Sara Bank-Wolf:

It was the middle of Corona and we in Israel were in lockdown. I decided to take
advantage of the time and do a 6 month evening course to become an
educational guide of Jewish Poland. One night, when the course ended, I needed
a little breather before going to bed. I called my mother in the USA and I asked
again, “Mommy, isn't there anything else you know about daddy’s time hiding
underground?” All I had known was that my father, then a very young child, my
Zeide (grandfather), Babba (grandmother) and 13 other Jews were hidden by a
Righteous Gentile under the ground for 2 years in Przemyśl, Poland.
Well, my mom said, “I recall that Zeide mentioned that the rescuer married one of
the Jews from the hideout and moved to New Zealand.
I reached out to the one person I knew from New Zealand and I was advised to
write to the Holocaust Centre in New Zealand. I had no hopes of being
successful with the little information I had in hand and not one name aside from
that of my own family. I sent off an email and went to bed late that night in
January 2021. I expected nothing. I had been searching for years.
The next morning the first email in my inbox was from the Holocaust Centre
stating that I had not given them any information for them to be able to assist me
further, had I checked with Yad Vashem?
But then, miraculously, 2 more emails were waiting for me.

 

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Dear Sara,
I am the daughter of Wladimir Riszko and Rennie Riszko ( nee Rivka
Schildkraut).
Your email seems like a miracle because I have wanted for years for my
father to be recognised as a Righteous Gentile but we felt there wasn't
enough proof.
I have the names of several people whom my father hid in his house…A friend of mine volunteers
at our Holocaust Museum and knew enough of
my parent's story to recognise that it could be my father who hid your
family. He lived in a hamlet a few kilometers from Przemysl which is why he
was able to hide so many people.
Are you on FB/ Messenger or WhatsApp. I would love to talk to you!!

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I had miraculously reached the children of my family’s rescuer, Eva and George.
I too had been searching for years and now the silence has been broken. Eva
had a list of all the Jews saved by her father, well almost… for many we didnt
have last names so the collaborative detective work began….
Memory is the past as present, living on within us. Without memory we
cannot fully understand our identity and for me memory was strong. Even in the
silence the trauma of the Shoah and imagining the world that was before it,
passed over to me and fired my imagination. My father and grandparent’s Shoah
experience shaped my decisions in life. I made aliyah to Israel at 22. I can
proudly say that I have 5 children who serve in the Israeli army, I have an MA in
Jewish History, I am a certified tour guide, studied Land of Israel Studies and
have completed an intensive course to be an educational guide in Poland.

We have met by miracle, united by the suffering and survival of our parents
and grandparents.

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Join me, together let’s tell the story of our families, let us honor their memory and let us pay tribute to the man who rescued our parents, Wladimir Riszko.
Let us give them a voice.