Podgórski sisters

The Podgórski sisters, Stefania and Helena, were born to a Catholic farming family near Przemyśl, in south-eastern Poland. [http://www.podgourski.net/content/467.html Podgorska Stefania (1925)] at www.podgourski.net] Following the Nazi German invasion of Poland, sixteen-year-old Stefania and her six-year-old sister hid thirteen Jewish men, women and children in the attic of their home, and continued to harbor them through the next two-and-a-half years, during the Holocaust. Both were later honored as the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for their heroism, as well as by the Jewish and Polish organizations in North America.Josef Burzminski, [http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:ijvQBEuvU30J:www.myetv.org/television/productions/moral_courage/guides/faith/faith.html+Helena+Podg%C3%B3rska&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca "The Other Side of Faith"] Video Synopsis: Margaret Walden, Columbia, South Carolina]

During the 1939 German invasion of Poland and again their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Podgórski sisters lived in Przemysl alone in an apartment rented by Stefania. [ [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/idcard.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10006455 Stefania Podgorska and her younger sister Helena,] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] Their father had died in 1938 after an illness and, their mother and brother were soon taken to Germany for forced labor. Stefania (born 1925 in Lipa) was 16 at that time and during the Nazi occupation got a job in town as a machine-tool operator.Anna Poray, [http://www.savingjews.org/righteous/pv.htm Polish Righteous, Those Who Risked Their Lives] 2004] In 1942 the news spread about the Jewish Ghetto in Przemysl being liquidated. Stefania's prewar employer's son, Joseph Diamant, appeared on their doorstep. He escaped with his brother and cousin from the train to Belzec extermination camp. The girls were terrified, but gave Joseph permission to hide in the attic. He contacted his family in the Ghetto and asked Stefania to accept them also, including his younger brother Henek and Henek's wife Danuta, Dr. William Shylenger and his daughter Judy, and a friend of his, a dentist with his son. In order to accommodate the fugitives Stefania soon rented a semi-detached cottage with two rooms, a kitchen and an attic, on Tatarska Street.

Life on Tatarska Street

Helena with her sister Stefania moved in first, followed by Joseph Diamant. Then came Dr. Shylenger with his daughter and the dentist with his son. The dentist's friend, a widow from the ghetto came also with her son and daughter. She wrote a threatening note that she would denounce the girls if she was refused. The dentist begged Stefania to admit his nephew with his wife. Joseph's younger brother, Henek, with his wife arrived later, finally there came a Jewish mailman: thirteen Jews in total. Joseph made a wall in the attic from boards bought by Stefania, securing a sleeping quarter for everybody.

After a few weeks they were completely without money. Stefania started to knit sweaters and take orders for them, from her friends and acquaintances. She was trading clothes for food and buying it, if necessary, on the black market. An SS man moved in next door. Joseph kept vigil with others to eliminate any noises. In early 1944 a German officer entered the apartment and announced that Stefania and Helena must vacate the place in two hours. The Jewish fugitives begged the two sisters to flee as they felt that all of them were doomed. But Stefania thought otherwise. "I am not leaving you", she said. The officer reappeared telling the girls that, after all, he decided to take a room opposite the house for his two nurses from the military hospital.

On July 27, 1944, the Soviet Army entered Przemyśl. The thirteen Jews, though emaciated and weak, were free. Joseph, now Burzminski, proposed to Stefania "(Fusia)" and was accepted. In 1961 the couple emigrated to the United States, where Burzminski became a dentist. They have a son and daughter. Helena Podgórska remained in Poland, married and became a physician in Wrocław. In 1979 the sisters were honored by Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, as Righteous among the Nations.

Notes

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References

* [http://www.podgourski.net/content/467.html Podgorska Stefania (1925)] at Podgorski Family Club webpage, including photographs
* [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/idcard.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10006455 Stefania and her younger sister Helena Podgorska,] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., 2008
* Anna Poray, [http://www.savingjews.org/righteous/pv.htm Polish Righteous, Those Who Risked Their Lives] 2004
* Margaret Walden, Video Synopsis: Josef Burzminski, [http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:ijvQBEuvU30J:www.myetv.org/television/productions/moral_courage/guides/faith/faith.html+Helena+Podg%C3%B3rska&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca "Teacher's Guide: The Other Side of Faith"] Columbia, South Carolina

Further reading

* Thomas Fleming, "Did the children Cry?" "Reader's Digest", February 1996.
* Adler, Morris, "Jewish Heritage Reader", Taplinger Publishing Co., Inc., 1965.
* Lerski, George, and Halina Lerski, "Jewish-Polish Coexistence, 1772–1939", Greenwood Press, 1986.
* Vishniac, Roman, and Elie Wiesel, "A Vanished World", Noonday Press, 1986.