‘It was a miracle’

Israeli Ambassador Zvi Rav-Ner (second left) with daughter of Grzegorz Czyżyk Nira Berry (left) at Nożyk Synagogue in Warsaw, Wednesday: photo - PAP/Marcin Obara

Grzegorz Czyżyk, who served as a policeman in Chełm, eastern Poland, used his contacts to release from jail Bela Peretz. He later offered shelter to her and her small daughter Sara, Nira Berry's mother.

Nira Berry came to Warsaw from the United States to attend the ceremony during which Grzegorz Czyżyk was posthumously honoured on Wednesday with the Righteous among the Nations medal by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem.

“He is a man to whom I and my children owe our lives,” Nira Berry tells Polish Radio. "It was a miracle".

Report by Michal Kubicki