MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 DZIENNIK ZACHODNI

A SUPPLEMENT PREPARED WITH SUBSTANTIVE COLLABORATION OF THE

INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL National Day of REMEMBRANCE Remembrance for Poles who saved Jews

Jarosław Szarek, PhD, President of IPN: Let’s celebrate the National Day of Remembrance for Poles who saved Jews Distinctions for

pinpoint the actual date when the word “Righteous” was used for the first time in relation to someone Humanity who helped Jews. It has been in use officially since 1963. The title of Dorota Koczwańska-Kalita PhD, such strict regulation, many the extent of these risks was Emanuel Ringelblum, a historian Righteous Among the Nations can Head of the IPN Delegation in Poles decided to engage in acts incomparable. of the ghetto, appealed for be awarded after a commission Kielce of humanity. Szymon Datner in It appears that, in general recognising such actions with recognises that the saved person his "Las sprawiedliwych. Karta terms, the dilemma could be an “order for humanitarianism” was a Jew and the rescuer was not, he outbreak of z dziejów ratownictwa Żydow solved in four ways: the first in future Poland. Julian and that the help did not involve World War 2 in w okupowanej Polsce" with would be to turn the Jew in Aleksandrowicz, a great scholar any benefit. Poles constitute 1939 irreversibly uncanny accuracy describes to his pursuers in accordance from Kraków, requested the the largest group among the changed the the situation of people seeking with the ‘law’ imposed by the Israeli government to create a Righteous Among the Nations, world. The help and those who were asked invader, which equalled a death Chapter of the Commander’s with nearly seven thousand period through for help. “When an unknown sentence; the second would Cross for Humanity, which would members. which the people of the nations Jew knocks at a cottage window be to refuse help but not turn be given to True People for their The Institute of National occupied by Germany lived at night, the Jewish problem him in; the third would be to heroic decisions to save those at “Sovereign Poland, wishing to Remembrance also acts to T was one of chaos, hunger, of that time knocks along with help in the short-term; and the risk, despite the danger posed by commemorate the millions of immortalise those Poles who aided victims of the Holocaust and persecuted Jews. In addition to carnage, and criminals. It was him, together with a tangle of fourth would be to take him in the occupier”. compatriots who rushed to publications and research, it has a time of injustice and sorrow. consequences, risks, hazards, and shelter him for an extended Perhaps it is worth paying their rescue, feels obliged to organised many exhibitions, in Poland found itself between as well as the necessity to make period. The Ulma family from more attention to this deeply preserve the truth about the facts particular, “Żegota – the Council to two totalitarian systems, that a decision and the related Markowa, who paid for aiding humanitarian aspect of their concerning the occupation of Aid Jews”. The IPN and the Polish of German Nazism and Soviet dilemmas. The fugitive is asking Jews with their lives, became recollections. In 1961, Julian our country by Nazi Germany”. Post commemorated Żegota, on communism. Hitler’s goal was for help, for a little food to eat, the Polish symbol of the last of Aleksandrowicz wrote to the This fragment forms part of the the 75th anniversary of its creation, to transform Eastern Europe to be able to warm himself at these standpoints. In addition to Head of the Government of explanatory memorandum to with a special postcard. Scholars into a racist empire, where the the fireplace for a brief moment. individual aid-oriented actions, Israel, on the day preceding the act under which this year, from the IPN also participate in “Untermensch of the Slavic race” When he sees warmth in the Poles also engaged in organised the date of Eichmann’s trial, on March 24, we celebrated the other endeavours. For example, would work for the Germanic host’s eyes or hears kind words, forms of helping Jews. The Polish “... Stigmatising evil will gain at the Markowa Museum, with National Day of Remembrance for Herrenvolk, and where the he asks to be allowed to stay for underground authorities were gravity if it is made against the exhibition there being largely Poles who saved Jews under the “Jewish poison” would be a few days, to work there for a the only ones in Europe that the background of rewarding German occupation, for the first based on the studies conducted by completely eradicated. Stalin, on while and then leave. The peasant established and co-financed a people’s humanitarian values, time. IPN historians. According to one of the On 24 March 1944, Józef the other hand, resorted to giant is then faced with a question governmental institution - the i.e. nobleness, good and a principles of Judaism “Whoever and Wiktoria Ulma and all six of deception while using violence of how he should react. He Council to Aid Jews, which willingness to sacrifice oneself destroys a soul, it is considered as their children were murdered to strengthen his totalitarian realises that a moral dilemma operated in the occupied for the noblest of human if he destroyed an entire world. by Germans for harbouring two power. He made himself into a has knocked at his window, a territory. principles ...” (as cited in “Nasza And whoever saves a life, it is Jewish families. Their stand and warrior acting for the “good” human who has been denied his The war affected whole Gmina” 09/2013). considered as if he saved an entire martyrdom became examples of all the nations of the world. humanity, a great question of nations and individuals alike. In 1963, the Government world”. Therefore, while the world of the readiness to provide aid He killed the “enemies of the humanity. The good and bad experiences of Israel decided to establish was learning how to live with the to those in need, whatever the people” in the name of this It is the eternal dilemma now form an extricable part of the “Righteous Among the trauma of the Holocaust, among cost. There were many such ideology. which has been faced by their remembrance. Professor Nations” medal. So far 25,000 questions like “How could such people, and recently I had Despite the enormous scale thousands of generations: what Aleksander Skotnicki says “Leon people have received this a genocide happen?”, hope was the honour of presenting Mrs of the repression, Poles resisted to do when evil temporarily has Berenson, a remarkable judge distinction. Aleksandrowicz Mirosława Gruszczyńska with the inspired by the stories of people the invaders throughout the war. the advantage, the dilemma of and defence attorney, appearing could have contributed to the who, despite the danger, lent Commander’s Cross of Polonia It is estimated that approximately the chased and the persecuted. in many political trials, died in creation of this medal, we do not persecuted Jews a helping hand, Restituta. Her story shows that 6 million Polish citizens perished Times like these force you to the Warsaw Ghetto on 22 April know it for sure. What we do gave them shelter, helped them to many of our compatriots were escape, and provided aid in many ready to stand against evil. She under Nazi German occupation, test yourself, to compare your 1943. He ordered in his will that know, however, is that his deep other ways. also encourages us to ask how of which 2.7 to 2.9 million were behaviour with the dictates of Jews should raise a monument humanistic drive stemmed from Many cases of support for many of us would risk not only Polish Jews. In occupied Poland, morality. The risks involved of gratitude to the Polish people the memory of man’s attitude the Jewish population were our own lives but also the lives as opposed to the majority of in siding with the persecuted who smuggled food into the towards another, expressed in cited immediately after the war of our entire family, our closest European countries, any help and the force resulting from ghetto. The monument was to kindness and even heroic help, but disappeared in the tangle of neighbours or even the whole provided to Jews was punishable good has always been great. be shaped like a loaf of bread offered by the stronger to the horrifying reports. It is difficult to community...? by death. Even in the face of But between 1939 and 1945, on a marble pedestal”. In turn, weaker. NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 02 DZIENNIK ZACHODNI EVENT Tomasz Domański, PhD The specifics, in this case, in the ghettoes. Controversies circumstances. They delivered State actively eradicated such TIMELINE IPN Delegation in Kielce were agreed at the Wannsee concerning the attitudes of Poles food and medications to ghettoes phenomena. On the other hand, Conference in Berlin on 20 towards the Holocaust and the and industrial plants, produced Poles were involved in pogroms 30 January 1933 uring World January 1942. However, after the tragedy of the Jewish population fake, so-called Aryan, documents, of Jews in the Kresy (e.g. in President Paul von War 2, the German aggression against the have raged for many decades. smuggled Jews outside the Jedwabne and Radziłów). As Hindenburg appoints Adolf German Nazi Soviet Union and seizing of the These attitudes have varied occupied country, and provided regards these cases, we also do not Hitler the Chancellor of authorities eastern Polish territories occupied greatly and should be investigated food and permanent shelter have comprehensive data on the Germany. Sturmabteilungen wanted mainly by the USSR, the Nazi authorities in a broader framework. Given (harbour). This also included degree of their participation in (SA – known as the Storm to exploit proceeded to exterminate Jews these circumstances, as well emergency, one-time, and such acts. For example, Gunnar Detachment) conduct Anti- Poles to the maximum extent (executions) on a mass scale. At as the social and historical occasional assistance. Evidently, S. Paulsson estimates the number Semitic activities with the Din economic and human terms. the same time, on the territories conditions, the Polish people the scale of aid extended to Jews of Poles “who hunted Jews” in state’s support. The German This involved forced labour, incorporated into the Third were predominantly passive varied in different parts of the Warsaw at 3,000-4,000. propaganda machine begins quotas of agricultural produce, Reich, the German occupier and focused mainly on their occupied country. This assistance In addressing such attitudes, operations aimed at justifying and the obligation to work. set up extermination camps in own survival. The attitudes of opportunities differed between one should note that the reported the spread of terror. The occupying forces enforced Chełmno nad Nerem (Kulmhof). Jews observed under Soviet Polish territories incorporated number of 200,000 Jews who were 27/28 February 1933 ruthless and brutal terror against Jews from the “Wartheland” occupation until 1941 and into the Third Reich, e.g. in Łódź, to perish at the hands of Poles The Reichstag fire. Marinus anyone who did not comply and the Łódź Ghetto were mass German occupation could also where it was difficult to aid Jews is by no means corroborated van der Lubbe, a Dutch with the numerous orders and murdered there. These criminal have influenced the decisions due to the tragic situation of the in the existing literature. As a communist, is accused of an “occupation law”. The Germans acts culminated with Operation made by Poles. Although many Polish population (widespread source in this case, the following arson attack on the building intensively quelled all forms Reinhard, carried out in 1942 in Poles did sympathise with terror, displacement and fragment of an article by Szymon of the German parliament, of resistance in Polish society , the General Government, and Jews, they were “accused of intimidation of Poles), Warsaw Datner can be cited: “It was with the intention of They also ruthlessly shaped the involved the planned deportation heinous behaviour under Soviet or the villages of the General about the Jews who had not presenting the incident as a population policy through many of Jews to the extermination occupation”, “servility and Government. gone to the ghettoes and were spur to begin a communist displacements, including from the camps in Bełżec, Treblinka, and toadyism” to the Germans and Thus far, with a few hiding on the Aryan side, or revolution. The event is used lands incorporated into the Reich, exceptions, no systematic about those who tried to break by NSDAP to seize almost into the General Government. research has been carried out in through, having experienced absolute power over the The Nazi took purposeful The scale of Polish aid extended this field. It is possible to estimate the torment of the ghetto, or country. measures to inflate prices, with the scale of aid in a limited about those who tried to escape 22 March 1933 the prices of all products rising to Jews is being researched area; however, this should also the extermination during some The Decree of the Reich several dozen times while salaries take into account the margin of murderous operations or death President for the Protection were frozen, which resulted in error, especially due to one-off transports. Their total was not of People and State. The people being unable to satisfy assistance. Gunnar Paulsson small. In one of my works, their primary needs and the estimated the number of Poles I estimated the number of Jews “model” concentration camp unimaginable impoverishment who helped Jews on the Aryan saved mainly thanks to aid in Dachau is established, of millions of people. In order side of Warsaw at 70,000-90,000. provided by the Polish population initially intended for political POLES to implement these objectives, In 2006, a publication by at about 100,000. It can be also adversaries, the clergy and Germany’s operations in Poland, Marcin Urynowicz gave 300,000 assumed that at least as many Jewish people. Camps in also included actions focused on as the most probable number victims were captured by the Oranienburg, Königsberg extermination (genocide). These of Polish helpers, while some occupying authorities and were and Dürrgoy in Breslau AND JEWS encompassed such measures even refer to numbers as high victims of crimes”. Evidently, this are established next. By 1 as targeting the Polish elite, as approximately one million publication