The Righteous Member Wanda Hadrysiak becomes an honorary citizen of Israel

KJ, 16 November 2016
Wanda Hadrysiak, a member of the Righteous Among the Nations from Bydgoszcz, has been awarded an honorary title of Israeli citizenship. The title was bestowed by the Israeli Ambassador in Poland Zvi Rav-Ner during a ceremony staged at the Pomeranian Philharmonic on April 24th 2013.

During WWII, Wanda and Telesfor Hadrysiak saved the life of the Jewish girl Miriam Polanowicz. At the age of ten, Miriam was taken out of the ghetto by Stanisława Polarska. Afterwards,  she was seeking help in her hometown Okuniewo near Warsaw, where she came across Wanda Hadrysika’s parents, who took her to Wanda and Telesfor, who lived in Warsaw. They took care of the girl and treated her as her their own daughter.

After the war, the Hadrysiaks moved to Bydgoszcz. In 1947, the girl was found by her uncle, who took her to the USA. In 2007, the rescued girl (Maria Segal today) asked that Wanda and Telesfor be conferred the title of the Righteous Among the Nations. Ms Hadrysiak received the bestowment from the hands of the survivor and then Israeli Ambassador Dawid Peleg, who came from the USA to attend the ceremony.

The ceremony was staged at the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz, and was highlighted by a concert of Sephardic songs by Małgorzata Pańko and Gerard Eder.