Page 58 - Witness
P. 58
Righteous Reunion
Sidney Zoltak grew up in the village of Siemiatycze in eastern Poland. During the Holocaust, at the age of 11, he escaped to live in the forest. He was eventually sheltered in a barn for 14 months by the Krynski family.
In 2014, he returned to his hometown to reunite with remaining members of the Krynski family. In his story, told in the presence of the son of his rescuer and recorded at Treblinka, where nearly one million Jews were murdered, he relates that of all of his classmates, he is the only one who survived.
“When we got back to our hometown, less than one percent had survived. Less than 70 from a community of 7,000. The most difficult part for me was that none of my classmates, none of my friends survived. I am the only one. I think about it. The only reunion I can have is in this place among the memorial stones....” Then turning to Stanislaw Krynski, the son of his rescuer, he said, “I feel like kissing him.”
Righteous Among the Nations Zygmunt Krynski (right), kissing his friend Sidney Zoltak, in front of the barn where he hid Sidney during the war.
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