Kristine & Marian Keren

The survival story of Kristine Keren, aka, Krysyna Chiger (born October 28th, 1935):

in 1943, with Lvov's (now Lviv, Ukraine) 150,000 Jews having been exiled, killed, or forced in ghettos and facing extermination, a group of Polish Jews, lead by her father, Ignacy Chiger, including her mother and younger brother, daringly sought refuge in the city's sewer system with the aid of  the group's unlikely savior...a sewer worker named Leopold Socha, a Polish Catholic and a former thief, who opportunistically risked his life to help the Chiger's underground family survive for 14 months, bringing them food and supplies... When the money ran out, Socha continued to see his plan through to the end. As fate would have it, Socha was killed a year later by a drunken Russian soldier, who ran over him after Socha managed to push his young daughter out of the way of the oncoming vehicle. It has been said that Socha's blood ran into the sewer as he died... My grandmother always said that Socha was an angel sent from Heaven to save them...He appeared seemingly out of nowhere to rescue the Chigers. His life was snuffed out when his job was complete. A chilling tale...

The survival story of Marian Keren, aka, Marian Kwasniewski (born July 8th, 1935):

As the Nazis were approaching Krakow, Poland, young Marian's parents decided to each hide separately outside the city while leaving behind their only child with their Catholic housekeeper. She had agreed to pretend that Marian was her son. Coincidentally, Oscar Shindler moved into the flat next door to where Marian and his new mother lived. She began to work for Oscar Schindler as a housekeeper. At some point during the Nazi occupation of Krakow, Marian and his new mother, along with the Jews, were forced to live in a work camp. You might recall a scene from the movie, Schindler's List, where the Nazi Commander shot at random people in the camp from his window for his own amusement! Yes, that was that camp. Oscar Schindler came to their rescue for the first time. Schidler found them a home in Krakow at the regular German army's headquarters, where Marian's new mother found work, and young Marian played freely with the soldier's. Ironically, Marian remembered that time fondly. But those 'good times" would be short lived...the SS came with orders to find proof of a hidden "Jewish Boy". Marian had no choice but to reveal that, indeed, he had been circumcised. His new mother concocted a story that she had divorced Marian's Jewish father, who had fled the city, and his whereabouts were unknown. By sheer luck, her sister, living in Hungary, corroborated the story. The two were once again taken away to a women's prison, where, after some time, Oscar Schindler saved them for a second time. It was later discovered that the Nazis had killed all the remaining prisoners...