Bolesław and Władysława Pogorzelski, a couple with eight children from the village of Rostołty near Zabłudów, hid Szmul Garber after he fled the Białystok ghetto in November 1942, sheltering him even after the war ended despite armed men once trying to force Bolesław to give him up. Yad Vashem granted the couple the honor — Israel's top civilian recognition for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews — in November 2022.
The medal and certificate were presented Wednesday at a ceremony hosted by the Israeli Embassy and the city of Białystok, three years after the award was made.
Former Israeli ambassador Gershon Zohar, now a member of the Yad Vashem committee overseeing the honor, handed the medal to the couple's daughter, Wanda Tarasiuk, and granddaughter, Barbara Leończuk.
"It was very dangerous to keep Jewish survivors [...] in the villages", Zohar said, adding that more than 29,000 people globally have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, with Poles making up the largest group at over 7,300, ahead of Dutch, French and Ukrainian citizens. He said Yad Vashem would keep documenting and honoring rescuers "so that there was no indifference."
Leończuk said her grandparents never spoke of their actions, but Garber carried the story to his son, whose account eventually brought the case to Yad Vashem.
"The answer seems simple: do good and be a decent person. That answer was my grandparents' life motto", she said, describing their decision to take Garber in as proof of it. She noted that in 2020 the family received a letter from Garber's son in Canada, fulfilling his late father's wish to thank the Pogorzelskis; the son also sent a video message for Wednesday's ceremony, again thanking the family for saving his father's life.
Białystok Mayor Tadeusz Truskolaski said the couple had "did not yield, did not betray, and did not later ask for recognition" for their conduct, and called for such examples to be preserved amid what he described as negative attitudes visible today.
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Source: PAP