Holocaust Survivor's Emotional Reunion

A Holocaust survivor has had an emotional reunion in New York with a man whose family saved him from the Nazis 70 years ago.

During World War Two, Leon Gersten hid for two years in a hayloft in Nazi-occupied Poland to escape persecution.

Now a 79-year-old New York psychologist, Mr Gersten welcomed Czeslaw Polziec, the son of the farmer who saved him, at JFK Airport.

Mr Gersten presented Mr Polziec, 81, with a bouquet of flowers, and then embraced him and clasped his hand.

It was an emotional moment for the two, who had parted ways in 1944 as the Russians liberated their village in rural Poland.

Leon Gersten as a boy in Nazi-occupied Poland

"It's like getting to know each other again," Mr Gersten told reporters shortly before the meeting.

"To me and my children they're heroes."

Mr Gersten was with his mother, aunt, uncle and cousin when he hid from 1942 to 1944 in the hayloft of the humble two-room home on the Polziec family farm.

Mr Polziec said he was told never speak about their Jewish guests. He described his parents as honest people trying to do the right thing.

He said he was "very happy of … finally meeting my friend".

"God saved us all."

The two prepared to celebrate Hanukkah and Thanksgiving today at Mr Gersten's home in Long Island.

Mr Gersten (R) welcomed Mr Polziec at JFK airport in New York

The Nazis rounded up and killed many of the Jews in the Polish town of Frystak, including Mr Gersten's grandparents, in July 1942.

Mr Gersten's mother Frieda escaped the ghetto, disguising herself as a Catholic with a cross around her neck, and then went door-to-door asking to be taken in.

Many turned her away, but Maria and Stanislaw Polziec took her in despite being poor and already having five children.

The strict Catholic family crafted an underground bunker, just big enough for the five Jews should the Nazis ever raid. It was covered with a grain storage bin.

The Polziec children brought them a loaf of bread a week and collected mushrooms in the forest to make soup.

For two years in hiding, there was little way of passing the time.

The two men clasped hands during an emotional reunion

"We had no toys, we had no books, we had nothing to play with, so all we could do was watch spiders catching flies," Mr Gersten recalled.

"We lived with hope. As a kid I had this feeling of immortality. The idea of being shot and killed didn't enter my mind."

Six million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis during the war, half of them Polish. Mr Gersten's father, sister and three brothers were among those who were killed.

After the war, Mr Gersten emigrated to New York, where he earned a doctorate from Columbia University.

He met one of Mr Polziec's sisters in the US in 1998, but eventually the two families lost contact.

Mr Gersten's family

Mr Gersten has five children, 34 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. 

Mr Polziec went on to live under Soviet occupation and served in the Polish army. He then worked in security. He married and has two daughters.

The reunion was facilitated by The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, which gives financial assistance to around 650 aged and needy Holocaust rescuers in Europe.

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