Leon Jastrząb (1904–1971), a telephone and telegraph technician from Chełm in eastern Poland, was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Israel's Yad Vashem Institute in 2023.
The medal and diploma were presented to his granddaughter, Anna Wojda, at a ceremony in Chełm on Monday by Israeli Deputy Ambassador Omer Chechek Katz.
During the German occupation, Jastrząb gave refuge to Emanuel Singer – a Jewish Polish army sergeant who had escaped a Nazi labour camp – along with his wife and young son.
The family stayed in the Jastrząb household between 1941 and 1942.
Several of Jastrząb's colleagues were aware of the situation but none reported him to the German authorities.
Helping Jews in occupied Poland carried the death penalty.
After leaving Chełm in May 1942, Singer obtained false Aryan identity papers in Lwów before moving to Warsaw with his family.
There he joined the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa), commanding a special unit responsible for receiving Allied airdrops of weapons, ammunition and supplies destined for the Polish government-in-exile's underground network.
He was wounded during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.
When the Red Army entered Warsaw, Singer fled back to Chełm, fearing Soviet secret police (NKVD) reprisals against Home Army soldiers, and once again turned to Jastrząb for help.
The Singer family later emigrated to Israel, where they maintained contact with Jastrząb.
'A miracle happened'
Singer's son, now known as Arie Ramon and living in Israel, joined the ceremony by video link.
"Something of a miracle happened there. I am very grateful," he said.
Anna Wojda said her grandfather never spoke about what he had done.
"For a very long time it didn't sink in that he was such a hero," she said.
At the ceremony, Jastrząb and his wife Aniela were also posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by Polish President Karol Nawrocki.
(ał)
Source: PAP