Recipients - Instytut Pileckiego

Awarded in 2022

Awarded in 2021

  • Petro Bazeluk (1903–1949)

    awarded

    Petro Bazeluk (1903–1949)

    Mykola Bazeluk said that there was no difference between who was a Pole and who was a Ukrainian in Volhynia before the war. That all changed in 1943, when, as he put it, “Brother turned on brother.”

  • Maria Bazeluk (1903–1956)

    awarded

    Maria Bazeluk (1903–1956)

    During the Second World War, she was living with her husband Petro Bazeluk and their three children near the village of Buteiky. The German policy that sought to take advantage of the dislike of Ukrainians for Poles was beginning to bear bloody fruit.

  • Ecaterina Olimpia Caradja (1893–1993)

    awarded

    Ecaterina Olimpia Caradja (1893–1993)

    “Kurier Polski” published in Bucharest on 3 December 1939 was full of alarming headlines: “The Soviet attack on Finland”, “Executions and deportations.” One of them gave people hope: “Under the care of Princess Caragea. Home for mothers and chilldren.”

  • Jenő Etter (1889–1973)

    awarded

    Jenő Etter (1889–1973)

    The mayor of the Hungarian city of Esztergom received dozens of letters written in Polish. The greeting lines themselves showed the sympathy and gratefulness of the Polish refugees: “Dear Captain!”, “Dear Doctor!”. Jenő Etter understood them all.

  • Petro Hrudzewycz (ur. 1939)

    awarded

    Petro Hrudzewycz (ur. 1939)

    When local Soviet functionaries told him to remove the cross from the grave of soldiers of the Polish Army, he refused. However Petro was punished for his resistance, each year he attends the commemoration of the battle known as the Polish Thermopylae.

  • Jan Jelínek (1912–2009)

    awarded

    Jan Jelínek (1912–2009)

    In 1937, the care of the Evangelical parish in Kupiczów, Volhynia was entrusted to Jan Jelínek. The young pastor won the hearts of the Czechs, who had settled there in the 19th century. In his sermons he preached love of neighbor regardless of his beliefs.

  • Anna Jelínková (1918–2009)

    awarded

    Anna Jelínková (1918–2009)

    During the war the Jelíneks saved more than 40 people: the Jewish families of Fischer and Fronk, the Polish family of Siekierski, Feliks Zubkiewicz, whose loved ones were killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and the Ukrainian family of Lutsyuk.

  • Jozef Lach (1905–1993)

    awarded

    Jozef Lach (1905–1993)

    One night in October 1939, four men knocked on the door of Jozef and Žofia Lach’s home in Poprad, Slovakia. They came from the nearby Tatra Mountains, from occupied Poland.

  • Žofia Lachová (1907–1979)

    awarded

    Žofia Lachová (1907–1979)

    The courage and selflessness of Žofia and Jozef Lach helped save many Poles and ensured that the transit route to Poland was in use until almost the end of the war.

Awarded in 2019

  • Tassybaj Abdikarimow

    awarded

    Tassybaj Abdikarimow
    (1938–2020)

    The Jabłoński family were in an difficult situation — terrible sanitary conditions, shortage of food, and hard labor in the sun caused a very high mortality rate among he inhabitants. During this difficult time, help came from a 16-year-old Kazakh.

  • Chaim Yisroel Eiss

    awarded

    Chaim Yisroel Eiss
    (1876–1943)

    Cooperating with the Polish diplomats in Bern, he created a network to smuggle passports into the ghettos of occupied Poland.

  • Anatolij Giergiel (1904—1981)

    awarded

    Anatolij Giergiel (1904—1981)

    In the summer of 1943 in Volhynia, having learned about a planned attack by Ukrainian nationalists on Poles, Anatolyi Giergiel warned his friend.

  • Zinaida Giergiel z d. Radczuk (1912—1989)

    awarded

    Zinaida Giergiel z d. Radczuk (1912—1989)

    Zinaida Giergiel suspected that after being chased out of their homes and suffering from hunger, the Poles would attempt to return to their farms. She was able to warn polish family that a unit of the OUN/UPA was waiting for them in the house.

  • prof. Władysław Konopczyński (1880—1952)

    awarded

    prof. Władysław Konopczyński (1880—1952)

    After the Warsaw Uprising, among the crowds expelled from the burning city were the family of a Polish-Jewish historian, Ludwik Widerszal. Konopczyński offered shelter in Młynik until the end of the war.

  • dr Juliusz Kühl (1913—1985)

    awarded

    dr Juliusz Kühl (1913—1985)

    As a member of the Ładoś Group, he was responsible for acquiring Latin American passports in blanco and for contacting Jewish organizations.

  • Antoni Nagórka (1901—1977)

    awarded

    Antoni Nagórka (1901—1977)

    Antoni and Władysława Nagórka lived at the edge of the town. Before the war, Antoni worked for the railways, and Władysława was a housewife. During the war they saved five Jews from the Holocaust.

  • Władysława Nagórka z d. Lech (1895—1981)

    awarded

    Władysława Nagórka z d. Lech (1895—1981)

    Antoni and Władysława Nagórka lived at the edge of the town. Before the war, Antoni worked for the railways, and Władysława was a housewife. During the war they saved five Jews from the Holocaust.

  • Konstanty Rokicki (1899—1958)

    awarded

    Konstanty Rokicki (1899—1958)

    Rokicki was responsible for one of the Ładoś Group’s most important tasks. In the years 1941—1944 he alone hand-wrote several thousand Paraguayan passports.

  • Stefan Jan Ryniewicz (1903—1988)

    awarded

    Stefan Jan Ryniewicz (1903—1988)

    He was the deputy to Aleksander Ładoś. Ryniewicz’s role was to provide diplomatic security to the whole operation.

  • Abraham Silberschein (1881—1951)

    awarded

    Abraham Silberschein (1881—1951)

    He was a member of the Ładoś Group, which issued illegal Latin American passports to European Jews. His role in the group was to provide lists and photographs of people who were to receive the passports.

  • gen. Lóránd Utassy (1897— 1974)

    awarded

    gen. Lóránd Utassy (1897— 1974)

    Utassy denied the Gestapo access to the internment camps and refused to surrender Polish soldiers. He also participated in talks with the Red Cross, aiming to establish it as the representation of Poles who had found themselves on Hungarian soil.

  • Ołeksandra Wasiejko z d. Łukaszko (ur. 1946)

    awarded

    Ołeksandra Wasiejko z d. Łukaszko (ur. 1946)

    During the Volhynia Massacre in the summer of 1943. Over the next seventy years Oleksandra Vaseyko kept alive the memory of the victims, bringing flowers to their graves and keeping them in her prayers.

  • Aleksander Ładoś (1891-1963)

    awarded

    Aleksander Ładoś (1891-1963)

    He was the leader of the group which issued illegal Latin American passports to persecuted Jews. Ładoś gave the group diplomatic protection.