Couple honoured with award in memory of righteous gentile for work with refugees

“Often [they] come without any English language at all, so that is so important for them to be able to communicate and build friendships and become part of the community.”

Rik, who was dressed in a waistcoat bearing the yellow and blue colours of the Ukraine flag, added: “For me, it’s the difference we’re making by not doing anything remarkable, just [by] being friends.

“One of those mums’ own mother was shot by the Taliban just 36 hours before the whole family arrived in the UK,” he continued. “She now has a proxy UK mum who loves her to bits, and that is an absolute life changer for a newly bereaved mum arriving in a foreign country.”

He added that the relationships they have built with the families extend well beyond their initial support. “We have so many friends who are Ukrainian. They started as refugees; they are now firm family friends.”

Irena Sendler was 29 years old and working for the Department of Social Welfare and Public Health of the City of Warsaw when the Second World War began.

Armed with an epidemic-control pass, she entered the Warsaw Ghetto daily and smuggled Jewish children out under the pretext of inspecting sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak.

She gave the children false Christian names as she placed them with Polish families, orphanages and convents, but wrote all their real names on strips of tissue paper and sealed them in glass jars, which she buried in a friend’s garden directly across the street from a German barracks.

Irena Sendler in 2007 (credit: Stach Antkowiak / AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Sendler was captured by the Gestapo in 1943, was tortured and sentenced to death in Pawiak prison, but divulged nothing about the children or their whereabouts.

On the day that she was supposed to be executed, the Polish underground bribed a guard and rescued her, and she spent the rest of the war in hiding.

After the war, she was hailed a hero, having saved the lives of 2,500 children. She was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations in 1965 and passed away at 98 years old in 2008.

Upon receiving the award, Rik paid tribute to Sendler, repeating two of her statements about courage, humanity, and moral responsibility.

They read: “In times of darkness, even the smallest acts of kindness can shine like stars”, and: “People can be only divided into good or bad; their race, religion, nationality don’t matter.”

Rik added: “Small acts of kindness make all of us shine like stars. If you actively do acts of kindness, you too are a shining star.”

He said that while he and Marian accept “this somewhat unexpected award”, they share its message “of love and hope with every other shining star sitting here this evening”.

"The true heroes are the ones who help others without seeking recognition.”

The Irena Sendler Humanitarian Award was established in 2024 on the initiative of the Polish Cultural Institute in London and local authorities in Newark, and recognises those who embody the compassion, courage and commitment associated with Sendler.