Unveiling of the plaque commemorating Maria Palester and Maria Pogonowska

The ceremony was held under the patronage of the mayor of Warsaw and the Ambassador of Israel to Poland, Zvi Rav-Ner. In this event took part, among others: the rescued Janina Goldhar from Israel – daughter of Maria Pogonowska and friend from school of Małgorzata Palester, daughter of Maria Palester; Janina Zgrzembska, daughter of Irena Sendler – Maria Palester helped her mother get out from the Pawiak prison by organizing a collection of money and bribing a Gestapo officer; a few dozens of persons brought up in the Children’s Home no. 3. Janina Goldhar and Janina Zgrzembska unveiled the plaque commemorating the founders of the children’s home, then several speeches were delivered. Afterwards, the children from the institution gave a performance.

Maria Palester née Szulisławska was awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations on May 18th, 1980. Jews were hiding in her apartment in Warsaw throughout the Nazi occupation. Her neighbor was Maria Proner née Asterblum, Doctor in Physics and wife of the botanist and pharmacist Mieczysław Proner. During the Second World War she took the name Pogonowska (which she used for her whole life). Maria Palester obtained the so-called “Aryan papers” for her and her daughter Janina, found an apartment for them and repeatedly helped them. During the Nazi occupation Maria Palester worked in the Welfare Assistance Department of the Warsaw Administration, where she met Irena Sendler. After the war she became the director of the “Children’s Home of Warsaw”. In March 1945 Maria Pogonowska found her and started to run the children’s home with her. At first, it was located in Okęcie in Warsaw, afterwards it was moved to the district of Wola. Maria Palester had been running the institution until 1963. In 1968 Maria Pogonowska left to Israel. She died in 2009 at the age of 111 – she was the oldest Katyń widow in the world.

The idea to commemorate Maria Palester and Maria Pogonowska was given by the daughter of the Righteous Aldona Lipszyc Jadwiga Rytlowa, who is friends with the founders’ families and conducts interviews for the program of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews “Polish Righteous – Recalling Forgotten Memory”.