Nearly 50 Polish Christians have been honoured by representatives of the Jewish community for their work saving Jews from the Nazi holocaust during the Second World War.

The event was held yesterday in Warsaw at a luncheon at a luxury hotel, reports the Associated Press. The oldest of the rescuers present was 100 years old and others were in their 80s and 90s, many of them frail and in wheelchairs or on crutches.

They were greeting by Poland's chief rabbi, an Israeli diplomat and the executive vice-president of the US-based Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR), which provides financial support for those who aided Jews during the war, often at the risk of their lives.

JFR executive vice-president Stanlee Stahl told the gathering: "You represent the very best in Polish society. You are heroes.

"It is so important to acknowledge the courage and heroism of the righteous, for each of you saved the honour of humanity.

"You will always be remembered in our prayers for you made it possible for generations to be born and to live."

In Poland under Nazi occupation, non-Jews caught helping Jews, together with their entire families, were punished with death. But Poland's "Righteous Gentiles", according to the country's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, who knows many of them personally, did not consider their actions heroic. "A universal theme is that 'We did nothing special. We were just normal,'" he said. "It's a really important lesson for everyone that helping another human being is normal."

Around 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland before the war. At 10 per cent, they were the highest relative to the general population of any in Europe. By the end of the war only 380,000 were still alive.