Righteous Medal Award Ceremonies in Białystok and Olsztyn

The ceremony in Białymstok took place in the Branicki Pace Guest House during the Festival of Jewish Culture "Zachor – Colour and Sound" in the presence of the Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari and the Mayor of Białystok Tadeusz Truskolaski. The medals and certificates of the Righteous were accepted by the families - Henryk and Zdzisław Radziwanowski, Janina and Maria Bogucki and Mieczysław Biały.

Alfons and Stefania Radziwanowski lived in the village of Dworzysko near Białystok. During World War II, they aided the Forojs (Forward) division of Jewish partisans, who were in hiding in local forests. They provided them with food and, in winter, they took the group's commander, Szymon Datner, (ps. Talk), into their home. Datner was an historian and a pre-War teacher in Białystok's Hebrew High school.

Years later, Alfons Radziwanski wrote, "I helped Mr Datner and other partisans for pure humanitarian reasons, as you would help those close to you. Later it was because of our hatred of the common enemy - the Nazi occupiers."

The Radziwanowski couple was not the only family in Dworzysk who helped Jews. Contact between the partisans and the villagers began at the end of 1942, when Szymon Datner met village elder (Sołtys) Zachariasz Słowiński. The entire village was involved in providing help.

Helena Datner, daughter of  Szymon Datner, was present during the ceremony. She thank the resident of Dworzysk, whom she considered exceptional. She said, "Thanks to their solidarity, the secrecy of aiding the partisans was able to be maintained."

That help continued until 1944, at which time the Forojs group joined up with Soviet partisans. After the War, Prof. Szymon Datner maintained close contact with the Radziwanowski family.

At the end of 1942, Lucjan and Kazimiera Bogucki, together with Stefan and Lucyna Biały, hid several Jewish families on their farms in Łazy-Dąbrowa and Dąbrowa-Kaski. Among those hidden were Szymon Okoń and his daughter Chaną, who had escaped from the ghetto in Wysoka Mazowiecka. They were hidden in the attic of the Bogucki's stable.

"I want to thank them for risking their lives to save us," wrote Chana Okoń in a letter read out during the ceremony. "Thanks to them, we survived and we have our own new families in Israel."

Chana left for Israel in 1959. She was joined by her father in the 1970's.

The ceremony in Olsztyn took place one day later, on 21st June 2016, at the Warmińsko-Mazurski University. Stefan and Olga Gumieniak, from the village of Baciki Średnie in Podlasie, were posthumously honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. During the Holocaust, they helped their pre-War friend Zvi Kramer, who had escaped from the Siemiatycze ghetto. He owned the timber mill in which Stefan worked.

The Gumieniak couple hid Kramer in the stable. Kramer often changed his hiding places aound nearby villages, but returned to Bacik Średny, where he could always count on help from his friends. After the War, he left for Israel.

The Righeous' grandchildren, Barbara Terpiłowska, Halina Proć and Roman Ryszko, accepted the award in the name of their grandparents.

"We never had the chance to know our grandmother because she died soon after the War", said Barbara Terpiłowska. "Our grandfather was reluctant to talk about those events. He never considered what he did to be any great act - merely a gesture of humanity”.