Righteous Ceremony Held at Warsaw’s Royal Łazienki Park

Royal Łazienki is an oasis, one of the few places in Warsaw to have survived to our time, almost unchanged from its 18th century form. During World War II, efforts were made to make this place, so important to Polish culture, inaccessible. Jews were the first to be deprived of access to Łazienki Park.

– Dr hab. Zbigniew Wawer, Director of Royal Łazienki Park Museum in Warsaw.

For the second time, a ceremony honouring  Righteous Among the Nations took place in the Royal Theatre – Old Orangery in Warsaw’s Royal Łazienki Park. Read about the ceremony which took place on 20th April 2017.

Those taking part in the ceremony included representatives of state and local government, families of those being honoured as Righteous and of Holocaust survivors – as well as one of those rescued, Kochava Tzur (Stella Zylbersztajn). A letter was read, to participants, from Jarosław Sellin, Deputy Minister of Culture and National.

Israeli Ambassador to Poland, Anna Azari, stressed that “during World War II, ordinary people were forced to make impossible choices. Not everyone passed this humanity exam”. Agriculture Minister and Chairman of the Parliamentary Polish-Israeli Group, Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, added that “there are good people and bad people. The good faces are of those who saved Jews. There were also bad people whose faces we do not wish to remember”.

The ceremony included a performance by Jolanta Kaufman and Ludmiła Jeżowska, who sang songs composed by Rightous Among the Nations Barbara Strzelecka (1928–2019). Head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression, Jan Józef Kasprzyk, opened an exhibition, in the Royal Sculpture Gallery, dedicated to Major Jerzy Radwanek (1919–2001), who was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations in 1990, for saving of Jews in Auschwitz.

The Stories of the Righteous

During the ceremony, held on 27th May 2019, the following were honoured posthumously: Franciszek and Regina Blaszko, Stanisław and Helena Borowski, Krystyna Bryk, Józef and Anna Budyński, Jan and Maria Burbutowski, Kazimierz and Anna Gałecki, Friedrich and Danuta Heckermann, Józef Izdebski, Antoni and Matylda Maliszewski and the daughter Maria, Jakub and Janina Krajewski, Aniela Roland, Szczepan Mariana Stankiewicz, Józef and Zofia Wysmulski. 

We present their stories below.

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Franciszek and Regina Blaszko lived in Mała Wólka, near Grajewo (Podlaskie Province). Franciszek was a railwayman and, in his spare time, he repaired shoes. In 1942, during a Sunday sermon, he heard the local priest asking the faithful to help children from an orphanage in nearby Szczuczye. In the area, it was said that Jewish children were staying there. Franciszek decided to help four-year-old Benjamin Katz, by taking him into his home. The boy was baptised and received the name Remigiusz (Remek). After the war, the Blaszko family moved to Wrocław, together with him and their nine-year-old son. In 1947, they decided to pass the boy onto an orphanage which was run by the Jewish Committee in Kraków. It was there that, for the first time, he learned about his Jewish origins. He then emigrated to Israel.

During the ceremony, Benjamin Katz’s daughter, Noga Murdoch, read a tribute to Franciszek and Regina Blaszko. The Righteous medal and certificate was accepted by Jerzy Kuźma.

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Stanisław and Helena Borowski lived in Łomża (Mazowieckie Province). In the autumn of 1942, their former neighbours, Icchak and Miria Gruszniewski, together with their sons Pinchas and Szymon, turned to them for help – they had escaped from the ghetto. Helena directed them to her brither’s family, Jan and Maria Burbutowski, who lived in the nearby village of Gielczyn. They hid the Jewish family in the forest and provided them with food. In November, the Gruszniewski family decided to separate in order to find warmer refuge for the winter. Six-year-old Pinchas turned to Helena Borowska for help. He stayed with her for two weeks and then wandered, from village to village, staying with various peasants until liberation. Three-year-old Szymon stayed on the Burbutowski farm and was then cared for by the Witkowski family. After the war, he settled in the USA, together with his older brother. Their parents did not see the war’s end. In 1944, Poles working in the forest handed them over to the collaborator Gałecki, who then handed them on to the Germans. They ended up in prison in Zambrów and, from there, were probably sent to Auschwitz.

During the ceremony, the Righteous medals and certificates was accepted by Stanisław and Helena Borowski’s descendant, Maria Kozłowska, and by Jan and Maria Burbutowski's descendant, Janusz Burbutowski.

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Józef and Anna Budyński, together with their daughter Krystyna Bryk, lived in Krzywce near Tarnopol (today in Ukraine). From 1943, they extended help to sisters Mania and Betty Bluhman who, with their mother and brother, had escaped from the ghetto in Borszczów. Initially, they hid in the forest. Then, Mania made contact with her classmate, Krystyną, who informed her parents. They agreed to help the sisters. For a year and a half, they were hidden in a barn, then a stable, and were provided with food.

During the ceremony, the Righteous medal and certificate were accepted by these heroes’ descendants, Bogumiła Bryk-Kruszyńska and Jadwiga Tuszyńska-Bryk.

