Jerzy Zagórski was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, essayist and translator. Member of literary group Żagary. Awarded the Righteous Among the Nations

Righteous Among the Nations

Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....

 together with his wife Maria (Maryna) Zagórska, translator of belles-lettres

Belles-lettres

Belles-lettres or belles lettres is a term that is used to describe a category of writing. A writer of belles-lettres is a belletrist. However, the boundaries of that category vary in different usages....

.

During World War II, Zagórski published texts in the Sztuka i Naród

Sztuka i Naród

Sztuka i Naród was a Polish monthly published covertly in Warsaw, occupied Poland during World War II. It was supported by the resistance group Konfederacja Narodu. It was published from April 1942 to Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. 16 issues were published...

underground magazine.

The Zagórski couple with their three children resided in Bielany

Bielany

Bielany is a district in Warsaw located in the north-western part of the city.Initially a part of Żoliborz, Bielany has been an independent district since 1994. Bielany borders Żoliborz to the south-east, and Bemowo to the south-west...

, suburb of Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

. During the German occupation of Poland they harboured eighteen (18) people of Jewish descent between 1942 and the Warsaw Uprising

Warsaw Uprising

The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...

 in 1944. Among them was the poet Tadeusz Holender and Mrs. Kott given the documents of Maria's sister-in-law. Another fugitive, thirteen years old boy, Janek Wilk, was introduced to neighbors as Maria's nephew. Danuta Grossfeld also spent some months in their home as well as the Tenenbaums (three persons), who found refuge there after fleeing the Ghetto

Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...

. Their father-in-law, Mr.Kitel came all stained by blood of his wife shot during that escape. People started to talk that the Zagorskis harbor Jews. As a precaution, they placed the boy and Tadeusz Holender with a female friend.

Jerzy and Maria fought in the Warsaw Uprising in different units. She returned to Warsaw in 1945 and found their home ruined. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 they maintained contact with Mrs. Kott from the United States and Janek Wilk in Germany. Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....

 recognized Maria and Jerzy Zagórski as Righteous Among the Nations

Righteous Among the Nations

Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....

 in 1977.

Works

• Ostrze mostu (1933)
• Przyjście wroga (a poem; 1934)
• Wyprawy (1937)
• Święto Winkelrida (a drama; written with Jerzy Andrzejewski
  Jerzy Andrzejewski
  Jerzy Andrzejewski was a prolific Polish author. His novels, Ashes and Diamonds , and Holy Week , have been made into film adaptations by the Oscar-winning Polish director Andrzej Wajda...
  
  in 1944, published in 1946)
• Wieczór w Wieliszewie (1947)
• Indie w środku Europy (1947)
• Męska pieśń (1954)
• Czas Lota (1956)
• Olimp i ziemia (1957)
• Krawędź (1959)
• Bajka pienińska (1961)
• Oto nurt (1963)
• Biały bez. Wiersze dla żony (1963)
• Pancerni (a poem; 1964)
• Królestwo ryb (1967)
• Rykoszetem (1969)
• Tam, gdzie diabeł pisze listy (1970)
• Komputerie i dylematy (1975)