A New York psychologist shared an emotional reunion
Wednesday with the man whose family hid him for more than two years in a
cramped attic in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Leon Gersten, 79, met with Czeslaw Polziec, a retired Polish
factory worker, for the first time in nearly 70 years at John F. Kennedy
International Airport, the New York Post reported.
Gersten, then 8, hid with his mother and three relatives in
the southeastern Poland home of Polziec's Catholic family and remained there
for the duration of the war, relying on food delivered by a 10-year-old
Czeslaw.
"The last time I saw him was when I was around 10
½," Gersten told the New York Post before the reunion. “After all these
years, it’s wonderful to be able to re-establish a personal touch, and to see
someone who went through a lot of these experiences together."
Gersten said Polziec and his family showed incredible
resolve in keeping their presence a secret. The family even built an
underground bunker that they could cover with a grain storage bin in the event
of a Nazi raid, according to the report.
“They kept it a secret. Just a mention that there were Jews
hiding in their house would have been catastrophic,” Gersten told the Post.
“Even though they were kids, they certainly were part of it in terms of
protecting us and keeping out survival a secret."
In a close call, Nazi collaborators raided the farm and beat
Polziec's father after suspecting the family of hiding Jews. Still, the family
did not give up Gersten and his relatives.
"They were told nobody was to say anything to
anyone," Polziec told Newsday through a translator. "We knew what we
had to do. There was no discussion."
Polziec and Gersten said they look forward to celebrating
Thanksgiving together and lighting the menorah on the first night of Hanukkah
during the week-long reunion sponsored by the New York City-based Jewish Foundation
for the Righteous, Newsday reported.
Gersten's grandson Mark Gersten told the newspaper that the
reunion, which coincided with the Thanksgiving holiday and start of Hanukkah,
could not have been timed better. Several members of Gersten's family attended
Wednesday's event.
"We are giving thanks for being able to be here and
being able to practice our own religion and be safe," he said. "For
us, our way to give thanks is to show how many people there are and what we are
doing with our lives."
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