Kukulska Maria (Kaliwoda); Daughter: Krzyżowska Anna (Kukulska)

Kukulska, Maria Krzyżowska, Anna Maria Kukulska, a teacher by profession, who lived with her daughter Anna in Warsaw, began to provide aid to Jews persecuted by the German occupiers in 1940. With the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto, Kukulska engaged in further acts of rescue, and over time her apartment became a shelter for imperiled Jews. At first, her young daughter Anna did not know that the people staying in their home were Jewish refugees, but when she was 16, her mother divulged her secret activity to her, and Anna became an active participant in it. Anna accompanied the Jews in their travels inside and outside the city, and served as a courier between those who were in hiding. Despite the risk to her own life, she brought them letters and cared for them with great devotion. Among those who lived permanently in the Kukulskas’ home were a Jew who appeared under the name Stefan Zgrzembski and was a Zegota activist, and the physician Roman Beseches, who was also involved in underground activity. When the number of those hiding in the Kukulskas’ apartment was liable to endanger them as well as the refugees themselves, Kukulska rented an apartment in nearby Swider and moved several of the Jews she was sheltering to it. Anna continued to care for the Jewish refugees, but after someone informed to the authorities, those hiding in Swider were arrested until bribes were paid to gain their release. Kukulska, determined to carry on with her rescue work, rented another apartment, this time in Otwock, where in addition to Zgrzembski and Beseches, she also sheltered Joram Gross and Jerzy Keiner. Kukulska and her daughter received no remuneration for everything they did to save the lives of Jews and were motivated solely by their humanitarian values. In later years, Natan Gross wrote about the actions of Maria and Anna Kukulska in his book, Where are You, Mr. Grimek? On May 1, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Marian Kukulska and her daughter Anna Krzyżowska as Righteous Among the Nations. File 6618