STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE About half of the six million European Jews killed in were Polish. In 1939 a third of the capital city , and 10% of the entire country was Jewish. By 1945 97% of 's Jews were dead.

These eleven examples of Polish resistance do not proport to give an overview of what happened in Irena Maximilian Emanuel Mordechai Witold Poland during The Holocaust. They have been Sendler Kolbe Ringelblum Anielewicz Pilecki chosen to reflect the unimaginably difficult choices made by both Jews and non-Jews under German occupation – where every Jew was marked for death and all non-Jews who assisted their Jewish neighbours were subject to the same fate.

These individuals were not typical; they were exceptional, reflecting the relatively small Janusz Jan Zofia Father Jan & Józef & proportion of the population who refused to be Korczak Karski Kossak- Marceli Antonina Wiktoria bystanders. But neither were they super-human. Szczucka Godlewski Zabinski Ulma They would recoil from being labelled as heroes. They symbolise the power of the human spirit – their actions show that in even the darkest of Created by times, good can shine through… STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE

Maximilian Kolbe Emanuel Ringelblum Janusz Korczak Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Father Marceli Godlewski Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma 1910 - 2008

Irena Sendler was an exceptional woman who coordinated an Underground Network of rescuers that enabled many Jewish children to escape the and survive The Holocaust. Her father was a doctor who died during a typhus epidemic in 1917 after helping many sick Jewish families who were too poor to afford treatment. Out of gratitude, members of the community offered to support Irena’s family after his death and consequently there was a strong bond of friendship between Irena’s family and her Jewish neighbours. As a result she learnt to speak Yiddish, a skill that “My parents taught me, that if was invaluable in her later work. a man is drowning, no matter what his religion or nationality, you must help him, whether or not you can swim yourself.” UNDER OCCUPATION & THE WARSAW GHETTO

Irena was incapable of ignoring injustice and joined Warsaw’s Social Services When the Warsaw department. She was a natural leader and became the heart of a network of women Ghetto was created who had the shared aim of helping Warsaw’s poorest residents. Under German Irena gained entry by obtaining a Health occupation it was illegal for Warsaw’s Social Services department to help Jews, so Irena Inspector pass so she altered client documents to continue supporting them. Although this was a very risky could continue to thing to do neither Irena nor her colleagues were deterred by the dangers. smuggle in much needed supplies.

Irena was distressed to see so many children suffer from starvation and was determined to do something more to help them.

Irena’s network distributed food and medicines to the poorest members of Warsaw’s Jewish community. RESCUE

When residents of the Warsaw Ghetto stared to be deported to Treblinka death camp, Irena’s network stepped up their rescue operation by smuggling children out of the ghetto. This was dangerous as Germans killed those who helped Jews. Babies were sedated and hidden in tool boxes or medical bags and older children were smuggled out through the sewer system. But the risk remained, even after a child was living in a secret safe-house. If their real identities were suspected by a neighbour they would have to be relocated. This happened quite frequently. “How many mothers do most children have?” one child asked Irena. “So far I’ve had three.”

Children were taken to ‘safe houses’ and given non-Jewish identities where they acclimatised to their new circumstances. DESPERATE CHOICES

It was desperately difficult to hand over a child to a stranger and Jewish families agonised over such a painful decision . Those who agreed felt it was the only chance their child had of surviving. Irena described this heart-wrenching sacrifice as a parent’s final act of love. “The real heroes were the mothers” she would say. She hoped to reunite the Jewish families after the war and kept meticulous records of each child, burying lists of their names in jars next to a friend’s apple tree.

The tree beside which were buried the real names of the hidden children.

In October 1943 she was arrested by the and was driven away for interrogation. Although she was brutally tortured, Irena refused to provide any information and was sentenced to death, but on the morning of her execution she was pulled out of line and told to run. Her escape had been bought with a bribe from the Polish Underground. RECOGNITION

Lili Pohlman, a Holocaust survivor who was born in Krakow and hidden as a child in Lvov, championing the work of her close friend Irena Sendler.

