Righteous Medal Award Ceremony in Warsaw

Mateusz Szczepaniak, 16 November 2016
Sister Celina Kędzierska, Józefa Zychora and Zenobia Owczarowa, three Polish women, have been posthumously honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.  The ceremony took place in Warsaw on 4th April during the "Others in the Jewish and Catholic Tradition: Refugees in Today's World" Conference.

The conference was organised by the Vatican Commission on Religious Relations With Judaism and the International Jewish Committee on Interfaith Relations. Amongst those who took part were the Chairman of the Papal Christian Unity Council Cardinal Kurt Koch, the Papal Nuncio in Poland Archbiship Celestino Migliore, the Chairman of the Polish Episcopal Conference Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the Archbishop of Warsaw Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, Bishop Mieczysław Cisło, the Chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interfaith Relations Martin Budd and the Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich.

During the ceremony, medals and certificates were presented by the Israeli Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari to sisters from the Franciscan Order of the Family of Mary and to Zenobia Owczarowa's daughter. The audience included those who had been rescued by Sister Kędzierska (Anna Henrietta Kretz-Daniszewski and Jerzy Bander) and by Józefa Zychora and Zenobia Owczarowa (Marek Oren).

Sister Celina Aniela Kędzierska was born in Łódź in 1902. She belonged to the Franciscan Order of the Family of Mary. From 1924, she served as a tutor of children. In 1939, she became the superior of the order's convent in Sambor. During the German occupation, the sisters took over the care of Jewish and Roma children. This proved to be incredibly dangerous, as the German army had taken over some of the rooms at the orphanage.

One of those cared for by Sister Kędzierska was Henrietta Kretz. Until 1944, the little girl was hidden together with her father (a doctor) and her mother in the homes of Poles and Ukrainians. However, one day they were betrayed. Her parents were shot, but the child managed to escape from the site of execution. She wandered around for some time until she ended up at the orphange run by the Franciscan Sisters. When the War ended, she left for Kraków. As Sister Celina farewelled her, she her the words "Be a good person".

After the War, Siostra Celina Kędzierska, due to her health, never left Sambor which, by then, was no longer part of Poland. She died there in 1946 at the age of forty four. Anna Henrietta Kretz-Daniszewski has lived in Belgium for many years.

During the War, Józefa Zachora and her daughter Zenobia Owczarowa helped twelve year old Mark. His father, Józef Orenstein, led him out of the Otwock ghetto and took him to a Polish family in the village of Nabrzeż, where Zenobia "Żenia” offered to help him. At the risk of her own life, she took the boy to Warsaw, to the Basilica of the Most Sacred Heart of the Lord Jesus in Praga district, where he was baptised. He was then taken to a convent in Głoskowa near Grójec, where he was placed into the orphanage.

The boy being brought to Józefa was made possible by Żenia's mother,  Józefa Zachora. Despite her poverty, she fed a group of Jews who were digging ditches. Among them was Józef Orenstein. She used her home to enable him to meet up with his son Marek.

Józefa died in 1945, prior to the end of the War. After the War, Zenobia Owczarowa settled in Wrocław, where she died in the late 1990's. Over several years before her passing, she was able to meet up with Marek Oren, who came to Poland from Israel.