Page 55 - Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations

Jerzy Kozminski – Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations is an honorific title conferred on those who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. At the age of 17, Jerzy Kozminski (1924–2010) and his mother Renia smuggled out all 13 members of the Glazer family, one by one in a horse and buggy on the night of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Kozminskis hid the Glazers in the basement of their home on the outskirts of Warsaw for more than a year. Jerzy, a member of the Polish underground, was captured and tortured by the Nazis, but did not disclose that 13 Jews were hiding in his family’s basement. Jerzy was deported to Auschwitz and then to Mauthausen, where he was
liberated by American troops in May of 1945.
Over the years, many Righteous Among the Nations have participated in the March
of the Living and shared their stories with the students as did Jerzy Kozminski. Christian, Muslim, agnostic, and atheist, from almost every nation in Europe – 25,000 have been recognized as Righteous.
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