October 20, 2008

Call your kids Stanislawa!

Source:

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is officially launching a campaign that will call upon parents to name their newborn babies after Stanislawa Slawinska, a Polish Catholic who has been included in the Righteous of the Nations at the Yad Vashem institute in Jerusalem.

The campaign calls for Stanislawa to be used for baby girls and Stanislaw for baby boys.

As reported in thenews.pl last month, during WWII, Slawinska sheltered in her home 10 Jews who had escaped the Warsaw Ghetto even though a Nazi officer lived right next door to her. The punishment for assisting Jews in Poland during Nazi occupation was certain death.

”This campaign to name newborns after Stanislawa comes with the endorsement of her living relatives and aims to carry-on her legacy in their souls, acting as living monuments. Carrying her name will be a reminder that one person can make a difference,” says Danny Rainer of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation in Jerusalem.

The Yad Vashem ceremony is scheduled to take place in Jerusalem, November 11, with three generations of the Stanislaw’s family present – Roman, his son Jacek, and the latter’s son, Milosz.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is planning its own ceremony together with the Polish Foreign Ministry. The same will take place in Warsaw, at a date yet to be fixed, and it will count with the attendance of Polish Government officials, Church dignitaries and diplomats. (pg)