Give Me the Children

Pola and Irene Bienstock, hidden children of the Holocaust, miraculously survived a series of events during World War II, any one of which might have ended with their death. This story is devoted to their savior, Franciszka Sobkowa, a Righteous Gentile, who risked her own life for close to three years to save Sara Bienstock and her two daughters, Pola and Irene. The German occupation of their town of Drohobycz, Poland in 1941 initiated the planned annihilation of all of the Jews of Drohobycz. Frania hid the family not only from the Nazis, but also from the local Ukranian-Polish population who in part helped in the murder of Jews. This is the story of a woman who loved a Jewish family as if it were her own. Today, Pola Bienstock Arbiser and Irene Bienstock Frisch, as well as their entire extended family are alive because of the actions of one Christian woman. It is a story of the triumph of good over evil.