On a Happier Note...A Holiday Reunion 70 Years Overdue

On Wednesday, November 26th, the day before Thanksgiving, 75 year old Mira Wexler was reunited with 85 year old Helena Weglowski at JFK Airport.   The two women hadn't spoken since 1942 when Helena's family hid 3 year old Mira and her mother, Chana, from German soldiers on their mill farm in what was then Poland but is now Ukraine.

Mira and Helena were elated when they saw each other for the first time in over 70 years, then shed tears of joy.

 

The reunion was arranged by The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, a charity that gives $1.4 million per year providing financial support to people called "righteous gentiles" who risked their lives to save Jews from certain death during the Holocaust.

When staying on the farm became dangerous, Mira and her mother hid in the forest near the mill, and Helena frequently brought them food to keep them alive.  “They always hid us because it was very hard to stay in the woods without any food in the cold time so Helena’s family always welcomed us in.  They risked their lives because their home was so well-known and big” Mira told PIX11 News.

“If you were living in Eastern Europe and you helped a Jew in any way,” said Stanlee Stahl, JFR executive vice president, in an interview, “whether it was shelter, or food, or forged documents, and you were caught, you as a Christian, and your family and the Jew or Jews you were helping were murdered.”

Mira currently lives in Brazil where she and her mother moved after World War II. Helena currently lives in Ilawa, Poland.

This story was originally published by KTLA sister station PIX 11 in New York, and was distributed by the CNN Wire.  Watch KTLA’s video here: http://ktlane.ws/1yi997y.