Video: Holocaust survivor meets man who saved him from Nazis For Holocaust survivor Leon Gersten, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving had a special meaning this year, as he met the man whose family saved him from the Nazis. For the first time in 69 years Mr Gersten, was reunited with Czeslaw Polziec at JFK International Airport in New York. During World War II, Gersten, his parents, his mother's sister and brother-in-law's family, were kept hidden from the Nazis for two years by Poleziec's parents in their attic in Poland. Despite the risk and having five children of their own, the Poleziecs took the family in, enduring Nazi raids and beatings. Czeslaw Polziec was their eldest son. The Gersten family lived with the Polziecs until July 1944 when the area was liberated by Soviet soldiers. The meeting was organised by the non-profit group, The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous.