A Good Deed Never Forgotten

Theirs is a friendship spanning five decades and two continents, one forged under the ugly scrutiny of Nazi Germany and cemented forever in Beverly Hills.

In the fall of 1943, young Maria Dawidowicz was left alone and in danger after her family was taken away suddenly by the Gestapo. Tadeusz Kublicki was an acquaintance at a Warsaw factory who took a tremendous risk.

Knowing she was Jewish, Kublicki and his family spirited her into hiding for more than 14 months, until the end of the war.

Fifty years later, both live in Beverly Hills--both married, with children, still friends.

Marie Shafer stepped forward Wednesday to once again to recount her painful past, about the death of her parents, who were killed in a German concentration camp.

The occasion was special: At Shafer’s bidding, the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles presented Kublicki with its Righteous Gentile award for his quiet heroics--honored along with his mother, Maria, and father, Wladyslan.

Kublicki, a stout man with glasses and a serious countenance, joined the ranks of Oskar Schindler--a past winner--for outstanding deeds done on behalf of Jews during World War II.

Shafer dressed in a fashionable scarf and sunglasses; he in a conservative blue suit coat. The two friends sat somewhat stiffly together Wednesday at the consulate office on Wilshire Boulevard and talked about their long-standing and once-dangerous relationship.

At one point, Shafer touched Kublicki’s shoulder and then wiped tears from her eyes as she expressed her gratitude.

“I cannot forget for one moment that I am here because of Tadeusz and his family,” she said. “I have great admiration for him, for his selfless help and feeling for me.”

Over the past 40 years, the Israeli government has bestowed more than 15,000 Righteous Gentile awards. Many received the award posthumously, or after their benefactors had passed away.

On Wednesday, however, both Shafer and Kublicki could sit face to face and once again and remind each other how good it feels to be alive.

The 79-year-old Kublicki told the story of how he met Maria while they both worked in a German cable factory outside Warsaw. He was young and single, a mechanical engineering student working in the production office. She worked in the drafting department.

They became friends, taking walks together. He taught her English.

One day after work, Maria called her mother at home. A strange man’s voice answered and said no one was home. She hurriedly accompanied her father, a bookkeeper at the factory, to their residence. He told her to wait a short distance away, and he went on alone. She watched speechless as undercover security officers took him away.

Kublicki quickly came to her aid--first with a room living with a Polish family. Then he invited her to visit his family that Christmas. She ended up staying 14 months.

On Wednesday, the retired architect leaned forward, his face saddened. “I only knew she was Jewish after her parents were taken away,” he said. “It’s a great tragedy. If I had known, I would have tried to do something.”

Kublicki’s brother worked with the Polish underground. He helped secure new identity papers for the young girl. In time, she became an accepted member of the family, loving Maria Kublicki as her own mother.

“We all lived in fear,” Kublicki recalls. “Because hiding Jews signified death.”

In 1945, after Poland was liberated, Kublicki accompanied Dawidowicz on a fruitless search for her family. He escorted her to Paris to look for an uncle, who was also killed by the Germans.

Years passed. Dawidowicz moved to America, where she married, raised a son and a daughter. After years in Paris, Kublicki also moved to Beverly Hills. He, too, married and had a child.

The pair were friendly at first, but then their lives grew apart. For nearly 20 years, they barely talked.

One day Shafer’s daughter ran into Kublicki and his wife outside a local frame shop. She told her mother of the encounter and the old feelings came rushing back.

Since then, the two have renewed their friendship. They talk every day, have dinner together. Shafer’s son, a film studio executive, invites the Kublickis to premieres.

For Shafer, the friendship wasn’t enough. She heard about the Gentile awards and approached the Israeli Consulate with her story.

On Wednesday, the two friends once again talked about the past, and the loss that Shafer cannot forget.

With a friendship spanning 50 years, they are not afraid to contradict one another. Like when Kublicki mentioned the time of year they met, in spring 1943.

“No, no,” she interrupted. “I think it was before.”

“Maria, I remember. There was still snow on the ground.”

“Well, maybe you forgot. It’s been so long.”

Then he looked at her, a glance that mixed exasperation and love and time passed.

“How on earth could I forget a day like that?”