Zofia Kossak-Szczucka

co-founder of the Front for the Rebirth of Poland and The Council to Aid Jews at the Delegate of the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile (Żegota), source: Polish Press Agency.

Zofia Kossak-Szczucka (born 1889 in Kośmin, died April 9, 1968 in Bielsko-Biała). A teacher and novelist. In 1941, together with a priest father E. Krauze she established the Front for the rebirth of Poland - an independent, underground Catholic organization. On August 11, 1942, in the underground press, she published a “Protest” - a text about the tragic fate of Jews being murdered on a massive scale in German death camps. She pointed out in this text, that helping Jews was the moral duty of all Poles - Catholics. She wrote in it; “In the Warsaw ghetto, behind a wall that cuts off the world, several hundred thousand condemned people are waiting for death. (...) Who is silent in the face of murder – becomes a partner of the murderer. Who does not condemn – permits. So let the voice be heard, of us Catholics-Poles.” In 1942, she established the Temporary Committee for Aid to Jews, which transformed into the Council to Aid Jews – “Żegota”. She helped Jews by providing them with documents and money. She was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the German Concentration Camp Auschwitz. Transported to Warsaw, she was condemned to death. Thanks to the actions taken by the authorities of the Underground State of Poland, she was released. She spent 1945-57 in exile in Great Britain. On September 13, 1982, the Israeli institute Yad Vashem awarded her posthumous as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, for helping Jews during World War II.