{"id":43167,"date":"2020-11-14T07:03:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T06:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=43167"},"modified":"2025-11-14T16:47:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:47:40","slug":"farewell-to-maria-nowak-a-polish-catholic-who-risked-her-life-to-save-a-jewish-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2020\/11\/14\/farewell-to-maria-nowak-a-polish-catholic-who-risked-her-life-to-save-a-jewish-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"The life of Maria Nowak, a Polish Catholic who risked her life to save a Jewish girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few hours ago I learned of the death of Maria Nowak-Bo\u017cek, one of the last survivors of the people considered \"Righteous Among the Nations\".<\/p>\n

The Truth about Poland and the Holocaust<\/a><\/rel>
\nPilecki: The man who unveiled the Holocaust and ended up executed by the communists<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

Two young Polish friends from Krak\u00f3w: a Catholic and a Jewish<\/big><\/p>\n

Maria Franciszka Bo\u017cek (on the right, in a photo from her youth) was born in Krak\u00f3w on January 22, 1920, into a Catholic family.<\/strong> Her father was a railroad man, which is why she and her family lived in a railroad housing block on Wielicka Street. In high school, Maria studied in a class that embodied the religious tolerance that Poland represented for centuries:<\/strong> there were 20 Catholic girls, 10 Jewish and 2 Protestant, but most importantly, they all considered themselves Polish. Maria's best friend was named Helena Goldstein and she was Jewish.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1938, when they both graduated, Maria began studying mathematics at the Jagiellonian University in Krak\u00f3w<\/strong>, while Helena began her studies at the Higher School of Economics. The studies of both were interrupted in September 1939 by the German-Soviet invasion of Poland<\/a>. During the war, Maria started working in the textile industry.<\/p>\n

The German-Soviet invasion of 1939 and the Krak\u00f3w Ghetto<\/big><\/p>\n

The Germans sent Helena and her family to the Krak\u00f3w Ghetto<\/strong>, established in March 1941. The ghetto did not separate the friends. Maria helped Helena and her family by bringing them food and medicine<\/strong>, and also by passing on the information that reached her about the crowded trains of people, treated like cattle, leaving for an unknown destination, returning empty. Helena's father was sent on the first train from the ghetto to the Be\u0142\u017cec death camp.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
The liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto in 1943. 68,000 Jews lived in Krakow before the Second World War. In March 1941, the Germans sent 15,000 of the city's Jews to the ghetto, forced to live crowded together in a neighborhood previously inhabited by 3,000 people. The rest of Krakow's Jewish population was deported (Photo: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum<\/a>).<\/div>\n

In October 1942, Helena's mother was placed on a list to be deported from the ghetto.<\/strong> Despite attempts to hide, she was eventually captured and sent to Be\u0142\u017cec along with Helena's brother. They would never return: both were killed in that death camp, just like their father. Helena was alone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Helena's escape with the help of her friend Maria<\/big><\/p>\n

Upon learning of her friend's tragedy, Maria decided to do something that would put her own life at risk: help Helena escape the ghetto.<\/strong> She bought a blank identity card, in which she put her personal information along with a photograph of Helena (you can see next to these lines an image of the young Jewish woman). Additionally, she accompanied the document with a copy of her own baptism certificate and a copy of her high school diploma.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taking advantage of the fact that Helena had been authorized to work outside the ghetto, on Copernicus Street, one day Maria approached her, took off the bracelet with the Star of David that identified her as a Jew<\/strong>, and put a fur collar on her coat to make it less conspicuous (in December 1941 the German authorities had prohibited Jews from owning fur clothing).<\/p>\n

Maria took Helena to a hiding place with a friend of the Catholic girl<\/strong>, where she was hidden for a few days. Shortly after, a friend of both, Zofia Wolmuth-Wyszy\u0144ska, who had helped Maria organize the escape, went to find Helena to take her to Warsaw.<\/strong> Hiding her in the Bo\u017cek family home would have been very risky in case the young Jewess was recognized. In addition, had she been captured there, Maria's entire family would have been executed (it was the German practice with Poles sheltering Jews).<\/p>\n

