Anna Borkowska (Sister Bertranda)
Encyclopedia
Anna Borkowska a.k.a. Sister Bertranda (1906–1988), a graduate of the University of Kraków, was a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
who served as Mother Superior
Abbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
of a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
for an order of Dominican Sisters
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
at a cloister in Kolonia Wileńska, near Wilno, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania). During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, at her convent, she sheltered 17 young Jewish activists from Nazi persecution.
Hiding Jews
Vilnius was taken over by the Germans on June 24, 1941, in Operation BarbarossaOperation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, and the killing of the Jews began almost immediately. Sister Betranda first agitated to save Vilnius’ Jewish population following the start of the Ponary massacre
Ponary massacre
The Ponary massacre was the mass-murder of 100,000 people, mostly Polish Jews, by German SD and SS and Lithuanian Nazi collaborators Sonderkommando collaborators...
in July 1941. She initially sought to gain the support of the Vilnius Catholic leadership, but they rebuffed her efforts out of fear that the Nazi German occupation forces would destroy church property and kill any clergy found aiding the Jewish population.
Taking her own initiative, Sister Betranda gathered 17 members of Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair is a Socialist–Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine...
, a local Zionist group, and hid them within the grounds of her convent. The activists included Abe (Abba) Kovner
Abba Kovner
Abba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner.-Biography:...
, the movement's leader, Abraham Suckerwer, Arie Wilner and Edek Boraks. When several of her nuns objected, Mother Superior Borkowska reportedly threatened them with expulsion from the order and excommunication from the faith. Some of the Hashomer Hatzair members later decided to leave their convent hideout and return to the Jewish Ghetto in Vilnius, where they organized an underground resistance movement.
Ghetto uprising
As soon as the preparations for the Ghetto uprising began, the Dominican Sisters took upon themselves to help the Jewish resistance by smuggling in arms and ammunition. The nuns included Sister Bernadeta (Julia Michrowska), Sister Bertranda, Sister Cecylia (Maria Roszek), Sister Diana (Helena Frackiewicz), Sister Imelda (Maria Neugebauer), Sister Jordana (Maria Ostrejko), Sister Małgorzata (Irena Adamek) and Sister Stefania (Stanisława Bednarska). Sister Bertranda was the first to supply hand grenades and other weapons to the Vilnius ghetto underground.The uprising, organized by Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje (the United Partisan Organization), failed on September 1, 1943. There ensued the final destruction of whatever remained of the Ghetto. Between August and September 1943, the last 12,000 men, women and children were deported to camps in Estonia.
In September 1943, Sister Bertranda was arrested by the Nazi German occupation forces. Her convent was closed and her order was forced to disperse. She was sent to a labor camp at Perwejniszki near Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
. After the war, Sister Bertranda voluntarily resigned from the Dominican order.
In 1984, the 78–year–old former Sister Bertranda, now living alone in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, and six nuns from her convent were awarded the title of Righteous among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
by Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
. Abba Kovner
Abba Kovner
Abba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner.-Biography:...
, one of the young Jews who had been saved by Borkowska, personally presented a medal to her at a ceremony in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
See also
- List of Poles: Holocaust resisters
- Abba KovnerAbba KovnerAbba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner.-Biography:...