Nowak Maria (Bożek)

Nowak, Maria Franciszka (Bożek) Helena Goldstein and Maria Bożek became close friends when they were classmates in Cracow. In 1941, when Goldstein was interned with her parents and brother in the Cracow ghetto, Bożek took advantage of every opportunity to help the Goldstein family, bringing them food and medicine. In 1942, when Bożek learned that Goldstein was on the verge of a breakdown after losing all the members of her family, Bożek helped her friend flee the ghetto and took her to her apartment, where she hid her temporarily. Bożek obtained Aryan papers for Goldstein and gave her her own birth certificate. Using these papers, Goldstein traveled to Warsaw, where, under her borrowed identity, she registered for work in Germany. She arrived in the German city of Hirschberg, where she remained until her liberation in January 1945. After the war, Goldstein returned to Cracow and renewed her ties of friendship with her rescuer. On June 27, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Nowak née Bożek, as Righteous Among the Nations.