Lindner Teresa ; Stepson: Koźmiński Jerzy ; Husband: Poraj Karol

Koźmiński, Jerzy Koźmińska, Teresa (later Ruth Lindner) Poraj-Koźmiński, Karol In late 1942 a representative of Żegota (the Council for Aid to Jews) turned to Karol Poraj-Koźmiński, who lived in Żoliborz, a district of Warsaw, asking him to shelter three Jews who had escaped from the local ghetto. With the consent of the rest of the family – his son, Jerzy Koźmiński, his second wife, Teresa Koźmińska, and their little son – Koźmiński agreed. At the request of the three Jews, Jerzy went to the ghetto, where he was asked to either hide or find a hiding place for a group of seven more people. Karol agreed to take them in, but first he needed to find a place large enough to accommodate such a large group. Eventually, he found a suitable house in Wawer, a Warsaw suburb, and beginning in April 1943, eleven Jews, most of them members of the Glazer family, turned up and hid in a well-concealed underground shelter that had been specially prepared for them. In the course of time, they were joined by other refugees, mostly for short periods. The Koźmińskis cared for all the refugees devotedly and did everything to ensure their safety. In risking their lives for the Jewish refugees, the Koźmińskis were guided by a feeling of obligation to fight against a common enemy, and they never expected anything in return. In early 1944 the authorities, alerted by informers, arrested Jerzy who, despite being subjected to a cruel interrogation, refused to betray the refugees. When he was sent to a series of concentration camps, Karol and Teresa continued to look after their Jewish charges. In September 1944, when the Germans retreated across the Vistula River, Teresa bravely left her house amidst falling bombs and burning houses, in order to find food for her charges. All the Jews who hid in the Koźmińskis’ house were liberated by the Red Army in September 1944. After the war, most of them immigrated to Israel. Karol died in 1954, and after a few years Teresa moved to Israel, converted to Judaism, and married a Jew. Jerzy, who had returned from the camps, remained in Warsaw. On February 16, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Jerzy Koźmiński and Ruth Lindner (formerly Teresa Koźmińska) as Righteous Among the Nations. On October 30, 2005, Yad Vashem recognized Karol Poraj-Koźmiński as Righteous Among the Nations.