More Poles honoured for saving Jews from Holocaust

A successive group of Poles was honoured with Righteous Among Nations medals for saving Jews from the Holocaust during World War II.

Anna Niemirowska-Mikulska and her brother Jerzy as well as two Latoszynski sisters received the medals from the Israeli ambassador to Poland David Peleg. Among 19,000 Righteous all over the world there are 6,000 Poles.

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Four Poles receive Israeli awards

Four Poles have been presented with the Righteous Among Nations medals granted by the Israeli Yad Vashem Institute. These awards are presented to those who helped Jews during WW2. Michal Zajac reports.

Anna Niemirowska and her family lived in Warsaw during WW2 and saved two Jewish boys, knowing that any form of assistance to Jews meant the death of helpers and their families. Anna recalls that it was her father who taught her to help others even at the risk of losing one’s own life.

“My father’s message was: Everyone has a duty to help and save other people. Saving victims was, for him, a way of fighting against Nazi occupation. These two Jewish boys were not the only ones we helped. Many more found temporal shelter in our house.”

Anna’s brother Jerzy – also awarded with the medal – explains that the two Jewish survivors became a part of their family.

“My father told me once: I have 4 children – you and your sister – and the two of them. When I asked why he had been helping them risking his and our lives he replied: You still have your parents, they don’t.”

During the ceremony held in the office of the mayor of Warsaw, the Righteous among the nations medals were awarded to members of 2 families.

Michael Schudrich – the rabbi of Warsaw – stresses that one of the ideas to grant the Righteous among the nations medals is to preserve the memory of those exceptional acts of courage.

So far the medals have been given to over 19 thousand people around the world, of whom one third are Polish citizens.

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