Sister Klara Jaroszyńska has died
During the Nazi occupation, the family of sister Klara gave shelter to Jews numerous times. Since August 1942 Halusia, the daughter of the Lautenbergs, was hidden in the house of the Jaroszyński family. For some time the Lautenbergs also lived with them, after having escaped the Radom ghetto.
As hiding Jews became more and more dangerous – Klara Jaroszyńska transported Halusia to the Center for the Blind in Laski, near Warsaw. The center was run by the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters. Sister Klara, who presented Halusia as her relative, taught the girl Catholic prayers and organized food and clothes for her.
Between 1942 and 1945 Klara provided help for sister Miriam Wajngold, a nun of Jewish origin. The women left Laski and went to Warsaw, where the Jaroszyńskis lived on Hoża Street.
However, there was no place left there, as Klara’s father – director of the Rejtan Secondary School – gave shelter to his students of Jewish origin. For that reason Klara and Miriam went to Zakopane, and later to Bukowina Tatrzańska, where the Resurrection Sisters run a house for children.
Sister Klara Jaroszyńska also helped the little Ewunia. The girl was saved from the transport to Treblinka by her mother – when they were standing at the Umschlagplatz, waiting to enter the carriages, her mother saw a cousin employed by the Nazis and managed to hand her the child without being seen. She did not escape herself and was transported to Treblinka.
The cousin handed the girl over to a friend of Klara. However, the woman was not able to keep her. Finally, the woman together with the child went to Kraków, where she met sister Klara on the street. The three-year-old Ewunia, when she saw the sister, grasped her legs and shouted: “In the arms!”. The nun had been taking care of the girl until the end of the Nazi occupation. Ewa only managed to find her in 2005, after 60 years of separation.
Ewa wrote to sister Klara Jaroszyńska the following words: “I did not know that sister Klara loved me so much! As a young woman, she had to take care of so many children and to take such responsibility in those difficult times. Her kindness, her warmth, love and beautiful smile, which I remember from my childhood, were something special for me”.
Sister Klara Jaroszyńska was honored with the title “Righteous Among the Nations” together with her father Józef, her mother Halina and her sister Maria Furmanik nee Jaroszyńska on February 18th, 1981.
