About those who saved the world…

by Katarzyna Sosna
Gimnazjum nr 2 im. św. Walentego w Bieruniu

        Holocaust has been spoken a lot, but those who saved its potential victims seem to be forgotten. I’d like to present you a few people who, hazarding their own lives, rescued the others.

Jerzy and Irena Krępeć

Irena and Jerzy Krępeć were the heroes, as they hid the Jews on their farm. The Jews were employed there and earned money. Their children could illegally go to school together with village children. The married couple organized them fake IDs. They gave them all the necessary things, as food, clothes, accommodation and psychological support. Their neighbours knew about the hidden Jews but they didn’t bring them out and 30 Jews survived the war in this way.
      In every war-torn country, those who helped the Jews were punished, but only in Poland it was the death penalty. What made it even worse the Nazis used the collective responsibility, so not only the whole families but also the whole communities were chastised. Even such high risk didn’t stop good people from saving the lives of Jews.

Irena Sendlerowa

       Some people made use of their professions to help the others. Irena Sendlerowa was one of them, she was a social worker so she was able to enter the ghetto. She smuggled children and found them new families. Gestapo discovered her activities but it didn’t threaten her, she was tortured and sentenced to death; by the skin of her teeth she survived. After   such traumatic events she continued to help children. She wrote down the personal details of  2.500 saved people and buried the information in the garden, so after the war the children could find out their real identity and relatives.
     Alfreda Markowska, Romany, also harnessed her job. She lived in the Ghetto, then managed to escape it. Due to her work on the railways, she saved children from transport to the Death Camp. She looked for shelter and fake identities for them. Thanks to her - 50 children survived.
     The life of Georg Duckwitz is a curiosity. He was the German naval attaché in Denmark. Nobody suspected him of anti-Nazi views, as he cooperated with Werner Best, who was a war criminal. Thanks to this cooperation Duckwitz found out about the planned manhunt for the Jews. He travelled to neutral Sweden and asked the Prime Minister for accepting the refugees from Denmark. After the Swedish agreement, he informed the Jewish community and then the mass departure was organized – about 8000 people escaped to Sweden, almost the whole community of Danish Jews.
      Some of the people, described in this article, were given the prestigious title of “Righteous Among the Nations”, which is the highest distinction in Israel, given to people who saved the Jews from Holocaust. Oscar Schindler is also honoured with this title, you are going to learn more about him during next visit in Poland. Among the awarded heroes, there are citizens of all our project countries. But the prizes aren’t the most vital here; we don’t know how many people helped, nor do the scientists recognize the precise number of rescued Jews. They only supposed there were several tens of thousands Jews and it’s written in Talmud: “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”


Links:
http://historia.focus.pl/wojny/jak-polacy-ratowali-zydow-w-czasie-ii-wojny-swiatowej-1404?strona=3
http://niewiarygodne.pl/gid,15677370,img,15677580,kat,1017185,title,10-ludzi-ktorzy-w-czasie-II-wojny-swiatowej-ratowali-innych,galeriazdjecie.html?smgajticaid=618743
http://niewiarygodne.pl/gid,15677370,img,15677588,kat,1017185,page,9,title,10-ludzi-ktorzy-w-czasie-II-wojny-swiatowej-ratowali-innych,galeriazdjecie.html
http://natemat.pl/124261,dobrzy-niemcy-w-czasie-wojny-im-tez-nalezy-sie-nasza-pamiec
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_and_Irena_Kr%C4%99pe%C4%87
http://i59.tinypic.com/jfewcm.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Irena_Sendlerowa_1942.jpg/189px-Irena_Sendlerowa_1942.jpg
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/ru/righteous/images/medal.jpg