provides no grounds September 1939, there are which resulted in the deaths Poles who aided Jews. As a result for stating that this was Poles 170,000 Jews in German of tens of thousands of victims of many years of neglect in who were responsible for their concentration camps in the and mass murders during the investigating these cases, so far deaths. On the other hand, other Reich. Warsaw Uprising, displacement under Nazi only 10,000 Poles who helped publications indicate specific 1 April 1933 in the Zamość Region, and the Jews have been named. Saving numbers of Jews denounced A one-day boycott of Jewish extermination of Polish villages one Jew sometimes required the and murdered by Poles. Barbara stores. Jews are officially like Michniów. This paved the way involvement of several or a dozen Engelking, based on “a few regarded as unwelcome and for future, post-war colonisation occupation people. Only some of these have available sources”, determined causing the degeneration of of these territories, which received the Righteous Among that “511 incidents within which the “Aryan nation”. provided for the displacement the Nations medal. As of late July 1559 Jews were given away and 7 April 1933 of their original residents. As Sobibór. The camps organised a “keen interest in communist 2017, nearly 7,000 Poles had been 281 incidents during which 1015 An act of parliament is passed determined in 2009, under the and administered by the German operations – as part of the Polish awarded this distinction. were killed”, had taken place in under which Jews can no German occupation the total invaders on occupied Polish Workers’ Party and People’s Many Poles engaged in occupied Poland. Therefore, the longer hold governmental or death toll of the Polish population territories (e.g. Auschwitz) were Army”. Indeed, there were cases individual help outside Warsaw documents in question discuss public office, which become was approximately 2,770,000 the destination of European Jews, of Jewish-communist (Soviet) or Kraków, mainly in villages. the cases of 2574 Jews who were reserved for “Aryan people”. people. transported there from occupied guerrilla forces murdering Poles, Unfortunately, they still remain given away or killed by Poles”. The discrimination of Jews German aggression was countriesfor extermination. such as in Naliboki, Drzewica and anonymous. According to Jan Grabowski, begins. directed especially towards Jews, Authorities collaborating with Koniuchy. On the opposite side were 286 Jews who were hiding in the 26 April 1933 but it is also worth mentioning Nazi Germany, such as in France, The possibility of aiding Jews those Poles who, motivated by Dąbrowa Tarnowska District Minister of the Interior for the Romani genocide. Before the Norway, and Hungary, were also was regulated by “occupation various reasons: material gain, died, of which 13 were caught Prussia, Hermann Göring, war, during the Second Polish involved. In occupied Poland, law”. On 15 October 1941, Dr temporary benefits or antisemitic and killed by the Blue Police, and establishes the Secret Republic, there were about between 1942 and 1944/1945, Hans Frank, Governor-General, ideology (which the Germans 102 Jews were killed by the Blue State Police (Geheime 3,400,000 Jews, accounting until the arrival of the Red issued an order to the effect spoon-fed very intensely during Police after being denounced Staatspolizeiamt – Gestapo). for approximately 10 per cent Army, all Jews who found that aiding Jews was punishable the occupation), committed by peasants. The locals killed 7 14 July 1933 of the state’s total population. themselves outside the designated by death. In November disgraceful acts against Jews, Jews. For the sake of comparison, Law for the Prevention The degree of Polonisation of places, were hunted down by 1942, Friedrich Krüger, such as denunciation, blackmail, the German gendarmerie killed of Genetically Diseased the Jewish minority varied. the Germans and butchered Head of the Security Police and personal participation in 7 Jews they had caught, and 98 Offspring is passed. In line According to the 1931 census, regardless of their age and sex. (Sicherheitspolizei - Sipo) in the killing. One must also stress people who had been denounced with this law, people regarded 333,000 Jews who declared Jewish The vast majority of the Jewish General Government, extended that the German police and civil by local residents. Fifty-nine Jews as genetically “impure”, e.g. and Hebrew as their mother population living in Poland were the application of this rule to authorities exerted enormous died in unknown circumstances. individuals with mental tongue lived in Warsaw, which murdered that way. It is estimated include third parties who knew pressure on Polish society to Polish-Jewish relations illness or disabilities, or who at that time had a population that 2.7 to 2.9 million Polish Jews about the aid but did not notify expose and capture those Jews under the German occupation are mentally handicapped of 1,172,000. In Łódź, out of perished under Nazi German the German authorities. The Nazi who went into hiding. The dire were among the most difficult were subjected to sterilisation. 605,000 residents, 192,000 Jews occupation. This number was, reminded the population of these reality triggered extreme attitudes, in the centuries-long history 25 August 1933 declared Jewish and Hebrew as therefore, comparable to the orders on many occasions. which were adopted by the many of both nations. Many Poles The Haavara (Hebrew: their mother tongue. number of murdered ethnic Poles. Putting one’s own life and the dregs of society who surfaced as did not remain indifferent to transfer) Agreement is In 1941, the German concept It is unknown how many lives of family members at stake a result of the occupation. Some Jewish fates and even gave their signed between the Third of the “Final Solution to the Jews managed to survive the required incredible heroism. We officers of Polnische Polizei did lives to save them. At the same Reich and the Zionist Jewish Question” (Endlösung Holocaust in the occupied do not know and cannot verify the so on the order of the Germans time, there were those who Federation of Germany der Judenfrage), “Holocaust” or Polish territories. The estimates final total of Poles who died for or at their own initiative. Some committed heinous acts against (Zionistische Vereinigung “Shoah”, i.e. killing the majority in this regard vary radically this reason in occupied Poland. members of various underground Jews, condemned by the Polish für Deutschland). More than of European Jews, took its final from 13,000-23,000 to as many According to credible estimates, organizations were, unfortunately, authorities. Nevertheless, many 60,000 German Jews leave the form. Thousands of Jews died as 100,000 survivors. Jews needed they numbered some 700-1100. also involved. The Government issues remain unexplored, such a result of the conditions in the help from Polish people at every People helped Jews depending of the Republic of Poland in exile as the extent and scale of aid SEE PAGE 3 ghettoes and mass exploitation. stage, also in view of the situation on the local conditions and and the Polish Underground extended to the Jews. MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS DZIENNIK ZACHODNI 03 Who has done enough to save “In the face of murder, it is wrong to remain passive” EVENT lives? He who paid with his own TIMELINE life! ... You may not say that he has not done enough if he has died. He country under this agreement. who has survived can always and Of 522,000 Jews who lived should ask himself “Have I done in Germany in 1933, over enough?” What if I could have 308,000 emigrate, including saved one or two more, and did intellectual elites like Albert not do so? Einstein. They mainly go to Michał Komar "Władysław Bartoszewski. Activities France, Poland and the USA. Wywiad rzeka". Warsaw 2006 ŻEGOTA. 29/30 June 1934 Marcin Urynowicz, PhD The Night of the Long Knives Historical Research Office, IPN – a campaign intended to of the Council to Aid Jews capture and kill Hitler’s opponents associated with he Council to the SA. Aid Jews with 15 September 1935 the Government The enactment of the Plenipotentiary Nuremberg Laws. At the for Poland, NSDAP rally in Nuremberg, referred to as the Reichstag enacts the draft “Żegota”, was the only official Law on Reich Citizenship, Tinstitution in occupied Europe Law for the Protection of affiliated with state authorities German Blood and German which was tasked with aiding Honour, and Law on the the Jewish population being National Flag, as proposed by exterminated by the Germans. Hitler. The first two of these No other organisation of this laws define Jews as “mixed- kind enjoyed official and practical race” individuals, as opposed support from the government to pure Aryan German or performed such extensive people. It is officially defined activities while operating under that “A Jew is an individual such difficult conditions. The activists of the Council to Aid Jews present at the celebration of the who is descended from at The Konrad Żegota Social third anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 1946. Right to left: least three grandparents who Aid Committee for the Jewish Piotr Gajewski, Ferdynand Marek Arczyński, Władysław Bartoszewski, were, racially, full Jews”. The Population, established on 27 Adolf Berman and Tadeusz Rek Law on the National Flag

September 1942 in Warsaw, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS BY PHOTO forbids Jews from wearing preceded the establishment of the German flag and using its Żegota. At least several grassroots colours. Also, a ban on mixed initiatives contributed to its circles, a Social Aid Committee Attempts were made to place throughout the entire period of is imaginary, the alleged things emergence. These included the is being established for the children in care institutions and its operation. In addition to the that the neighbour, caretaker, German and Jewish marriages Front for the Rebirth of Poland Jewish population affected by the with private carers. After the war, financial shortages, there were housekeeper or passer-by see”. is introduced, with penalties (FOP) formed by Zofia Kossak- bestial persecution of Jews by the Irena Sendler, the head of the other bones of contention between Another problem was the for breaking the law being Szczucka. She wrote in her G e r m a n s”. children’s department, estimated the Council and the Delegation. politicising, also on the Polish specified (e.g. imprisonment proclamation of 1942 (with As early as on 4 December that together with a group of These included the organisation side, of Żegota’s activities by the in a concentration camp). the meaningful title) – Protest, the Council to Aid Jews under co-workers about 2,500 children of local Councils (Żegota Jewish underground. The scale 1 November 1936 that "The world is watching this new leadership replaced the were provided with shelter in demanded that they be organised of the problem is illustrated by The Rome-Berlin Axis crime, most horrible crime that the Committee . The Council this way. by the Delegation, while the the fact that in the report of the is created. The leader of has ever taken place in history, was headed by Julian Grobelny In addition to Warsaw, latter claimed that it would take Social Aid Committee for the the Italian fascists, Benito and keeps silent. ... We must not (“Trojan”), a representative of permanent district committees of care only of already-established Jewish Population of December Mussolini, announces in tolerate this silence any longer. WRN, his deputy was Leon the Council to Aid Jews were also grassroots entities), the purchase 1942, one of the reasons for its Rome the formation of a new ... It is disgraceful. In the face of Feiner (“Lasocki”) of Bund, with established in Kraków and Lviv. of weapons for Jewish combatants dissolution was specified as: political-military alliance murder, it is wrong to remain Adolf Berman (“Borowski”) The Kraków-based Council was (the Delegation forbade this), “the inability to cooperate with between the Third Reich and passive. He who remains silent in representing the Jewish National led, as in Warsaw, by a member cooperation with communists representatives of Jewish political Italy. the face of slaughter becomes an Committee, becoming the of PPS, Stanisław Wincenty (for the Delegation their loyalty to organisations / the introduction October 1937 accomplice to murder. He who secretary, and Ferdynand Marek Dobrowolski (“Staniewski”). In the Polish authorities was of key of political elements to purely Limiting the emigration does not condemn, complies with Arczyński of the Alliance Lviv, it was Władysława Laryssa importance), combating blackmail charitable work”. of Jews to Mandatory the murder". of Democrats the treasurer. Chomsowa (“Dionizy”) who led and collaboration with the One should bear in mind Palestine. Due to the growing This proclamation echoed Witold Bieńkowski (“Wencki”) the Council to Aid Jews. She was Germans (the Council demanded that the Polish underground, emigration of German Jews, far and wide throughout and Władysław Bartoszewski a social activist and member of quick reactions), and propaganda though very extensive, could the British Government Polish society. In addition to (“Teofil”) acted as representatives Alliance of Democrats. calling for assistance for Jews not protect itself, as even decides to introduce political parties, also the Jewish of the Delegation in the Council. In order to help in the (the Delegation did not want to its leaders were captured by regulations aimed at limiting Department of the Home Army, The Council quickly provinces, a field department disaffect anti-Semitic circles). The the Germans, including Jan the number of people to be led by Henryk Woliński, joined overtook the previous Committee headed by Stefan Sendłak was tension further increased as the Piekałkiewicz, Government granted asylum in British in the talks with the Government in terms of the scope and established in Warsaw. Tadeusz Council requested in December Delegate (February 1943) and dominions. Delegation. A breakthrough was intensity of work. This was due Sarnecki and Ewa Sarnecka 1942, that a similar institution Gen. Stefan Grot-Rowecki, 13 March 1938 made when Leopold Rutkowski, to the presence of Jewish parties served as the Council’s couriers should be to set up in London; Home Army Commander (June The Anschluss of Austria. Minister of Internal Affairs at the