Kasjano Maria (Kępa)

Kasjano, Maria Maria Kasjano, a resident of Warsaw and an AK activist, served as a courier between the AK and members of the ZOB who operated outside the ghetto. The meetings between AK and ZOB representatives and couriers took place in an apartment at 14 Prozna Street specially rented for the purpose. Kasjano used to bring weapons, German Army uniforms, forged documents, information and various kinds of communiqués to the Jewish couriers at this address. Among her other activities, Kasjano used to enter the ghetto and smuggle out Jewish members of the underground to the Aryan side of the city. She allowed her home to be used as an arms cache and supplied members of the ZOB with weapons before the Ghetto Uprising. After the fighting in the ghetto was over, three members of the underground – Zygmunt Igla, Jakub Fajgenblat, and Guta Kawenoki – who escaped from the ghetto came to Kasjano’s apartment to collect weapons. The Gestapo, alerted by a member of the NSZ, raided Kasjano’s apartment and in the subsequent shootout the three members of the Jewish Fighting Organization were killed. Kasjano, her sister, and other members of the underground who were staying in the apartment escaped. On May 28, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Kasjano as Righteous Among the Nations.