The Jewish Combat Organisation (ŻOB) was formed on 28th July 1942 in the Warsaw ghetto. Its commander was Mordechai Anielewicz. Local branches were also formed in Krakow, Czestochowa, Bedzin and Sosnowiec. Through the Jewish National Committee, ŻOB was subordinated to the Government Delegation for Poland. It collaborated closely with the Home Army, which supported it wherever it was possible. ŻOB combatants who survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising took part in the Warsaw Uprising a year later.

A meeting of senior German Nazi officials chaired by Reinhard Heydrich and recorded by Adolf Eichmann. It was there that the details of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (Endlösung der Judenfrage), a plan for total extermination of the Jewish population, implemented by Nazi Germany, were discussed.

During the Holocaust, Stanisław Car from Łukawica near Lesko saved Anna Manster from extermination.

Polish social activist and politician; member of the State National Council. During World War II he collaborated with Żegota (Council to Aid Jews). Polish Righteous Among the Nations and the first President of the Polish Society of the Righteous Among the Nations.

During the German occupation, Mr and Mrs Herr from Hyżne near Rzeszow saved Herszko Stelzer from extermination.

During the Holocaust, they saved Róża, Menasza and Samuel Natansohn in Rzeszow.

Polish biologist, Nobel Prize candidate; inventor of the first effective vaccine against typhus – the disease that took a heavy toll in ghettos and camps.

Inhabitant of Markowa, daughter of Chaim Goldman. During the Holocaust she was given shelter by the Ulma family in Markowa; she was murdered together with them by the German military police on 24th March, 1944.

Designated by the UN General Assembly resolution in 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Educator, columnist, writer, author of Stones for the Rampart and many other publications devoted to scouting and youth movements. Member of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, participant of the Warsaw Uprising, collaborator of Żegota. During the Holocaust, he supported the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto and helped, among others, Jerzy Grasberg with his wife, and Luba Gewisser.

He saved Abraham Pariser from the Holocaust during the German occupation in Przeczyca near Jasło. He was helped by the Świerczek family, who were also recognised as Righteous years later.

The Dziedzic family living in Brzostek near Pilzno rescued Abraham Lejb Szus and Sala Schoenwetter and her children during the Holocaust.

During the German occupation, they hid the Reich family in Dębica. They were helped in this by sons Andrzej and Leszek. After the Gestapo occupied part of the house, the Mikołajek family found a new refuge for the Jewish family at their friend Józef Kurzyna’s place. There they lived to see the end of the occupation.

Polish nun from the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonising Heart of Jesus, a collaborator Żegota; during World War II she smuggled Jewish children out of the ghetto. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Co-founder, together with Zofia Kossak, of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews, activist of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), artist and publisher. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

The second largest ghetto in Europe, after Warsaw, located in the most neglected districts of Lodz: Bałuty and the Old Town. It was the longest functioning ghetto in occupied Poland.

During the Holocaust, Dorota and Antoni, and their children hid the Weltz family at their homestead in Markowa. Dorota and Antoni together with their daughters Helena and Zofia were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Polish musicologist and composer, writer, mountaineer (Tatra Mountains and Alps), mountain rescuer, Home Army soldier, Warsaw insurgent and Righteous Among the Nations. During the German occupation he supported, together with his mother Kazimiera Żuławska, a group of 8-15 Jews.

Polish social activist, member of the Polish Socialist Party. During the Holocaust, she was the head of the children’s section of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews. Together with her co-workers, she managed to smuggle many Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto; those children were then given shelter in orphanages and with Polish families.

During the German occupation this married couple living in Sanok saved the escapees from the Zaslaw extermination camp: Aron Hefter and Lejb Sztrenger.

Polish social and political activist, journalist, participant in the Third Silesian Uprising, treasurer of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews.

Socialist activist, member of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), participant in the Second and Third Silesian Uprisings, first chairman of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews.

Ethnographer, painter, graphic artist, museologist and researcher in folk art. In February 1943, he established a branch of Żegota in Krakow.

Historian, columnist and journalist; social activist and politician; diplomat; commentator on the crucial issues of contemporary history. Prisoner of Auschwitz, Home Army soldier, participant in the Warsaw Uprising. Collaborator of Żegota.

Artist, prisoner of Treblinka, participant in the revolt on 2nd August 1943. After escaping from the camp, he also managed to escape the German manhunt thanks to the help of Poles. He found himself in Warsaw where he fought in the Warsaw Uprising.

Polish consular officer, economist and Jewish diaspora activist. Member of the so-called Ładoś Group which was active in Bern, under the leadership of the Polish ambassador Aleksander Ładoś and rescued Jews on a mass scale using false passports of Latin American countries.

Prose writer, poet, essayist, translator and librettist. During the German occupation, he and his family helped the Jewish families Muszkat, Kramsztyk and Karwasser. Jarosław and his wife Anna were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

During the German occupation, Maria and Jan Setlik from Święcan near Jasło saved from extermination Dwora and Chaim Sturm, and their two daughters Mania Knobler and Sala Sturm-Ajka (Stein), as well as her son Szabataj.

During the German occupation they hid Jaffa and Natan Woloch (Wallach) in Lesko.

Daughter of Janina Stupnicka, née Wójcik; medical doctor. During the Holocaust she and her mother rescued members of the Borenstein, Grynberg and Alter families; for this they were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations. Current President of the Polish Society of the Righteous Among the Nations.

