FRIEDA ADAM - GERMANY

Berlin, Germany September 1942 In 1938, Erna Puterman was working as

a seamstress in Berlin where she met Frieda Adam, a co-worker. The two
teenage girls became friends. Even when Erna was forced to change jobs
because she was Jewish, Frieda continued her friendship with Erna. Frieda
refused to be intimidated by the anti-Jewish laws and climate. Life became
increasingly difficult and exceedingly harsh for the Jews of Germany. In
September 1942, Ernas mother was arrested and put in a camp in Germany.
Later, she was sent on one of the early transports to Auschwitz. Erna was left
to care for her brother who was deaf. Not knowing what to do, Erna went to
Frieda for help and advice. Friedas response to Erna was immediate, As long
as there is food for us, there will be food for you, too. Thus in September
1942, Erna and her brother went into hiding for more than two years. Frieda
had three small children ages six, four, and two, and a husband in the
German army. Frieda said of her husband, He was an evil man. Everyone
was evil back then. When Friedas husband discovered that she was hiding
two Jews, he began to blackmail her. Late in 1944, Frieda was forced to find
Erna and her brother another place to hide. They all survived the war. Frieda
Adam died on October 2, 2013, at the age of 95.

WLADYSLAW BARTOSZEWSKI - POLAND

Warsaw, Poland 1941 Wladyslaw Bartoszewski was seventeen in 1939

when the Germans invaded Poland. He participated in the defense of Warsaw
and was arrested on September 19, 1940, and sent to Auschwitz. Released in
1941, he joined the Polish underground known as the Home Army or the AK.
He also belonged to the Catholic underground organization Front for the
Rebirth of Poland. Wladyslaw Bartoszewski was chosen as a member of the
Delegatura, the representative body in Poland of the Polish government-inexile. As a member of the Delegatura, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski was a leader
of Zegota, the Council for the Aid to Jews. Zegota was responsible for saving
several thousand Jews and, according to one estimate, 40,000 to 50,000
Jews benefited in some way from its activities. Bartoszewski worked for the
freedom of the Jews as well as Poles. From August 1 until October 2, 1944, he
participated in the Warsaw Uprising. He was then a member of the Bureau
for Information and Propaganda of the Central Headquarters of the Home
Army. Wladyslaw Bartoszewski transmitted reports on Nazi terror and the
situation of the Jews to the Polish government-in-exile. Following the war,
Bartoszewski was imprisoned by the Polish government for eight years (1946
to 1954). In 1965 he was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by
Yad Vashem, making him one of the first non-Jews recognized by the State of
Israel. He served as Polands ambassador to Austria from 1990 to 1995 and
also served as Polands Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1990 he was appointed
Chairman of the International Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State
Museum. Wladyslaw Bartoszewski passed away in 2014.

JERZY BIELECKI - POLAND

Auschwitz, Poland Summer 1944 Jerzy Bielecki was in the first transport
of Polish political prisoners that left Tarnow, Poland, for Auschwitz on June 13,
1940. Upon arriving at Auschwitz, Jerzy was given number 243. During his
more than four years as an inmate at Auschwitz, Jerzy worked in several
places, including the grain warehouse. There he met and fell in love with
Cyla Cybulska, a Polish Jew. Although men and women were not allowed to
communicate with each other, Jerzy and Cyla were able to exchange a few
words every day. During the winter of 1944, Jerzy decided to attempt to
escape from Auschwitz. He begged Cyla to join him. You are the only one
left in your family, he told her, maybe I can save you. Cylas parents and
brothers, who had also been deported to Auschwitz, had already been
murdered. Although she initially did not take Jerzy seriously, she eventually
decided to join him. Over several months Jerzy made the necessary
arrangements by securing food, documents, clothing, shoes for Cyla, and a
SS uniform for himself. On July 21, 1944, Jerzy, dressed in the stolen SS
uniform, arrived in the laundry room where Cyla worked. He told the SS
woman in charge that he was summoning Cyla for interrogation. Together
they began walking through the camp. As they approached the guard house,
an SS guard stopped them. Jerzy showed him a stolen pass authorizing one
guard and one prisoner to return to a nearby work farm. The guard let them
through. At this point, Jerzy and Cyla had passed the guarded area of the

camp. They were still in grave danger, however, because they both had
camp numbers tattooed on their arms that would have easily identified them
as Auschwitz escapees. Capture by the Germans would have meant certain
death. They walked for ten nights, hiding in the fields during the day. Cyla
and Jerzy eventually reached the home of one of Jerzys relatives. They
stayed there for several days. In one of the towns that they stayed in, Jerzy
coincidentally reunited with his brother Leszek, a member of the Polish
underground. Jerzy decided to join his brother in the underground. Jerzy
found Cyla a permanent hiding place with a Polish family. They lost contact,
and when the war ended, each assumed that the other was dead. After
several years, Cyla married and moved to the United States to find some
distant relatives. Jerzy also married and remained in Poland. In 1983 Cyla
learned that Jerzy was still alive and traveled to Poland to visit him. Jerzy
greeted her with 39 red roses, one for each year they were apart. Following
their reunion, Cyla and Jerzy saw each other fifteen more times until Cyla
died in February 2005. Jerzy Bielecki died in October 2011 at the age of 90.