Polish Man Whose Family Survived The Holocaust Offers Shelter To Ukrainians

A man living in Warsaw, Poland, is offering his roof to Ukrainians who have nowhere to go after leaving their homes behind.

Jan Gebert, 42, admits his apartment may not be big, but the 400-square-foot space has been providing shelter and comfort to refugees grappling with the state of their war-torn country.

Gebert, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, said he is happy to help refugees just like those who threw open their doors for his Jewish family during World War II.

"My family survived the war because someone helped them. They were refugees. That's the reason why I'm here," he told CNN. "Thanks to that time, I can help other people."

The Jewish man and his girlfriend have repeatedly invited Ukrainian refugees to stay in their apartment until they find a more permanent arrangement. Gebert first handed over his apartment keys to a refugee family just days after the Russian invasion. He refused to accept money even though they offered to pay.

As a third family arrived at his apartment, Gebert apologetically told them, “It is not a big apartment." But the family said it was exactly what they needed while their country was at war.

Gebert and his girlfriend inflated a mattress for themselves so that the mother and her young son from Kyiv could take their bedroom.

Only a few blocks away from his apartment is the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, where Jews were forcibly held before being carted off to death camps in the second world war.

Gebert also often walks past the building in which his great-grandmother lived before Hitler's violent erasure of Warsaw's Jewish community, according to KSLTV.com.

His great-grandmother, Zofia Poznańska, got separated from her husband, Julian Poznański, and their daughter, Krystyna when Nazi forces swept through the city. Zofia was grief-stricken when she was falsely told that her husband and daughter were dead.

The Gebert family history says Zofia gave herself over to the Nazis and eventually became one of more than six million Jews who lost their lives during the war.

Her husband, Julian, managed to stay hidden after being separated from Zofia and was taken in by non-Jews in Poland. Meanwhile, Gebert’s grandmother Krystyna was evacuated to Siberia.

Gebert is now taking in Ukrainian refugees to honor those who gave shelter to his relatives during World War II.

"My entire family is involved in helping refugees," Gebert told CNN.

He said his father gave up his apartment to refugees while his sister ferried Ukrainians from the Polish border to Warsaw after the Russian invasion.

"We are living because my ancestors were in hiding in Poland," Gebert added.

When Gebert was asked what his life may have been like if more of his relatives survived the Holocaust, he replied: “If someone had helped those, my ancestors, my cousins, during the Holocaust, I will have much greater family next to me. That would be wonderful -- to have a great big family in Warsaw, a Jewish family which survived the war, that would be the most beautiful, beautiful thing.”

Photo: AFP / Armend NIMANI