Vale Krystyna Dańko (1917–2019)

Redakcja / Editorial staff / English translation: Andrew Rajcher, 20 August 2019
With great sadness, we have learned of the passing of Krystyna Dańko née Chłond (1917–2019), a Righteous Among the Nations (1998) and honoured by the President of Poland with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2013). She died on 6th August 2019, in Warsaw, at the age of 102. She was the oldest Polish woman to be honoured with the title of Righteous. We remember, here, her story.

Why did I do it? Simply, out of friendship. I never wondered why – I just did it. For me, it was natural. I thought, “They’re my friends. They’re in trouble, so I have to help them” – Krystyna Dańko.

During World War II, Krystyna Dańko extended help to her Jewish friends – the Kokoszka family – who had escaped from the ghetto in Otwock (Mazowieckie Province) and who had gone into hiding in Celestynów. She visited them, providing them with necessary items and with money. She helped the parents keep in contact with their daughter in hiding in Warsaw. In addition, inside her family home in Otwock, she hid a four-year-old Jewish girl, Jasia Kotowicz. The child was mainly cared for by Krystyna’s older sister, Elżbieta. 

On 13th December 1998, Krystyna Dańko was honoured by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. Her story appears on this website. It is based on an interview which she gave to POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on 8th February 2009.

Read Krystyna Dańko’s story »

Krystyna Dańko passed away on 6th August 2019 at the age of 102. The funeral service will take place on 19th August. at 9:00am at St. Karol Boromeusz church in Stare Powązki Cemetery, after which she will be taken to her family grave at a local cemetery.

Her son, Wojciech Dańko, wrote:

[...] She was a woman with a tender heart, of infinite goodness and great life wisdom. She was trustworthy and sincere, open to the world and a positive thinker. I never heard her complain about anything. At the same time, she was brave – brave enough to risk her life to save friends during the nightmare of the war.

She was the most wonderful mother, full of warmth and understanding (as well as having a sense of humour). She gave her three children the best of everything. She supported her husband, Mieczysław, during his five-year imprisonment during the period of Stalinist terror, raising the children in difficult circumstances and supporting the family.

In her advanced years, she radiated everyone with her calm, gentle joy of life. She was always helpful, always supportive. She was extremely modest and discreet. We all loved her. There are fewer and fewer such people in the world. [...] Goodbye, Mummy, Angel of Goodness, Krystyna at 102! Your beautiful smile will warm my heart for the rest of my days!

She was the oldest Polish woman to be honoured with the title of Rigteous Among the Nations.