“I’m saving a human being who’s asking for help”- Matylda Getter
Unit 1012
will honor and always remember Matylda, every
year on February 15, as it is the same date as Irena Sendler’s birthday. We
will remember and honor her for saving 250 to 550 of Jewish children during the
Holocaust and she rightfully deserves to be recognized by the State of Israel
as Righteous among the Nations.
Her story
should be an inspiration for us to support victims’ rights and defend the use
of the death penalty by speaking out against evil and saving lives. We also
learn to take a Christian approach in doing the right thing by helping those
who suffer injustice. We will post information about her from Wikipedia and other links.
Poles Who Saved the Jews: Irena Sendlerowa,
Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Sister Matylda Getter coin, 20 zl, silver, reverse
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Matylda Getter (1870–1968) was a Polish Catholic
nun, mother provincial of CSFFM (lat. Congregatio Sororum Franciscalium
Familiae Mariae) - Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary in Warsaw and social
worker in pre-war Poland. In German-occupied Warsaw during World War II she
cooperated with the famous Irena Sendler and the Żegota resistance organization
in saving the lives of hundreds of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. She
was recognized as one of Polish Righteous among the Nations
by Yad Vashem organization for her
rescue activities.
Biography
She started social work before World
War II and she received a number of the highest national distinctions in honor
of her achievements in her educational and social work. She had founded over
twenty education and care facilities for children in Anin, Białołęka, Chotomów,
Międzylesie, Płudy, Sejny, Wilno and others.
Activity
during World War II
“I’m saving a human being who’s asking for help” - Matylda Getter
From beginning of the war the Franciscan
Sisters of the Family of Mary, “in the spirit of Christian love and Franciscan
joy,” brought aid to those in need, both civilians and members of the Polish
underground. Sisters arranged for them work, granted shelter and providing
them false documents. During the Warsaw Uprising In the provincial house at
Hoża St. 53 in Warsaw, the sisters ran a paramedical station and a soup
kitchen, turned into a hospital.
Mother Matylda Getter declared that
she would take in every Jewish child she could. During the occupation, the
Order's Sisters rescued between 250-550 Jewish children from the ghetto. Mother
Matylda risked her life and the lives of her Sisters by taking the children
into her orphanages and hiring adults to work with them, caring for the
children in facilities scattered around Poland. As the superior of the Warsaw
Province of the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary, she took on the
responsibility of obtaining birth certificates for the children and hiding them
in the order’s educational institutions. She explained these actions with the
words:
“you could not refuse to help children facing certain death.” - Matylda Getter
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