Prof. Szewach Weiss Receives Poland's Highest Award

The Polish President's Press Secretary, Krzysztof Szczerski, stressed that "Szewach Weiss is probably one of the most widely-read writers in Poland, stimulating positive emotional examples of shared Polish-Israeli history. It is a dramatic history, but also, after that dramatic period, it has assumed the form of open, sincere and mutually respectful dialogue, as well as co-operation and a search for that which unites us". 

The presentation ceremony of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest award, awarded to Poles for outstanding civilian or military service and to outstanding citizens of foreign countries, took place during Polish President Andrzej Duda's visit to Israel.

During his visit to the Yad Vashem Institute, President Duda said, "As the President of the Republic of Poland, it is particularly overwhelming for me, as Professor Weiss told me, that more than half of the six million Jews who perished were Polish citizens".

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Szewach Weiss was born on 5th July 1935 in Borysław. In 1941, when the Germans entered the town, he, his parents and his two siblings ended up in the Borysław ghetto, from where they escaped. Then began several years of wandering from hiding place to hiding place. The story of how the Weiss family was rescued by the Potężny family can be read on our website. Click HERE to read more.