who could reach ghetto and camp at the time. At least several however this wish was granted too 1943), not to mention average After the annexation of the Government Delegation, decided escapees. Despite the terror being dozen towns are known, where late, as late as in April 1944. Poles. The only real aid could be First Austrian Republic into to grant financial support for spread by the invader and the one-time or permanent help was Also the attitudes of the provided by the Allies, although the Third Reich, cases of aid-oriented activities. He also funds being disproportionate to provided in one form or other Jewish population, sometimes the Russians severed contact with internment and pogroms initiated the establishment of a the needs (from 150,000 zlotys in (sometimes it was only money or posed problems for the Council. the Polish government in order begin to affect Austrian Jews. permanent committee to lead the January 1943 to 8,000,000 zlotys false documents). The Council People often had its own ideas to create their own, communist 29-30 September 1938 action. in November 1944), about 12,000 succeeded in placing at least 50 about surviving the war or government in Poland. On the The Munich Conference. The It was headed by Zofia people were aided. people abroad (in Hungary). organising aid operations,. For other hand, the British and US agreement between Germany, Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda However, it was often more Not all operations performed example, many individuals who leaders regarded the Holocaust as Italy, the United Kingdom Krahelska-Filipowiczowa. A important to provide false by Żegota were successful. could have been saved did not too insignificant to be of interest. and France on the annexation notice of the establishment of the documents, obtained mainly There were setbacks, arrests and, want to part with their families, Jan Karski, Courier of the Polish of a part of Czechoslovakia Committee was published on 14 thanks to cooperation with the unfortunately, deaths aplenty. The such as by putting their children Government, recalled “I honestly to the German Reich. On 1 October 1942 in the Delegation’s legal units of the Home Army attempt at a wider operation and in foster care, or were afraid to told them about the hopeless October Germany begins the organ entitled Rzeczpospolita and the Delegation. Ferdynand the establishment of permanent leave the ghetto or camp and situation of the Jews, underlining occupation of the eastern part Polska (Republic of Poland). Marek Arczyński, treasurer of representations in Białystok, live underground. Emanuel that help can only come from the of Czechoslovakia. “We would like to inform the Żegota, assessed after the war Vilnius, Łódź and Lublin was Ringelblum wrote “There are West. Poles are powerless, they 1 October 1938 public that on the initiative of a that the Council provided Jews also a failure. The inability to many fewer dangers than a Jew can save individuals, but they The Anschluss of the number of social organisations with as many as 40,000 such act on a broader scale remained would think. Therefore, the cannot stop the extermination from Catholic and democratic documents. the main problem of Żegota greatest danger is the one which of Jews”. SEE PAGE 4 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 04 DZIENNIK ZACHODNI EVENT The news of the Holocaust were communicated to Western Europe. But people in Auschwitz were still dying... TIMELINE

Sudetenland. Pursuant to the Munich Agreement, Germany takes the Sudetenland away from Czechoslovakia, directly incorporating it into the Reich. The Jews who live there are repressed the same way as KL AUSCHWITZ those living in other locations governed by the Germans. 28 October 1938 The expulsion of 17,000 Jews Looking at hell from the Reich under the Polenaktion. Polish Jews who Tomasz Borówka reside in Germany are rallied Dziennik Zachodni Churchill merely honoured Centre. At some point, the on the border of Germany the European Jewry, while Allied forces recognized the and Poland in Bytom, Roosevelt declared that the crucial importance of fuel Chojnice and Zbąszyń, and 1 May 1944. High perpetrators would be brought and ball bearing plants for the expelled from the Third above Oświęcim, to judgement in the future. In German economy and these Reich. a Mosquito plane December 1942, twelve allied became the key targets. Even 9/10 November 1938 glides swiftly across states issued a joint declaration the night before D-Day, the Kristallnacht A pogrom the sky. A South condemning the ongoing French Resistance successfully of Jews, ordered by Joseph African crew was German genocide. However, sabotaged the railway lines and Goebbels. As a result, 91 on board. The aircraft, part of nothing more happened. Under disrupted the German transport people perish and over 1,000 360 Squadron of the Royal Air the pretence of "huge difficulties system. synagogues and 7,000 shops Force, was tasked with providing of a geographical nature" and All those operations called are burnt down or damaged. RAF intelligence with aerial "certain formal issues regarding for measures which could have The assassination of Ernst reconnaissance photographs. safety," in the words of Anthony been applied just to interfere Vom Rath, secretary of the These were supposed to add Eden, the British Foreign with the Holocaust plans. German embassy in Paris, by some detail to the information Secretary, the Allies concluded Poland was not, of course, a Herschel Grynszpan, serves published in the "Bombers that there was no possibility to stone's throw away. But there Baedeker", a black comedy name aid the dying Jews. certainly were some possibilities as a pretext for the pogrom. for the Target Book for Strategic Nothing could be further of averting the massacre and While Kristallnacht is Bombing. This guide presented from the truth. Numerous getting in the way of its leaders, simulated to be a spontaneous objects of economic importance operations of the Allied of putting fear into their cold act by German people, it is in the Third Reich and its Special Forces throughout the hearts. Unfortunately, such actively orchestrated by SA occupied territories, i.e. what, war prove they were capable possibilities were not taken into and SS detachments. As a where and why to bomb. Having of remarkable feats. One of consideration. result of measures taken after captured the synthetic fuel the largest of them was the A member of the National the pogrom, 30,000 more Jews plant in Monowitz on film, the Norwegian heavy water sabotage Council of the Polish are sent to the concentration Mosquito turned back and set operation. British Commandos government-in-exile, Szmul camps. off on a long homeward-bound were also on the verge of Zygielbojm, committed 15 November 1938 journey to Brindisi, Italy. There, successfully assassinating the suicide to protest against the The commencement of the the films were taken out of the infamous German general, indifference and inaction of the so-called Kindertransports cameras and sent to England Erwin Rommel. British-trained Allies. in the United Kingdom. for the purpose of processing Czechs managed to assassinate Following the reports of On 15 November 1938, at a and interpretation. It turned out one of the most senior figures five prisoners who managed to meeting of representatives that the pilots did not switch off in Germany's Third Reich, escape Auschwitz in the second of Jewish organisations the cameras after leaving the Reinhard Heydrich. The Polish half of 1944, it became clear operating in the United plant area, so the data collected underground performed a where the main centre of the Kingdom and Prime Minister greatly exceeded expectations. similar act of revenge on the Holocaust was located. It was Chamberlain, a decision Yet despite ample photographic SS General Franz Kutschera, then that Zionist organisations is made to rescue Jewish material, the interpretation the notorious "Executioner began to demand the Allies to PHOTO BY 123 RF BY PHOTO children from Germany, centre only produced prints Allies knew of the Holocaust of Jews in the camp of Warsaw". And the British step in. Their request was to Austria, Czechoslovakia, presenting the chemical plant. even managed to get their use long-range aircraft to bomb Poland and the Free City of The remaining photographs a freight train carrying a Jewish a Polish underground courier, spies to infiltrate Adolf Hitler's the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp Danzig. By September 1939 were archived for 30 years. It transport set to be killed in gas arrived in London to deliver quarters... facilities where Jews were being the United Kingdom accepts was only in the 1970s that it was chambers. These photographs a report on the Holocaust. The RAF mounted several murdered, as well as the railway nearly 10,000 Jewish children discovered what they actually lay forgotten for years as The data presented were later astoundingly precise and lines used for their transport to younger than seventeen years presented. These were the well, attracting no interest communicated to numerous accurate air raids. They breached the camp. But to no avail. The old. They are placed in foster first aerial photographs of KL whatsoever. British and American dams on the Ruhr to flood the Holocaust was, in fact, almost families and care facilities. Auschwitz in history. The Allies knew the extent politicians, including Franklin valley and frequently bombed complete by that time and it 13 December 1938 There were more of the annihilation of European D. Roosevelt, the US president the Gestapo headquarters. would have certainly posed a The confiscation of Jewish- photographs taken, as visitors Jews living on the territory of at the time. The message They freed the prisoners technical problem to conduct owned enterprises. A legal came by with their cameras Poland. They even received was also passed on to Jewish kept in the Amiens Prison such an air raid. Yet the mere regulation concerning to capture every detail of the reports from Polish intelligence communities in the States. Yet and disrupted the Luftwaffe possibility of doing so was not the confiscation of Jewish site. Incidentally, they also and other sources. In autumn it hardly elicited any response. rocket development in the worthy of consideration for the enterprises in the German photographed the unloading of 1942, Jan Karski/Kozielewski, No adequate reaction followed. Peenemünde Army Research Americans and the British. Reich is enacted. 3 March 1939 Hungary introduces laws limiting Jews’ rights and call them to leave the country. The Read the document. KWC Declaration. 1942 limitations mainly concern economic matters, including Declaration of the While Polish society is being the elderly, the infirm, the executioners. The number of Every political and social the ability to run businesses underground Directorate of decimated by the enemy, for nearly diseased, the healthy, men and victims has already exceeded organisation in Poland is joining and access to specialist Civil Resistance (Kierownictwo a year our territory has been women, Catholics, Jews by race a million and their number is this protest. The oppressors and professions. Walki Cywilnej) on the issue plagued with the heinous carnage and Jews by religion – they are constantly growing. their accomplices, just as in the 15 March 1939 of German atrocities against of Jews. all being murdered mercilessly, Being unable to take active steps to case of crimes against Poles, shall The annexation of the Jewish people of 16 This unprecedented mass murder poisoned with gas, buried alive stop this tragedy, the Directorate be held culpable. Czechoslovakia and the September 1942. eclipses any other atrocity known and thrown off buildings, left of Civil Resistance is hereby establishment of the to humankind. to die in slow agony, tormented protesting the horrible crime Directorate of Civil Resistance Infants, children, youths, adults, and derided by their cynical against Jews. SEE PAGE 5 MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS DZIENNIK ZACHODNI 05 Alicja Gontarek, Ph.D, Damian figures committed to this of Poland to Switzerland in Marseille (170) and Perpignan people of Jewish origin mostly. EVENT Sitkiewicz cause were Aleksander Ładoś Bern. He engaged his friends, (over 100). According to data collected TIMELINE Historical Research Office Department of (Switzerland), Tadeusz Romer Filippo Bernardini, the papal When the French initiated by Jewish organisations at the IPN, UMCS (Japan) and Henryk Sławik nuncio in Switzerland, and the extermination of Jews the time, about 200 of them Protectorate of Bohemia and (Hungary). Sławik was, Recha and Icchak Sternbuch, along with the Germans in the were Polish citizens and held Moravia. feel a deep need to give however, not affiliated with the members of Vaad Hatzalah (the summer of 1942, a mass exodus Latin American passports. The 13 May 1939 my warmest thanks Foreign Affairs, but with the Rescue Committee). Thanks to Switzerland began. A heavy end of the war was drawing “Voyage of the Damned”. A to the Ambassador Ministry of Labour and Social to their efforts, it was possible burden fell on the shoulders of nearer and the Third Reich total of 937 Jewish refugees for his profound Policy. to produce Latin American Ładoś. was growing weaker, yet the from Germany reach Cuba understanding of the The task of Ładoś was passports for the refugees to In September 1942, Ładoś extermination efforts did not on MS St. Louis; however, the fate of the Polish Jewry specific due to Swiss neutrality, escape to Haiti, Paraguay, received a message from cease. A special delegation of country denies them entry during his term. We shall never which greatly facilitated his Honduras, Costa Rica, Edward Raczyński which said SS soldiers from Berlin arrived due to US influence. Also, the Iforget that what disturbed operations in Bern. These Guatemala, El Salvador, Bolivia, that the Vichy government in Vittel in January 1944. They USA and Canada refuse to many a conscience as to the intensified in the summer of Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, had expelled a large number of were to check the validity of accept the Jews. Ultimately, Jewish tragedy has been and 1942, when Germany began to Uruguay and Venezuela. It Polish Jews. Later, Raczyński the Latin American passports they find refuge in France, will be due to the diplomatic exterminate Jews in occupied is estimated that nearly 400 also asked Ładoś to plead held by the prisoners. Jews and Belgium and the United steps taken by our Government French territory. Over 6,000 documents were issued in with the Swiss government the Polish Ministry of Foreign Kingdom. following the initiative of the refugees fled to Switzerland Switzerland alone. According for a decisive démarche on Affairs immediately started to 17 May 1939 Ambassador." In these words, from France, Belgium and to some Polish sources, humanitarian grounds. On 17 plead with the governments of A White Paper is published. Ignacy Schwarzbart thanked the Netherlands, 3,500 of however, the number of "exotic" September 1942, in telegram those countries to honour the The White Papers published Edward Raczyński, the Minister them of Polish nationality. passports was much, much no. 271, he wrote: documents. in 1922, 1930 and 1939 of Foreign Affairs of the Most Polish Jews at Vittel are documents intended Republic of Poland, for Poland's held Paraguayan passports. It to explain the position of commitment to helping Jewish was therefore Chałupczyński the British Government refugees in 1943. During the who had to take action again. in relation to Mandatory war, Schwarzbart was one of Ultimately, it was Mirosław Palestine and the possibility of two Jewish representatives on Arciszewski, a diplomat establishing a “Jewish national the Polish National Council of The time of residing in Buenos Aires, home” there. For fear of the the Polish government-in-exile, who played the biggest role in autonomy of these lands the i.e. Poland's ersatz parliament. thwarting the deportation of British Government once Prior to this, he was a Member the Vittel prisoners. Together again restrict the possibility of the Polish Parliament. with Sylwin Strakacz from the of Jewish emigration to It is not common legation in New York, they took Palestine. knowledge that the Polish the operation upon themselves. 