Anna Borkowska (Mother Bertranda)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Righteous
Among the Nations
By country

Mother Bertranda,

Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem
.

Hiding Jews

Vilnius (Vilna) was taken over by the Germans on 24 June 1941, in

Nazi German occupation forces would destroy church property and kill any Christians found to be aiding Jews.[3]

Acting on her own initiative, Mother Bertranda then took in 17 members of

Zionist group, and hid them within the grounds of her monastery. The activists included Abba Kovner, the movement's leader, Abraham Sutzkever, Arie Wilner and Edek Boraks. They helped the nuns with working their fields, while Kovner, realizing the goals of Hitler's Final Solution, worked on organizing a political resistance to the occupation and writing his manifesto for the later uprising.[2] When several of her nuns objected, Mother Bertranda reportedly threatened them with expulsion from the monastery and excommunication from the faith. Some of the Hashomer Hatzair members later decided to leave their monastery hideout and to return to the Jewish Ghetto in Vilnius, where they organized an underground resistance movement, the Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (FPO).[3]

Helping Jewish resistance

Soon after that, Mother Bertranda left the monastery and went to the Ghetto to volunteer her services.

Vilnius Ghetto underground.[citation needed] Between August and September 1943, the ghetto was liquidated and some 12,000 men, women and children were deported to camps in Estonia
. The uprising, organized by FPO on 1 September 1943 was crushed. The final Nazi destruction of whatever remained of the Ghetto followed.

In September 1943, Mother Bertranda was arrested by the Nazi German occupation authorities and sent to a labor camp at Perwejniszki near Kovno (

dispensation from her vows and left the monastery, where she adopted the name Anna Borkowska.[1][4] She maintained her religious devotion after being released from her monastic vows.[2]

Recognition

In 1984, Borkowska, now living alone in a small apartment in

Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Abba Kovner, one of the young Jews who had been saved by Borkowska, personally presented a medal to her at a ceremony in Poland. She and [Sister] Cecylia Roszak were two members of this monastic community to be honored,[citation needed] according to the statistics given by Yad Vashem.[5]

See also

  • Polish Righteous among the Nations
  • List of Poles: Holocaust resisters

Notes

  1. Lithuanian SSR. It continued to function in secret and was officially reestablished in 1996. It is located in the present-day Kalvos street 17 (54°41′35″N 25°19′19″E / 54.69306°N 25.32194°E / 54.69306; 25.32194). Source: Jagminas, Leonardas (2004-02-02). "Dominikõnės". Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija
    (in Lithuanian). Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras.
  2. ISBN 0880330465
    .

References

  1. ^ a b "Historia pomocy - Borkowska Anna | Polscy Sprawiedliwi" (in Polish). Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d "Anna Borkowska, Poland". The Righteous among the Nations. Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, Yad Vashem. 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2012. ...only in 1984 was contact with her reestablished. By that time she was 84 years old.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0385156529
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0804762489
    . Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  5. ^ Yad Vashem (2012). "Righteous Among the Nations: Poland" (PDF). Names and Numbers per Country & Ethnic Origin, as of 1 January 2012. The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF file, direct download 1.16 MB) on 17 August 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2012.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anna_Borkowska_(Mother_Bertranda)&oldid=1228712480"