Irena was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by in 1965. Her close friend Lili Pohlman The tree of righteousness planted in in Irena’s spoke widely in the UK about Irena’s work and in 1999 honour with the medal she students from Kansas made a play about her life - received finally the world got to learn about this amazing woman “I’ve tried to live a human life, and the network she coordinated. which isn’t always easy” STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler

Emanuel Ringelblum Mordechai Anielewicz Witold Pilecki Janusz Korczak Jan Karski Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Father Marceli Godlewski Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma Father Maximilian Kolbe 1894 - 1941

Raymond Kolbe was born in Zdunska Wola, Poland, to a devout Roman Catholic family. When he was 12 he had a vision of the Virgin Mary which changed his life, when he learned that he was to become a martyr. He entered a seminary at Lvov in 1910 and was ordained as a priest in 1918. He formed a group called “Knights of the Immaculate” which was dedicated to fighting for goodness, encouraging people to have an interest in religion and to perform charitable works. They published a journal which was designed to ‘illuminate the truth and show the way to true happiness.’ In 1930 he travelled to Nagasaki, Japan and published the journal in Japanese. Here, he did not try to impose Christianity, but respected Buddhism and Shintoism looking for ways to engage in dialogue. He returned to Poland in 1936 and three years later, when the Germans invaded, he resumed his pamphleteering work and offered assistance to Polish refugees, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Kolbe with student priests Father Maximilian Kolbe 1894 - 1941

His work agitated the Nazi regime and he was imprisoned on many occasions, eventually being deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was the most notorious concentration camp that the Nazi’s built on Polish soil – more than a million of the six million European Jews that were murdered in the Holocaust died there. It was also were approximately 70,000 non-Jewish were murdered. Although it was a terrible place of death, many remarkable stories of heroism have emerged from the testimony of survivors, - one such example is that of prisoner 16770 - Maximilian Kolbe.

Kolbe was incarcerated in a part of the camp where Polish non-Jewish prisoners were kept. Even in these dreadful surroundings his instinct was to reach out to his fellow men. Auschwitz Survivors have reported that he shared his rations of soup or bread with others and, at night-time, moved from bunk to bunk, saying: 'I am a Catholic priest. Can I do anything for you?' The prisoner bunks at Auschwitz (this photo was taken many years after the war) Father Maximilian Kolbe 1894 - 1941

When it was reported that another prisoner had escaped from the camp, the Nazis decide to starve 10 others in retaliation. One of the selected men broke down and cried “My wife! My children! I will never see them again!” Hearing this, Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and asked to die in his place. The Germans granted this request, probably because the young prisoner was more useful to them as a slave labourer than the much older, frailer Kolbe.

After the war the prisoner that Kolbe replaced said 'I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me - a stranger. Was this some dream?’ Father Maximilian Kolbe 1894 - 1941

Father Maximilian Kolbe died on 14 August, 1941 and his body was removed to the crematorium, without dignity or ceremony, like hundreds of thousands who had gone before him, and hundreds of thousands more who would follow. Another survivor declared that the when the news and circumstances of Father Kolbe's death became known it was like 'a shock filled with hope - like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp.' The cell in Auschwitz where Father Kolbe died is now a shrine and he was made a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1981. His story continues to inspire many people today. STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler Maximilian Kolbe

Mordechai Anielewicz Witold Pilecki Janusz Korczak Jan Karski Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Father Marceli Godlewski Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944