1 September 1939 government-in-exile conducted The deportation of Jews was German and Slovak this or any other diplomatic TRIAL cancelled and almost 2,000 The efforts of Polish diplomacy to save aggression against Poland. action. We have grown people were rescued. The task forces of the Security accustomed to the concept of This was not, however, Polish Jews in occupied Europe Police and SS commit a Jews being aided on the Polish made public, as it could have number of crimes, also territory. But Polish Jews seriously threatened the safety abroad, who found themselves Thus Switzerland became the higher. About a thousand Polish "Please stress the fact of other Jews who were still against Jews. Synagogues as refugees in the occupied centre of Jewish aid and rescue people are supposed to have that the French government in danger. Only a handful of in Katowice and Będzin countries of Western Europe or operations. used a Salvadoran passport. Up refuses to allow Jews to leave people learnt the story of the are set ablaze. Anti-Jewish in the East, were not forsaken. Knowing these people had to 90% of the mission budget the country. This makes it diplomats' efforts regarding misdemeanours are also Jewish refugees received just barely escaped death, the was allocated to rescuing Jews. impossible to rescue them from the passports and the cancelled observed by soldiers of aid and support throughout Swiss forces of law and order Most of these Polish refugees being deported to Germany." liquidation of the camp. These German frontal units. the entire war. Some of the captured them and sent them survived. Two days earlier, he described were the Jewish Agency, 2 September 1939 significant people behind it back to die in the occupied The situation in France his efforts to implore numerous Recha Sternbuch of the Vaad Germany establishes the were the ministers of Foreign areas. Some of them, however, was entirely different. From neutral countries and the Hatzalah, Yitzhak Gruenbaum Stutthof concentration camp Affairs: August Zaleski, ended up in transit camps the moment the country was Vatican to use a démarche of the Committee for the Jews near Gdańsk. Edward Raczyński and Tadeusz or with private families in occupied by the German to protest against Vichy of Occupied Europe, and rabbi 21 September 1939 Romer. Thanks to their efforts, Switzerland. Witnessing this army, the Polish diplomatic France deporting Polish Jews. Levin, the latter a remarkable Reinhard Heydrich, Chief thousands of Polish Jews ruthless policy, Ładoś pleaded mission had no possibility of Simultaneously, in consultation figure and a representative of of the Reich Main Security survived in foreign lands. with Raczyński to urge the legal operation. Polish Jews with Ładoś, steps were taken Orthodox Jews. They received Office, determines the Initially, the state- Allies to open the Swiss borders in France, however, received to provide the American the information personally main procedures regarding granted support was of a to Polish refugees without visas. aid nevertheless. The people chargé d'affaires to the French from the Consul General of Jewish populations in the material nature. The Polish As a result, about 3,500 Jewish responsible for Polish issues government with instructions the Republic of Poland to seized land, in a secret Government cooperated with refugees could hope for help. It were Feliks Frankowski and, on protesting against the Jerusalem. telephonogram. Jewish associations. It created immediately became a pressing later, Franciszek Dzierżykraj- deportations on behalf of the Another important person 8 October 1939 refugee and military camps matter to transfer them quickly Morawski. US government. Diplomatic actively engaged in rescuing The Germans establish a and founded potential refuge to places that were not under a There was a covert actions were in full bloom. Jews was Tadeusz Romer. Jewish ghetto in Piotrków points abroad. It also provided direct threat from the German representative of the Polish This was particularly As the Polish ambassador in Trybunalski, the first in assistance with the formalities army. government in Vichy France visible in Buenos Aires and Japan in the years 1937-1941, occupied Polish territory. connected with visas and For this to happen, the from 1940 to 1943, Stanisław in Bogotá, where Mieczysław he aided many Polish refugees. 12-17 October 1939 passports as well as organised aid of other Polish diplomatic Zabiełło (1902-1970). Upon Chałupczyński resided. After These included 2,000 Jews who The Germans deport Jews and facilitated the crossing of missions worldwide was the capture of France, it was receiving instructions, he and arrived in Japan using visas from Bohemia, Moravia and unguarded borders. necessary. Employees of divided into the German others endeavoured to persuade issued by the Japanese consul Austria to Poland. As the intensity of German other authorities, such as the occupation zone in the north Latin American countries to in Kaunas, Chiune Sugihara, 12 November 1939 aggression against Jews Ministry of Labour and Social and the French State under intervene in defence of Polish and following the agenda Jews are deported from increased, it was necessary Policy and the Ministry of the Vichy regime headed by refugees. The main objective of the Polish intelligence in Polish territories annexed to separate to Polish citizens Interior as well as the Polish Marshal Philippe Pétain. The was to make them issue visas Stockholm. Diplomats in into Germany. The Germans administer aid to Jews and intelligence, implored for action Polish Bureau under that and passports – passes for Portugal and Spain took similar relocate them to the General Poles separately. This changed as well. Members of Polish government tackled all the life. They succeeded, although steps, saving 3,000 Jews, who Government. in 1942. The only thing that associations in Switzerland, in issues related to Poland. primarily through bribes. At were evacuated to Latin and November 1939 mattered at that moment was particular the Central Polish Initially, it was the Polish the same time, Jewish children Central America. Some Poles The Jewish Military Union is to save human life at all costs. Committee for the Relief of Red Cross that aided Polish were being rescued in France do have considerable merit in formed. It associates Polish This proved an arduous task, War Victims, assumed the Jews by locating them in thanks to links with the Vatican respect of rescuing thousands soldiers of Jewish origin and not only due to strict German responsibility and acted locally shelters and helping those and with the help of Polish of Jews. Jews who do not support regulations, but also given by organising various charity imprisoned in internment representatives. About 200 According to preliminary communists. The union the indifference of the rest of meetings, concerts and events. camps. According to Polish children from Poland were estimates, the Polish Ministry (subordinate to the Union of Europe, the United Kingdom in Many of them were close estimates, these held about saved. of Foreign Affairs contributed Armed Struggle) collaborates particular. associates of Ładoś, including 1800 Jews, including the At the beginning of to saving about 10,000 people of with the Polish Underground Every Polish diplomatic Julius Kühl, PhD. An orthodox concentration camp in Argelès. 1944, the focus was set on Jewish origin, while numerous State and fights the Germans mission endeavoured to Jew, he headed the Refugee Most Jews found refuge in the Vittel camp in France. It sources suggest the figures were and communists. save Jews. The most notable Department of the Legation the regions of Toulouse (800), was inhabited by about 2,000 even larger. SEE PAGE 6 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 06 DZIENNIK ZACHODNI EVENT The unique bravery of Irena Sendler deserves to be immortalized TIMELINE 1 December 1939 All Jews in the General Government have to wear bands with the Star of David. December 1939 The German authorities of General Government SENDLEROWA, confiscate Jewish property, Jewish communities composed of less than 500 people are to be dissolved, a mother to Holocaust children and the Jewish population is forcibly relocated to ghettos. 8 February 1940 Tomasz Borówka Jews. (...) Neither their customs that all those in the ghetto were That is how the legendary A ghetto is established in Dziennik Zachodni Łódź. The ghetto is closed on nor their destitute homes were doomed,” she said. “Hence a smuggling of Jewish children 30 April 1940. strange to me.” new, urgent task for us. We began. She had to face terrible 27 February 1940 or many years, As the occupation began, resolved to smuggle as many risks all the time, but she took KL Auschwitz, the German rather few people Irena Sendler, an employee Jews outside the walls as it upon herself to continue. concentration camp in knew about her of the Warsaw Social Welfare possible, especially children. Inattention meant death. Irena Oświęcim, is established. It is and her feats. These Department, resolved help the But our financial resources escaped it several times. She originally intended for Polish were only those Jews. The charity organisation were diminishing. We would witnessed Janusz Korczak prisoners. who she saved, she worked for had previously probably not have been able to marching to death along with 1 April 1940 some of her friends and a supported the poor, the continue but for the emergence the orphaned children. An agreement with Fhandful of historians studying elderly and orphans, e.g. by of the Polish Council to Aid Sendler survived detention World War Two, the Holocaust distributing meals. She decided Jews.” In December 1942, herself, but she managed to

Ahnenerbe Stiftung. On ARC BY PHOTO Himmler’s initiative, in particular.” In these words, to allocate some of the funds to Sendler met “Trojan”, Julian stay calm and avoided being Ahnenerbe Stiftung starts Michał Głowiński begins his aid Jewish people as well. By the Grobelny, at an address she exposed. She successfully anthropological and genetic book “Mother to the Children time the Germans established for her co-worker. This allowed had been given. “Together, protected documents which of the Holocaust; the Story of the Warsaw Ghetto, Sendler them to move freely in the we’ll do wonders. You have a could help Germans identify research on camp prisoners. Irena Sendler”. had helped about 3,000 people. ghetto area. They managed to network of trusted friends, and and locate the Jewish children In subsequent years, many Asked about her motifs, she Yet with the Jews now isolated renew some ties from the past we have the money,” he said. who had been rescued. The SS German companies, such as replied simply: “Probably it was from the rest of the capital, and resumed their charity work “I was tasked with heading the soldier who was supposed to Siemens and Bayer AG, carry rooted in my family home. My the aid system had to be built by delivering food, clothes, department for rescuing Jewish execute her was bribed and set out research and experiments father regarded himself as one of from scratch. A creative young medicines and money obtained children,” Irena recalled. “And her free instead. on prisoners in concentration the first Polish socialists. He was lady, Irena persuaded some from the Welfare Department. so I became an eager activist of Thanks to her actions, about camps. This research is often a doctor. We lived in Otwock. infectious disease doctors to “1942 saw mass expulsions the Konrad Żegota Provisional 2,500 children were rescued deadly for the prisoners. Most of his patients were poor issue credentials for her and and it was clear to everyone Committee.” from the Warsaw Ghetto. 29 June 1940 The Soviet Union carries out the third mass deportation of Polish citizens from the For decades his actions were not known to the general public. The time has now come to annexed territories, deep into this state. As many as 78,000 make amends people are deported, of which 82% are Polish Jews. June 1940 a participant of the Silesian primary school. In secret, they The first French transit Uprisings and a social activist, were also taught Hebrew and the camps are established. Jews Sławik himself had to flee from Old Testament. The children in and political prisoners are the Germans in September 1939. Vác managed to survive the war. detained in southern France, Upon arriving in Hungary, he The exact number of all the in dreadful conditions, under SŁAWIK, headed the Civilian Committee Polish Jews rescued by Sławik, the eye of French guards. The for the Welfare of Polish Antall and their associates is Camp des Milles, established Refugees in Hungary. not known. It may have reached in 1939 as a refugee camp, The Righteous one As an official ally of the several thousand, which would is transformed into a transit Axis powers, Hungary was an place them at the top of the camp and becomes the largest extremely dangerous place to Righteous. At the end of 1943, facility of this kind. help Jews. The committee’s Sławik’s wife Jadwiga and 13 September 1940 from Silesia activity primarily involved their daughter Krysia arrived Governor-General Hans Tomasz Kurpierz, PhD providing Jews with forged in Hungary. Unfortunately, Frank orders that Jewish IPN Katowice international law, morality and identity documents that would the family was not to remain ghettos be established justice. Do not indict him!