Prime Minister pays tribute to relatives of Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski
Prime Minister Theresa May has said the "heroic efforts" of Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski's great-uncle in saving Jews from the Nazis "must never be forgotten".
Mrs May has written to Polish-born Mr Kawczynski with her best wishes ahead of a ceremony where he will accept an award on behalf of his grandfather's brother, Jan Kawczynski.
The award will be presented at the 'From The Depths Zabinski Awards’, which recognise non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust.
Jan Kawczynski was murdered along with his wife Helena and 13-year-old daughter Magdalena by German soldiers at their Polish farm during the Second World War.
The were killed for hiding Jews on their property.
In her letter Mrs May said: "You must be incredibly proud of your great-uncle, Jan Kawczynski, and his heroic efforts to save Jews during the Second World War.
"Such acts of bravery and defiance must never be forgotten – they remind us not only of the horrors of the past, but also of the continuing need to confront bigotry and anti-Semitism wherever we see it."
The Shrewsbury MP, who will collect the award in a ceremony at Warsaw Zoo on Monday, said his family had told him the harrowing tale of his great-uncle’s heroic efforts when he was a child.
He said: “I was told the story when I was a child in 1985. My grandfather’s brother had Jewish families on his farm and he was told the Germans had discovered this and surrounded it and not to go back because they would kill him.
“He said ‘I have to go back, my daughter and my wife are there’, so he knew he was going back to his death.
“The Germans made him first dig a grave and then they shot his 13-year-old daughter, then his wife, and then him.”