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Kazimierz and Anna Gałecki lived in the vicinity of Łosice (Mazowieckie Province). From August 1942, they helped Stella Zylbersztajn (Kochava Tzur), who had escaped from the Łosice ghetto during its liquidation. In the following months, the fifteen-year-old girl frequently changed hiding-places. In 1943, she came upon an abandoned (or so it seemed to her) house in the village of Hoja. There, she met Józef Izdebski, his wife and three, small children. They made their living from embroidery. Despite that family’s kindness, Stella felt that, in her presence, they were living in constant fear. So, after two weeks, she decided to find another hiding-place. The Izdebscki couple told her that she could always return to them. A few weeks later, Stella fell ill with typhus. She spent the worst days of her illness with the Izdebski family. After the war, she was baptised and entered the Barefoot Carmelite convent in Poznań. In 1969, she emigrated to Israel where, for many years,  she worked as a nurse in a social welfare home.

Since 1981, Stella Zylbersztajn has made efforts for have the title of Righteous Among the Nations bestowed upon the twenty-six Poles who helped her during the Holocaust. She also attended the ceremony honouring Kazimierz and Anna Gałecki, as well as Józef Izdebski. She presented the Righteous medals and certificates to her heroes' descendants , Maria Lauferska and Marek Domański.

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Aniela Roland lived in Warsaw. From March 1943, she sheltered Maurycy Laibach (known as Jan Kociński) who, in August 1942, managed to escape from the Warsaw ghetto. Initially, he hid with the Gocławski family and then often changed hiding-places. He stayed in Aniela Roland’s home until the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. At that time, Aniela’s daughter, Danuta, married a German who had anti-Fascist views and who became friendly with  Maurycy. Following the Uprising outbreak, Friedrich and Danuta Heckermann moved to Berlin, while Aniela with Maurycy arrived in Kraków. In October 1944, via Vienna, they reached the Heckermanns. Maurycy stayed with them in Berlin until the end of the war.

During the ceremony, the Righteous medals and certificate were accepted by Maria Heckermann and Witold and Krystyna Wiliński.

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Jakub and Janina Krajewski lived in the village of Krajewo-Budziły (Mazowieckie Province). From 1942, they gave shelter to Sura Bursztyn (Barbarze Tyl), who came from Wołomin, near Warsaw. In the summer of 1942, together with her family, she was deported to Radzymin and, then, to the Treblinka death camp. There, taking advantage of the prevailing chaos, she managed to escape. She wandered around the area in search of refuge. In her own account, she wrote: 

I wandered around the fields and forests, feeding mainly on forest fruits. I was dirty, hurt and hungry. People I met were too afraid to help me. In the end, I arrived at the home of Jakub and Janina Krajewski. Despite their great fear and being scared of the neighbours, they took me into their home. I stayed with them until 1948. I can’t express in words what the Krajewski couple did for me, risking their own lives in order to save a Jewish child. I turn to the State of Israel, my own country, to honour them with dignity.

During the ceremony, the Righteous medal and certificate were accepted by Elżbieta Cikowska and Tadeusz Krajewski.

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Maria Maliszewska lived alone in Wołomin. Even before the war, she had met Fania Warman, a law student at Warsaw University. When Fania ended up in the Warsaw ghetto, Maria brought her parcels and tried to convince her to escape to the “Aryan side”. She only did escape during the ghetto liquidation operations. Fania only briefly took refuge with her friend and then, over several months, with her parents, Antoni  and Matylda Maliszewski. With Maria’s help, she obtained false identity documents from a local priest and, later, also obtained a German work permit. After the Gestapo searched the Maliszewski home, she moved to a nearby forest. She then decided to move back to Warsaw. There, she found work as a housemaid with a Polish family. Following the Warsaw Uprising, together with other Warsaw civilians, she found herself, in the Pruszków transit camp. After the war, she maintained contact with the Maliszewski family. In 1968, she left Poland for Canada.

During the ceremony, Fania Warman’s daughter, Anna Halber, presented the Righteous medal and certificate to Antoni and Matylda Maliszewski’s descendant, Andrzej Kielczewski.

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Szczepan Marian Stankiewicz lived in the village of Żabno, near Radomyśl nad Sanem (Podkarpackie Province). From 1942, he extended refuge to Maria Kirszenbaum-Trześniewska and her three daughters – 19yo Regina, 17yo Miriam and 15yo Rysia. They all knew each other from before the war, when Stankiewicz was a customer at the shop run by Maria and her husband. While hiding in Stankiewicz’s home, the Kirszenbaum family initially paid him for food, but soon the money ran out. A neighbour, Dominik Głowacki, joined in the help and brought potatoes, milk and bread to the Stankiewicz home. He also brought straw to make beds for those in hiding. After the war, Maria and her daughters left for Israel.

During the ceremony, the Righteous medal and certificate were accepted by Krystyna Pawłowska.

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Józef and Zofia Wysmulski lived in Moszeniki. They provided help to Nachum and Stefa Goldberg, Hirsz Rubinstein and to a Jewish girl whose identity is unknown. As the result of a search of the Wysmulski home, the Germans shot Zofia and the Jews in hiding were burned alive. Józef survived and, with his younger brother, fled to neighbouring Grabów.

During the ceremony, Gilad Levine Goldberg, a relative of Nachum Goldberg, presented the Righteous medal and certificate to the descendants of Józef and Zofia Wysmulski, Kazimiera Grosfeld, Krystyna Monti and to Anna, Bogdan, Jan, Krzysztof and Maria Wysmulski.

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Information about the bestowal of the State of Israel’s highest civilian honour, the title of Righteous Among the Nations, by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, can be found on our website here: Yad Vashem Criteria.