Emanuel Ringelblum was born in Buczacz, Poland (now ) in 1900 and studied history at the . In November 1938 he went to the border town of Zbaszyn, where 6,000 Jewish refugees from Germany, with Polish nationality, were being held. He spent five weeks caring for these destitute people, who had been expelled by Germany but whose entry into Poland was being blocked by the Polish Government, and his experiences had a great impact. Consequently, after the Germans invaded Polish Jews, expelled from Germany but denied Poland, he set up welfare programmes and soup entry into Poland, being held at the border town of Zbaszyn in dreadful conditions kitchens for his fellow impoverished Jews who had Emanuel Ringelblum and his son Uri been forced to into the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1939 he started to keep a detailed diary and also encouraged others to gather as much information of day-to-day life under German occupation possible, to create an account of events from the perspective of the victims of the Nazis. This had to be a secretive activity, as any recording of German crimes was strictly forbidden by the oppressors. The group were code-named “the Oneg Shabbat” (The Joy of the Sabbath) as its members met in secret on Saturday afternoons to collate the reports and testimonies they had collected from Jews who had come to the ghetto. EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944

Ringelblum and his co-conspirators knew that what was happening to the Jews was unprecedented and were determined to record a complete description of the time and place for future historians. They collected data and wrote articles about towns, villages, the ghetto, and the . They also documented the deportation and extermination of Polish Jewry. Near the end of the ghetto's existence, the information the group had collected about the mistreatment of Jews was passed on to the Polish underground, which in turn smuggled it out of the country. This led to a radio broadcast by the BBC, helping to expose the Nazis' atrocities to the wider world – although a plea for the Allies to intervene to prevent the genocide went unheeded…

Ringelblum with Rachel Auerbach (right) who became an important contributor to the Oneg Shabbat Archive As Ghetto conditions became more desperate it was decided to secure the materials by burying them in the cellar of an apartment in metal milk cans and boxes (right). EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944

The archive contained over 30,000 separate documents and artefacts. Here is a selection of just some…

1 3 4 6 1 A wrapper from a sweet making factory in The Ghetto.

2 One of a collection of 300 paintings by Gela Seksztajn

3 Sign showing the families that are sharing rooms in one Warsaw apartment.

4 First sketch of the Treblinka Death Camp, 2 5 smuggled into the ghetto by an escapee. 5 A ghetto ration card

6 One of the thousands of handwritten documents that make up the archive. EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944

In March 1943, Ringelblum and his family escaped the ghetto and went into hiding in the non-Jewish area of Warsaw. A month later he returned to the ghetto, which was in the midst of an uprising, and was captured and deported to a Trawniki labour camp. He was able to escape, and re-join his family in hiding. However, in March 1944, just months before the end of the war, their hideout was discovered and he and his family were taken to the ruins of the ghetto and murdered by the Germans.

After the war two sites where the archive had been buried were uncovered, in 1946 and 1950; a third stash of documents has never been located. The archive materials constitute the most comprehensive and valuable source of information concerning the Jews in German-occupied Poland and the significance of the events that took place. Rachel Auerbach and Hersz Wasser, two The Archive being retrieved in 1946 Oneg Shabbat survivors inspect the archive after it’s recovery from the ground EMANUEL RINGELBLUM 1900 - 1944

The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw The new digital exhibition

After the war The Jewish Historical Institute was established, in what was previous a A book about the archive by Samuel Kassow, library next to The Great Synagogue of Warsaw (which was destroyed by the entitled Who Will Write Our History?, was made into a film in 2018. Germans at the end of the Warsaw Uprising). This is where the contents of the archive was painstakingly restored and documented to make it one of the most important sources of information on The Holocaust. A revamped digital exhibition has been opened there, enabling more people to learn from its contents. STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler Maximilian Kolbe Emanuel Ringelblum

Witold Pilecki Janusz Korczak Jan Karski Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Father Marceli Godlewski Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The

Mordechai Anielewicz was the leader of the Jewish Resistance fighters that fought back against the German Army between 19th April and 8th May in what remained of the Warsaw Ghetto. By that time the vast majority of the ghetto’s residents had been sent to Treblinka death camp and it was when the Germans attempted to deport the rest that Anielewicz’s fighters attacked.

