Sajowski Mikołaj & Zachariasiewicz Helena (Sebastiańska)

Sajowski, Mikołaj Sajowska, Helena Dembińska (Zachariasiewicz), Aniela Sala Armel-Goldhar lived with her parents, Israel Ber and Feiga (née Leibenhaut) Armel, in the town of Stryj, near Lwów (today Lviv), Poland. Israel was a furrier. When Sala was 5, World War II broke out, and the area was occupied first by the Soviets and then by the Germans. To save her, little Sala’s parents gave her, along with two or three family photos and a few addresses abroad, to a Polish woman named Aniela Dembińska. Though she came from the city of Czortków, Aniela worked as a teacher in Stryj. She brought Sala to the farm belonging to her mother and stepfather, Helena and Mikołaj Sajowski. On her first night with the Sajowskis, Sala slept on the floor between the two parents, who wanted to calm her after days of fear. Despite their old age, they treated Sala well and made an effort to protect her. Aniela took the risk of presenting Sala as her own child, even though she had a daughter of her own in Stryj. This was possible because Sala had blond hair and blue eyes, like most Poles and Ukrainians in the area. Still, it was very hard for the 5-year-old girl. The cold, the darkness, the foul smells from cows and goats on the farm, and missing her parents deeply all made her very unhappy. She managed to run away once, but returned immediately after seeing a gallows with the bodies of Jews hanging from it. She spent approximately two years with the Sajowskis. After the war, there were Jewish organizations and individuals who sought to reunite Jewish children with their own people. One of those individuals, Dr. Schorr, who had himself been saved by hiding with a Polish family, testifies that the Sajowski family wanted to take Sala to a Communist orphanage after the war ended. He talked to them and convinced them to let him take the girl. Sala remembers a long drive to meet a tall man, Dr. Schorr, and she saw the adults talking. Sala saw the man give something to Aniela, after which Aniela entered her car without saying goodbye and left. Dr. Shorr lived in Czortków. He and his wife took in several Jewish children so that they would have a home with a Jewish family. The Schorrs raised these children, along with their own son, Emanuel. Sala stayed with the Schorrs for two years, had a warm home there, and went to school. When the family went to Israel, Sala stayed behind in a Jewish orphanage. She reasoned that her parents would look for her there. After Sala turned 9 and saw that the Jews had been almost completely exterminated, she gave up hope of finding her parents, traveled to Germany to a displaced persons’ camp, and sent letters to the addresses her mother had left her. There were four addresses, but only one replied. It was her mother’s aunt, who was very happy to hear that Sala was looking for her family. In April 1948, Sala arrived in Toronto, Canada, where she was welcomed with open arms. She grew up, married, and has three children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. On December 27, 2017, Yad Vashem recognized Mikołaj and Helena Sajowski and Aniela (Zachariasiewicz) Dembińska as Righteous Among the Nations.