A CARD FROM THE CALENDAR - FRANCISZEK BANAŚ
“This is not how childhood should look like”, thought Franciszek Banaś. His eyes had seen a sea of cruelty, he had a battered soul and a torn heart. He was an officer of the Polish police in Cracow and was responsible for safeguarding the entrance to the Cracow ghetto on a daily basis. The job was both a curse and a godsend. He was in the midst of evil, but he could save people from that evil. Róża Jakubowicz and her son Tadeusz were walking straight to the gate, where apart from Banaś, there were SS men. “Róża was weak on her feet”, recalls Banaś. A Polish policeman bribed SS man standing on guard and led Róża and her son outside the ghetto gate. The Jakubowicz family wasn’t the only one he saved. Among the survivors there were a three-year-old Miriam Schein, Rabbi Lewertow and the Hoffman family. Franciszek Banaś was awarded the Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations for his merits.
