Anchin Pavilion Welcomes a Hero

Walter Ukalo was a Christian, Dorothy Roth a Jew. Against the backdrop of Nazi hatred, one’s love for the other would result in lives saved – among them a tiny child.

In 1921, Walter Ukalo’s family moved in next door to the Roth family in Brody, Poland. He fell in love with one of the Roth girls, Dorothy. Dorothy was charming. She had a sweet voice, often singing Polish and Russian ballads. Walter was the star of the local soccer team. He was hardworking and funny.

Dorothy’s eldest sister, Klara, disapproved of Dorothy’s involvement with a non-Jew. She moved Dorothy to another city to keep the couple apart. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Dorothy, who had married another man, found herself alone after her husband fled in fear. She returned to Brody and got a job at a sawmill. It was run by Walter, who had been put in charge by the Russians.

Under threat of death, Ukalo decided to protect Dorothy, her sister Gina and Gina’s infant, Sabina, hiding them near a forest with a Ukrainian peasant. But, sensing danger, the peasant decided to let only Gina stay. Ukalo, who had joined Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, obtained false papers identifying himself, Dorothy and Sabina as a family and moved them around – while rescuing other Jews at the same time. It wasn’t easy for Dorothy to pretend to be married to Walter. She felt loyal to her husband, though she hadn’t heard from him. But she didn’t know whether he was dead or alive.

Walter passed himself off as disabled to devote full time to Zegota, which gave a small stipend on which to live. He became Zegota’s newsman, distributing news from the BBC to the Jews in hiding. To stay ahead of informers or Nazis, Walter periodically moved the press to a new location; he regularly moved Dorothy and Sabina, too. When he wasn’t copying pamphlets, Walter traveled to outlying villages, looking for more Jews to save. He’d traveled to the ghettos where Germans had herded the Jews, and told guards they had improperly restrained members of his own family. He pointed to Jewish women saying, "That’s my sister."

By the time the war ended, Dorothy’s father, her step-mother, her brother and both of Sabina’s parents were among the 3 million Polish Jews who died. Walter’s father had gotten caught up in a sweep of Jewish intellectuals and was shot. Walter had saved Dorothy’s sister, Klara, and about half a dozen other Jews. He saved Sabina and also Dorothy, the woman he had loved since childhood. The three of them, presenting themselves as a family, endured more than five years in displaced-person camps in Germany.

With no word from her husband, Dorothy assumed he was dead. And Sabina was unaware of her family’s tangled relationships. To protect her, Dorothy kept the relationships secret. As far as Sabina knew, Walter was her father and Dorothy her mother.

In 1951, Walter, Dorothy and Sabina came to New York. There Dorothy learned, to her shock, that her husband was still alive. She hadn’t seen him in 12 years. They met in Manhattan. Dorothy’s choices were either to go with her legal husband or to stay with Walter, who had risked his life to save her and her family. Dorothy chose Walter. They were married by a magistrate. Walter and Dorothy established a successful business in New York, thanks to his skill at furniture making and her talent for interior design. They were together for 50 years, until her death in 1992.

Through Dorothy’s efforts, Walter was recognized in 1979 by the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Israel as “Righteous Among the Nations,” an honor accorded to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews.

Sabina Zimmer became a nurse, married and raised two children. She now lives in Sarasota. Walter recently moved into Anchin Pavilion. The two are able to spend significant time together.

Six decades after his daring rescue efforts, Walter Ukalo still shares his life with the infant he rescued in Poland.