Leontyna Matejko – Righteous Among the Nations
On the day of what would have been her 91st birthday, the late Leontyna Matejko was posthumously awarded the medal of Righteous Among the Nations. She passed away in 1997. The ceremony took place on 10th August at the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw.
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During World War II, Leontyna Matejko helped Bela Winokur and her two-year-old daughter, Danusa, who had had fled from a massacre in the forest in Ponary. The rest of their family had been shot. Leontyna took Bela and her daughter into her own home.
Present at the ceremony, Danusia, now Dvora Rozencwaig, recalled the situation. “(My mother) came across a cottage on the edge of one of the forests. She knocked on the door. It was opened by a young, pregnant woman. A small boy stood next to her. The young woman was called Lola. Even though she, hereself, lived in poverty, she turned out to be a person with a noble heart. She took my mother in and hid her in the attic”.