« The look genuine. It would not reunited for long. When German throughout the entire General interrogation was brought to a have been possible without troops moved into Hungary in Government. uly 1944. Budapest halt. They put down something the help of Polish priests. In 1944, Sławik went into hiding 2 October 1940 Gestapo prison. “We in red in Sławik’s files. I was close cooperation with Antall in the vicinity of Balaton Lake. The Warsaw Ghetto is stood in front of them not to know at that time that and Sławik, they initiated Eventually, he and Antall were established. It is isolated from and listened to them read red meant blood. Death. (...) I the mass production of false arrested. Although tortured other districts of the city on the indictment against reached for his hand to thank baptism certificates and other and tormented, Sławik did not 16 November 1940. It will me. And then they asked him for saving my life. He documents. The second half betray his friend and assumed become the largest ghetto in questions. (...) Henryk Sławik pressed my hand. »That’s on of 1942 saw a second wave of the entire responsibility. He all of Europe, with 450,000 Jdenied all accusations, insisting Poland.«” These are the words of Polish refugees hoping for life was taken to Mauthausen and incarcerated in April 1941. I had no idea about the action. József Antall, a senior officer of in Hungary. Many of the several murdered on 23 August 1944. 3 October 1940 They assured him he would be the Hungarian Interior Ministry, thousand Jews were children. József Antall survived. He was Romania introduces the first free immediately if he told the on his last meeting with Henryk Some of them had been thrown persecuted by the communist anti-Jewish regulations, e.g. truth. But he was adamant. (...) Sławik in July 1944. out of trains headed for the regime, but he remembered legalises the confiscation of After a while, they resumed On behalf of his extermination camps. It was Henryk and remained a close Jewish property. the interrogation. The same government, Antall provided for them that Sławik and Antall friend to Polish people until his 7 October 1940 picture, but Sławik himself was help to tens of thousands of established an orphanage in death in 1974. Bulgaria introduces its first different. His face and head Polish refugees who had been the town of Vác, together with For decades, both of them anti-Jewish laws. covered in blood. (...) He glanced arriving in Hungary since 1939, people like Isaac Brettler, a were erased from history. It was me like a devoted friend would several thousand Jews among Polish teacher. It was a house for only recently that their story has and straightened up briskly. »I them. A socialist journalist almost a hundred children. They been revived. SEE PAGE 7

object,« he said, »in the name of hailing from Upper Silesia, ARC BY PHOTO attended a kindergarten and a MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS DZIENNIK ZACHODNI 07 Many Jews were also involved in fighting for the freedom of the city. Most of them had EVENT TIMELINE already participated in the Ghetto Uprising 1 March 1941 Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler orders the creation of the Auschwitz II camp in Brzezinka near Oświęcim, which is initially intended for Soviet prisoners of war. 3 March 1941 The Germans order the WARSAW. establishment of a ghetto in Kraków. It is closed on 20 March. The city of two uprisings April 1941 The Independent State of Jan Dolniak dutifully in a double file, they were Croatia (NDH) is established Stowarzyszenie Pokolenie headed by Henryk Ledermann, by Ante Pavelić, the leader of sked if he a pre-war infantry cadet of the Croat fascists (Ustaše), with believed in God, Polish Armed Forces. Among the consent of the Third Reich Marek Edelman them, Henryk Poznański, nom de and Italy. once said: guerre "Bystry", who transferred 24 April 1941 "Leave him be. units of the Uprising through The Lublin Ghetto is closed. He's sleeping". the sewers many times. He also 22 June 1941 On the eve of Pesach, 19 April helped evacuate the Home Army Operation Barbarossa A1943, when German troops commanders, including General begins. Einsatzgruppen starts entered the Warsaw Ghetto, Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski. its operations. Specially many people may have been of Another remarkable figure designated units of Sipo and the same opinion. in the Gęsiówka squad was SD are tasked with removing In war-torn Europe, Warsaw Zoltan Safiyeff, a Jewish Turk the “undesirable element” in was the first city to raise arms and a former captain of the Red the territories occupied by the against the Germans. The Warsaw Army. He served as a doctor and Wehrmacht. The population Ghetto Uprising had no military surgeon in Battalion Parasol. of the Soviet Republics objective as such, and from the On 22 September 1944, while (mainly communist activists, very beginning it was doomed he was acting as a parlimentaire and then Jews) is executed in to fail. However, the soldiers of and negotiating the terms of large numbers, and there are the Jewish Combat Organization capitulation of one of the points also cases of incredibly brutal and the Jewish Military Union held by the resistance, he was were unyielding in their decision murdered by the Germans. murders, such as burning to fight the German occupation, Another Jewish participant of people alive in barns. June 1941 as a token of protest against the the Uprising was Jakub Wiśnia, a genocide. The sudden resistance quartermaster. After the Uprising, The extermination of the was quite a surprise for Germans he hid in the ruins of the capital Jewish population of the under the command of Jürgen under a different name. Just like eastern lands of the Second Stroop. Despite their enormous countless other Jews involved in Polish Republic begins. In advantage in troop numbers fighting the occupier in 1944, he June 1941, German troops and equipment, it took nearly survived by changing his identity. seize the borders of the a month to crush an uprising The Uprising failed. The Second Polish Republic staged by only 1,500 people. Germans turned Warsaw into a occupied by the USSR, Throughout the entire pile of bricks and stones, and the continuing the pogroms uprising, from the moment it The fight was not over camp on Gęsia Street resumed started by the communists. with the Ghetto Uprising... The collaborating Lithuanian began, the Home Army ran FOTOPOLSKA.EU BY PHOTO operation. For almost half a the "Ghetto" operation aimed century, the story of a fight for government play a significant at evacuating its residents and freedom lay buried under the role in the roundups, in supporting the resistance units of The fight was still not over, corners of the capital emerged platoon of Lt. "Wacek", "Magda" debris of uprisings lost. But, as particular Ypatingasis Bűrys, the Jewish Combat Organization with 1 August 1944 marking to engage in battle as well. breached the gate of the Warsaw Zbigniew Herbert said, "...and a Lithuanian SD squad, which and the Jewish Military Union. the beginning of the Warsaw Given that they often used false concentration camp on 5 August if the City falls but a single man is responsible for the Ponary It provided Jewish fighters with Uprising. The atmosphere was names, it is extremely difficult to 1944. The Uprising fighters freed escapes, he will carry the City massacre. weapons and other supplies, and completely different from the determine their exact number, 384 Jews kept in the infamous within himself on the roads of 25-29 June 1941 mounted its own armed assaults Ghetto Uprising. The citizens of but it is estimated at over 2,000 Gęsiówka camp, who originated exile, he will be the City". And so The Kaunas pogrom. This on the Germans. Eventually, the Warsaw were filled with euphoria people. from France, Greece, Yugoslavia, the memory of fighting hand in is orchestrated by Franz uprising was put down and the and hope for their cherished In the initial stage of the Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands hand remained. Stahlecker, commander Warsaw Ghetto destroyed on 16 independence. Everybody Uprising, soldiers of the Polish and Norway, as well as some On 5 August 1994, a of Einsatzgruppe A. The May 1943. Thousands of people joined in, regardless of their Underground State claimed some Polish citizens, participants of the commemorative plaque Lithuanian auxiliary units led died, most of them murdered political and religious beliefs victories, which greatly boosted 1943 uprising mostly. Many of was placed on the building by Algirdas Klimaitis murder by Stroop's troops or sent to the or affiliations. Many Jews were the morale of the fighters. They the freed prisoners immediately in 34 Anielewicza Street to 3800 Jews. The Lithuanians extermination camp in Treblinka. also involved in this fight for the even managed to capture a volunteered to fight in the immortalize the bravery of Jewish extensively cooperate with Few managed to leave the Ghetto freedom of the city. Most of them number of armoured vehicles, Uprising army. According to Lt. volunteers fighting for the Polish German forces, fighting alive through the sewers with the had participated in the Ghetto including a Panzerkampfwagen V "Wacek", a group of 100 former cause in the Warsaw Uprising. against Polish guerrillas. help of the Polish Underground Uprising, but numerous Jews Panther, dubbed simply "Magda". inmates came to him after the 29 June 1941 State. who had been hiding in various As part of the heavy weapons camp was liberated. Lined up The start of “self-cleansing” measures. Pogroms of Jews occur, provoked and organised by Einsatzgruppen in USSR territories seized by Read the document. KWC Statement. 1943 the Wehrmacht. 1940-1942 Antisemitic policies in Statement of the Directorate Directorate of Civil Resistance protest of Poles against this issued a regulation whereby any or integrity. Be warned: such Romania. Ion Antonescu, of Civil Resistance published announces the following: atrocity have reached the entire Poles who dare aid the Jews in cases shall be reported and the influenced by Germany, in underground press: in It is with horror and grief that free world. Those Jews who hiding are to be executed. There perpetrators punished with all pursues large-scale "Rzeczypospolita Polska" on the Polish society, a victim of managed to escape from the are, nevertheless, individuals the severity of the law as soon as antisemitic policies. A 17 March 1943 and "Biuletyn terror itself, is witnessing the Ghetto or camps have received who make profit by blackmailing possible. concentration camp is Informacyjny" on 18 March annihilation of the last Jews in great help and support in Poland, Jews and those who hide them. 1943. this country. The news of the to the extent that the occupier These criminals have no morals SEE PAGE 8 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 08 DZIENNIK ZACHODNI EVENT Real people, real tragedies. The story of a few families show how cruel Germans were towards TIMELINE simple Poles who dared to help Jewish people established in Calaraşi- Ialomiţia. It is intended for Jews who are then to be deported from Romania. Many Jews perished en route to the camp. The many pogroms, especially DEATH TO ENTIRE in Bessarabia and Bukovina, and transports of prisoners to camps result in the deaths of more than 297,000 people. June/July 1941 Hermann Göring authorises FAMILIES Reinhard Heydrich to develop a detailed plan for a “Final Solution to the Jewish for a small act of kindness Question”. 1 July – 31 August 1941 Sebastian Piątkowski, Doctor against the Poles. Its objective, at the house and set it ablaze. habilitatus however, was not to merely Some of the people trapped The Romanian Army carries IPN in Radom out the pogrom of Jews in take revenge on those who inside tried to escape, the Bessarabia. directly defied the barbarous children in particular. But 7-10 July 1941 mina policy. It was intended as a the merciless Germans were The German policy intended Ciepielów, gruesome "crime show", a tool waiting for them. They killed to spread hatred is effective. central to intimidate the local people. them and threw their bodies On 7-10 July 1941, the Poland. Along The Gendarmerie received back into flames. Polish population, inspired the road orders to kill all members At the same time, another by the Germans, carries out from Radom of families which had Gendarmerie unit arrived in pogroms of Jews in Radziłów to Sandomierz. The period provided Jews with help of Rekówka. They surrounded and Jedwabne. Gof occupation was the most any sort, possessed weapons the house of two related 30 June – 25-27 July 1941 tragic in its entire rich history. or supported underground families, the Kosiors and The list of crimes committed organisations. Every building the Skoczylas. They seized 9 The so-called Petlura Days by Germans in this area is belonging to them was to people altogether: Stanisław take place on 30 June and topped by the events of the be set on fire. This way, the and Zofia Kosior and their 25-27 July 1941. These are years 1942 and 1943. A total column of smoke would let four children, the youngest two major pogroms of Polish of 40 Poles were killed for the neighbours know the fate being 2 years old, as well as Jews in Lviv, organised by helping Jews. awaiting any family to defy two teenage girls, Leokadia Ukrainian nationalists. Four These were the poorest the German rule. Moreover, Skoczylas and her friend thousand Jews die as a result regions of the Kielce the victims of this operation Henryka Kordula. After of these pogroms. Voivodeship in the inter-war could not be buried in several hours, everybody 1 August 1941 period. Towns and villages graveyards. was taken to the barn and The Germans establish a were the centre of trade and On 6 December 1942, executed with a machine gun. ghetto in Białystok. crafts. Iłża, Lipsko, Solec, the vengeance for aiding The building burnt down August 1941 Tarłów and Zwoleń, and the ghetto refugees began. afterwards. The first concentration camp Ciepielów itself are all places The Gendarmes from Górki 6 December 1942 was a in Croatia is established, where Polish farmers had Ciepielowskie came to sad day for Ciepielów Stary run by Croatian fascists contact with large numbers of Ciepielów Stary early in the and Rekówka. It was marred