Germans murdered Wiktoria and Jan Psioda, and their granddaughter Maria Kałuża for helping Jews. Józef Ryba, who was suspected of helping Jews, and Mendel Ekstein, who was in hiding, were also killed.

Catholic priest of Jewish origin. During the German occupation he was rescued by Emilia and Piotr Waszkinel, his foster parents, who many years later were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Farmer, fruit grower and beekeeper as well as amateur photographer and bibliophile living in Markowa. Husband of Victoria and father of six children. Shot by the Germans on 24.03.1944 together with whole family and the Jews from the Goldman, Grünfeld and Didner families whom they had been hiding.

Otto von Wächter, Governor of the District of Krakow, decided to create a ‘Jewish residential district’ in Krakow which would include the following streets: Węgierska, Krakusa, Benedykta, Targowa, Plac Zgody, Czarneckiego, Plac Zgody, Czarneckiego, Lwowską, Dąbrówki, Janowej Woli, Limanowskiego, Józefińską and Rękawka.

Established by the European Parliament in 2012 to honour the memory of those who protested against totalitarian regimes and mass murders in the 20th and 21st centuries. The day was established to be 6th March because it was in this date in 2007 that Mosze Bejski, co-author of the definition of ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, died.

The liquidation action began with an execution in the Borek district; then about 500 people were transferred to other ghettos from which they were sent to the death camp in Bełżec. Mielec was the first town in the General Government to be declared Judenrein (clean of Jews) by the Germans.

Actress, director, theatre manager, Righteous Among the Nations. During the German occupation, she and her partner Stanisław Faliszewski supported Helena Tennenbaum, the daughter of their acquaintances in Lviv.

The management of the Krakow branch of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews was entrusted to Stanisław Wincent Dobrowolski; the treasurer was Anna Dobrowolska; and Tadeusz Seweryn was the civilian delegate of the Polish Government in Exile. The Krakow branch of Żegota contacted the Warsaw headquarters through Marek Ferdynand Arczyński.

Lawyer; Home Army soldier in the rank of colonel; member of Żegota; Righteous Among the Nations.

The 8,000 ghetto inhabitants were sent to the Płaszów camp. The action also continued on the next day – the Germans murdered about 2,000 Jews in the streets of the town.

In Siedliska near Miechów, in the region of Małopolska, the Germans murdered the Baranek family of 5 as well as 4 Jews they were hiding.

The liquidation of the ghettos in Lublin and Lviv began as well as the deportation of Jews to the Bełżec death camp. The mass and systematic extermination of Jews from the General Government and also from other European countries took place.

On 17th March 2016, the Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II, named after the Ulma Family, was ceremonially opened in Markowa as the only museum entirely devoted to Polish aid to Jews during the Holocaust.

Polish brigadier general, medical doctor and Freemason. He was shot dead in Budapest by a Gestapo assault group while burning documents some of which concerned rescued Jews. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

The Świda family saved a Jewish boy in Warsaw, Avraham Horovitz; they pretended he was a child from a befriended family of Muslim Tatars.

Established on the initiative of the President of the Republic of Poland in 2017, on the anniversary of the death of the Ulma family from Markowa.

As a result of a denunciation, German military police shot dead the Ulma family in Markowa, i.e. pregnant Wiktoria, her husband Józef and their 6 children: Stanisława, Barbara, Władysław, Franciszek, Antoni and Maria. Together with them, 8 Jews from the Goldman, Grünfeld and Didner families, who were hiding at their place, were executed.

The Lublin ghetto was one of the first ghettos liquidated by the Germans as part of the Operation Reinhard. At the time of liquidation, there were approx. 37,000 people in it.

Teacher, clerk and instructor of the Women’s Military Training paramilitary organisation; Home Army soldier and Żegota collaborator. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Hungarian diplomat and politician. During World War II he rescued about 5,000 Jews together with a Polish journalist and socialist activist Henryk Sławik. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Polish-Jewish lawyer; activist of the World Jewish Congress; Zionist and an MP; member of the so-called Ładoś Group; collaborated with Polish diplomats in Bern in an extensive scheme to save Jews by means of forged passports.

Maria and Stanisław Półzięć from Zawadka near Krosno saved the members of the Gersten and Wisenfeld families from the Holocaust.

One of the six children of Wiktoria and Józef Ulma from Markowa. Murdered by the German military police on 24th March 1944 together with his parents and siblings.

Zoologist and author of numerous scientific and popular works; director of the Warsaw Zoo. Under the German occupation he took part in military actions of the conspiracy movement and in the Warsaw uprising. During the Holocaust, he and his wife Antonina rescued many Jews by helping them escape from the ghetto and hiding them in the zoo manged by them. Among the rescued were the sculptor Magdalena Gross and Rachela Auerbach. The Żabiński couple were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Polish writer, social and charity activist; author of the brochure Protest!, published in August 1942, in which she called for opposition to the Nazi Germany’s plan to exterminate the Jews. She was a co-founder, together with Wanda Krahelska, of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews. She died in Bielsko-Biała.

During the Holocaust, the Twardzicki family living in Bierówka near Jasło saved Gołda Weic from extermination.

Polish officer of the Polish Army, member of the Home Army and Warsaw insurgent. During the Holocaust, he saved Józef Kiselhoff from extermination.

Tadeusz, Antonina and Teresa Czeżowski saved 8 people of Jewish descent in Vilnius: Tamara Wolfson, Chaim Epsztajn, Rachela Gurwicz-Kapłan as well as members of the Wołkow and Fessel families.

Władysław, Karol and Stefania Szelka from Niebieszczany near Sanok saved Leon Penner from extermination.