The Warsaw Uprising and the postwar period<\/big><\/p>\n

Thanks to the documents that identified her as Maria Bo\u017cek, the daughter of a railwayman, in Warsaw Helena began to work at the central railway station<\/strong>, announcing the trains in Polish and German. In order not to arouse suspicions about her identity, every month Helena sent a letter to Maria<\/strong>, with the envelope addressed to her father, Antoni Bo\u017cek.<\/p>\n

After the Warsaw Uprising of 1944<\/a>, Helena was sent to do forced labor in Germany. At the end of the war, in 1945, she returned to Krak\u00f3w.<\/strong> She and Maria remained good friends until Helena's death in 1986. Maria married, renamed Maria Nowak, and had a daughter, Krystyna.<\/p>\n

Maria ended up studying Pharmacy<\/strong>, eventually obtaining a doctorate, and worked in several pharmacies in the city, including the pharmacy of Tadeusz Pankiewicz<\/strong>, a Catholic pharmacist who managed to keep his pharmacy open in the Krak\u00f3w Ghetto during the war, helping to Jews to get medicine and also on the run to avoid deportation to Be\u0142\u017cec. Pankiewicz would end up losing her pharmacy during the communist dictatorship, which subjected her to great harassment.<\/strong> H was declared \"Righteous Among the Nations\" by Yad Vashem in 1983.<\/p>\n

Maria was declared 'Righteous Among the Nations' in 1995<\/big><\/p>\n

For many years, Maria participated in the meetings organized by the Galicia Jewish Museum<\/strong>, located in the old Jewish district of Krak\u00f3w. Like pharmacist Pankiewicz, Maria (on the right, in an elderly photo) was declared \"Righteous Among the Nations\"<\/strong> by Israel's Yad Vashem in 1995. In 2007 she was recognized with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Poland Restituta<\/strong>, and in 2020, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, he was awarded the Medal of the Centennial of Recovered Independence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the occasion of his centenary he received visits from great personalities<\/strong>, such as the Polish Minister Wojciech Kolarski, the Prime Minister of Flanders Jan Jambom and the Archbishop of Krakow, Marek J\u0119draszewski. Maria was an angel and a living symbol of that heroic Poland that risked her life to save thousands of Jews.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She passed away two weeks after the death of her daughter Krystyna<\/big><\/p>\n

Maria left for heaven on November 6, 2020. Sadly, her grandson, Pawe\u0142 Nowak, buried his grandmother just two weeks after burying his mother, Krystyna.<\/strong> \"She would always have the most beautiful smile on her face and a kind word to say,\"<\/em> notes the author of From the Depths<\/a>, adding: \u201cAs is the wish of the family, I ask that we all pray for Ms. Nowak, and pray that his family finds comfort and consolation in these difficult times \u201d.<\/p>\n

Maria parti\u00f3 hacia el cielo el 6 de noviembre de 2020. Tristemente, su nieto, Pawe\u0142 Nowak, enterr\u00f3 a su abuela s\u00f3lo dos semanas despu\u00e9s de dar sepultura a su madre, Krystyna.<\/strong> \"Ella siempre tendr\u00eda la sonrisa m\u00e1s hermosa en su rostro y una palabra amable que decir\"<\/em>, se\u00f1ala el autor de From the Depths<\/a>, y a\u00f1ade: \"As is wishes of the family, I ask that we all pray for Mrs. Nowak, and pray that her family find solace and comfort in these difficult times\".<\/em><\/p>\n

Spoczywaj w pokoju. Cze\u015b\u0107 jej pami\u0119ci!<\/big>
\nRest in peace. Honor to her memory!<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Maria on her 100th birthday last January (Photo: Tytus Kondracki \/ Jewish Telegraphic Agency<\/a>).<\/div>\n

Bibliography:<\/big><\/p>\n