Szatkowska Zofia (Kossak)

Kossak-Szczucka (Szatkowska), Zofia During the war, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka (Szatkowska by her second marriage) lived in Warsaw. From 1939, she was active in the Polish underground movement and from early 1941, she was engaged in the activities of a Catholic organization called Front for the Revival of Poland (Front Odrodzenia Polski). In July 1942, after the Nazis commenced the extermination of the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto, Zofia Kossak wrote an appeal entitled Protest, published in leaflet form. “The world is watching this crime,” read the leaflet, “the most horrible crime that has ever taken place in history, and keeps silent. The slaughter of millions of defenseless people is being carried out amidst general and ominous silence… We must not tolerate this silence any longer. He who keeps silent in the face of slaughter becomes an accomplice to murder. He who does not condemn, complies with the murder." Zofia was also one of those who initiated the establishment of the Żegota, set up by delegates’ office of the Polish Government-in-Exile. Zofia was one of the principal activists of Żegota and was involved in the rescue of many people. She devoted herself selflessly to help Jews. "Her individual initiatives and efforts in rescuing the persecuted from death preempted her organizational activities in the field. She herself was wanted by the Gestapo and made a special sortie to Cracow in order to rescue an orphaned Jewish child,” wrote Bartoszewski Władysław* in his book The War Experiences 1939 – 1945. On September 25, 1943, Zofia was detained by a German patrol. They suspected her of being Jewish and of having forged papers. After a ten-day stay in the Pawiak prison, she was transferred to Auschwitz and then returned once again to Pawiak in the spring of 1944. (She described her experiences in Auschwitz in her famous book Back from the Abyss.) After the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, Zofia found herself in Częstochowa. In the summer of 1945, she returned to Warsaw. On September 13, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Zofia Kossak-Szczucka (Szatkowska) as Righteous Among the Nations. File 2377a