6200 Polish names honoured in gardens of Yad VashemThe newly championed 'Righteous Gentiles', in some cases represented by their families, were from various localities, both urban and rural.
Amongst those recognised was Bronislawa Ogoniewska, originally from the city of Stanislawow (now Ukraine), who helped hide some 32 Jews.
With over 6200 now honoured, Poland has the highest number of righteous gentiles in comparison with other countries.
However, it is accepted that the numbers of people involved in aiding Jews was vastly higher. For a gentile to be officially honoured, the testimony of a Jewish survivor must be given, or incontrovertible evidence to support the candidacy.
Most of those that were aided are now no longer alive, whilst others were executed along with their saviours. The official penalty for aiding Jews was the death sentence (often meted out to the entire family) although this was not always practised.
Similarly, some families have avoided applying for Righteous status, noting that their acts were done out of a sense of duty, rather than as a means of winning awards.
Yesterday's ceremony provided a heartening interlude in a month where the uglier side of Polish-Jewish relations was at the forefront of public debate, owing to a new book by Princeton historian Jan T.Gross.
In his book, Golden Harvest, Gross argued that about 20,000 Jews were murdered by their Polish compatriots during the war.
Research on this less-publicised strand of Polish history is ongoing, but representatives of the Polish Centre for Holocaust Research have confirmed a similar figure.
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Source:
Rzeczpospolita, PAP