On the Day of Remembrance of Poles Saving Jews under German Occupation, the Pilecki Institute unveiled a commemorative plaque in Brzóza Królewska near Leżajsk, commemorating Katarzyna and Sebastian Kazak, murdered by German military policemen for helping Jews. The event was held under the honorary patronage of President Andrzej Duda.
The commemoration of Katarzyna and Sebastian Kazak started this year’s the Pilecki Institute’s program “Called by the Name”. So far, the Institute has honored 53 Poles who saved over 100 Jews with 23 commemorations.
In a letter addressed to the participants of the ceremony President Andrzej Duda wrote “I would like to sincerely thank all those who cherish the memory and spread knowledge about Poles who saved Jews. Thank you for organized celebrations and events, for research and publications, and for other forms of commemorating our national heroes. The truth about the merits of our countrymen saving the nation doomed to extermination is still not fully known.”
The “Called by the Name” program, launched in 2019, is dedicated to people of Polish nationality murdered for helping Jews during the German occupation. The memory of those who showed heroism in the face of German terror is cherished in the memories of families, but often these stories are not known to the general public.
The program was created out to mark places related to the murdered heroes in the public space. The Pilecki Institute is making efforts to make these local experiences part of the general historical awareness.
In the summer of 1942, the Germans began the liquidation of the Jewish population in the Jarosław district. Most of the victims were transported to the death camp in Bełżec. Others began to hide and ask their neighbors for help. The Kazaks did not refuse to help. First, they hid the children of their neighbor – Pinchas Wachs, who returned to their family home after a few weeks and died there with their parents.
At the end of 1942, the family took in a Jewish girl, Chana Stille, whose daughter, Jehudit, was a school friend of the Kazak’s daughter, Józefa. Soon after, two Jewish men joined Chana.
On the morning of March 27, 1943, German military policemen entered the farm and shot the Jews found there, and then Katarzyna and Sebastian. The Kazak daughters, Agnieszka and Józef, escaped death. However, they had to leave their hometown and remain hidden.
In 2008, the Yad Vashem Institute awarded Katarzyna and Sebastian Kazak the title of “Righteous Among the Nations”. In 2010, they and their daughters were awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński