Who were the Podgórski Sisters?
The Podgórski sisters were two Catholic Polish sisters who helped to conceal people of the Jewish faith in their home during the Holocaust. In addition to hiding 13 Jews, all of whom survived the war, the sisters also smuggled food into the Polish ghetto, risking their lives in an attempt to save as many people as possible. For their contributions, the Podgórski sisters were honored after the war by numerous Jewish organizations, along with many other people throughout Europe who concealed Jewish refugees during the war. In 1942, Stefania Podgórski and her sister Helena were living in Przemysl, Poland. Stefania was 16, and her sister was only six; the two lived alone because their father had died, and their mother and brother had been taken to a forced labor camp. As German control over the city tightened, the Germans began expelling the Jewish population from the ghetto, forcing them to go to labor and concentration camps. Joseph Burzminski, who had known Stefania through her work, ca
