Holocaust Survivor to Meet Rescuer

Ruth Gruener a Holocaust survivor and lives now in Brooklyn is scheduled to reunite with Joanna Zalucka the woman who helped hide her for about eight months during the terrifying Nazi era.

Zalucka, who was then 18 the daughter of a Polish family hid Gruener from the Nazis when she was just 8 years old.

Zalucka’s parents had been customers of the candy store owned by Gruener’s parents. After the eight months as the danger grew that the little girl would be discovered, Zalucka’s family took her to stay with her parents, who had been hiding with a different family, and Zalucka brought them food over the next two years as they continued to hide.

Zalucka and Gruener have kept in touch over the years, but this will their first face-to-face reunion since 1944.