Korazim Helena (Kruk)

Korazim-Korzeniewska (Kruk), Helena In 1939, after the annexation of the Łódź district to the Reich, the Germans confiscated the Kruks’ estate in the village of Kalinów. Shortly after the outbreak of war, the Kruks’ daughter, Helena, came to stay with her uncle and aunt in Warsaw, where she met a number of Jews who had been close friends of her parents. Upon witnessing their suffering, even before they were interned in the ghetto, Kruk decided to help them, and bought them food, and carried out errands for them to spare them humiliation. Upon the closure of the ghetto, she managed to persuade her uncle and aunt to shelter six Jewish acquaintances who, at great personal risk, she smuggled out of the ghetto. Somewhat reluctantly, Kruk’s uncle and aunt found themselves sheltering four members of the Lichtenstein family, the Liliental couple, and later also Maksymilian Szretter, a former judge, in their humble abode. Helena took it upon herself to look after the refugees and when extortionists and informers began harassing them, she arranged alternative shelters for them. When the residents of Warsaw were driven out of the city following the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944, Kruk took her Jewish charges with her, without revealing their identity. After the war, Kruk married Jakow Korzeniewski, a Jewish veterinarian, and the two immigrated to Israel, where they changed their name to Korazim. On December 22, 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Helena Korazim-Korzeniewska (née Kruk) as Righteous Among the Nations.