Among the Nations Righteous

Yad Vashem and The Embassy of Israel in Australia honoured Mrs. Rena Skowronska-Skovell and Mr. Wilhelm Alois Spisky as RighteousAmongthe Nations at a ceremony held at St Kilda Synagogue in Melbourne in December 2021.

Sam Webb

The Etate of Piry Weiss

Vivien Wertkin

David & Alison Wiesenfeld

Dennis & Tauba Wilson

Andrew Wirth

John & Suzanne Wolf

Anne Wollach - Szalmuk

Paule Wrobel

Braham & Andrea Zilberman

Leon & Miriam Zimmet

Sandra Zwier

For all fundraising enquiries, please contact donate@mhm.org.au

We are so grateful for the righteousness of these honorable people who helped Jews during the Holocaust. We do not have enough words to thank them for all their efforts. It takes something special for seemingly ordinary people to risk their own lives and the lives of their loved ones in order to save and protect complete strangers from persecution and mass murder. We will always remember their bravery and their humanity.

Mr. John Gandel AC, Chairman of Gandel Foundation

This honour is awarded by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel to recognize individuals who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust without expectation of any reward. The ceremony, supported by the Gandel Foundation, posthumously honoured Mrs. Rena Skowronska-Skovell and Mr. Wilhelm Alois Spisky for their efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Rena Skowronska-Skovell was born and raised in Vilno, a Lithuanian city in what was then part of Poland. She protected Joseph Skovronek, and his then wife, who came from a wellknown Jewish banking family in Warsaw. When the Germans invaded Warsaw, they moved eastward and ended up in Vilno. Rena found “safe houses” for both of them which had to be frequently changed as it was dangerous to stay too long at one address. There were numerous times that the Gestapo arrested Joseph and Rena repeatedly helped in his release.

Wilhelm Alois Spisky helped release five Jews (Cogans from Poland) from prison. Spisky made contact with a friend of the Cogans, Emilian Mărculescu (also named Righteous) who bribed a Romanian police officer. Under the pretence of taking them to the border to be handed over to the Germans, instead the Romanian officer brought them to Spisky. Thereafter, Spisky took the Cogans to his own apartment and kept them hidden there for six weeks.

Rena‘s daughter, Eva Collins received the award on behalf of her late mother and Tina Fersterer, received the award on behalf of her granduncle, Wilhelm Spisky.