Starczewska Genowefa

STARCZEWSKA-KORCZAK, GENOWEFA During the war, Genowefa Starczewska was living in Czestochowa. In 1943, Zygmund Berkowicz asked Genowefa to help save his four-year-old daughter, Celina. Genowefa agreed. Frightened by the imminent liquidation of the so-called “small ghetto,” Zygmund informed Genowefa about his plans to escape. When he fled the ghetto, he put his child into Genowefa’s care. Genowefa’s husband had been murdered earlier by the Nazis, and she was a widow bringing up her ten- and twelve-year-old daughters alone. Since she could not possibly support three children, Genowefa put them all into an orphanage in Czestochowa that was managed by nuns. She brought the children back into her home at weekends and on holidays; on weekdays, she visited them at the institution and brought them meals. Genowefa’s daughters, Wanda and Tereza, knew that Celina was Jewish but they, nevertheless, treated her as a blood sister. In early July 1944, Genowefa was compelled to go into hiding because her neighbors began to suspect that Celina was Jewish. For six months, until the liberation of Czestochowa in January 1945, Genowefa never spent more than one night in the same place. After the liberation, Zygmund’s brother, Jack Berkowicz, and his wife Sophie, who had spent the occupation interned in the Hasag camp in Czestochowa, found Genowefa (later Mrs. Korczak). Celina’s parents, Guta and Zygmund, had perished in 1943, and they wanted to be the child’s guardians. Initially, Celina did not want to part with Genowefa. “She loved her Polish protector and her daughters and did not want to leave them,” wrote Jack and Sophie in their testimony to Yad Vashem. “[In April 1945] we succeeded in taking her with us. We brought her up as our own daughter.” Some time later, Jack, Sophie, and Celina immigrated to the United States, from where they maintained contact with Genowefa and her daughters. On May 14, 1984, Yad Vashem recognized Genowefa Starczewska-Korczak as RighteousAmong the Nations.