Righteous Ceremony Held at the Polish Security Printing Works in Warsaw

Mateusz Szczepaniak, Polska Agencja Prasowa / English translation: Andrew Rajcher, 13 August 2018
On 2nd August, the 74th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, a ceremony took place in the historic building of the Polish Security Printing Works, at 1 Sanguszki Street, during which Czesław Lech, a former Mint employee and member of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) “Rog” unit, was honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. His medal and certificate were accepted by his family, in the presence of Uprising participants.

With great emotion and pride, I accepted the Yad Vashem medal honouring my father Czesław Lech. In 1988, my mother, Helena Lech, received the same medal. These distinctions of honour, Righteous Among the Nations, will not allow their attitudes, in times and situations of extreme danger, to be forgotten. And they will not allow to be forgotten their devotion and willingness to help a Jewish girl left on her own, as was then the sixteen-year-old Chana Bulwa, known to us as Helena Majewska – Czesław's daughter, Krystyna Maria Lech-Czerny.

During World War II, Czesław (1904–1944) and Helena (1906–1991) Leche were employed at the Polish Security Printing Works and were members of the Union of Armed Struggle-Home Army. Czesław, under the pseudonym of “Biały”, as a reserve officer, worked in the PWB/17/S cell, which dealt with, among other things, the production of banknotes for the Polish Underground State. Helena, under the pseudonym of “Halina”, was active in the women's underground organisation “Pomoc Żołnierzowi” (Help for Soldiers). She also conducted secret training sessions for the Polish Red Cross. Orders and documents were stored in the Lech couple's apartment, as were secretly produced blank identity cards and food coupons.

In the summer of 1943, the Lech couple took in Chana Bulwa (Hanna Tal), a Jew from Zawichost. She had survived the liquidation of the local ghetto and had hidden on the “Aryan side” as “Helena Majewska”. The Lechs, not only helped the girl to find work as a babysitter and housekeeper, they also provided her with refuge in their employee apartment at 35 Rybaki Street in Warsaw. 

Read the story of the Lech family

By a decision of the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, Helena Lech received the title of Righteous Among the Nations on 13th October 1988, while her husband was awarded the title posthumously on 27th July 1995.

The medal and certificate presentation ceremony honouring Czesław Lech only took place on 2nd August 2018 in the historical Works building, the place where Czesław died on the 28th day of the Warsaw Uprising. During the event, Chana's daughter Shifra Shor stressed that she came to Warsaw to commemorate the Lech family in the name of Chana's two daughter, five grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren. She said:.

My mother was left on her own, using false papers arranged by her brother. Her mother and two sisters remained in the village, but were taken from there to a concentration camp where they were murdered. A few months later, her brother, who had helped her, was caught by the Germans and was also murdered. My mother, who was sixteen years old at the time, was left alone in the world and, like an animal being hunted, focussed all her energy on survival.

Those participating in the ceremony included one of the last surviving defenders of the Works, Juliusz Kulesza, pseudonym “Julek”, Works President Maciej Biernat, as well as representatives of the Israeli Embassy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Institute of National Remembrance and the Office of Veterans and Victims of Oppression.