There was no realistic hope of a military victory – this Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was purely a final act of resistance in response to the atrocious violence that had been inflicted on the Jews of Warsaw over the previous three and a half years. It was an opportunity to get some revenge for the murderous attacks that had been visited upon their fellow Jews – a change to die with some dignity MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Anielewicz was 20 when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. Aware of the dangers that Polish Jews were going to be subjected to, he joined an organisation that tried to set up an escape route through Romania, which shared a border with Poland at the time. However, he was imprisoned by Soviet troops and, on release, returned to Warsaw. By mid- 1941 he had began to train youth groups in the ghetto in armed resistance and reached out to other underground movements to help supply weapons for a possible uprising.

Mordechai Anielewicz (top right) with other members of the youth movement he was part of before the war which became a crucial part of the Ghetto Uprising in April 1943. MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Anielewicz was engaged in underground work in southern Poland when he learnt about the deportations from Warsaw. He immediately returned to the capital with the intention of organising an armed resistance movement against the Germans. Previously the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto were reluctant to sanction attacks on the occupiers for fear of inciting even more reprisals. But attitudes changed after the deportations – few realistically expected to survive the war. Mordechai Anielewicz (circled) with a group of Jewish resistance fighters

The deportations to Treblinka during the summer of 1942 reduced the population of The Warsaw Ghetto drastically. As a result, the southern part of the former ghetto was subsumed into the rest of the city and most of the wall that had previously separated the Jewish population from the rest of the city was demolished. Consequently, during the winter of 1942 the surviving Jews were crammed into the northern section of the former ghetto – close to where the transports departed from Warsaw to Treblinka. The residents knew it was only a matter of time until the Germans would complete the liquidation of the ghetto… MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

…this happened in January 1943. But to the Germans' surprise they were met by Anielewicz’s resistance fighters. Twelve fighters secretly slipped themselves into the lines off people being led into the loading area (the ) and, at a signal, each shot the nearest soldier. In the confusion many Jews were able to escape back into the ghetto. Although all 12 fighters died, this first act of resistance was seen as a victory and was a source of great encouragement to Anielewicz’s organisation.

The Germans were forced to abandon the planned final liquidation of The Ghetto and the fighters used that lull to prepare for the inevitable final attack. They prepared as much home-made ammunition as possible and did all they could to smuggle in weapons as well. In preparation for what was inevitably going to be an ambush-based Many female couriers posed as non-Jews to establish lines of communication with other attack, the fighters set up cells in the basements of underground organisations. They past on messages A basement bunker that housed a fighting unit. the what remained of the ghetto. and smuggled in weapons and ammunition, often paying for such bravery with their lives. MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

In the days leading up to the final battles of The Ghetto Uprising, German troops began to encircle the area and they made their move in the early hours of April 19th. The resistance fighters predicted that the Germans would enter through an entrance near to a brush-making factory – which is where they decided to set their trap. Armed fighters positioned themselves on roof tops and others, with improvised “Molotov cocktail” bombs, crouched below windows that looked down at the street below. The German’s had no idea that as their column of tanks and trucks slowly made its way into the ghetto that Compared to the German troops the Uprising they were about to be ambushed. It was when the first tank was over a landmine-bomb fighters were poorly armed. They relied mostly on petrol-bombs known as “Molotov that had been buried in the road, that the attack happened. The explosion that set the tank Cocktails” and had a limited number of on fire was the cue for the hidden fighters to start their attack and the German’s retreated. weapons with very little ammunition. Anielewicz wrote in a letter a few days later – It is impossible to put into words what we have been through. One thing is clear, what happened exceeded our boldest dreams. The Germans ran twice from the ghetto. One of our companies held out for 40 minutes and another for more than 6 hours. The mine set in the "brushmakers" area exploded. Several of our companies attacked the dispersing Germans. Our losses in manpower are minimal… the dream of my life has risen to become fact. Self- defence in the ghetto will have been a reality. Jewish armed resistance and revenge are facts. I have been a witness to the magnificent, heroic fighting of Jewish men in battle. MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising lasted 28 days. Eventually the Germans resorted to systematically burning the ghetto, building by building, to finally quell the resistance. They flushed out any remaining cells by dropping grenades into the basement bunkers - Mordechai Anielewicz, along with the surviving fighters he was hiding with, chose to kill themselves rather than be captured by the Germans.

