September 7, 2023
Today was special. I marked my 31st year at The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) and upon arriving in Warsaw, Poland, in the afternoon, I found myself at an outdoor evening concert honoring Polish righteous. I sat with Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, Dr. Anna Bando, a Righteous Gentile and President of the Polish Society of the Righteous, and nine Righteous who attended the luncheon the JFR held for Polish Righteous this past July. The concert had two large screens which projected images of the Righteous as well as photographs of Jews before and during the Holocaust. Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Many at the concert, especially the Righteous, had lived through the war. Poland had just commemorated the German invasion days before. When these images appeared on the screens the audience was silent. It was a time for reflection. The concert was excellent!
I am in Poland to attend a beatification ceremony in Markova, Poland, this Sunday. The ceremony is honoring the UlmaFamily. The family hid 8 Jews until they were denounced. The Germans killed the Jews and the entire Ulma family, parents Jozef and Wiktoria, and their children. Here is a link to their rescue story.
-Stanlee