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89 Roman Kierszniewski Zegota, and in no other country was the death penalty imposed for giving even a glass of water to a Jew. Both Edward Kemnitz and his late father, Wojciech, were honored for saving Jews by Yad Vashem on December 14,1983, at the Consulate General of Israel in Montreal, Canada, where Kemnitz lives today. ROMAN KIERSZNIEWSKI I lived with my wife, Irena, in Warsaw until the outbreak of the war in 1939, when I took part as a soldier in the September Campaign. After my return, Irena and I found other quarters in a one-story home in Zielonka, near Warsaw. Toward the end of 1939, we found out from acquaintances about the troubles of Hania Rubin, who was of Jewish origin. Before the war she had been a chambermaid for a well-known wealthy Polish family. The death sentence imposed by the Germans on those who helped or concealed Jews caused Hania to lose her job. For several days she lingered on in one of the abandoned Warsaw villas. Concerned about her fate, my wife and I went to the street where the villa was. We immediately saw that she lived with her aunt in deplorable conditions. There was no glass in the windows. In place of a couch they used a bag of straw. There was neither electricity nor heat. My wife and I decided to take the two women to our home in Zielonka. After some time, I took Hania's aunt to live with acquaintances in Marki, near Warsaw, while Hania stayed with us. She lived with us until 1944, assisting our common budget with meager funds earned by sewing. One of her clients was even a German, by the name of Szu1c. From 1939 to 1944, there was a succession of inspections by the Germans in Zielonka. Two of these inspections involved my familymyself , my wife, and our four-year-old son, Andrzej. The first of these inspections, in March 1944, was a broad plan of action "to cleanse the land" of Zielonka of Jews. The organizers were the German police from Radzymin. Early in the morning, a Jew whom we knew ran into our house 90 Out of the Inferno and informed us of the beginning of the German action. Hania, wearing a nightgown and slippers, fled through the window and later into the woods. In the evening, after the conclusion of the liquidation by the Germans, I took her clothes and a blanket. Anticipating another action of the same type, we intended to lodge Hania with either our acquaintances or relatives in Warsaw. I arranged to get the necessary documents for her under the Polish name Halina Kwiatkowska. From April to August 1944, Hania lived with our relatives or acquaintances, often changing her place of residence . In April 1944 there was another inspection at our home in Zielonka . This time Kripo, the criminal police, was directed to our address by reports that we had concealed Jews. By a stroke of luck, Hania was not living with us at that time; moreover, earlier that day my wife, anticipating danger, had burned in the stove underground newspapers and bulletins that we had brought home from work. Close to the time of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, the owner of the house where we lived discovered an old identification card of Hania Rubin's and told us to leave his place immediately. The owner was afraid that we were continuing to hide her and would bring misfortune on him. The consequence was that we moved to Warsaw. I was living in an apartment at 25 Iwicki Street at the time of the Warsaw Uprising. My wife stayed several streets away, in a stone apartment building on Widok Street. After two weeks she used the sewers to get through to Sadyba. After many advertures, during which time I took care of our five-year-old son, my wife and I were reunited in the village of WXadysXaw6w, not far from Warsaw. During the occupation, I helped a Jewish man, MieczysXaw Prozanski , who concealed himself in a mechanic's workshop on Leszno Street in Wola, next to the Warsaw ghetto. He hid in the garret, where he did the bookkeeping for the shop. Working in the same shop as a watchman, I often gave Prozanski food or clothes. Once I even participated in an action to ransom him from the Jewish militia, which had seized him after he was denounced by another Jew in...

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