Buskolska Janina

Buchholtz-Buskolska, Janina During the occupation, Janina Buchholtz-Buskolska ran an office in central Warsaw for translations and drafting official applications. Under cover of the office, Buchholtz-Buskolska set up a center, which helped Jews by providing them with “Aryan” documents, money, and hiding places. The office was also used to liaise with activists in the Jewish underground. Buchholtz-Buskolska emphasized that she did not belong to any political party, but that her actions were dictated by humanitarian considerations only. Her rescue activities were influenced by Adolf and Basia Berman, leading activists of the Jewish underground, whom she had hidden in her home in 1942, after they escaped from the local ghetto. Soon “pani Janina z ulicy Miodowej” (“Mrs. Janina of Miodowa Street”) became a household name among Jewish refugees and members of the Jewish underground who used her office as a meeting place. Although Buchholtz-Buskolska’s reputation exposed her to greater danger, she was not deterred. “Fear does not behoove human dignity” she was fond of saying. Buchholtz-Buskolska never asked for remuneration. Her acts of heroism were described by Adolf Berman and the author, Rachel Auerbach, in the books they wrote after the war. On June 15, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Janina Buchholtz-Buskolska as a Righteous Among the Nations.