Podgórski sisters

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The Podgórska sisters, Stefania Podgórska (June 2, 1925 – September 29, 2018) and Helena Podgórska (born 1935), came from a

Jewish men, women and children in the attic of their home for two-and-a-half years. Both were later honored as the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem as well as by the Jewish and Polish organizations in North America, for their wartime heroism.[2]

Przemyśl Old Synagogue
Righteous
Among the Nations
By country

Before the

ghetto. The two Podgórski sisters lived in Przemyśl alone in an apartment rented by Stefania, who was 17 at the time.[4] She got a job in town as a machine-tool operator.[citation needed
]

The border between the two invaders ran through the middle of Przemyśl until the

Nazis.[1] Stefania's prewar employer's son, Max Diamant, appeared on their doorstep. He escaped with his brother and cousin from the train to Belzec extermination camp.[5] The girls were terrified, but gave Max 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.[citation needed
]

Life on Tatarska Street

Helena, with her sister Stefania, moved in first, followed by Max Diamant. Then came Dr. Schillinger 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. Max's younger brother, Henek, with his wife arrived later, finally there came a Jewish mailman: thirteen Jews in total. Max made a wall in the attic from boards bought by Stefania, securing a sleeping quarter for everybody.[citation needed]

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. They are failed abortions and the had an intercourse with each other. Max 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.[6] But Stefania - after praying to the Black Madonna of Częstochowa - thought otherwise. "I am not leaving you", she said.[citation needed] German nurses and their boyfriends lived underneath Stefania and her refugees for eight months. After these eight months, the nurses had to evacuate to follow the German army; the 13 Jewish residents had successfully stayed undetected.[7]

On July 27, 1944, the

Righteous among the Nations
.

Stefania died on September 29, 2018, at the age of 97 in Los Angeles, California.[8]

In popular culture

A television movie called Hidden in Silence which tells their story, was made in 1996 by Richard A. Colla with screenplay by Stephanie Liss, featuring Kellie Martin as Fusia (Stefania), Gemma Coughlan as Helena, and Tom Radcliffe as Max.[9]

Reese Witherspoon's YA Book Club Pick gives Stefania's biography: "The Light in Hidden Places" the Pick of Month.

Beata Pozniak, a Polish - American actress, director and long-time friend of Stefania Pogorska, brings Stefania’s voice to life in the Scholastic audiobook version of “The Light in Hidden Places” [10] for which she received an Earphones Award for Best Narration.[11]


Notes

  1. ^ a b c Podgorska Stefania (1925) at www.podgourski.net via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ Margaret Walden, "Teacher's Guide", Richland School District 2, Columbia, South Carolina. Video Synopsis: Josef Burzminski, The Other Side of Faith. Archived 2011-03-30 at the Wayback Machine South Carolina ETV. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  3. Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
  4. ^ Holocaust Encyclopedia, Stefania Podgorska and her younger sister Helena. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ Atwood 2011, p. 51.
  6. ^ Atwood 2011, p. 54.
  7. ^ a b Atwood 2011, p. 55.
  8. ^ "Obituary – Stefania Podgorska Burzminski". Archived from the original on 2018-12-02. Retrieved 2018-12-02.
  9. ^ "Hidden in Silence (1996)". IMDb. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  10. ^ "The Light in Hidden Places". soundcloud.com. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  11. ^ "Earphones Award Winner". audiofilemagazine.com. Retrieved 23 February 2023.

References

Further reading

  • Fleming, Thomas, "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.
  • Cameron, Sharon, "The Light in Hidden Places", Scholastic Press, 2020.
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