Polish survivors add solemn note to pacs annual christmas party

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But with the large number of children always present at the annual Christmas party of the Polish American Congress, PAC President Frank Milewski (left) and Political Activities Chairman Chet Szarejko (far right) invited them to spend a few moments to tell the children what it was like to live as a teenager in German-occupied Poland in World War II. "Holocaust studies in public schools don't usually accentuate the story of Polish Catholics like Mrs. Lorenc and Mr. Mazur. We thought our Polish American kids should be made aware of what such people went through," said Szarejko, a former history teacher on Long Island. Both speakers were members of the Polish Underground (Armia Krajowa} and both were arrested by the Germans and sent to concentration camps. During the Uprising, Mr. Mazur miraculously survived two German bullets that grazed his neck and a third one that pierced into his hip. Even a German soldier's rifle butt to his head was unable to finish him off. While a prisoner in a German concentration camp, an SS guard kicked Mrs. Lorenc's face to a bloody pulp after she threw a piece of bread to a starving and pleading Jew. She considered herself lucky because she could have gotten a bullet in her head instead. Mrs. Lorenc's parents and a brother are honored at Israel's Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations" for rescuing and sheltering twelve Jews during the Holocaust. Another brother was part of an Armia Krajowa unit which tried to blow out a hole in the wall of the Warsaw Ghetto to let Jews escape. But neither this brother nor Mrs. Lorenc were ever honored as "Righteous" because the Jews they helped were not around to testify that the events really happened. Israel's Yad Vashem does not count anyone this way unless the rescued Jew will validate it. Even though Israel honors Poland as the country with the most "Righteous," many Poles say that number would be many times greater if it were not for the fact Yad Vashem does not count any act of aid unless the Jewish person who was aided steps forth and confirms it. After coming to the United States when the war ended, Mr. Mazur centered his efforts on working with the Maria Konopnicka Polish Saturday School in Brooklyn, N.Y. Many of the students came to the Christmas celebration to honor him and hear his testimony. As in past years, the Polish American Congress Christmas event was held at Greenpoint's Polonaise Terrace.

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