For hiding during the war, for aiding children, for helping to escape, and for taking care for places of burial. President Andrzej Duda presented nine people from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine with Virtus et Fraternitas medals.
The Virtus et Fraternitas medals are awarded to foreigners merited in helping Poles or Polish citizens who were victims of totalitarian crimes in the years 1917-1990. This distinction is also presented to people who cherish the memory of Polish victims of crime.
The ceremony of awarding Virtus et Fraternitas medals took place in the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.
"When the world of people living here, in this part of Europe, encountered two horrible totalitarianisms - German Nazi and Soviet Stalinist - ideologies hostile to humanity, despite of all fears, often despite rationality suggesting that hiding and turning away is the safest choice, there were some who reached out to their fellow humans" - President Andrzej Duda said.
He added that "they were ready to help regardless of nationality, often regardless of their own sympathies, they simply perceived humanity as a value in itself".
This year, the president presented nine people with the Virtus et Fraternitas medal: Petro Bazelyuk, Maria Bazelyuk and Petro Hrudzewycz from Ukraine, Romanian aristocrat and philanthropist Ecclesiastes Olimpia Caradja, mayor of the Hungarian town Esztergom Jeno Etter, Czech pastor Jan Jelinek and his wife Anna, as well as Jozef Lach and Zofia Lachova from Slovakia.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP