The Polish Righteous in 2019

Redakcja / Editorial staff / English translation: Andrew Rajcher, 28th December 2019

In 2019, more Poles, who aided Jews during the Holocaust, were honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. During ceremonies in Poland, the new Righteous and/or their descendants were presented with their medals and certificates from the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem. Numerous Holocaust Survivors also took part in the ceremonies. See the listing below and read their stories which we have published on this website over the past twelve months.

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“What can I say to thank people for such a sacrifice and for the risk they took? My father and his family owe them their lives, as do I, my brother, my cousins, my children, my brother’s children and my cousins’ children. The words ’Thank You’ are inadequate to express the gratitude which we all owe them. […] Today, I know that the world needs more people like Mikołaj and Katarzyna Pernat”.
– Jack Salzman, son of a Holocaust Survivor, during a RIghteous ceremony in Kraków, on 28th June 2019.

We are constantly adding, to our website, stories of Poles who saved Jews during the Holocaust in occupied Poland. In 2019, we added more content prepared by Holocaust researchers, supplemented with archival material and contemporary photographs donated to POLIN Museum collection by the Righteous and by Survivors. We have also included oral history interviews, with witnesses to history, conducted in Poland and in Israel. Below, we present a summary listing of the past year.

Twelve Months of Polish Righteous – Read some selected stories

We have selected twelve of the most interest stories published on the Polish Righteous Portal during 2019:

2019 Righteous Ceremonies

Over the past twelve months, more ceremonies were held, during which twenty-seven Polish men and twenty Polish women were honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations – the highetst civil decoration awarded by the State of Israel.

Among them, fifteen helped Jews in, what is today, the Mazowiecki Province, eight in the Podkarpacki Province, five in the Małopolski Province, two in the Lubelski Province, two in the Łódzki Province, two in the Podlaski Province, one in the Śląsk Province, six in Ukraine (five in the Ternopil Oblast, one in Lviv), four in Belarus (Novgorof region) and two in Lithuania (Vilnius district). According to available source materials, around fifty-nine Jews were extended help, however their exact number is difficult to determine.

See reports about ceremonies honouring the RIghteous:

The 2019 Polish Righteous

Read the stories of the Righteous Among the Nations:

Information about the awarding of the title of Righteous Among the Nations, by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, can be found on our website: Yad Vashem Criteria.