Polish Righteous in Ukraine

The summer festival was directed to students of Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish descent living in Ukraine. They met to talk about their religion, history and memory of their two nations – in order to fight with stereotypes.

The “Polish Day” was mostly devoted to the subject of the Righteous Among the Nations. The participants of the seminar met with Dr Jarosław Kit, researcher focusing on the problem of survival in Lviv during the Second World War and with Beata Dżon, translator of the book “Dziewczynka w zielonym sweterku” (“Girl in a Green Sweater”). This book is based on the account by Krystyna Chiger, rescued by Leopold Socha and Stefan Wróblewski, who worked in the Lviv sewers and were later honored with the title “Righteous Among the Nations”.

Ewa Opawska from the Museum of the History of Polish Jews presented the subject of the Righteous Among the Nations, the process of awarding the distinction, the Yad Vashem Institute and the rescuing itself: the hiding places, motivation and fear. She told the story of the Ciszewski family,  who was hiding 11 people of Jewish descent at their house in Stanisławów (today Ivano-Frankivsk).

At the Ivano-Frankivsk synagogue, the participants also met with the rescued Prof. Aaron Weiss, who survived the Nazi occupation in Borysław (100 km from Lviv) together with his family thanks to the help of the Góral and Potężny families and of the Ukrainian  Lasota family.

The seminar was organized by: the Polish Republic General Consulate in Ukraine, the Holocaust Information Center TKUMA, the Hnat Chotkewycz Culture Palace in Lviv and the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.