Władysław Bartoszewski

a soldier of the Home Army, writer and historian. He participated in the activities of the Council to Aid Jews at the Delegate of Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile (Żegota), source: Polish Press Agency.

Władysław Bartoszewski (born February 19, 1922 in Warsaw, died April 24, 2015 in Warsaw). He participated in the defense of Poland in1939. In the years 1940-41 he was a prisoner in the German Auschwitz concentration camp. He became a soldier of the Home Army (AK). He was involved in the activities of the Front for the rebirth of Poland led by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka. He participated in the activities of the Council to Aid Jews at the Delegate of the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile (Żegota). A participant of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, decorated with the Cross of Valor and promoted to the rank of second lieutenant of the Home Army.

After WWII, he was arrested several times by the communist political police UB on suspicion of espionage and imprisoned until August 1954. He worked as a journalist, writer and historian. On December 14, 1965, the Israeli institute Yad Vashem honored him with the title Righteous Among the Nations. In the years 1972-83 he was the secretary general of the Polish branch of the PEN Club. From 1970, he joined the democratic anti-communist opposition in Poland. He was an underground correspondent for Radio Free Europe. He was a member of NSZZ “Solidarność”. After the declaration of Martial Law he was interned by the communist authorities. Between1990-95, he was the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Vienna. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs and the plenipotentiary for international dialogue. Between 1990-2000 he was the Chairman of the International Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

 

Irena Sendlerowa

a soldier of the Home Army. She became the head of the Children’s Council of the Council to Aid Jews at the Delegate of the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile “Żegota”. Irena Sendlerowa saved about 2,5 thousand Jewish children, source: Polish Press Agency.

Irena Sendlerowa (born February 15, 1910 in Otwock, died May 12, 2008 in Warsaw). At the end of 1939, Sendlerowa set up a secret cell for helping Jews in the Social Welfare Department of the City Board in Warsaw. In 1942, Irena Sendler (pseudonym Jolanta) became the head of the Children’s Council of the Council to Aid Jews at the Delegate of the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile “Żegota”. She belonged to the Home Army. As a worker at the Social Welfare Department, she had a pass to go into the ghetto. Under the pretext of sanitary control, along with her colleagues, she carried food, medicines and money into the ghetto. Together with her colleagues, she organized the smuggling of Jewish children out from the ghetto in Warsaw. During the war, Sendler saved about 2.5 thousand Jewish children. They were led out of the ghetto in various ways. Some were provided with identity documents, usually issued under the names of deceased Polish children. They were taken to Polish foster families or to Catholic monasteries. In 1943 she was arrested by the Gestapo, tortured and sentenced to death. “Żegota” managed to save her by bribing the German guards. On October 19, 1965 she received the Righteous Among the Nations Medal, in this way she was honored by the Israeli Yad Vashem Institute. In 1991 she received Honorary Citizenship of Israel.