Something for which to be thankful

It' a regular work day everywhere else but in the US, however, this is a story of goodness, hope and thankfulness: Holocaust survivor reunited with her Polish rescuer after 60 years
Nov. 27, 2008

An Israeli woman was reunited yesterday for the first time in 60 years with the woman who hid her and her family during the Holocaust.

Rozia (Seifert) Rothshild and her family lived in an underground bunker, while Wiktoria (Jaworska) Sozanska's Catholic family brought them food and disposed of their waste every day. Sozanska, who risked her own life, along with her widowed mother and five siblings, kept the Jewish family hidden from the Nazis between 1942 and 1944.

They met again at JFK Airport, thanks to the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous.

"I cannot fully express how grateful I am to Wiktoria and her mother Anna. They opened their home and their hearts to me, risking their own lives in order to save me," Rothshild said. "Their bravery is what has allowed me to live and build a wonderful family of my own, with three children and four grandchildren. I am so thankful to them and the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous for making this extraordinary reunion possible."

Rozia Seifert was one of 5,000 Jews from Turka, Poland rounded up to be transported to a ghetto. Wiktoria Jaworska, then a young woman, looked at furniture the Seifart family was selling before their move, but when she learned that the girl would be taken away to the ghetto, she told the family: "We will take care of you. You will come with us."

In the middle of the night, Sozanka's brother Mikolaj Jaworska came to the Seifart home in a hay cart and snuck Rozia, her brother Lucien, her father Mendel and disabled aunt Fanya away, past the eyes of the Germans on patrol.

The Germans raided Turka in the summer of 1944, when the Soviet army began to approach. Sozanka and her mother moved the Seifarts into the woods, where they lived for two weeks until the area was liberated.

After the war, Rozia Seifert met her Israeli husband and immigrated with him, changing her name to Shoshana - the Hebrew version of her name. Wiktoria Sozanka, now in her 80s, lives in Wroclaw, Poland.

"In the many years we have worked with survivors and their rescuers, I remain awestruck by the heroism of the thousands of rescuers who risked their lives to save others. By holding true to their values, these individuals saved Jews from certain death," said JFR Executive Vice President Stanlee Stahl. "We owe a great debt of gratitude to these men and women, and through our work, hope to improve their lives and preserve their stories."

The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous was created in 1986 to provide financial assistance to non-Jews who risked their lives and often the lives of their families to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Today the JFR supports more than 1,200 aged rescuers in 26 countries. The Foundation preserves the legacy of the rescuers through its internationally lauded Holocaust education program for middle and high school teachers and Holocaust center personnel.

Thank God for happy endings. Happy Thanksgiving!