The first uprising in German-occupied Europe, the largest military action in occupied Poland since the September Campaign and the most significant organised opposition of the Jewish population doomed to extermination.

During the Holocaust, Miron Lisikiewicz from Krosno saved Reba Dworzecka and Sarah Frydman from extermination.

Writer and columnist; participant of the September Campaign and the Warsaw Uprising; brigadier general. Member of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews; responsible aid to Jewish children. Recognised as Righteous among the Nations.

Born Jan Romuald Kozielewski. Courier of the Polish underground state and government in exile, sent on a mission to inform Western Europe about the extermination of the Jewish nation in Poland occupied by Germany. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Historian, columnist, journalist and writer; social activist and politician; diplomat. During the German occupation, he was a member of the Polish resistance; collaborated with Żegota. Recognised as Righteous among the Nations.

During the German occupation he saved Jadwiga Zucker and Szymon Einhorn from extermination.

Jan Cwynar and his wife Helena, who lived in Markowa, took in a teenage Jew, Abraham Segal from Łańcut.

Saved thanks to the Skrobacz family from Krzemienica and the Cwynar family from Markowa. After the war he emigrated to Israel and settled in a kibbutz in Haifa. He was involved in commemorating the inhabitants of Markowa who rescued Jews. A friend of the Museum of Poles Saving Jews.

On 27th April 1940 Heinrich Himmler ordered the establishment of the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oświęcim-Brzezinka) death camp. It is estimated that during the whole period of its functioning, approximately 1.1 million Jews from all over Europe were killed there. Almost 150,000 Poles, about 23,000 Roma, 12,000 Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities were also killed in this German Nazi concentration camp complex. The total number of victims of the camp is approximately 1.3 million.

Christian Democratic activist; member of the Warsaw City Council. Fought in the defensive war of 1939; interned in Hungary where he served as the (senior) commander of the camp for civilians. In agreement with the Polish legation in Budapest, he carried out an action of smuggling people across the Hungarian-Yugoslav border. In this way, he saved a group of Polish Jews; in 1944 he helped, among others, members of the Wohl family.

During the German occupation they saved Jenta and Icchak Nachman in Nisko.

They saved Malwina Kanska and her husband in Rudnik nad Sanem during the Holocaust.

During the German occupation they rescued Herman and Rachela Kass in Rzeszow.

In the village of Łukowe near Lesko, they saved Meilech Segal from extermination.

A lawyer who lived in Rzeszow, at 4 Krakowska Street, during the war and helped Jews. When one of them was arrested by the Gestapo and gave away the hiding place at Boczar’s, she fled to Warsaw. Having settled right next to the ghetto, she continued to help the Jews, this time the Rozenholc siblings. She fought in the Warsaw Uprising.

During the Holocaust, she rescued Miriam and Meir Szenker, and Lucia Grinszpan in Lubaczow.

Politician and diplomat; during World War II he was a member of the Lviv branch of Żegota in which he was the treasurer.

In his radio speech delivered in London on 5th May 1943, addressed to Poles in German-occupied Poland, General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile, appealed: ‘The greatest crime in the history of mankind is being committed. I know you’re helping the persecuted Jews to the extent that you can. Thank you, citizens, on my own behalf and on behalf of the Polish Government. I ask you to provide all possible assistance to the Jews in Poland and to try to oppose this terrible cruelty’.

During the German occupation she worked as a feldsher and midwife at the Warsaw health centre in Grochowska Street. It was also there that organised financial support to the Jews imprisoned inside the ghetto. In 1942 Bussold was entrusted with taking care of a Jewish girl smuggled out of the ghetto. Stanislawa Bussold became her foster mother. The rescued girl was Elżbieta Bussold and her married name was Ficowska; she was a clerk, social activist and educator as well as an author of books for children and young people.

Polish Romani, known as ‘Romani Sendler’. She rescued nearly 50 Romani and Jewish children.

During the German occupation, Maria and Krystyna Denasiewicz hid Felicia Schwam, whose parents did not survive the Holocaust, in Przemyśl. Felicia was christened and given ‘Aryan’ documents.

Just before his death Szmul Zygielbojm confessed, ‘With my death I wish to express the strongest protest against the passivity with which the world is watching and allowing the extermination of the Jewish people. (…) Since I was unable to do anything during my lifetime, perhaps by my death I shall help to break down the indifference of those who have the possibility now, at the last moment, to save those Polish Jews still alive from certain annihilation’.

Social activist, socialist and member of Żegota; she worked in the Children’s Section. Together with her co-workers, she rescued nearly 2,500 children of Jewish origin, smuggling them out of the ghetto and hiding them in orphanages and with Polish families.

During the German occupation, Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki volunteered to get imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to learn about its realities. His reports also revealed the mechanisms of the Holocaust.

In Przemyśl, they rescued Jadwiga Haupt, her father Mieczysław and her relatives, Alicja and Halina Halpern, from the Holocaust.

Writer and journalist. During the German occupation she was rescued by a Polish family.

The Czajkowski family from Zręcin near Krosno planted a tree symbolising the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Matylda and her daughters Helena and Irena saved Lusia Rozen in Przemyśl.

Polish social activist and politician; member of the State National Council (1945-1946), participant in the Warsaw Uprising; Righteous Among the Nations. In 1986 he became the head of the Polish Society of the Righteous Among the Nations.

In Łukawica near Lesko, they rescued members of the Jewish families Alt, Buchbinder and Brandel from extermination.

