible that working on a PhD dissertation on such a narrow subject as the history of...
The story of my grandmother - Jadwiga Wydrychowska
I'm looking for my mother's real name, who was Jewish and a war orphan. After having read your stories about the Righteous, I believe that my foster grandmother, JADWIGA WEDRYCHOWSKA [who was hiding my mother during the war] should also be included in the group of the...
The story of Halina Sand
Halina Sand was born in Warsaw in 1936, daughter of Ewa née Rotblat and Mieczysław Pokorny. Her grandfather was an affluent businessman, owner of a company which imported paper form Finland to the Warsaw printing houses. After the outbreak of the World War I the...
„They Saved many Jews”
A lot of people in western countries are still in doubt as to whether during German occupation Polish people really had helped some Jews to survive the war. In my home village – Łubno near Dynów – Poles, Ukrainians and Jews had been living together for centuries. It...
The story of my great-grandparents - Adam and Maria Zboromirski
The story of my family goes back to the times of my great-grandparents, Adam Zboromirski and Maria Zboromirska, living in Ponaryszki near Vilnius. During World War II they rescued a Jewish boy: Akiva (Akiba) Brand (b. March 16th, 1936). They knew his family from before the...
A letter from Magdalena Skowrońska to Museum of the History of Polish Jews
A letter from Magdalena Skowrońska to Museum of the History of Polish Jews My name is Magdalena Skowronska and I am the granddaughter of Lucyna and Joseph Fink who were the Righteous among the...
Proczek’s family story written down by Michał Bożek
Before the 1st of September 1939 afew thousands of Jews lived in Łaskarzew and its surroundings. Only few managed to survive the war. In fact, it can be referred to all the pre-war Jewish communities in Poland. On the 9th of December, 1942, in the village of...
Dr Maria Proner-Pogonowska (1897-2009)
She lived 111 years, 8 months and 16 days. On the day of her death she was the eldest Katyń widow in the world. Maria Proner, maiden name...
The story of Jadwiga Zowczak about her grandparents – Marianna and Andrzej Zawadka
The story of Jadwiga Zowczak about her grandparents – Marianna and Andrzej Zawadka, who were posthumously awarded the medal of the Righteous Among the Nations for rescuing a Jewish boy (fragments) IN MEMORY...
A testimony by Katarzyna Danuta Andrejew
Katarzyna Danuta Andrejew, the president of the Łódź chapter of the Association of the Children of the Holocaust, talks about her family and her wartime story My daddy would always say that when I’d be fourteen, he’d tell me something really important....
Colonel Wincenty Podgurski
Colonel Wincenty Podgurski Born on Oct. 7th, 1882. Graduate of the Michajłowsk Military School of Artillery and of an electrotechnical school in Sankt Petersburg. Joined the army in 1902. Since 1904 served as an officer of the Russian army in the middle Asia, in Kuszka, on...
A story by Reverend Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel
[Karolina Dzięciołowska] When and where were Emilia and Piotr Waszkinel born? [Fr. Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel] My mom was born on April 4th, 1909, in the village of Łosiniec, near Korycin, in the Sokółka poviat, in the Białystok voivodeship. Dad was born in 1907...
The Tarnów – Piwniczna – Slovakia Courier Route
That’s where I hide – in the Dagnan mill, joining other whispers in the mourners’ kaddish… In the Dagnan mill my sons set off on a bedbug hunt… /Wioletta Grzegorzewska/ The Tarnów – Piwniczna...
Lily Fuchsberg’s report on her foster parents, Grzegorczyks
Lily Fuchsberg's report on her foster parents: Helena and Władysław Grzegorczyk Helena Olga Grzegorczyk, born 9th December 1918 died March 23rd 1985 Władysław Grzegorczyk, born 25th December 1905 and died June 7th...
Kazimierz Bielawski recounts the fate of the Chajt (or Hajt) family
Kazimierz Bielawski recounts the fate of the Chajt (or Hajt) family Kazimierz Bielawski was born on September 9th, 1931, in Małyńsk, to Helena (b. February 18th, 1901, d. 1995) and Leonard (b. February 6th, 1903, d. 1965) Bielawski. The Bielawski family moved to...
Locked in the Darkness. A letter from Sabina Heller (Inka Kagan)
A Fragment of my Life I was born Inka Kagan in 1941 in the small town Radziwillow, east Poland, district Ukraine. Nazi Germany just invaded the country and organized all over the ghettos for the Jewish people. My parents the Kagans were a young Jewish couple. They tried to...
Interview with Maria Iwaszkiewicz-Wojdowska
Maria Iwaszkiewicz-Wojdowska tells her granddaughter Ludwika Włodek about aid given to Jews by Anna and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Maria’s parents, recognized with the Righteous Among the Nations title. Ludwika Włodek: Did your parents talk about helping...
A letter by Menachem Daum
Last Friday [15.05.09] we filmed a beautiful encounter between Polish and Jewish students in Dzialoszyce . I hope this meeting “planted a seed” in both groups. After a brief introduction in the school the students walked together to the ruins of the synagogue where we read a...
Krystyna Budnicka - Rescued
Krystyna Budnicka She was born in 1932 in Warsaw as Hena Kuczer, daughter of Józef-Lejzor and Cyrla, the eighth and youngest child in the family. Her happy childhood came to an end with the outbreak of the war in 1939 when she was seven years old. The family home was...
Barbara Góra (Irena Hochberg) - Rescued
Barbara Góra She was born in 1932 in Warsaw as Irena Hochberg. Barbara finished the first grade of primary school when the war broke out. In November 1941 her family was forced to move to the Warsaw ghetto. While Germans were plundering the ghetto and the massive...
A letter from Mr Jerzy Raczkowski, who was hiding professor Jerzy Remer
We publish below a letter received from Mr. Jan Raczkowski from Gladstone, USA (the Museum is in the possession of the exact address) describing the story of hiding professor Jerzy Remer and his wife in Miedzeszyn near Warsaw during the Nazi Occupation of Poland. The...
Łucja Koch talks to her grandmother, Dorota Chaber, about her classmate Janka Wałężanka
My grandmother, Debora Guter (everyone called her Dora, and after she married, she was Dorota Chaber), is 95. She comes from Tarnów, from a poor Jewish family. She spent the war in the USSR, where she fled with my grandfather. Their families, both quite large, were all killed in the...