The Ceremony Honouring the Righteous Among the Nations - Wrocław
Among the honoured were Genowefa and Antoni Linkiewicz, their children Sławomir Linkiewicz and Anna Bujanowska, Rozalia and Hieronim Dolińscy and their children Ferdynand Doliński and Genowefa Sotnicka. During the World War II both families together took care of fourteen fugitives from the ghetto in Tłuste.
All the witnesses of those events are dead now, but their memories, which were handed over to Yad Vashem Institute, have been saved.
Zyta Cebulska, the daughter of Dolińscy, who received the award on their behalf, admitted that during the war she was too small to know everything about the people in hiding. “They wouldn’t talk about such things in my presence. I had to guess on my own what was going on. Everyone, who took part in those events, my parents and siblings are now gone, but I am proud of them. It’s a shame that they couldn’t receive these awards themselves” - she added.
The ambassador Rav-Ner reminded that the Jews had lived on the polish territories for eight hundred years and during that time both nations had been creating a common culture. “The help during the Holocaust was a sign of the highest human feelings that can be seen in those dark times. In Poland anyone helping Jews was threatened with death sentence, yet, despite the fear, people felt that they had to oppose their humanity to the Nazi crimes” - said the diplomat.
During the Friday ceremony twelve people, who were recognised as the Righteous Among the Nations earlier , were also awarded the additional honour of commemorative citizenship of the State of Israel. Among them: Halina Niedopytalska, Wacława Paczek, Alfred Kwarciak, Stefan Mikołajczyk, Teresa Strutyńska-Christow and – posthumously - Zofia Bajkowska.
