Marceli Godlewski

Marceli Godlewski (15 January 1865 – 25 December 1945) was a Polish priest who saved Jews during the Holocaust by hiding them, assisting in escapes, and issuing fake baptismal certificates.

[1][2] In this position, he was actively involved in helping Jews during the German occupation of Poland, for which he was posthumously awarded the medal of the Righteous Among the Nations in 2009.

[7] He founded a number of magazines: Pracownik Polski, Któż jak Bóg, Nasz Sztandar, Chrześcijański Ruch Społeczny.

[3][4][5] The German invasion of Poland and the persecution of the Jewish population in the occupied country changed Godlewski's attitude toward Jews.

[3][8] Marceli Godlewski was an ailing, 78-year-old man at the time, so his main aid activity consisted of issuing hundreds of fake baptismal certificates, which allowed Jews to escape from the ghetto and survive outside.

At his home in Anin, near Warsaw, Godlewski, with the help of the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary, established an orphanage that housed some 20 Jewish children.

[3] Yad Vashem stated "He also offered spiritual guidance and support indiscriminately, regardless of religious denomination, and was involved in creating the tunnel under the church on Leszno Street, which served for smuggling goods into and people out of the ghetto.

[12][10] "Besides losing a fifth of its population, the country saw much of its economy and infrastructure ruined, while its Catholic Church lost 20% of its 10,000 priests to summary executions and concentration camp deaths, in a German campaign to eradicate national culture and identity.

[3][4][5][8][14] At a ceremony at the Church of All Saints in Warsaw, proclaiming it as the "House of Life", Polish President Andrzej Duda recalled he was known as the "parish priest of the ghetto.