Gorzkowska Henryka

Gorzkowska, Henryka Henryka Gorzkowska (code name Różycka), was known by Jews escaping from the Warsaw ghetto as a humane person who was always prepared to help Jews. As an activist in Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews), Gorzkowska let her apartment in Piastow near Warsaw be used by fugitives until she found them permanent accommodation. Gorzkowska also obtained “Aryan” documents for refugees, supported them financially, visited them in their hiding places, and gave them moral and material support. Among the many Jews helped by Gorzkowska were Henry Rosen; Jerzy and Balbina Perski; and Józef Maciejewicz. In January 1944, the Gestapo arrested Gorzkowska for helping Jews. After being subjected to a brutal interrogation in Pawiak prison, she was sent to Ravensbrueck concentration camp, where she survived until the liberation. In risking her life to save Jews, Gorzkowska was guided by compassion and a sense of obligation to the persecuted, and never expected anything in return. After the war, Rosen and the Perskis stayed on in Poland. Maciejewicz later emigrated to Sweden. On December 27, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Henryka Gorzkowska as Righteous Among the Nations.