During the Holocaust, in Sonin near Łańcut, they rescued Basia, Szyla and Józek Gurfein from Łańcut, as well as Chilo Melon.

Born in Łańcut, died near Haifa, Israel. During the Holocaust, as a teenager, he was saved by Polish families in Krzemienica and Markowa. He lived to see the end of the German occupation with Helena and Jan Cwynar.

Hit singer and entertainer. During the German occupation he was a Home Army soldier and a Warsaw insurgent. He hid the composer Ivo Wesby, born Ignacy Singer, together with his family. He helped him get a new identity and emigrate to the West. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

The legendary courier who, on the instructions of the Polish Government in Exile, informed Western countries about the plan of annihilation of Jews being implemented by Nazi Germany. In 1942-1943 he met with representatives of some Western countries and influential bodies. However, he was most often met with incomprehension and indifference. For the rest of his life he was of the opinion that his mission had failed.

In Zręcin near Krosno, they rescued members of the Jewish families Lipner, Bergman, Morgenstern and Brajtowicz from extermination. Later on, the title of Righteous was also awarded to their children Jerzy Andrzej, Walerian and Bronisława.

During the German occupation, Stefania and Jan Chodorowski and their daughter Stanislawa Bardzik from Kolbuszowa rescued Norman and Lejbusz Salsitz

One of the six children of Wiktoria and Józef Ulma from Markowa. Killed with his parents and siblings by German military police on 24th March 1944.

During the Holocaust, Helena and Jan Zadworny from Dąbrowa near Lubaczów hid Mosze Lehrer.

During the German occupation he saved the grandson and daughter-in-law of Ludwig Zamenhof, the famous creator of Esperanto. He provided help in collaboration with Father Marceli Godlewski, another Righteous Among the Nations.

Polish consular officer in Bern. Member of the so-called Ładoś Group which rescued Jews on a large scale during the war and occupation providing them with false passports of Latin American countries.

During the German occupation, the Lach family from Babice near Przemyśl hid Mendel Raps, Rózia Englard and Estera Englard-Korman.

During the German occupation in Sanok, Stefania, Stanisław and Michał Pyrcak, together with a person with the surname Kuśmierczyk, whose first name remains unknown, rescued the Jewish families Liberman, Kramer and Forer.

Wiktoria and Józef Ulma from Markowa hid eight Jews from the families Goldman (probably Saul and his sons), Grünfeld and Didner (sisters Gołda and Lea with her daughter). On 24th March 1944, German military policemen shot the hidden Jews and the entire Ulma family; they did not even spare the children.

Officer of the Polish Army, engineer, member of the Home Army, counterintelligence officer and Warsaw insurgent. During the Holocaust he saved the lives of Barbara Golde and her son, Dora Katz and Edward Tohari-Warszawski. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Immigrants from Poland living in France saved Nachum and Miriam Cymbalist during the Holocaust.

Polish envoy that was tireless during the war in alarming the West about the crime of the Holocaust being perpetrated by Nazi Germany in the territory of occupied Poland.

Polish consular officer, economist and activist of the Jewish diaspora. Member of the so-called Ładoś Group, which was active in Bern, under the leadership of the Polish ambassador Aleksander Ładoś and rescued Jews on a mass scale using false passports of Latin American countries.

During the Holocaust Stefan Chemicz from Krosno rescued the Jewish family Tischler.

About 3,000 Jews from Sokołów and the surrounding villages, and also from Lodz, were gathered in the ghetto established on 27th April 1942. After the liquidation of the ghetto in Sokołów they were moved to the ghetto in Rzeszow, and from there they were taken to the death camp in Bełżec.

The German military police murdered 25 Poles and 3 Jews in these villages in the county of Minsk (Mazowieckie Province).

Poet, prose writer, essayist, literary historian and translator. Winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. He and his brother Andrzej, a Home Army soldier, established a transfer point for Jews in Vilnius and helped them find a safe haven. Both brothers were recognised as Righteous among the Nations.

During the German occupation Maria, Michał, Sebastian and Stefan Świątek, as well as Szymon, Józef and Bronisław Pacuła, an also Józefa, Antoni and Katarzyna Pacuła-Kowal, and Władysław Kiełb hid Józef and Fela (Fajga) Goldman.

Inhabitant of Markowa, daughter of Chaim Hersz Goldman and Ettel née Riesenbach, hidden together with her daughter by the Ulma family in Markowa and murdered with them by the German military police on 24th March 1944.

University professor, politician and diplomat. Former Speaker of the Knesset and ambassador of Israel to Poland. During the German occupation he was rescued by a Polish and a Ukrainian family in Borysław.

Outstanding pianist and composer living in Warsaw. During the Holocaust, he lost his whole family. He himself was hidden by Poles, including Janina and Andrzej Bogucki, with the support of Witold Lutosławski among others. At a critical moment, his life was spared by a Wehrmacht captain, Wilm Hosenfeld.

During the Holocaust, the Tereszkiewicz family from Chmielnik near Rzeszow helped Róża, Ina and Janina Scheinbach.

They got married in St. Dorothy parish church in Markowa. After a few years of marriage they had 6 children and expected the 7th descendant. They died together with their children and the Jews they hid from the Goldman, Grünfeld and Didner families, executed by the German military police on 24th March 1944.

Most of the approximately 24,000 Jews imprisoned in the Rzeszow ghetto were murdered in the nearby forests or in the death camp in Bełżec. By the end of 1942 the Rzeszow ghetto was finally liquidated.

