Sokołów Podlaski: Ceremony of awarding medals and honorary diplomas to the Righteous Among the Nations

the official ceremony of awarding posthumously medals and honorary diplomas to four Polish heroes, Righteous Among the Nations:

the late Franciszka Górska and Hipolit Górski from Sabnia in the Sokołowski county, who had been hiding in their house in Sokołów Podlaski two Jewish children, Irena and Aaron Elster. Before the Second World War, the parents of Irena and Aaron run a butcher’s shop on Rogowska Street. They asked the Górskis to take care of their daughter, and during the liquidation of the local ghetto Aaron also managed to escape and to get to them. The siblings had been hiding in the house of the Górskis until the Russians entered the town. Aaron Elster, currently the deputy director of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, told his story in the book “I still see her haunting eyes”. The rescued presented the distinction to a relative of the heroes, Grzegorz Witkowski;

the late Helena Szczebuńska and Gabryel Szczebuński from Woźniki in the Łosicki county, who helped to hide four fugitives from the Łosice ghetto. The medal and diploma was presented to a relative of the heroes, Bronisława Bazyluk, by the rescued Edward (Eddie) Weinstein, former inmate of the Treblinka camp, who described his history during the Second World War in the book “17 dni w Treblince” (“17 days in Treblinka”).

In the ceremony participated, among others: the starost of Sokołów Antoni Czarnocki, representatives of the town and district council, director of the Treblinka Struggle and Martyrdom Museum Edward Kopówka, the representative of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland Jakub Jaskółowski, and Piotr Pietrusiński, plenipotentiary of the provincial governor of the Mazowieckie province. Grzegorz Witkowski, relative of the Górskis, decided to hand the distinction over to the young people from the 1st Secondary School in Sokołów Podlaski, where he is a class tutor.

The ceremony was held under the honorary patronage of the Mayor of Sokołów Podlaski, Bogusław Karakula. The medals and diplomas were awarded by the Deputy Ambassador and Counsellor for Political Affairs, Yahel Vilan.