Cass Lewart survived the Holocaust through his own cunning, luck, and with the help of a Christian family who sheltered him and his mother for several months in 1944.

Now Hjalmar and Ludwika Uggla, who hid Lewart and 50 other Jews during the German occupation of Poland, have been named Righteous Among the Nations of the World by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem.

Lewart, who lives in Holmdel with his wife, Ruth (the couple has two children and three grandchildren), told his story to officials of Yad Vashem in November 2006 and urged them to recognize the couple who saved so many lives, often at their own peril.

In May, Lewart received a letter from Yad Vashem that said the title of Righteous Among the Nations had been awarded to the Ugglas.

After coming to the United States in 1955, Lewart, who was born in Lodz in 1930, lost touch with the people he still refers to as his "rescuers." In September 2006, however, he received an e-mail message from a Uggla family member who had discovered Lewart's memoirs, which had been posted on the Internet. An exchange of e-mail messages began that day and Lewart started to assemble the information and documentation that was required by Yad Vashem.

In the process, he learned that Hjalmar Uggla died in 1983 and that Ludwika Uggla, now 82, was living in Olsztyn with her daughter (her son lives in Sweden). While searching through his own records, Lewart found a copy of a letter his mother sent to the Ugglas on February 13, 1945, just three weeks after liberation by Russian troops in January 1945.

"I want to thank you from my heart for all you did for us — hiding us, giving us a sausage and poppy seed cake for the holidays, and for your financial assistance," she wrote. "I and my son will never forget it until the end of our days."

His mother died in 1992 in Brooklyn, but Lewart keeps the memories alive.

"Our rescuers hid us in the cellar when the Germans came to search for refugees," he told NJJN. "They were risking their own lives and the lives of their children for purely altruistic and humanitarian reasons. During all those years when I lost track of them, I still thought about them all the time."

Since re-establishing contact with the family, Lewart has asked them why they risked their own lives to help others during the Nazi occupation.

"They said it was because of their conscience," said Lewart. "They said helping those who were being persecuted was just the right thing to do." Lewart said he plans to attend the Righteous Among the Nations award ceremony that Yad Vashem will conduct later this year in Warsaw, where he will see Ludwika Uggla for the first time since the war.

Lewart's own wartime experiences also involved elements of risk. After the German occupation of Poland in 1939, he and his parents obtained false identity papers and lived among the population in Warsaw. Through a series of incidents that could have resulted in his imprisonment or death, he stayed "one step ahead of the Gestapo."

In 1942, however, they were arrested by the Gestapo. Lewart's father, who spoke fluent German, convinced their interrogators that they had been mistakenly arrested. Lewart and his mother were released, but his father was sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. He was able to warn his family that the Gestapo was again searching for them.

Lewart and his mother immediately went into hiding. Through the payment of a number of bribes, his mother was able to obtain her husband's release from the ghetto. He died of a stomach hemorrhage the day after his release.

"It was terrible to lose him," Lewart said. "But he got out of the ghetto, and he was a free man when he died."

Lewart and his mother were separated during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1944. At age 14, he joined the Polish underground but was captured and put on a transport to a transit camp in Pruszkow. The German guards shot many of those who tried to escape, but Lewart devised a plan.

"When we got off the train at Pruszkow, I was in a long column of people who were walking to an unknown destination," said Lewart. "I saw local townspeople watching us from across the tracks. Freedom was only 100 feet away."

When the guard next to him lit a cigarette, Lewart ran across the tracks. Another guard shot at him, but missed his target.

"I ran as fast as I could across the tracks, just ahead of an oncoming train," he said. "The guards were still shooting, but the train stopped their line of vision.

"I was free again."

He made his way to the Milanowek home of a bishop who was a friend of the Lewart family. When Lewart arrived in Milanowek, which was about 30 miles from Warsaw, he found that his mother was there, recuperating from a bullet wound.

"My mother and I had agreed that if we ever got separated, we would try to establish contact through the bishop," said Lewart. "When I found out that my mother was in the house, I couldn't believe it. The bishop and his wife were crying with joy when my mother and I were reunited."

Although the Russian guns could be heard in the distance, the Germans were still going from house to house in Milanowek, searching for Jews and for those who did not have proper identification papers. Arrangements were made for Lewart and his mother to stay with the Uggla family, who agreed to hide them in the cellar of their home.

"Their neighbors never asked them about all the strangers in their household," Lewart said. "In those days, ignorance was bliss.

When the Russian troops liberated Poland, Lewart and his mother returned to Lodz. The German family that had lived in their apartment apparently left in a hurry, leaving behind false teeth, eyeglasses, and military documents, Lewart said.

"My mother and I went out to the same balcony where our whole family stood five years earlier looking at the flames coming from the Lodzer synagogue," he said. "But the war was over for us."