Sagan Marek

Sagan, Marek File 5918 After internment in the Drohobycz ghetto three young Jewish women—Karolina Teicher née Grauman, Stella Kawe née Hofman, and Rena Sternbach née Weissman—were sent to a labor camp Beskiden, where they were placed in service jobs. In March 1944, when they discovered that the Germans were about to liquidate the camp, they fled into a nearby forest near the resort town of Truskawiec. When Marek Sagan, who ran the nature museum in this town, was informed that three young Jewish women were hiding in the forest, he sent his assistant to bring them to him and placed them under his protection. During the day, Sagan concealed them in his attic, and at night, he let them use his bed. For the next four months, until the Red Army liberated the area in early August 1944, the three fugitives stayed in hiding with Sagan, who supported them and met all their needs. It was a critical period; the Wehrmacht was in retreat and German soldiers who might discover the Jewish women were billeted in his apartment. In her application to have him recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, Kawe wrote the following: “Sagan was an outstanding man, a humanist with a heart of gold and broad horizons. His concern for us, three orphaned Jewish women in the shadow of terror of the horrible war, was like the concern of a mother for her children.” On January 12, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Marek Sagan as Righteous Among the Nations.