A plaque commemorating Grandma Noncia, or Alfreda Markowska, is located in Berlin, between the Bundestag headquarters and the Brandenburg Gate, near the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The photo and the story of the Polish Roma woman, who saved some 50 Roma and Jewish children during the Second World War, is among twenty distinguished people from around the world.

Alfreda Markowska lost her entire family of 80 in 1941 near Biała Podlaska. The then 15-year-old girl survived because she had just gone out to get food. After this tragedy, she ended up in Rozwadów near Stalowa Wola, where she worked on the railway. In Rozwadów she was in charge, among other things, of delivering water to the wagons on which Jews and Roma were transported to the concentration camps. Thanks to her direct contact with prisoners and female prisoners, she managed to rescue children (orphaned or rescued by their parents) from the transports. For her services she was awarded the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Rebirth of Poland in 2006.


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