Krystyna Dańko,

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Chłond (9 July 1917 – 6 August 2019), was a Polish orphan from the town of

Otwock Otwock (Yiddish: אָטוואָצק) is a city in the Masovian Voivodeship in east-central Poland, some south-east of Warsaw, with 43,895 inhabitants (2024). Otwock is part of the Warsaw metropolitan area. It is situated on the right bank of the ...

, daughter of Karol Chłond – a respected city official in prewar Poland – who was awarded the title of

Righteous among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

in 1998, for saving the lives of Polish Jews during the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

while risking her own life at the time of the

Nazi German Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

occupation of Poland Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

, 2008,
Featured Stories: Krystyna Danko, Poland
The Righteous Among the Nations at The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority "Dańko family," at the Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich webpage
(

Museum of the History of the Polish Jews POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews () is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word ''Polin'' in the museum's English name means either "Poland" or "rest here" and relates to a legend about the arrival of the firs ...

) Krystyna Dańko received her medal at the request of Maryna (Maria) Bartoń,

Kokoszko, whom she "smuggled" into a safer place from Otwock to

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, where Maryna's extended family could take care of her. Unafraid of endangering her own life, Krystyna helped her Jewish friends by giving them food she bought, clothing as well as money, and by fulfilling their heartfelt requests. Sprawiedliwi wśród Narodów Świata (Otwocczanie): Krystyna Dańko. Source: Muzeum Ziemi Otwockiej.

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Several years before the outbreak of World War II, Krystyna Dańko established a close friendship with Lusia, the eldest daughter of the Kokoszko family, who was her high school classmate. Krystyna spent a great deal of time in their home. Once the Holocaust began, she did everything in her power to help the family survive the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. "I was never afraid of anything", she said.

Rescuing the Kokoszkos

After the Kokoszkos' successful escape from the ghetto, Krystyna helped to hide them, including the father, mother and Helena (Lusia), in a secret location at a nearby village. She took the youngest daughter, age 11, on a train to the capital, where the girl was placed in a Polish orphanage in Warsaw under an assumed name. Krystyna became the liaison between the family and their youngest child, delivering messages and information back and forth. Krystyna asked nothing in return for her heroic effort, stating that helping others was her moral obligation as a human being. Otwock Ghetto was liquidated on 19 September 1942, when 75% of its Jewish population, numbering around 8,000, was assembled at a layover yard in Otwock ''(pictured)'' and shipped to the

Treblinka Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the Treblinka, ...

death camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

. Jews who remained were summarily shot on Reymonta Street thereafter. In 1951 Krystyna Dańko,

Chłond, married Mieczysław Dańko, a social activist from Otwock persecuted by the

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

regime. He died in 1982. Mieczysław Dańko, of "Dańko family," at the Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich webpage
(

) She

turned 100 A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

in July 2017. Krystyna was honoured in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

as Righteous Among the Nations on 13 December 1998 for helping to save the lives of Eugenia, Helena, Maria, and Dr. Michał Kokoszko who settled in Warsaw after the war. The eyewitness testimony came from the youngest daughter of the Kokoszko family, Maria Kokoszko-Barton who submitted her deposition to Yad Vashem. Two other members of Dańko family were awarded their medals posthumously on 16 December 2008: Jadwiga Dańko,

Wojciechowska, (1904–1968) and her husband Mieczysław Dańko (1905–1982) who separately saved the Weczer family in Otwock. When members of the Weczer family arrived to the United States, the immigration office incorrectly wrote Wecer in the entry documents. Thus, Weczer which was pronounced (Wɛčər), went on to be pronounced as (Wɛsər).

References

* The International

Raoul Wallenberg Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (4 August 1912 – disappeared 17 January 1945)He is presumed to have died in 1947, although the circumstances of his death are not clear and this date has been disputed. Some reports claim he was alive years later. In ...

Foundation
Kystyna Danko, Poland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Danko, Krystyna 1917 births 2019 deaths Polish women centenarians Polish Righteous Among the Nations