Wartime Rescue of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy

Father Sebastian replied:

“Last night you confessed to us both the finest deeds of your life. You need not add anything more. You are as pure as snow and may you remain so always. I am going upstairs. You pray and come up right away. It is still and quiet underground now because it is night. …”

I wanted to pray, say at least part of that rosary, but I could not. …In place of prayer, my lips whispered once more: “What for? Why, oh God, why? I live, I have survived and they are all dead. Why?”

From upstairs came Fr. Sebastian’s voice:

“Come up now, dear!”

I smoothed down my hair and my dress and went up. Fr. Sebastian was waiting and he led me to the altar before which I had knelt yesterday. Waiting there was His Excellency Bishop Niemira.

Although he administered the confirmation sacrament to me, my thoughts, strangely, were not here where I had received help, kind words, where I was fed, clothed and where I slept safely. I was still with all those ghetto fighters who had fallen. …

Bishop Niemira’s words broke into my thoughts:

“I name you Maria-Magdalena, who is your patron saint from this moment and through who you will address yourself to God.” …

Following Bishop Niemira’s blessing I kissed the ring on his finger with great reverence. This was a very fine man, not only as a spiritual person, but in himself—a great man. I was very pleased that it was through him that I received the confirmation sacrament. Although I did not know it then, that was the last time I saw him alive.

That same night I was given a new pass from the PCK school and also the pass which I lost during the memorable fur search, confirming my employment in the Out-patient Clinic of the dept. of Social Security. No longer Smulikowski St., but now at Praga, at 34, Jagiellonska [Jagiellońska] St. I was to continue my work with Dr. Cetkowski, who was now employed there.

In the morning, after curfew, I was led out by Fr. Sebastian through a different section of underground passages with which I was not familiar to a tram stop. I was going to take a tram to Praga in order to reach Szeroka St., where my Mama was living with friends. Fr. Sebastian gave me money for the fare. While saying goodbye to me he became very emotional and could not control himself. Blessing me on my further, new, journey he told me:

“You must contact your old friend, the helpful dr. Cetkowski, at once. Give him my regards. Go on being yourself as you have been up to now. Remember, Maria-Magdalena!”

“Yes, Father,” I replied.

A tram came up and Fr. Sebastian told me to take it. I kissed him sincerely. What a pity that I did not know his full name. The name Sebastian was probably also not his own, only adopted with his priest’s vows—possibly even that was different now? What a warm heart he had shown me. …

Following the direction given to me by Fr. Sebastian I reached Szeroka St. at Praga safely and proceeded to the indicated address where my mother was staying. …

During this initial period I continued to use the false documents provided by Fr. Sebastian. …

Towards the end, I should stress the fact that the Polish Community—those true Poles—gave self-sacrificing help to the people locked in the ghetto. It is not relevant whether they did so altruistically (some did) or for large sums of money (they were risking their own lives and those of their families). But the fact itself that such help existed and that through it the lives of many Jews and Jewish children were saved—that should always be remembered.

It should also be stressed with what great self-sacrifice and devotion the convent sisterhood operated, as well as many priests. Among those who gave the greatest assistance were the clergy with His Excellency Bishop Niemira at the head, from the Church of St. Augustyn at Nowolipki. In the first phase many hundreds of Jewish children (the tiniest ones, the small ones and those older ones) went through their hands. … Also the clergy from the … Church of the Holiest Virgin Mary—and many, many others.
Miriam Chasson (née Finkielsztajn) survived the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Before her deportartion to Majdanek, Miriam’s mother obtained a baptismal certificate for her daughter in the name of Irena Lewandowska. According to one version, the document was provided by the Carmelite Sisters; however, according to another version, which is more likely the case, it came from the church of St. John of God on Bonifraterska Street, near the Warsaw ghetto, which was under the care of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God, known popularly as Bonifratrzy.²⁰⁹ Miriam turned to family friends and survived with the help of a number of Poles in the vicinity of Łowicz. Miriam confided in Rev. Zenon Ziemecki, the pastor of Bełchów, and he assisted her in her ruse as a Catholic. She survived the war and settled in Israel. (“The Laska Family,” The Polish Righteous, Internet: ; also .)
In the late spring 1943 the family named Laska in the Bełchów village (powiat Łowicz, voivodship Łódź) took in a ten-year-old girl, who introduced herself as Irena Lewandowska, an orphan from Przemyśl.

Miriam Chasson, nee Finkielsztajn, the only daughter of Roza [Róża] and Gustaw Finkielsztajn ... In the fall of 1941 the Jewish population of the town [of Łowicz] was resettled by Germans to the Warsaw ghetto.

In 1942 Gustaw was caught in a street round-up and taken to Umschlagplatz; he was killed in Treblinka. Roza managed to arrange for a fake baptismal certificate for her daughter with the help of Carmelite nuns from the convent bordering on the ghetto at Bonifraterska street. In spite of the famine they managed to survive until the April ghetto uprising. The sought shelter in one of the bunkers with 30 other people. On May 4, 1943, the Germans brought them all outside.
Ten-year-old Miriam showed her baptismal certificate to one of the German policemen and told him that her name was Irena Lewandowska, and that she was a Christian girl who found herself in the ghetto by accident.
She was taken to a Gestapo station while all the other—including her mother—went to Umschlagplatz. In the general confusion the girl managed to leave the station and cross to the “Aryan side”.

She does not remember any more how she got Mr. Bobotek’s address in Nieborów. Her aunt, who had escaped from the ghetto during the uprising and was hiding at the “Aryan side”, could not take her in, but gave her some money. Miriam bought a small cross and a train ticket. When she reached Mr. Bobotek’s house and asked for help he placed her as a nanny with a family with four children.

Miriam did not complain, but she was not comfortable there. “... I took care of their children, but one beautiful day I went for a walk in that village. There was a farm of Stanisław Laska. Here was Nieborów, then a highway, the grass-covered fields. ... Bełchów was two, maybe three kilometres further. And they were somewhere in the middle, just that house. They had orchards. I thought: ‘what’s there to lose? I’ll try.’ I went in and asked if maybe they need some help with the cows or pigs. Because they had a big farm.”

Józef and Marianna Laska, and their four children, worked their own farm in Bełchów near Nieborów. They had four children. “... there was Stanisław, he was still a young man, 26 years old,” remembers Miriam Chasson. “Then there was his mother, Marianna, and his grandmother. There was his sister Helka and another one, Julka, born after Helka. The oldest one was Stacha, married to a railman, but she didn’t live with them, she had a small house, close to them, but not together. There was no father, because he had also been a railman and died in a railway accident.” ...

“First they asked me if I was hungry. I said yes and at once they gave me something to eat, potatoes and sour milk, and they told me: ‘You can stay, if you like’. ... So I went back to that Mr. Bobotek and told him: ‘You know, I was really unhappy with tose people [family with 4 children]. I was just walking around and I dropped in to Mr. Laska, and they need someone to help with the cows and housework. Could I move in with them? And he said ‘yes’, and I went to them.”