ADA saved Jews

ADA Prochnicka Polish woman as a liaison officer of the Cracow branch of the Council for Aid to Jews (Rada

Pomocy Zydom or "Zegota") she went several times to Lvov, to bring back Jewish women who

were endangered there. She brought back Roza Kfare, Helena Szumanski, Dr. Zina Paduch,

Helene Ehrlich and others. Early in 1944 she was arrested on the train near Tarnow and

murdered. 20 Poles had to be engaged in the saving of one Jewish person (family). In the

opinion of Professor T. Strzembosz, the number of Poles saving Jews reached 1 million. See

also: Ten jest z ojczyzny mojej. Polacy z pomocą Żydom w Polsce 1939-1945 (He is my

compatriot). Poles aiding Jews in Poland 1939-1945). Władysław Bartoszewski, Z. Lewinówna,

Krakow 1969, pages 74-75 (compared with the 2007 edition). The authors estimate that "at least

several hundred thousand Poles of various ages and both sexes played greater or lesser roles

in the rescue action, Ibidem, page 75. Polish citizens have the highest count of Righteous

among the Nations in the world, at 6,066 despite the fact that in German-occupied Poland all

household members were punished by death if a Jew were found concealed in their home or

on their property.
Capital punishment of entire families, for aiding Jews, was the most draconian such German

Nazi practice against any nation in German occupied Europe. On November 10, 1941, the death

penalty was expanded by Hans Frank to apply to Poles who helped Jews "in any way: by taking

them in for the night, giving them a lift in a vehicle of any kind" or "feed[ing] runaway Jews or

sell[ing] them foodstuffs." The law was made public by posters distributed in all major cities.
Righteous Among the Nations:
POLAND- 6066 - more than from any other German Nazi-occupied country
Total Persons- 22,211.
More than 500 towns and villages were burned, over 16 thousand persons, mostly Polish

Christians, were killed in 714 mass executions of which 60% were carried out by the Wehrmacht

(German army) and 40% by the SS and Gestapo. In Bydgoszcz the first victims were boy scouts

from 12 to 16 years old, shot in the marketplace. All this happened in the first eight weeks of the

war. See Richard C. Lucas, The Forgotten Holocaust; The Poles under German Occupation.

Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky [c1986].
In 1988, the public prosecutor, Waclaw Bielawski, from the Main Commission for Investigation of

Crimes Against the Polish Nation, issued a list of 1,181 names of Poles who had been killed for

helping Jews during World War II.
Saving Jews was very difficult, as about 85% of Polands Jews either did not speak Polish or

spoke a dialect. In many cases, Jews were distinguished by their appearance.
Rescuers of Jews in Poland were alone, often deprived of their pre-war means of livelihood,

expelled from their farms, factories, businesses, offices and even homes, most of them living in

dire poverty. All found it virtually impossible to earn a living. They were under no legal obligation

to risk their own lives and, even more, those of their families and neighbors. Their help most

often lasted days and nights, weeks, months, even years, always in secret, and always risking

discovery. Who of us would do it today, especially in the above mentioned conditions?

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• Ada
• saved
• Jews
• Helene
• Ehrlich
• Dr.
• Zina
• Paduch
• Roza
• Kfare
• Helena
• Szumanski
• Prochnicka

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My mother was Polish, came to America after the occupation...God Bless All...