Journalist, social activist and social worker. A close friend of Irena Sendler and Jadwiga Piotrowska with whom she organised help for Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Associate of Żegota.

In Dębica, where they lived, they hid Jehuda Ziegler.

Noblewoman, Countess Zaręba, educator, participant in the Warsaw Uprising. During the war she ran a foster home at Sadyba for war orphans where she also hid Jewish children. Associate of Żegota. Posthumously recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Physician, librarian and politician, Home Army soldier, participant in the Warsaw Uprising. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Tadeusz Rewilak from Jasło hid Nachum, Jakub and Cwi Weinberg during the German occupation.

Lawyer, historian, diplomat and university lecturer. During World War II, an envoy of the Polish Government in Exile; in 1942-1943 he kept informing the West about the Holocaust crime taking place in the areas occupied by Nazi Germany. One of the most recognisable Polish Righteous Among the Nations.

It was the largest ghetto in the area of the present Podkarpackie (Subcarpathian) province. As of the date of its closure, the Germans had gathered there about 22,000 Jews from Przemyśl and its surroundings.

During the German occupation, they hid Hanna Stein (Kesten) in Albigowa near Łańcut. Other members of the Kesten family were hidden by the Tereszkiewicz family.

Magdalena, Franciszek, Tadeusz and Maria Banasiewicz from Orzechowce near Przemyśl saved Jakub and Eugenia Nassan, Salomon and Isaac Erenfreund, Junk Frenkiel, Marcin Teich (Duniński), Feiga Weidenbaum, Edmund Orner, Fela, Szatner, Samuel, Isaac and Berta Reinharz, Józef and Lotka Weindiling from the Holocaust.

The eldest of the six children of Wiktoria and Józef Ulma from Markowa. Together with her siblings and parents and the hidden Jews from the Goldman, Grünfeld and Didner families, she was shot dead by the German military police on 24th 1944.

Together with her husband Jan Żabiński, she ran the Warsaw Zoological Garden which during the Holocaust became a hiding place for those Jews who managed to escape from the Warsaw Ghetto. In this way, Mr and Mrs Żabiński helped nearly 300 people. Both are recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

The ghetto was inhabited by about 12,000 people crowded in relatively small area. Its liquidation continued until April 1943.

The total number of victims of the German Nazi death camp in Treblinka was about 800,000.

Author and playwright. As soon as the Germans established the ghetto in Warsaw, he tried to help the Jews imprisoned there. Associate of Żegota. Recognised as Righteous among the Nations.

Outstanding zoologist, author of scientific and popular works; for many years the director of the Warsaw Zoo. During the German occupation, he and his wife Antonina hid hundreds of Jews in the zoo, first helping them to get out of the Warsaw Ghetto. Both were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

The Red Army marched into the village. On that day, the Weltz family, rescued by the Szylars, and Abraham Segal, who had been living with the Cwynars, came out of hiding.

During the liquidation operations (also on 31st July and 3rd August) a total number of over 12,000 people were either murdered by the Germans on the spot or transported to the death camp in Bełżec.

Underground armed resistance movement of Polish Jews; best known among Jewish resistance movements during World War II. Its first commander was Mordechaj Anielewicz.

Envoy of the Polish Government in Exile; delivered a report of the Polish underground concerning the German occupation of Poland and the extermination of the Jewish population to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Armed liberation revolt of the inhabitants of occupied Warsaw and the whole country. Many of the fighters were later on recognised as Righteous Among the Nations, e.g. Irena Sendler, Władysław Bartoszewski, Zofia Kossak, Mieczysław Fogg, Aleksander Kamiński, Jan Żabiński and others.

Transit camp for prisoners of war in Pełkinie near Przeworsk, in operation from 1941, was the place of detention of the Jewish population from the occupied county of Jarosław. Eventually, the Germans took most of them to the death camp in Bełżec or murdered in the nearby forests.

Outstanding pedagogue, education methodologist, creator of an original system for working with children based on partnership and self-upbringing. A pioneer in the field of the protection of children’s rights. He was killed in the Treblinka extermination camp, together with 200 Jewish children and employees of the orphanage which he ran. He stayed with his orphans till the end having rejected an opportunity to save his own life.

During the German occupation, the Barutowicz family from Grębów near Tarnobrzeg saved the Jewish Lichtman couple and their son Dawid.

Writer, right-wing social activist, creator and member of the Front for the Rebirth of Poland. During the Holocaust, she and Wanda Krahelska founded the Żegota Council to Aid Jews. She saved the lives of many Jews, including Maurycy Gelber, and Ewa and Janina Feldman. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

A clandestine leaflet made in 5,000 copies and distributed in the streets of Warsaw. Its author was Zofia Kossak, a Catholic writer and activist. In this way, she condemned the extermination of the Jewish nation in the occupied Polish territory commenced by the German occupying forces. At the same time, she called on Catholic circles for empathy and firm opposition to the tragedy taking place.

Doctor and socio-political activist. During the war he collaborated with Żegota. Together with his wife Natalia, he was recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations.

Established by the Israeli Knesset. Since 1963 it has been awarding the title Righteous Among the Nations to those who during the Holocaust helped Jews doomed to extermination to survive.

Polish socialist activist; journalist from Silesia. He saved about 5,000 Jews in Hungary from extermination together with a Hungarian diplomat and friend, Józef Antall. He was murdered in the German Nazi concentration camp in Mauthausen-Gusen. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Proclaimed by the European Parliament in 2008, on the anniversary of the signing of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, which divided Europe into two totalitarian zones. The aim of the day is to preserve the memory of the victims of mass deportations and exterminations, and at the same time rooting democracy more firmly and reinforcing peace and stability in Europe.

