Ten Poles honoured with Righteous among the Nations award
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
18.04.2017 14:16
Ten Poles have been posthumously honoured with the Righteous among the Nations award for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
The Righteous among the Nations award received by Marta Bocheńska. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The award is handed out by the Yad Vashem authority in Israel.
The Poles – Florentyna Józef Krzeszewska and her daughter Florentyna Danuta, Aniela Lipski and her husband Roman, Zofia Modzelewska, Tadeusz Stępniewski, Natalia Tomczak, as well as Helena and Bolesław Topolewski and their daughter Antonina – were non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the German Nazis.
According to historians' estimates, hundreds of thousand of Poles, both adults and children, assisted Jews in various ways during World War II. They did this despite the occupying German authorities threatening them with the death penalty. The number of Jews who were rescued is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
Over 6,706 ethnic Poles are commemorated in Israel's Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem for aiding Jews during World War II.
This year’s Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day will be commemorated on Monday, 24 April. (rg/pk)