Rescuer Unites With Jews She Saved During Holocaust

They met briefly at a crucial moment in their lives and were then separated for 56 years. But on Tuesday, in a private room at John F. Kennedy Airport, 70-year-old Polish-born Catholic Zofia Voroniecky was reunited with members of the Jewish families she saved during the Holocaust.
Accompanied by her granddaughter Olga,Voroniecky was instantly embraced by survivors Nechama Schneider, her family, and those of Saul Leyman (Saul was unable to attend the reunion having been hospitalized after a recent fall).
"Im so excited to be here," said Voroniecky, who had never seen New York. "I cant wait to see the city and get to know the families."
It has been many years since their families have met, and each time they cross paths, they say its like a story taken from a fairytale.
Saul Leyman and three brothers Gedalyal, Gershon and Hershel Shneider escaped from Nazi persecution and were saved by the Voroniecky family from the village of Zloutky, Lithuania, located about 25 km. outside Vilna. Leyman, now a tailor living in Brooklyn, and Schneider, the widow of Gedalyal, are the only remaining survivors of the Voroniecky story.
In September, 1941, when the Germans began the persecution of the Jews of the Lithuanian village of Soleczniki, Leyman and his three brothers escaped to the home of Maria Voroniecky, mother of Zofia, in the nearby village of Zloutky. Maria and her family offered the Leymans and the Schneiders, whom the Voroniecky family worked for before the war, protection by hiding them in a hole they dug under their home. This became a horrific task for the good Samaritans, who were beaten, abused, and withstood countless dangers for being accused of hiding Jews. However, they never betrayed their guests. Instead, they provided for their every need and protected them until the Soviet Army liberated the area in the summer of 1944.
But that is only half of this remarkable story.
As a way of showing appreciation for what the Voroniecky family had done, Leyman and the Schneiders arranged to build a new home for their good-willed friends. Gedalyal was soon able to return to Zloutky to manage the building of that home.
On yet another fateful afternoon, a Polish partisan appeared at the farm and attempted to kill Gedalyal. The partisan had a gun to his head, but before he could shoot, Viktor Voroniecky came to the rescue with an ax and beheaded him, saving Gedalyal once again. Gedalyal fled with his sisters, but stopped first in Soleczniki to pick up his brothers. It was there that Gedalyal met Nechama, whom he married in 1944.
This reunion was made possible by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR), an organization that provides financial assistance to 1,700 aged and needy Christian rescuers in 30 countries. They have helped support Zofia and her family who still live in Vilna to this day.
Zofia will be spending the holiday season with the people whom she saved and will have the opportunity to experience the sites and wonders of New York City. She will be honored at a dinner for the JFR on Dec. 11, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.