Founder of the Lviv branch of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews in 1943. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Sewage worker from Lviv; provided helped to 10 Jews for which he was posthumously recognised as a Righteous Among the Nations. Hero of the film In Darkness directed by Agnieszka Holland.

Julia, Józef and Janina (Czarnota) Bars from Markowa near Łańcut hid Józef, Ida, Joel, Mania and Genia Riesenbach during the German occupation.

The Barut and Urbański families from the Huta Polańska near Krosno helped Józef Strenger and his 10-year-old daughter Gołda.

During the Holocaust Anna and Ludwik Sambora, and Anna’s children Eugeniusz Walichnowski and Teresa Sokołowska-Walichnowska in Jodłowa near Jasło rescued Malka and Abram Fenichel as well as Lea Charasz.

On that day Nazi Germany attacked Poland beginning the 6-year-long occupation of the land of the Second Polish Republic. World War II claimed the lives of about 6,000,000 Polish citizens, including about 3,000,000 Polish Jews.

The first chief of the Krakow branch of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews; he also collaborated with the Central Welfare Council and provided hiding places and forged documents for Jews.

Retired railway worker from Przemyśl; hung by the Germans for helping Jews.

Anna, Andrzej and Ludwika (Janczura) Antonik from Lisie Jamy near Lubaczów saved Małka Stupp from the Holocaust. The family received the honour in September 2016 at the Museum of Poles Saving Jews.

During the Holocaust, the Kreicar couple from Dubiecko rescued Wilhelm Reyk together with his wife and brother; also, Szmul Goldsztajn with his wife and two children; David Frenkel and his son, and Bronisław Felsen.

Both were active in the Polish underground (Kazimierz fought in the Warsaw Uprising), collaborated with the Żegota Council to Aid Jews. In Warsaw they rescued, among others, Aleksander Artman and members of the Teichman family. After the war, Krzysztof became known as an outstanding historian and an expert on Warsaw.

During the Holocaust, Wiktoria and Józef gave shelter to 8 Jews from the Goldman, Grünfeld and Didner families. As a result of a denunciation, all of them were shot by German military policemen on 24th March 1944.

Orthodox Jew born in Ustrzyki Dolne. During the Holocaust he lived in Zurich and became involved in the activity of the so-called Ładoś Group. Together with Polish diplomats in Bern he saved many Jewish lives with false passports from Latin American countries.

The youngest of the children of Victoria and Józef Ulma from Markowa. Together with her siblings, pregnant mother and father, as well as the hidden Jews from the Goldman, Grünfeld and Didner families, she was executed by German military police on 24th March 1944.

On that day, Soviet troops invaded Poland, which had been attacked two weeks earlier by Nazi Germany, and occupied its eastern part. Thus, Poland was divided between two totalitarian systems, Hitler’s and Stalin’s.

During the Holocaust, he and his brother Czesław (an outstanding poet and Nobel Prize winner) established a transfer point for Jews hiding in Vilnius. Recognised as Righteous among the Nations.

The only organisation in Poland whose members are the Polish Righteous; it has its seat in Warsaw.

Helena and Jan Cwynar from Markowa, together with her husband Jan, took in Abraham Segal, a teenage Jew from Łańcut, who stayed with them until the end of the war.

During the German occupation, in Rzeszow, the teacher helped her friend Abraham Heinberg get out of the ghetto and go to forced labour in Germany. Heinberg, later known as Roman Harte, became a filmmaker after the war and collaborated with outstanding cinematographers in Poland and abroad.

‘24.IX.39. (Sunday)
It’s getting worse and worse. We are living in a warehouse now because the whole apartment was taken by two officers and servants. It was on the erev of Yom Kippur. We didn’t eat anymore. We had to move all the stuff into the warehouse. We have a bed and a couch here and we fit in somehow. Daddy’s sleeping on the ground (…)
Hope it doesn’t get any worse. Sadly, it looks like it might be.
They say the Russians have already occupied Polish land as far as Lviv and are going further. I hear there’s to be a border strip here, but you never know, everyone says differently.
Warsaw stands firm still and so does Lviv, they say (…)
We don’t know what’s going on right now. Apparently, Russia occupies Polish territory with the consent of Germany, at least that is what everyone is saying, but is it true…?
I hear terrible things are happening in Przemyśl. They shoot at Jews with no mercy. Many are taken away beyond the San without any provisions. In Jarosław, everyone must surrender the silver they have to the magistrate.
It’s a lot worse out there than at our place.
I just wish I could go to America.
The end.’

During the Holocaust, they hid Lejzor and Rubin Braten in Rudka near Jarosław.

During the German occupation they hid Jaffa and Natan Woloch (Wallach) in Lesko.

Its founders were Zofia Kossak and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz. In December 1942 it was transformed into the Żegota Council to Aid Jews.

The largest Jewish ghetto in the General Government and in Nazi-occupied Europe, with as many as approx. 450,000 Jews. Eventually liquidated in May 1943.

One of the six children of Wiktoria and Józef Ulma from Markowa. Together with her siblings, pregnant mother and father, as well as the hidden Jews from the Goldman, Grünfeld and Didner families, she was murdered by the German military police on 24th March 1944.

Helena (Lena) Zelwerowicz, an actress and educator, and her father Aleksander Zelwerowicz, also an actor and educator, as well as a theatre director and manager, provided shelter to Jews. Those who survived the Holocaust thanks to them include Maria Nudel, Józef Orchoń (Nudel) and David Epstein.

