A Nanny’s Promise to Save a Young Boy during the Holocaust

Michael Stołowicki and Gertruda Babilińska years after the Holocaust. Gertruda, a Catholic nanny, hid Michael from the Nazis when he was a young Jewish boy living in Poland. —Yad Vashem

Before the war, Catholic nanny Gertruda Babilińska cared for Michael Stołowicki, the young son of a Jewish family living in Warsaw. She remained loyal to the family when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. After Michael’s mother died, Gertruda risked her life to protect the five-year-old during the Holocaust. She secured false identification papers for him and hid him from the Nazis. In this digital program, learn about Gertruda’s sacrifices and devotion to raise Michael and fulfill his mother’s dying wish.

A Nanny's Promise to Save a Young Boy during the Holocaust