Andrzej Sitkowski

Warsaw, Poland... 1942 – When the war broke out, David and Bronislawa Kozak lived in Czestochowa, Poland with their two daughters Dobra Jenta (later Marion) and Hadassah. When the ghetto was established in April 1941, the Kozaks were forced to leave their home and move into the ghetto.

In the fall of 1942, Bronislawa and the two girls were smuggled out of the ghetto by a friend who used to work for the family. With the help of girls’ aunt, Cecylia Kozak, they managed to flee to Warsaw. Bronislawa found work as a maid with a Christian family by using a false identity. Marion and Hadassah were hidden in a convent near Warsaw.

After a few months, the head of the convent became nervous about hiding the two Jewish girls. Aunt Cecylia was able to place Marion in another convent. A neighbor, Helena Sitkowska, agreed to hide five-year-old Hadassah. Helena was a widow who lived in the outskirts of Warsaw with her father, her ten-year-old daughter, Magda, and 15-year-old son, Andrzej. Hadassah was not allowed to leave the house or to go to school. Andrzej taught her to read and would stand guard should neighbors come to visit. He would also obtain food on the black market.

In July 1944, shortly before the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, Cecylia started to fear that she needed a safer hiding place for Marion. Helena agreed to hide Marion. Shortly after Marion came to stay with the Sitkowski family, Bronislawa joined her daughters.  

Despite the lack of food, the constant danger, and fear, Helena continued to care for the Jewish family she was hiding. Aunt Cecylia was killed during the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944, leaving Bronislawa and her daughters to be entirely dependent on Helena and Andrzej.

At the end of the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans demanded that all residents of Warsaw leave the city. Helena, her family, and the three Jews she was hiding were forced to leave Warsaw and join the line of refugees as they were marched out of the city. After reaching Kielce, Helena continued to care for Bronislawa and her daughters, providing them with clothes and money. She arranged for them to move in with other relatives, where they stayed until the area was liberated in January 1945.

Bronislawa and her daughters survived the war. Bronislawa's husband, David Kozak, was murdered during the Holocaust.

The Sitkowski family believed saving Jews was their duty and was a part of their struggle against the Germans. After the war, the surviving members of the Kozak family emigrated to the United States and to England. Marion and Hadassah wrote in their testimony to Yad Vashem "...we have formed firm bonds of friendship which survived the war."

Marion settled in the United Kingdom where her two sons, David and Edward Miliband, went on to become senior leaders of the Labor Party. On June 29, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Helena Sitkowska and her son, Andrzej Sitkowski, as Righteous Among the Nations. Andrzej died on February 14, 2025, at the age of 96.

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