Lawyer, attorney and judge; brother of Gustaw, writer and literary critic. During the war, he and his wife Felicia were involved in helping Jews. He collaborated with Żegota and founded the Felicja Cell by means of which he provided shelter to about 500 Jews in his house in Warsaw.

During the Holocaust she hid Ewa Margulies and Rózia Schabes in Długie near Sanok.

Social activist. During the German occupation she rescued Jewish children being active in Żegota and collaborating with Irena Sendler.

During the German occupation Marianna Krasnodębska, like her parents and siblings, was active in the resistance movement. The Germans murdered her four brothers for helping the partisans. The Jarosz family helped the local Jews inside the ghetto in the locality of Piaski supplying them with food, medicines and documents. They hid over dozen Jews at their homestead, including Józef Honig with his father and brother. Marianna, her brothers Aleksander and Maksymilian, and her parents Anna and Ignacy were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Lawyer, social and right-wing political activist. During the German occupation he was a soldier of the Home Army and the National Armed Forces. Together with his father Wojciech he collaborated with Żegota. One of those he helped was Anula Rosenthal for whom he got false documents.

Death penalty was introduced in the territory of the General Government for Jews who without permission moved away from the districts designated for them and for Poles who helped Jews.

Polish lawyer, columnist and activist of the folk movement; 1940-1942 prisoner of Pawiak, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Neuengamme, and since 1942 a collaborator Żegota. Recognised as Righteous among the Nations.

During the German occupation, they saved Blima Schif by hiding her in their house in Dynów.

Physician, anaesthesiologist and specialist in blood diseases in children; Warsaw insurgent. During the German occupation she and her husband Feliks Kanabus helped Jews by carrying out operations aimed at hiding the Semitic physiognomy.

In Gębiczyn near Pilzno, they saved Adela Wołek, and Leon and Mietek Schneps from extermination.

During the German occupation they saved Jeszuła and Józef Guzik in Cergowa near Dukla.

During the German occupation, in Odrzykon near Krosno, they took in Cipora Katz (Reem) and presented her as a Christian orphan adopted by them thus saving her from extermination.

During the German occupation Sis. Alfonsa (Eugenia Wąsowska Renot), Sis. Ligoria (Anna Grenda), Sis. Bernarda (Rozalia Sidełko) and Sis. Emilia (Leokadia Juśkiewicz) from the Congregation of Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Przemyśl saved Miriam Reinharz-Klein, Hedy Rosen, Julian Ostrowski, Zofia Horn, Beti Milczyn, Ahuva Lissn, Awiwa Fogelman, Edward Goldberg, Batia Fridman-Gortler, Hanki Rubin, Gabi Klein, Tzofi Fridman and Gabrieli Koren.

Lawyer who lived in Rzeszow, at 4 Krakowska Street, during the war and helped Jews. When one of them was arrested by the Gestapo and gave Boczar away, she fled to Warsaw. Having settled right next to the ghetto, she continued to help the Jews, this time the Rozenholc siblings. She fought in the Warsaw Uprising.

The tree in honour of Żegota, the only state organisation in occupied Europe established to save Jews, was planted by Maria Kann and Władysław Bartoszewski – members of the Żegota Council to Aid Jews and Righteous Among the Nations.

The Sołek couple lived in Przeworsk were they hid Jerachmiel Bergner.

Doctor of medicine, specialist in gynaecology. During the German occupation she was active in the underground and also collaborated with Żegota. She also helped a Gypsy family from Warsaw in hiding Jews. Years later she was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations together with that family.

Polish immigrant in France who helped members of the Jewish community in Paris together with his wife Maria. They helped Cywa Zylberberg, her mother Sylvana and David Zylberberg, who was Sylvana’s son. Maria and Czesław Szafraniec were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Established at the Government Delegation for Poland, Żegota was the only state organisation in all Europe under German occupation created in order to save Jews. The organisation included representatives of various social and political circles, both Poles and Jews. It is estimated that tens of thousands of people of Jewish descent were aided by Żegota.

Between March and December 1942 the Germans murdered about 450,000 people in the German death camp in Belzec, mainly Jews from Poland, but also from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Outstanding pianist and composer living in Warsaw. During the Holocaust, he lost his entire family. He himself was hidden by Poles, including Janina and Andrzej Bogucki, with the support of Witold Lutosławski. At a critical moment in his life Wehrmacht captain Wilm Hosenfeld spared him his life.

One of the six children of Wiktoria and Józef Ulma from Markowa. Together with his siblings and parents, as well as the hidden Jews from the Goldman, Grünfeld and Didner families, he murdered by the German military police on 24th March 1944.

During the German occupation, Katarzyna Szyfner and her son Eugeniusz Szyfner, who both lived at an estate in Chorzelów near Mielec, saved Jankiel Heller, Maksymilian Gross as well as Matilda and Dawid Zuckerbrot.

Diplomat and politician; Polish ambassador to Japan and the USSR. Minister of Foreign Affairs in Stanisław Mikołajczyk’s government. He arranged aid for Polish refugees of Jewish origin in Japan and Shanghai.

For helping Jews, the Germans shot 31 Poles, including the Kowalski family of seven as well as members of the Kosior, Obuchiewicz and Skoczylas families. Almost all of them were burned alive.

Politician, columnist, counterintelligence officer of the Home Army; from December 1942 in Żegota; member of the Department of Internal Affairs and head of the Jewish Section of the Government Delegation for Poland.

