A 102-year-old Polish woman who rescued Jews during the Holocaust needed a medical bed, and an Israeli Holocaust survivor provided it.
By United With Israel Staff
This week, an Israeli Holocaust survivor donated funds to cover the cost of a medical bed for a Polish woman who saved Jews during the Holocaust. Medical beds are specially designed for bedridden individuals.
Krystyna Danko, 102, risked her life to save a Jewish family during World War II. She is among the oldest living rescuers of Jews. Today, Danko is deaf and blind.
Her plight reached Jonny Daniels, founder of “From the Depths,” a group created by descendants of survivors to preserve the memory of the Holocaust for future generations.
Daniels opened a crowd-funding campaign to raise the necessary $1,200. The campaign came to the attention of Joe Erlichster, 75, whose own family had been saved by a non-Jewish family during the war.
He gave a donation, covering the cost of the bed, in memory of the Kulinski family, who had saved his own family in Otwock, near Warsaw. Danko received her bed on Thursday.
Responding to Danko’s need, Erlichster said, is “part of our duty as Jews to recognize what some brave souls in Poland and elsewhere did.”
Danko’s story was described as “incredible” by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
Before the war, a Jewish family named Kokoszko had taken in the orphaned Danko in Otwack. When the war broke out, she almost single-handedly rescued the four members of the Kokoszko family, according to her case file.
In 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Danko among the “Righteous Among the Nations.”