| Presentation ceremony of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland to Ms Regina Zielinski. On Friday, 22 August 2014 at the Mathew John Aged Care Facility Ms Regina Zielinski was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. The order on behalf of the President of the Republic of Poland, Mr Bronisław Komorowski, for bravery and heroism shown during the Uprising in the German Nazi extermination camp in Sobibór and for outstanding merits in the activities for the remembrance and popularization of the knowledge about Holocaust was presented to Ms Regina Zielinski by the Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Sydney Ms Regina Jurkowska.
Ms Regina Zielinski was born in 1924 in the village Siedliszcze as Rywka Feldman. Her father owned a construction company and after the Germans invaded Poland Regina’s family was forced to build roads. In May 1942 the whole family was resettled to the local ghetto and in December 1942 taken to the Sobibór Nazi German extermination camp. In Sobibór – the place of execution of approx. 250,000 Jews from all over Europe – Regina tragically lost her entire family. She herself had been allocated to do different works for German soldiers. Ms Regina Zielinski was among the people who heroically took part in the escape of prisoners after the Sobibór uprising in October 1943. She managed to escape and get to Lublin, from where she was sent to Frankfurt to work for a German family as a nanny pretending to be Polish and Catholic. In December 1945 Regina married a Polish man and in 1949 they emigrated together to Australia.
Ms Regina Zielinski is one of the few women who survived the Sobibór extermination camp. She witnessed the inhuman atrocities and crimes. After the war, she testified in the process against Karl Frenzel – the SS-Oberscharführer responsible for the Lager I section at the Sobibór camp – one of the most cruel executioners, called the Beast of Sobibór. Ms Regina Zielinski has also greatly contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about the Nazi German extermination camp in Sobibór.
The Consul General received from Ms Regina Zielinski the book „Conversations with Regina” by Andrew Zielinski about Regina’s tragic faith and her memories of the Holocaust.
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Wycinek prasowy z Central Coast/Gosford Express Advocate. przysłany przez Joannę Kucyper |
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