Sigmund Rolat, 83, a Polish-born Jewish philanthropist who has supported many Jewish culture and heritage projects and initiatives in Poland, has been decorated with one of Poland’s highest honors, the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Poland Reborn.
At the ceremony Tuesday in New York, he announced plans for a memorial to Poles who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
The Polish news agency PAP reports:
Zygmunt Rolat, a member of the Board of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, has announced plans
to set up an international committee for the construction of a memorial to Poles who risked their lives saving Jews during the Nazi occupation.
Born in Czestochowa in 1930, Rolat lost his family during the war and as a boy of 15 emigrated from Poland and settled in the United States, developing a successful business career there.
Rolat is one of the key figures behind a wide range of cultural projects focusing on Poland’s Jewish heritage, and made the announcement during a ceremony in New York at which President Bronislaw Komorowski decorated him with the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Poland Reborn for his contribution to Polish-Jewish dialogue.
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Rolat was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit in 2008.
(Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk)