Edmund Kosek, a Polish Christian who during World War II hid more than 200 Jews in a Warsaw basement, was honored by the Israeli Yad Vashem Memorial Institute. Kosek, who was visiting Chicago, was presented a certificate and medal at a ceremony several days ago at the Israeli Consulate-General here. Among those attending was one of the persons he saved, Morris Hochman, who now lives in Chicago. He shook Kosek’s hand saying: “I and at least 200 other Jews, are alive today because of this man.”
In 1943, Kosek’s father, Waclaw Kosek, was executed by the Germans for concealing Jews. The son continued hiding Jews, sheltering more than 200 until he could provide them with forged identity papers describing them as Christians. “I was raised in a Jewish neighborhood, a lot of my friends were Jewish,” Kosek said in explaining why he hid the Jews.
Ehud Avriel, Israel’s Consul General here, presented Kosek with a certificate recalling his help “at the risk of his life,” and a medal of the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute in Jerusalem. The Israeli official described Kosek as “a true human being who went out of his way to do heroic deeds. He decided to do what he did because he was born to be a human being. In the process he became a hero. He was one of a small elite who did not give in to oppression and brutality.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
