RABBI DAVID MONSON
Living in the Krakow Ghetto in June 1942 was a small boy named Shachne Hiller. His parents, Helen and Moses, desperately feared for his survival. Children were already a rare sight in the ghetto. Most had succumbed to disease or starvation or been swept away in the Nazi "selection raids."
The Hillers were young and skilled. They reasoned that, while they might be able to survive a labor camp, Shachne would surely perish.
But they were fortunate in one respect. They had friends, a Catholic couple named Jachowicz, who were willing to take their son. Risking their own lives, they agreed to care for Shachne and raise him as their own.
On November 15, 1942, Shachne Hiller was smuggled out by his mother. He arrived at the Jachowicz house with the few precious items his family had managed to save, some letters and a will.
The first letter asked that Shachne be raised as a Jew and returned to his people should his parents not survive.
The second was addressed to their son, explaining to him that his parents loved him so much that they were compelled to leave him in the care of the Jachowiczs, "good and noble" people. The Hillers told Shachne that he was a Jew, that despite the terror and insanity directed towards his community he must grow up to be proud of his heritage and strong in his Jewish identity.
The third letter was addressed to Helen Hiller's aunt who lived in Washington. It contained the family will and asked that in the event that none of the Hillers survived in Poland, Shachne be raised in America. It also commended Mr. and Mrs. Jachowicz for their self-sacrifice and bravery.
Mrs. Jachowicz promised to fulfill her friend's requests as she bade Mrs. Hiller goodbye. She was never to see the Hillers again. Soon after, the Krakow Ghetto was liquidated by the Nazis.
Fearing for Shachne and their own safety, the Jachowiczs were forced to move from town to town, sometimes hiding in barns and haystacks to keep one step ahead of unfriendly neighbors who would reveal them to the Gestapo. Often during their travels they would inquire about the fate of their friends the Hillers. Eventually they learned that, like millions of other Jews, the Hillers had been murdered by the Nazis.
The Jachowiczs grew to love little Shachne, the child with the big inquiring eyes. Mrs. Jachowicz soon thought of him as her own and, as a devout Catholic, took him to church services where he learned all the hymns. She believed that since Shachne's parents were dead, and the Polish government refused to allow orphans to emigrate, Shachne would never reach his family in America.
She decided to approach a young parish priest noted for his wisdom and trustworthiness and ask him to baptize the boy. Revealing Shachne's true identity, she told the priest of her wish that he become a true and devoted Catholic like herself.
The priest listened intently to her story. He asked what the boy's parents had wanted for their son. Mrs. Jachowicz answered truthfully that they wanted Shachne raised as a Jew.
The priest refused to perform the ceremony.
He told the woman that much as she loved the boy, he did not belong to her. The priest could not in all conscience separate him from his people while there was still hope relatives might take him.
Shachne Hiller was eventually sent to America. Raised by his aunt, he grew up to be a successful businessman and father of two. An observant Jew who has adhered to his heritage, Shachne has fulfilled his parents' hopes.
The bond between Shachne and Mrs. Jachowicz has remained. In 1978 he received a letter from her recounting the story of the parish priest and his refusal to baptize the child. And for the first time she revealed the priest's name.
In Poland he was called Karol Wojtyla. Today the world knows him as Pope John Paul II.
The story of this one little boy will obviously stand on its own. Let it be said, however, that goodness, compassion and decency cut across religious lines. First, we are people. Then we must be people whose religion gives them the strength, the conviction, the clarity of vision to understand that, whatever separates us, we are all members in the one true brotherhood on Earth: the brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God.
(text of June 27, 1982 Toronto Sun RELIGION column)