More Righteous Honoured in Kraków
The Deputy Israeli Ambassador to Poland, J.E. Ruth Cohen-Dar, presented medals and certificates to the grandchildren of those who, during the German occupation of Poland, had selflessly helped Jews at the risk of their own lives. Stanisław Faliszewski, Jadwiga Goetel, Maria Stokłosa, as well as Jadwiga Szkilnik and her mother, Helena Sokalska, were all honoured posthumously.
Before the War, Stanisław Faliszewski, was ballet manager at the Grand Theatre in Lwów (no Lviv, Ukraine) and helped Helena Tennenbaum, a Jewish girl born in 1929. Prior to the liquidation of the Lwów ghetto in August 1942, in order to save their only daughter, Helena's parents had asked for help from a friend, actress Zuzanna Łozińska (honoured as Righteous in 1968), Stanisław Faliszewski's partner. Stanisław helped hide the little girl, treating her as his own daughter. The girl survived the War, after which she emigrated to Palestine. In 2008, as Ilana Ben Israel, Helena applied to Yad Vashem to honour Stanisław Faliszewski.
Jadwiga Goetel, wife of writer Ferdynand Goetel, helped Róża and Marian Reibscheid and their son. At the end of 1943, when the family found themselves in Warsaw, Żegota directed them to Jadwiga Goetel, who selflessly took them into her home where they remained for three months. She also helped them to find employment thanks to which the family could then rent their own apartment.
Bronisława Goldfischer of Lwów survived thanks to Maria Stokłosa. In November 1942, as a child, she left the ghetto hidden under her mother's coat. Maria, a family friend who was waiting for her on the other side of the gate, took the child home and cared for her. For the first eight months, Bronisława never left her hiding-place. Later, Maria managed to obtain false papers for the child, thanks to which she could then venture outside. After the War, she was taken into a Jewish orphanage in Przemyśl, in the hope that she would be found by any surviving relatives. Shortly after, she left for Canada.
Helena Sokalska and her daughter Jadwiga Szkilnik saved Nina and Marek Szmajuk, and their six year old daughter Ziuta. Before the War, Dr Marek Szmajuk was the Sokalski family's doctor. During the occupation, together with his wife and daughter, he ended up in the Łódż ghetto. When he turned to the women for help, they agreed even though they, too, were experiencing hunger. The family were hidden in a henhouse, sometimes sleeping behind the stove. Helping them was particularly dangerous as, across the road from the house, there was a small gestapo headquarters. The family successfully survived the War. The rescued daughter, now Suzanne Schneider, travelled from New York with her husband, children and grandchildren especially to attend the ceremony at the Galicia Jewish Museum.
