World's Oldest Nun Who Saved Jews from Nazis, Passed away
World's Oldest Nun Who SIn the convent, she was joined by other nuns, who not only hid more than a dozen Jews from the atrocities of Nazi Germans but also helped them in their armed revolution against the Nazis.aved Jews from Nazis, Passed away
Sister Cecylia Maria Roszak, the world’s oldest nun, who saved Jews from the Nazis during the Second World War, died recently at the age of 110 in Krakow. While celebrating her 100th birthday, 10 years ago, she is recorded to have said, “Life is beautiful but much too short”.
Cecylia Maria Roszak was born in the year 1908 in the western town of Kielczewie, then in Poland and took her vows as a nun in the year 1934 at the age of 26 years. Four years later in Vilnius, she along with Anna Borkowska founded a convent for nuns.
In the convent, she was joined by other nuns, who not only hid more than a dozen Jews from the atrocities of Nazi Germans but also helped them in their armed revolution against the Nazis.
Among the Jews, who hid in the small convent with nine other Dominican nuns, was poet and activist Abba Kovner, who in 1942 circulated a manifesto, called “Let us not go like lambs to the slaughter”, which for the first time alerted everyone of Nazi Germany’s intentions to wipe out the Jews from whole of Europe. He led the first rebellion of the Jews against the Nazis. Kovner also tried unsuccessfully to organize armed resistance inside the ghetto.
According to a Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial page dedicated to Anna Borkowska, the mother superior of the convent, the sisters took in 17 members of Jewish underground movement that formed to fight against the extermination of the Jews.
Anna Borkowska was arrested in 1943 for helping the rebels and the convent closed down. She and Roszak both survived the world war and later returned to the monastery in Krakow. Roszak served the monastery as an organist, choir leader, janitor and was frequently elected mother superior by her community.
Cecylia Roszak was believed to be the oldest nun in the world when she passed away in the convent she founded in the city of Krakow. The Archdiocese of Krakow in Poland announced her death. The Archdiocese tweeted the post along with the photos of Roszak, where he wrote, “In Krakow the oldest sister in the world died – sister Cecilia Maria Roszak from the monastery of Dominican sisters.”
After 100 years of her life in 2009, she received the “Righteous Among The Nations” title, from the government of Israel, this award is given to those, who risked their lives to save Jewish neighbours.