Imię: Maria Nazwisko: Szmarro

  • NIE
  • Kobieta
  • Maria
  • Szmarro
  • Sowińska
  • 1900-01-05
  • Tak
  • Z Warszawy
  • Żoliborz
  • Polak

  • Maria Szmarro - z d. Sowińska, ukrywała w swoim domu w czasie wojny dwie Żydówki - Henrykę i Alę Haspel. W 1975 r. otrzymała medal Sprawiedliwych wśród Narodów Świata

  • działania Polaków, mieszkaniowe
  • Medal Sprawiedliwych, pomoc lokalowa

  • Więcej informacji:
    https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?search=szmarro&searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4035352&ind=0

    During the war, Maria Szmarro lived in Warsaw. In September of 1943, Maria sheltered the Haspel sisters - Aline and Harriette - in her apartment. The sisters had escaped one year earlier with their father from the Lwów ghetto; “Aryan” papers helped them reach Warsaw.
    They initially settled at the home of a Polish Army officer’s widow. Neighbors discovered that they were Jewish after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and thus they had to look for a new hideout. The widow told them to turn to Maria Szmarro. “We did pay for the rent, but I am sure that this money could not compensate for the risk she undertook giving us shelter,” wrote Aline in her testimony to Yad Vashem.
    A few weeks later, Maria’s son Wienczysław (Nunek) moved into his mother’s home with his wife Irena. “We were of the same age and soon made friends. Maria called us ‘my daughters’ and she keeps calling us so even now in all her letters,” wrote Aline. “They shared everything - their joys and sorrows, food... we felt as though we were family.”
    During the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, the part of the house where Maria lived was destroyed. Maria, her son, daughter-in-law, and the Haspel sisters moved to the cellar. They stayed there for two months and were soon joined by the Haspel sisters’ father.
    After suppression of the uprising, Maria and Mr. Haspel were brought to Krakow whilst Wienczysław, Irena, Aline, and Harriette were deported to Germany.

    There they were separated into two different labor camps. The Haspel sisters worked as cleaners in soldiers’ barracks. In April 1945, during a British air raid, a train loaded with ammunition exploded near the barracks. Almost all of the prisoners of the camp were killed. When Wienczysław and Irena learned about the explosion they stole two bicycles and went to look for the Haspel sisters. They found them alive. After the war, Wienczysław, Irena, and the Haspel sisters, along with a group ofrefugees, reached Belgium. From there they contacted Maria and Mr. Haspel. In time, Wienczysław and Irena returned to Poland while Aline (later Wintergreen) and Harriette (later Berlin) immigrated to the United States. On January 23, 1975, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Szmarro, her son, Wienczysław Szmarro, and his wife, Irena Szmarro, as Righteous Among the Nations.