(Ustaše). It is created in Jewish vendors and craftsmen. ARCHIVE THE FAMILY FROM PHOTOGRAPH morning and surrounded the by the death of 31 Poles and Jasenovac and is the second Business partnerships often The Kowalski family from Górki Ciepelowskie, murdered by households of the Kowalski, 2 Jews. The youngest victim largest concentration camp in turned into closer relations, Germans as an act of revenge for aid provided to Jews in hiding Obuchiewicz and Kosior was 7 months old, the oldest Europe. It is referred to as the sometimes even friendships. families. Almost everyone one was over 70. The actions “Auschwitz of the Balkans”. The war did not manage This coincided with But the situation was from the Kowalski family of the Germans imply that More than 100,000 people to change this, even though the liquidation of ghettos much graver when winter was home: Adam and his they wanted to eradicate perish there, of which over the region saw the first effects established in the Radom came. The Jews begged the wife Bronisława as well as five entire families and erase their 20,000 are Jews. of military operations as district. The Jews who farmers to spend a night children aged one to sixteen names. Their aim was to wipe 3-4 September 1941 early as in September 1939. inhabited them were ousted indoors, in the houses, years. Only Jan, the son, out the "Polish bandits" form The first prisoners of KL Criminal actions against from their homes, brutally barns or stables. It was not escaped. He had left the house the Gendarmerie-supervised Auschwitz (Soviet prisoners civilians followed. Over the murdered or crammed like uncommon for the Poles to before dawn and gone to one territory. They succeeded, of war) are killed with Zyklon following months, more and cattle into freight trains and provide them with shelter and of the nearby villages. In the indeed, especially in the case B gas. more villages and towns taken to the extermination food for a longer time. house of the Obuchiewicz of the Obuchiewicz family, 3-6 September 1941 experienced the tragedy as it camp in Treblinka. The At the end of November family, the Germans found all murdered on that day. As Ghettoes are established in spread over central Poland operation finished in October 1942, the German police Piotr and Helena along to the Kowalski family, only Vilnius. in the Radom district of 1942. The last ghetto was in commanders resolved to with their five children, the Jan survived, orphaned of his 30 September 1941 General Government. Poles Tarłów, home to nearly 10,000 "cleanse" the woods of the youngest being 7 months parents and all siblings. The The Babi Yar massacre. The were subject to repression. people. Jews. Gendarmerie units old. Władysław and Karolina Kosior and Skoczylas families Germans murder more than Jews – to extermination. Those who chose not to scoured the forest sector Kosior were apprehended were torn by a terrible tragedy 33,000 Jews. The main perpetrators were believe the Germans fled by sector. They destroyed together with their six as well. 1 October – 22 December German Gendarmerie troops the ghettos before their the dugouts and huts, children. They had probably But this was not the end 1941 assigned to posts in Iłża, liquidation. They found slaughtering those who been hiding two Jews in their of crimes against Poles as The Jewish population of Lipsko and Zwoleń. Ruthless refuge in a large forest nearby, they found inside. With the household. time would soon tell. Similar Vilnius is exterminated. and unscrupulous, they where they set up dozens of swamp around Klamocha now The fate of all three atrocities occurred in the 14 October 1941 evaded any punishment. primitive camps. Hundreds frozen, the main camp was families was sealed. In the villages of Świesielice, Boiska The Germans start to deport On the constant hunt, they of people waited for better wiped out. Most likely 120 afternoon, the Germans near Solec nad Wisłą, and Jews from Western Europe en scoured all farms in their times in relative safety. They people were murdered during took the Kosiors with their Zajączków. masse. territory for fugitives, foraged for wild berries and the whole operation, but a children and two Jews to the This account is in no 15 October 1941 weapons, military equipment, mushrooms. Polish farmers few of them were captured barn. They locked the door way exhaustive of German Hans Frank orders any Jews clandestine press, as well often brought them food and alive and interrogated. The and incinerated the building. wrongdoings against people who leave the ghetto and as illegally produced meat clothes. One of the biggest Germans promised to spare A while later, the Gendarmes from the Ciepielów area who the Poles who aid them to and flour. These inspections camps was located on the them, provided that they took the Kowalskis to the helped Jews. It is a story of be punished by death in the often culminated in murder, Klamocha Island. The swamps would inform on the families house of the Obuchiewicz woe and courage, pertaining General Government. battery, imprisonment and and water both surrounded who had helped them. family and locked everybody to something much wider deportations to concentration and protected them. Subsequently, they prepared inside. Then, they unleashed than local history. And it is and labour camps. a large-scale reprisal actions a barrage of machine-gun fire definitely worth recounting. SEE PAGE 9 MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS DZIENNIK ZACHODNI 09 Magdalena Nowacka-Goik EVENT Dziennik Zachodni "I just can't believe it's TIMELINE his April will [19]43 already. The fourth mark 12 years year of this hell..." 1 November 1941 since “Rutka On 19 January 1943, The construction of the Laskier’s a Jewish girl from Będzin Bełżec extermination camp Diary” was begins her diary with begins. By the time the camp first published. these words. is closed in December 1942, Rutka was a 14-year old the Germans have murdered TJewish girl from Będzin. approximately 500,000 people Her story has inspired many there. people. Zbigniew Białas, a November 1941 writer from the Dąbrowa The Rumbula forest pogrom. Basin, wrote the book The first mass murders of “Rutka”, set to be published Jews deported from Germany in May. The notebook she to the Riga Ghetto. Tens wrote has recently been of thousands of people are rendered into Russian, joining transported to Rumbula forest a dozen translations already and brutally murdered. around the world. The Rutka 7 December 1941 Laskier Foundation has been The Germans establish the established, and there are first extermination camp even plans to open a museum. in Poland, in Chełmno nad The story was told in a Nerem (SS-Sonderkomando documentary film by the BBC, Kulmhof). a theatre play and a short film. 16 January 1942 The girl’s Polish friend from The first transports of Jews Będzin, Stanisława Sapińska, from the Łódź Ghetto are saved Rutka’s diary and transported to the Kulmhof shared it with the world, and extermination camp. this year she will be 96 years 20 January 1942 old. At the Wannsee Conference

PHOTO BY ARC BY PHOTO of Nazi Germany, decisions Rutka and Anne. Two unique testimonies are made about the logistics of exterminating European It is actually hard to believe Stanisława Sapińska helped save a diary describing the Holocaust. Jews (euphemistically referred how similar the story of Rutka She decided to share it with the world 63 years later. The memory remains to as Endlösung – the “final is to that of Anne Frank, a solution”). Jewish girl from Amsterdam. March 1942 Apparently they were born on the very same day, 12 The deportation of French June 1929, and they both Jews to the KL Auschwitz died in concentration camps extermination camp begins. (Rutka died two years earlier). The Germans establish Their fathers were rich and RUTKA LASKIER, another extermination camp intelligent, and the only ones in Sobibór. from their respective families 16 March 1942 to survive the Holocaust. Operation Reinhard begins. Judging by their photographs, A Polish Anne Frank Its objective is to completely they were even alike in terms exterminate Jews and plunder of appearance. But the most The girl was smart, sensitive the Germans had found it... a trip to the mountains, But the diary does not avoid their property in the General important similarity is that and mature. “I was much Rutka’s descriptions of the winter in the ghetto and the cruelty of the Germans Government and the District they both managed to record older, but it didn’t feel that months-long occupation were a wedding party. There the girl observed in the of Białystok. The Germans their difficult experiences way,” Stanisława said. “She honest and detailed. But next are plenty of stories about streets. liquidate the Lublin Ghetto. during the time of Shoah. grew up early, both in body to her account of the horrors meetings with her friends, One account is 17 March 1942 They were also both skilled and mind.” It was Stanisława of war, there are confessions some Polish names, some particularly shocking. Rutka The mass extermination of writers. Anne’s diary, who Rutka asked for help of a normal teenage girl. Her Jewish names. Before the war saw a soldier seize a baby from Jews begins in the Bełżec however, was available to in hiding her diary. It was first love, relations with her and during the occupation, its mother’s hands and throw extermination camp. the public just after the war a cherished possession, but peers. Problems with parents. Będzin was a multicultural it fiercely onto the sidewalk. 26 March 1942 ended, in 1947, while Rutka’s she could not take it with her Books. Work. city. “Religion, ethnicity – it She also described the time The Germans direct the story had to wait 60 years. when the Germans liquidated A year after the last did not matter. The Roma, when she managed to escape first transport of about one the ghetto. Stanisława recalls Jew left the once thriving the Jews, the Poles. We all a selection of Jews held on a thousand female Slovak Jews “I’d like this to be what Rutka saying bluntly: “I’d 30-thousand community in grew up together. There were sports ground in Będzin. “I to KL Auschwitz. remains of me...” The last like this to be what remains Będzin, Stanisława returned no conflicts, no animosity. jumped out of a first-floor 7 May 1942 wish of me.” to her old house. Ravaged Jewish families usually spoke window of an outbuilding. The first transport of Jews Just before Christmas 2005, “She saw it coming. She by the Germans and then two languages and we used I was fine. But I bit my lips sentenced to death reach the I took a call from Adam knew she would die there, by looters, the house was in Polish versions of Hebrew till they were bleeding (...)”. Sobibór extermination camp. Szydłowski, the Deputy she would not see the end shambles. Ceiling planks names. We called Jaskier Stanisława held the diary Spring 1942 Manager of the Vital Records of the war,” Stanisława had been ripped. Practically Janek, Abram – Antek, Joshe dear for years, a keepsake Jews who are hiding in forests Register Office in Będzin. recalled. And her friend had everything had been – Józek,” Stanisława recalls. symbolising the days which, in German-occupied Polish An enthusiast of the Jewish no second thoughts about plundered. But two things This is confirmed by in her memory. Persuaded territories organise the first history of Będzin, he tells me it. She agreed to keep the remained untouched. A Paulina Gold (Linka), one of by her nephew, she is now guerrilla camps. Jewish there is something I need to diary safe, although she radio Stanisława’s family had Rutka’s friends mentioned happy to share her treasure. guerrilla troops will start to hear. And it is “the bomb”. risked her life by doing so. hidden and Rutka’s diary. in the diary. When it was By having it published, she operate at the end of the year. I duly arrive. Mrs Sapińska It was dangerous to contact published, we tracked has contributed to the issue June – October 1942 shows us the diary of Rutka the Jews or help them in any A voice from 75 years ago. down some of the people of Polish-Jewish relations Slovakia is the first Laskier, and tells us its story. way. In her memory, she sees It is all true described in it and those in the Second World War in independent state to intern She was a friend of Rutka, the house where Rutka lived “I just can’t believe it’s [19]43 who remembered its author. the public opinion. Her life, local Jews. The first Slovak who moved into her house very clearly. The stair risers already. The fourth year of Paulina Gold remembered however, has not changed concentration camps in at 13 1-Maja Street when the were made of double boards this hell...” On 19 January the Polish-Jewish bond very much. She meets young Vyhne, Sereď and Novaky ghetto was established. 6 between the ground floor 1943, this Jewish girl from clearly. The two nations people to tell them about the are established as early as years her senior, Stanisława and the first floor. There was Będzin starts to keep a diary were not divided. She even old days, the days she still late 1939. More than 58,000 still popped in every now and a gap between them, which with these words. The last accompanied her cousin to remembers as if they were Slovak Jews are imprisoned then to visit her old house is where they put the green entry is dated 24 April. There church on Holy Saturday, and yesterday. there. Starting in June 1942, and got to know little Rutka. notebook. The things that are also three entries without many Jewish families had a They became close friends. could have happened if only any date, where she describes tree at home for Christmas. SEE PAGE 10 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 10 DZIENNIK ZACHODNI EVENT Poles rescuing Jews in the Rzeszów region TIMELINE Selected examples and difficulties regarding their verification they are transported to KL Auschwitz. Slovakia is the only country to pay the Germans for deporting Jews from their territory (500 marks per Jew). Another wave of roundups and deportations of Jews take place in 1944. Of a total of 136,000 Slovak Jews, more than 100,000 perish in IN THE EAST. concentration camps. 