A beautiful story in tragic times. Irena Zielińska, a young Polish woman, risked her life saving her future husband from the Holocaust. 

Born in 1925, Irena Zielińska lived in Majdan Wrotkowski near Lublin, which is now a part of the city. When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and the Second World War broke out, she was just 14 years old. 

Her father, Piotr, kept good relations with the Jew Shmul Berengut and his sons Czesław and Władysław, during the interwar period. They lived in Zemborzyce Kościelne – a village not far from where the Zieliński family came from. 

When the Reinhardt Action began in March 1942, Irena started to help her father’s Jewish friends. Thanks also to her support, they did not go to the Piaski ghetto, but escaped to the Dąbrowa forest near Zemborzyce. There they stayed for some time, fed by that Polish woman. After a short time, Irena took Władysław Berengut to her flat, even though in German-occupied areas, giving any help to Jews was punishable by death. 

During the occupation, the woman worked as a labourer, lived poorly, and had a small flat. She organised two secret hiding places: a cell behind a wardrobe, to which a secret passage led, and a shelter under the floor of the cell. It was there that the hidden Jews waited out the most dangerous moments. Irena’s difficult financial situation and the teenager’s modest income did not allow her to give shelter to Władysław’s brother and father either. So, they remained in hiding in the forest. Unfortunately, the Germans discovered them during a manhunt and shot Shmul and Czesław. 

Władysław stayed with Irena Zielińska until July 1944. When the Second World War ended, the rescued Jew and the Polish woman who saved him got married. 

On 21 February 1992 the Yad Vashem Institute awarded Irena Zielińska-Berengut the medal “Righteous Among the Nations” in recognition of the woman’s heroism.