Wacław Wierzbieniec

On January 27, 2013, International Holocaust Remembrance Day was celebrated in Rzeszów. The celebrations began at the Jewish cemetery, where attendees honored the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Then, the University of Rzeszów held a panel discussion entitles “Polish-Jewish Relations from the Perspective of the Rescued and the Rescuers during the Holocaust”. A church service referencing the Day of Judaism in Catholic Church in Poland ended the celebrations. In 2013, the town of Jarosław participated in the celebrations for the second time. Local events were held in the site of mass murder committed by Nazis on Jews during World War II. The local abbey held a special service to commemorate Poles murdered for rescuing Jews and the Jews that had been murdered with them. Just like a year earlier, speeches by Holocaust survivors included that of Lucia Retman from Haifa, Israel; Judit Elkin, sister of Dawid Ryll from Miejsce Piastowe and Krystyna Stawarska from Jarosław. Lucia Retman had participated in the ceremonies before, as since 2010 she had been coming to Poland to celebrate the memory of Ms. Zofia Pomorska from Lubaczów, who saved her and her sister’s life; Lucia was given documents in the name of Janina Kogut (who was a daughter of a Polish army officer that had been sent to USSR with her whole family) which enabled her to volunteer to go work in Germany and thus survive the war. 

She ended up in a Berlin factory and had never forgotten her savior. Many years later, she visited Lubaczów and found Ms. Pomorska’s grandchildren. Zofia Pomorska was posthumously awarded the title of Righteous among Nations – her grandchildren received the order on her behalf. Judit Elkin came from Miami, USA. She was born before World War II in Przeworsk, Poland and was spared from the Holocaust because she escaped with her family to USSR. Another guest was the sister of Dawid Ryll from Miejsce Piastowe, who recounted the tragic story of rescue of a Jewish family by her mother and grandmother. In the course of the meeting, Roman Kessler from Tel Aviv, Israel also gave a speech. Jarosław resident Krystyna Stawarska-Grzęda presented the tragic story of her parents, who had died 70 years earlier as punishment for helping Jews. As in the past, candles were lit in front of the wall of death at the Jarosław abbey to honor the Jews who had been murdered there during World War II. Additionally, the library auditorium at the State College was the venue for Dr Elżbieta Rączy’s lecture on the topic of Poles saving Jews during World War II.