16/17 July 1942 The Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup. Poles rescued Jews here as well The French police, aided by volunteers from fascist organisations led by Jacques Elżbieta Rączy, PhD Doriot, conduct the greatest IPN in Rzeszów, University of Rzeszów Regional Commissions for participating in the manhunt at first and later sent him to helped them in the short term roundup of Jews living in the Prosecution of Crimes uncovered the hideout. The Terka where he could receive as well. the Paris area. More than oles rescuing against the Polish Nation Jews attempted to escape, but an education. It was only after From the moment the 13,000 people are detained at Jews during investigated these matters it was not possible. All three he graduated from school, ghetto in Jodłowa was the Vel d’Hiv velodrome in the war have after the war. Rarely did of them died. The Germans already as an adult man, that established, some people Paris and await transport to become a subject they appear in the common arrested Mikołaj Chanas and Paweł returned to Cisna and sneaked out to ask local concentration camps. Only of historical courts. Sometimes they were his two children. Although all learned what had actually residents for food. Some of 25 of those caught during research. The mentioned in relation to of them were supposed to be happened to his parents. them stayed in the Polish the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup studies, however, do not trials for the perpetrators executed, the Gestapo killed The crux of their case houses for good. One of survive their “stay” at the Pencompass all the areas of of crimes against Jews, Mikołaj only. A German is providing a final and them was a young woman concentration camps. the Second Polish Republic. such as the gendarmes or friend of his managed to undeniable proof of German called Stasia, who managed 19 July 1942 Its Eastern part, known as the Blue Police. The role persuade the Gestapo agents repression for aiding to survive the war in hiding. Himmler orders that the the Kresy, has been covered of the court, however, was to change their minds Jews. According to their After the war, she was extermination of Jews in only to a small extent. to pass judgements, so the and save the children. The relatives, the couple were baptised, got married, and This should not come as a details of cases which did household buildings were arrested after a Ukrainian headed for the USA. An the General Government be surprise. The sources are not pertain directly to the burned down. There was neighbour reported them. entire Jewish family of five, complete by the end of the largely dispersed and so indicted were irrelevant. For no sustenance left for Anna This information cannot the Parisers, survived the year. 22 July 1942 are the Polish families who this reason, many crucial and Michał. For many be verified today as there German occupation with the helped Jews in the Eastern details or even the actual years, the only thing people are no court documents to help of two other families, the The Germans begin to deport districts of the country. The grounds for repression were knew about Mikołaj Chanas confirm it. It is also difficult Świerczek from Jodłowa and Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto majority of those who were never revealed. These are the was that he was murdered to obtain any information the Porębski from Przeczyca, (Grossaktion). All residents directly involved are now blanks one cannot fill. for hiding Jews. Nobody on this subject from the as well as from Jakub Świętoń of the Ghetto are to be dead. Their families may This article presents talked about the person who present inhabitants of Cisna from Jodłowa. Jakub Schenker transported to the Treblinka not be aware of the events in selected cases of Jews rescued turned him in. But his oldest since many of them are also survived thanks to the extermination camp and question. Numerous major by Poles in the area of today's daughter knew his name. newcomers. Cisna was a residents of those villages. murdered there. issues regarding the aid Podkarpackie Voivodeship. It The investigation of the village with a mixed ethnic Hersh Gelb also owed his life 28 July 1942 administered to Jews are also sheds light on the extent Regional Commission for the composition during the to Poles. Together with Josek The Jewish Fighting still open. They are subject of the difficulties a historian Prosecution of Crimes against German occupation, home Lasur, he managed to escape Organization is established, to debate even in those must face in order to obtain the Polish Nation, however, to Poles and Ukrainians. The execution in Przeczyca. The led by Mordechai Anielewicz. areas where research is at an data on the aid administered took a different course and latter were later transferred locals called him Heszek The organisation is supplied advanced stage, e.g. in the to Jews by Poles. that point remained open. As and only a few returned. (Herszek). He usually hid in with weapons by the Home Podkarpackie Voivodeship. A story which deserves was the question of Mikołaj's The Poles who witnessed the forest. Sometimes he went Army and receive political The exact number of people wider recognition is that nationality, since Zagórze these events are no longer to the villages to ask for food support from the Government who rescued Jews in the area of Mikołaj Chanas. During near Sanok was ethnically alive, and their families are and slept inside household Delegation for Poland. The is unknown and probably the occupation, he lived in mixed, inhabited by both scattered all over the country. buildings in the winter. It is combatants of the JFO are will never be determined. Zagórze, near Sanok, together Poles and Ukrainians. Some But the memory of Wasser's much more difficult, however, organised in 22 units (around Neither is the number of Jews with his two children, Anna sources claimed he was imprisonment for helping a to determine how Lasur 600 people) and fight under who survived the war thanks and Michal. His oldest Ukrainian like his wife, whose Jew remained among some survived the war, as the older Polish banners. to the help they received. daughter, Maria, lived with first name was Paraska. On Polish citizens of Cisna. The village dwellers have only a 16-23 August 1942 New stories come to her husband in Sanok. His the basis of the accounts of documents left in the former vague recollection of someone The uprising of Jews in the light all the time. Stories of wife had been deported to the living family members, it Auschwitz-Birkenau camp like him. They were children Białystok Ghetto. people who helped Jews in a labour camp. There was a was determined that Mikolaj mentioned that the couple at that time and knew little 4 October 1942 various ways. It is mostly provisional camp in Zasław Chanas was, in fact, Polish. arrived there on 29 January of those events. A recurring All Jews imprisoned in the relatives and second- or for the Jewish inhabitants of In addition, some documents 1943 and that Magdalena name in their stories is Ruser concentration camps in Third third-generation descendants Sanok County, from where misspelled his name as Hanas. died a few weeks later, on 16 or Raser (which is probably Reich are to be transported who come to us with such they were deported to the Another example of March 1943. At an advanced the same person, but the name to the KL Auschwitz and information. It is, however, death camp in Bełżec. Only Poles rescuing Jews was stage of pregnancy, she had has been distorted). He had KL Lublin (Majdanek) impossible to verify. The a few were capable of work the imprisonment of little chance of survival. to hide in the woods along concentration camps and other participants in and remained. Among them Michal Wasser and his wife There is no information about with an armed group. They exterminated there. those events are dead. The were Banka Lew and the Magdalena. The couple lived her husband in the camp supposedly stole food in order 25 November 1942 families have long lost two Margulies brothers. The in Cisna, Lesko County. They documentation. With these to survive and not to die of The Government of the the contact with the Jews three of them managed to hid a young Jew called Samuel scarce materials, it is not hunger. This information still Republic of Poland in exile involved. The reports we escape from the camp and Pechter in their attic. He was possible to clearly confirm remains unverified. The fate of presents the US and British receive from the relatives found refuge in the household waiting for an opportunity why the couple were arrested the Jews who temporarily hid governments a letter about are often very sketchy and of Mikołaj Chanas. He hid to cross the border. His two and what happened to Michal in the outbuilding of the bell the Holocaust, which Jan scant. Even if there had been them in his cellar under his brothers had already managed in the camp. tower in Jodłowa (with the Karski has carried out of any kind of proof, such as carpentry workshop. But to escape the General The last of the examples consent of the local priests) is Poland. statements of the rescued a manhunt was underway Government. Just a few weeks concerns the Jewish also not certain. 4 December 1942 or any correspondence, for the three fugitive Jews. after Pechter appeared at their population who received aid Research on the issue Żegota, the Council to Aid families often failed to see The Germans forced the house, Michal and Magdalena from three villages: Jodłowa, of Jews rescued by Poles in Jews, is established within the their value and destroyed head of the village to select were arrested and deported to Lubcza and Przeczyca. 27 Jews the Rzeszów region is still Polish Underground State. them after those people a group of men who were to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where survived the war there. At incomplete. Some information 4 January 1943 died. It is also extremely look for the Jews under pain both of them probably died. least 10 Poles supported them may yet be confirmed, but Jews from the Częstochowa difficult to confirm whether of death. They were to be But their three-year old son, on an ongoing basis. There many situations will most Ghetto take up arms to fight those who helped Jews accompanied by Ukrainian Paweł, stayed at home. His were also several people who probably never be explained. were actually repressed. policemen. Three of the Poles relatives took care of him SEE PAGE 11 MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS DZIENNIK ZACHODNI 11 Interview with Tadeusz but I didn’t know what it was people my family received help EVENT Jakubowicz, leader of the Tadeusz Jakubowicz: all about. I can still hear the from. We met marvellous people TIMELINE Jewish Religious Community I have never heard a children weeping and the who saved us from slaughter. in Kraków, by Przemysław hurtful word just because parents shrieking. I think it the Germans. Miśkiewicz, Stowarzyszenie I am a Jew was then that we decided to You had been living in the 18-22 January 1943 Pokolenie. run away. They hid me among woods for a year and a half The January revolt in the human waste that a Pole, Mr when the war was finally over. Warsaw Ghetto, where armed You claim to have never Kajdas, took away from the How do you remember that Jews oppose the Germans. uttered the words anti- camp. We reached the house moment? 5-12 February 1943 Semitism or anti-Semites. where Ms Katarzyna Siwek We were in the house of Mr The Germans deport people Why? lived, and then in the evening and Mrs Krupa when a Soviet living in the Białystok Ghetto. That would hurt those we went to the woods. We kept soldier arrived. My father was The Jews muster resistance. whom I owe my life. in touch with both of them after sitting on a stool and mumbled 13-14 March 1943 the war. But the place where something in Yiddish. “Vy The liquidation of the Kraków You were born in 1939. we were staying turned out to yevrey?” the soldier asked him. Ghetto. I suspect you probably be unsafe, so we left a few days Father nodded his head. And the 18 March 1943 remember very little from the later and headed for the forests soldier replied: “ya tozhe”. That The Directorate of Civil first years of the occupation? near Dobczyce. was the day of freedom for us. I Resistance declares I remember some things remember my mum rationing collaboration with the very clearly. I recall walking It was 1943 and you were four. food for me when all I wanted was Germans (szmalcownictwo) from Plac Zgody to the camp What was it like for a small to eat till I was full. But she knew a “grievous crime against in Płaszów after the ghetto boy? I could easily get sick after such a the Republic of Poland”. was liquidated in March 1943. I knew there was a different, long time without a proper meal. Perpetrators face the My mother was carrying all normal life somewhere. We hid death penalty, enforced by our possessions in a little blue in dugout shelters, but from a Was Poland a safe home for Polish Underground State suitcase. My legs hurt and I hill in the woods we could see you when the nightmare of executioners. started to cry, so she picked me Polish kids running carefree in war and occupation was over? 19 April – 16 May 1943 up, I saw a man lying on the the fields or playing football. We When you did not have to hide The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. street on our way. I asked my were hiding in a village called or be afraid any longer? The Jewish Fighting mother what was wrong with Kornatka and there were more I am 79 now. After the war, Organization and Jewish him and she told me that he than ten other people hiding I went to school with Polish Military Union combatants had fallen. Now I know he was nearby. But it was better to children and for all my life I have (approx. 