Over a dozen residents of Świesielice were murdered by the Germans for supporting the resistance movement and helping Jews in hiding.

Film and theatre actor; opera and popular singer. During the Holocaust, in Warsaw, he and his wife Janina rescued Władysław Szpilman, an outstanding pianist of Jewish descent.

Actress and educator. During the German occupation she and her parents helped Józef Ochroń, Helena and Hanna Caspari, Dawid Epstein, Leon Feiner, Maria Nudel and an unknown lawyer. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Polish nun, Dominican sister who died at the age of 110. During the German occupation, together with other Dominican sisters, she hid several people of Jewish descent in a monastery in Vilnius. Recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Poet, essayist and translator. During the German occupation, he and his wife, Maryna Zagórska, hid several Jews at home in Warsaw, including the poet Tadeusz Hollender, teenager Janek Wilk and the Tenenbaum family. Both spouses were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

Sportsman, footballer, sports activist and publisher; co-owner of the bookshop and publishing house Gebethner and Wolff, soldier; Warsaw insurgent who died as a prisoner of war as a result of wounds sustained during the Warsaw Uprising. He helped, among others, the Abrahamer family whom he eventually managed to send to Hungary. Considered Righteous Among the Nations.

Visual artist and publisher. Co-founder of the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews which was later transformed into the Żegota Council to Aid Jews.

Doctor of surgery; during the war he arranged plastic surgery procedures to eliminate Semitic features in Jews. His wife Irena assisted in the operations as an anaesthesiologist. Both of them took part in the Warsaw Uprising. Both were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

German military police murdered four people for providing food to Jews hiding in the forest.

Physician, officer of the Polish Army and resistance officer; Warsaw insurgent, commandant of women’s mine patrols. During the Holocaust, she helped Jews individually, hiding Anna Aszkenazy, among others, in her own home. At the same time she collaborated with the Żegota Council to Aid Jews providing medical care to Jews hiding in Warsaw.

Diplomat, counsellor and deputy head of the Polish Delegation in Bern in the years 1938-1945; member of the so-called Ładoś Group which rescued European Jews during the Holocaust using false passports of Latin American countries.

Journalist, Home Army soldier, participant in the Warsaw Uprising, veteran activist and author of war memoirs. During the German occupation he and his wife Barbara helped Anna Bajer Dratner and Irena Filozof as well as some others in Warsaw. After the war, both of them were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.

On that day, the German occupation authorities of the General Government issued an ordinance on the obligatory wearing of Star of David armbands by Jews. The Nazi authorities intended this marking to facilitate racial identification but also to humiliate and isolate the Jews from the rest of the society.

Politician, diplomat, clerk and columnist. In Bern, where he was the Polish ambassador, he created an organisation, later known as the Ładoś Group, by bringing together several Polish diplomats and representatives of the local Jewish communities. The group saved Jews from all over occupied Europe by means of false passports from Latin American countries.

The first German extermination camp on Polish soil, Kulmhof in Chełmno nad Nerem, was a mass extermination centre for Jews in Reichsgau Wartheland. Already in December 1941, about 700 Jews were killed there, poisoned with car exhaust fumes. It is estimated that between 150,000 and 350,000 victims were murdered during the camp’s operation.

The wife of Józef Ulma and mother of six children. She was in an advanced stage of pregnancy when she was murdered by German military police, together with her husband and children, for hiding the Jewish family of Goldman, Grünfeld and Didner, on 24th March 1944.

The Jews captured in roundups the day before were stored for the night in the basement of one of the houses in Markowa. In the morning German military policemen led everyone onto the so-called trench, on the outskirts of Markowa, and shot about 30 people in total.

Letter addressed to the head of the Catholic Church in Vatican, in which the President of the Republic of Poland in exile asks for intervention concerning mass murders of Poles and Jews in German occupied Poland.

Jesuit, administrator of the sanctuary in Żyrowice and chaplain to the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in the Słonim Convent. During the Holocaust, he called for helping Jews. He collected donations for their benefit, issued false christening certificates and repeatedly made his way to the ghetto. He also smuggled Jews outside and hid them in the rectory, in the nearby houses and in the monastery of the Immaculate Conception. Together with Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Ewa Noiszewska and Marta Wołowska he was arrested by the Germans and then killed. Several dozen other Poles lost their lives with them.

Doctor; professor of paediatrics. During the German occupation he worked in Rozwadów. He often got into the ghetto to treat the Jews who were gathered there. When another doctor and a friend of his, Stanisław Matulewicz, discovered that positive result of typhus test could be obtained using certain harmless bacteria, Łazowski started to use the vaccine to simulate an epidemic and thus keep the Germans away from the local population. Thereby he saved many inhabitants of Rozwadów and the surrounding area including many Jews from the nearby ghetto.

Mountain lovers – both Kazimiera (Romance philologist and translator) and her son Jerzy Wawrzyniec (musicologist, writer and composer) were climbing enthusiasts. During the German occupation they saved at least seven people by hiding them in their Warsaw flat.

Politician, diplomat, clerk and columnist. In Bern, where he was the Polish ambassador, he created an organisation, later known as the Ładoś Group, by bringing together several Polish diplomats and representatives of the local Jewish communities. The group saved Jews from all over occupied Europe by means of false passports from Latin American countries.

During the German occupation, she rescued Jakub Berger and Laura Bogaczewska in Przemyśl.

Writer, author of books for children, social activist and independence activist, member of Żegota. Together with Władysław Bartoszewski, in 1963 she planted a tree in honour of this organization in the Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem.