Michael Hochberg once lived in secret inside Krystyna Jakubowksa’s home. Jakubowksa’s mother, Rozalla, opened her arms to 4-year-old Hochberg during the Holocaust.

For more than two years, the family kept Hochberg hidden. WLNY reported he would sometimes sneak out for fresh air at night.

Krystyna Jakubowksa was a teenager at the time.

“Germans announced very often, in public, on the streets, what would happen if someone (was) saving a Jew,” she said through a translator.

In 1945, they were liberated by the Russian Army. Hochberg was taken from Jakubowksa and her family and was sent to live in a Jewish orphanage.

At age 18, he moved to Israel where he still lives today.