1000 to 1500 people), probably dead. My mum was a remain in little groups and not never heard a hurtful word just supported to some extent by beautiful blue-eyed blonde of form a single larger one for the because I am a Jew. I ask myself the Home Army, resist the purely Aryan features. She did sake of our safety. All day we just sometimes, what I would do if Germans for about 30 days. not look like a Jew at all, which lay there still, invisible. Only in the Milicja or the police were June 1943 made it easier for her to cross the the evening did we crawl out and after someone and that person, Armed attempts to resist the border. When she took off her dare to stretch a bit. Virtually probably innocent, knocked liquidation of ghettoes in armband with the Star of David, everyone in the village knew on my door asking me to hide Częstochowa and Lviv. she could easily blend in with about us. Can you imagine that him. To be honest, I’m not sure. 1 August 1943 the crowd outside the camp. even the priest in his sermon I went to the US a few years When we needed anything, she said: “You know there are Jews ago to meet Jewish immigrants The Jews muster resistance went to see Mr Jaśko, a lawyer. hiding in these woods. You have who left Kraków at different during the liquidation of He was a wonderful person. to help them, not turn them in to times in history. Even before the ghettoes in Będzin and We had deposited our money Germans”. And they did help us. meeting started, I heard people Sosnowiec. with him. Mum just took some But for them, we would not have everywhere shouting about Polish 2 August 1943 of it and bought whatever was had a chance to survive. Still, they anti-Semitism and anti-Semites. Prisoners launch a revolt in necessary for us to survive. My were really poor. When my mum Poland, someone said, was where the Treblinka extermination father worked for a German went to Kraków, with her Aryan the most Jews were killed. And camp, with some of the named Madricz on the other face and proper documents, she I knew I had to say something. I prisoners escaping. side of the camp. bought food and shared it with asked them: “Was Poland home October 1943 those people. I remember many to so many Jews because it was The “evacuation” of Danish I know your father spoke people who helped us. For me, such a terrible place for them to Jews. Up until October 1943, highly of his employer. But they are true heroes. live in? Why did they choose to Jews who lived in the territory he had a different opinion settle there? They could have gone of occupied Denmark were concerning Schindler. It is not easy for me to imagine to France, Romania, Bulgaria not persecuted thanks Let me put it this way: I all this in the summer, not to and live there instead... But they to the autonomous local don’t know who is a “saint” mention the conditions you stayed in Poland. If it had been government. As the Third and who isn’t any more. There KRAKOWSKA ARC/ GAZETA BY PHOTO had when winter came... so bad, they would have left, run Reich’s policy became sharper, were “saint” Marks, Engels, Winter 1943/1944 was away. There were over 200 people causing a surge in strikes Lenin, and now there’s “saint” Tadeusz Jakubowicz, a Holocaust particularly cold, up to minus in the room. I asked them what which the Danes organised Schindler. He did rescue many 30 degrees. It was the villagers they would do if they were to help against the occupier in August Jews, that’s true, but it was just survivor, on Shoah, anti-Semitism that helped us again. They took someone, but the price for that 1943 (the government was cheap workforce for him. I’d say us inside for the night. I slept in help would be death for them and dismissed and the king was there were lots of people who and the Poles’ stances the stables with the animals. It their family? Everyone went silent interned), and the threat were truly selfless and put their was terrific to feel the warmth and tense. So I said: I know you of Jews being interned in lives to a much greater risk to of their bodies. And I could would not turn that person in. concentration camps, the save Jewish people. But that’s pet the calves and the rabbits. And everyone cheered up. They Danes evacuated about 8,000 just my opinion. As long as the temperature started to ask me about Kraków. Jews from the occupied was below zero, we spent every I could feel how nostalgic they country (mainly to Sweden). You were only a few years I OWE THEM night there. Someone always were about it. 14 October 1943 old. All you knew was danger had to keep guard and watch A revolt at the Sobibór and insecurity. What do you out for the Germans. When I It has been 70 years since the extermination camp, with remember from the camp? hear someone saying that Poles war finished. Is it a part of the some of the prisoners I lived in a barrack together behaved dishonourably, I cannot past for a little boy who has escaping. with my mum. I was too small MY LIFE, agree. There is, of course, not a grown up? November 1943 to be in the children’s barracks single community which would I don’t know if we were The extermination of Italian by myself. When Governor- be perfectly faultless. Whether just so lucky to meet all those Jews begins. As long as General Hans Frank issued a it is Poles, Jews or Russians. wonderful people. I visit their Benito Mussolini remains in decree requiring all children There are Jews who don’t deserve graves and light a candle for power, Italian Jews did not to be eliminated, it was clear they are to be called Jews, and there them whenever I can. I will do have to fear for their lives we had to flee. The darkest are, indeed, Poles who were my best to keep the tombstones and property. Only after his day in the camp was when the wicked enough to turn in Jews of those commemorated with rule was overthrown and lorries came and the Germans to Germans, murder them and the Yad Vashem medals intact. the Germans seized real started to take the children my heroes loot them. But these are not the In line with Jewish tradition. away. Everybody was crying, SEE PAGE 11 NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR POLES WHO SAVED JEWS MONDAY, 26 MARCH 2018 12 DZIENNIK ZACHODNI EVENT Krystyna Krzykawska THOUGHTS AND WORDS TO Dziennik Zachodni REMEMBER AND LIVE BY TIMELINE What can we learn from power did mass roundups ad Vashem, the the Righteous today? Civil of Jews and deportations to Authority for the courage and the ability to defy concentration camps begin. Remembrance dishonesty and the confusion of 3-4 November 1943 of the Martyrs concepts. From the moral and The Aktion Erntefest takes and Heroes of social points of view, the legacy place on 3-4 November in the Holocaust, of “Żegota” and the Righteous Majdanek, Poniatowa and is located in the Jerusalem forest must be considered in terms Trawniki, as well as in other Yon the slope of Mount Herzl. It of values which surpass time, camps in the District of is surrounded by trees which human beings and nations. Lublin. Nearly all prisoners commemorate the Righteous They have the power to make of Jewish origin are put Among the Nations. That is the us more sensitive to the misery of others. Human solidarity is before the firing squad. In name given to the brave non-Jews always appropriate... total, about 42,000 people are who helped Jewish people during murdered. Several thousand the Holocaust period, often PROF. WŁADYSŁAW BARTOSZEWSKI Jewish prisoners are employed risking their own lives and the “Hell is other people,” Sartre at the airports in Zamość, lives of their families. According once said. He was a French Biała Podlaska and Puławy, to the data of the International intellectual, existentialist and at the Heinkel plant in Institute for Holocaust Research, philosopher, very popular after Budzyń near Kraśnik. 6706 of the 22,000 trees the war. And he was probably 24 March 1944 commemorate Poles. This is the right in what he said. But he The murder of the Ulma largest number of all nationalities should have also added, that family for aiding Jews. represented in the Avenue of paradise and happiness here April 1944 the Righteous. The list is not on Earth are other people, too. I can confirm that with The deportation of Hungarian "closed" yet, as new testimonies of the rescued appear – 70 years my very own existence. I have Jews to KL Auschwitz begins. been lucky. As a young boy, The transports of Hungarian later. These are stories of people for whom human life, solidarity I met countless people who Jews to KL Auschwitz begin were good, noble and selflessly and community were worth after German troops took kind. (...) My schoolmates were more than their own lives. They over Hungary. More than mostly children orphaned by 435,000 Jews are transported include both individuals and the war. What often came to whole organisations who made Yad Vashem, to the camp and sentenced to my mind back then is still with efforts to save Jews from death. The Hall of Names of all be exterminated immediately me to this day: how lucky these In 1963, Władysław Bartoszewski Shoah Victims in the gas chambers. children were to meet decent,

August-October 1944 and Maria Kann planted a tree WIKIMEDIA COMMONS BY PHOTO noble and brave people during on behalf of "Żegota" – the Polish The Germans liquidate the the war. The names of the Council to Aid Jews. It was the Righteous are like signposts Łódź Ghetto. Poles have the world's highest count of people recognized only organisation in the entire or lighthouses. They mark the 7 October 1944 German-occupied Europe whose with the "Righteous Among the Nations" title paths and show us that respect The Jewish prisoners forming primary purpose was to rescue for human dignity was possible Sonderkommando revolt at Jews. Other trees on Mount Herzl even when life on Earth was KL Auschwitz. The last mass honour Irena Sendler, Antonina hell... execution by gas also takes and Jan Żabiński, Aleksander He who saves PROF. ADAM DANIEL ROTFELD place there in October 1944. Zelwerowicz, and thousands of January 1945 other Poles. Given the approaching I have been truly privileged to meet the Righteous on many Eastern Front, the Germans "An everlasting name that will start to evacuate prisoners occasions. Every meeting endure forever" teaches me something new from the already operating "Yad Vashem" means literally about how I should live my life. concentration camps (known "a place and a name" or "a (...) The Righteous abhor clichés as the “death marches”). monument and a name". It stems and being referred to as heroes. Prisoners die by thousands from the Book of Isaiah 56:5: They keep repeating that what of cold, starvation and "To them I will give within my ONE they did was simply normal to exhaustion or are killed by the temple and its walls a memorial them. They remained normal in guards. and a name better than sons extraordinary times. The world 17/18 January 1945 and daughters; I will give them went crazy, yet they did not feel Prisoners revolt at KL an everlasting name that will entitled to go mad as well. They Kulmhof. During the endure forever".* The Righteous lived as God would have wanted liquidation of KL Kulmhof, Among the Nations have the them to live. No excuses. No “ifs”. No “buts”. (...) Each and on 17/18 January, about 47 privilege of having their name SOULis like he who saved every one of us has the power Jews rally at a granary. From engraved on the walls of honour to do good. Tikkun Olam. there they are taken five at in the Garden of the Righteous the whole world The power to make the world a time and shot in the back in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. a better place. The greatest of the head. Some prisoners They also receive a specially monument we can build to revolt and kill 2 guards, 2 Jews minted medal and a certificate (...) honour the Righteous is to successfully escape, while the of honour. The Yad Vashem Law symbolic expression of the idea Remembrance, and the Avenue unknown. Due to the transfers perform a single act of kindness rest are burned in the granary. authorizes Yad Vashem "to confer that it is deeds such as performed and Garden of the Righteous and expulsions of people after for another human being every 27 January 1945 honorary citizenship of the State by the rescuers that make the Among the Nations. There the war and the diplomatic day. This is how you perfect this The Red Army liberates KL of Israel upon the Righteous world go around. The globe is are also two art museums, a crisis in the years 1967-1989, it world. By doing another act of Auschwitz. Among the Nations”. If they have surrounded by an inscription "He synagogue, a library and archives, is problematic to verify every kindness on a daily basis, we 29 April 1945 passed away, they are awarded who saves one soul is like he who the Valley of the Communities, story. Initially, only living people participate in making the world The last case of killing commemorative citizenship in saved a whole world". and the International School were honoured with the title, a better place. We establish God’s sovereignty over the prisoners by gas. Nine days recognition of their actions. for Holocaust Studies. From which excluded those who were world, His Kingdom, which we before the end of World War On the reverse of the medal, A place in the collective over a dozen monuments in Yad killed for helping Jews. Today there is a Hebrew inscription memory Vashem, one is devoted to Janusz the next of kin is entitled to can see through the life of the 2 in Europe, the SS murders Righteous Among the Nations. reading "A token of gratitude Yad Vashem was established in Korczak. request a rescuer to be awarded the remaining prisoners at KL It is all in our hands. Mauthausen. The evidence from the Jewish people". The 1953 by the Law of Remembrance In total, there are 26,513 posthumously. The Righteous obverse presents two hands of Shoah and Heroism passed people currently recognized as deserve a special place in our MICHAEL SCHUDRICH, of the genocide is concealed Chief Rabbi of Poland since 2004 hastily. clutching a rescue line spun from by the Knesset, the Israeli Righteous Among the Nations as collective memory. barbed wire strands. The barbed parliament. The memorial of 1 January 2017. Nearly 7,000 of 30 April 1945 * Scripture quotation taken from the wire lines emerge from empty comprises the New Historical them are Polish. The numbers do FRAGMENT OF THE INTRODUCTION TO Adolf Hitler commits suicide. Holy Bible, New International Version. space but the rescue line enfolds Museum including the Hall of not necessarily reflect the actual THE ALBUM “REVIVING THE MEMORY 8 May 1945 NIV. 1973, 1978, 1984, International OF POLES RESCUING JEWS DURING the globe and serves as a handle Names with a database of all the number of rescuers in occupied The Third Reich surrenders. Bible Society. THE HOLOCAUST”, WARSAW, 2007, by which to rotate it. This is a Holocaust victims, the Hall of Poland, as many of them remain 2008; ŁÓDŹ, 2009