Polish Catholic Who Saved 32 Jews from Nazis Honored in New York

Staszek Jackow, a 54-year-old Polish Catholic who had saved 32 Jews from annihilation by the Nazis during World war II, was ensconced by his Jewish friends in a five-room apartment in a New York hotel today, with his entire family. Efforts were being made by some of those he had rescued to obtain permanent visas for Jackow, his wife, and three teen-age sons.

The Jackow story was told by his New York friends as one of the prime examples of a Christian’s concern for his Jewish neighbors. Jackow had lived in Stanislav, Galicia, during the war, when the Nazis started rounding up the Jews of the city for deportation to Auschwitz and ultimate death. He gathered 32 of his Jewish neighbors and hid them in the cellar of his home, only a few doors from the headquarters of the Gestapo, which was hounding the Jews. He kept them in the cellar for two years, until the city was liberated from Naxi rule.

Last April, the Jews he had rescued, some of whom have since taken up residence in Buenos Airers, brought Jackow out of Warsaw. After being feted in Buenos Aires. he was brought here. This weekend he was joined by his wife and three sons, who were brought to this country with the aid of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, New York Democrat, whom the Jewish friends of Jackow had asked for intervention on the man’s behalf.

For the time being, the Jackow family has only six-month visas. The rescued Jews in this country will make efforts to have the visas extended. Ten of the rescued, who live in New York now, greeted Jackow’s family when Mrs. Jackow and her sons arrived at Kennedy Airport here this weekend. On hand also was a Buenos Aires dentist, Dr. Mundek Kremnitzer, one of the original 32 rescued, who had come here especially from Argentina for this purpose.