Some of the ghetto residents managed to escape through the sewer system, but most of the remaining Jews were either executed in Warsaw or sent to Treblinka. MORDECHAI ANIELEWICZ 1919–1943 & The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Monuments in Warsaw that remember the Ghetto Uprising. The structure on the left commemorates where in Warsaw the fighting took place and the monument on the right signifies the location, in Mila 18, of the bunker where Anielewicz died.

It’s unlikely that the events that took place in the Warsaw Ghetto in the early months of 1943 resulted in many more Jews surviving the war. But the symbol of resistance against what was perceived to be an invincible enemy had a hugely significant impact. The Ghetto Uprising, which took place two years before the end of the war, was seen by surviving Jews as an expression of resistance and showed that world that, in the words of Mordechai Anielewicz, not all Jews “went to their deaths like lambs to the slaughter”. STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler Maximilian Kolbe Emanuel Ringelblum Mordechai Anielewicz

Janusz Korczak Jan Karski Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Father Marceli Godlewski Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948

Witold Pilecki is the only inmate known to be voluntarily imprisoned at Auschwitz. His incredible story of self- sacrifice remained hidden for over 40 years after his execution.

Pilecki was born on 13 May 1901 in Olonets – a small town in what was then the . After serving in the Polish Army, he married Maria Ostrowska, a schoolteacher, in 1931 and had two children, Andrzej and Zofia. He devoted himself to running the family farm and enjoyed painting and writing poetry. WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948

In August 1939, when Poland was invaded by Germany, Pilecki was called up to the army. After Poland’s defeat he made his way to Warsaw to fight with the underground resistance. In August 1940, news arrived of the death of a group of Polish political opponents who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz. This caused alarm within the Polish underground and Pilecki volunteered to investigate. On 19 September 1940, he intentionally allowed himself to be arrested by the Nazis and was detained nearby for two days with an estimated 1,800 Polish political prisoners before being transported to Auschwitz. He remained there for the next two and a half years as prisoner 4859. Pilecki’s mission was to raise the morale of Polish political prisoners by bringing news from outside the camp, as well as to report on camp conditions to the in Warsaw. In October 1940, he successfully sent out his first report with a released inmate. It reached the Polish Government-in-exile in March 1941, who passed it onto the Allies. WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948

While imprisoned in the camp Pilecki witnessed the horrifying mistreatment of inmates. His reports described the early experiments conducted on Soviet prisoners of war, who were murdered with poisonous gas. This laid the foundations for the mass-murder of many Jews in the purpose-built gas chambers and crematoria. Pilecki also reported on the suffering of the Roma and Sinti prisoners undergoing sterilisation experiments against their will; many of who died from their injuries. Pilecki eventually created an underground organisation within Auschwitz. They built a radio transmitter from parts smuggled in by civilians who worked at the camp. This enabled him to report on camp conditions and the number of deaths until the risk of discovery became too high.

Pilecki’s bravery and will-power cannot be overstated. In his report he describes the hunger as ‘the hardest battle of his life’ and was overwhelmed by the task he had set himself but refused to admit this to his colleagues in case it damaged their morale.

The English translation of the sign above the gates of Auschwitz is “Work Liberates”. The aim was to give the impression that this German concentration camp was only a labour camp. WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948

At first escape attempts were discouraged because of the group punishment inflicted on the inmates left behind. However, once group punishment was abandoned, the organisation actively assisted escapees. On one occasion, Pilecki gave his own planned escape route to an inmate in more imminent danger. He eventually escaped in April 1943 - he and two companions successfully removed the bolts from a heavy door whilst the guards’ backs were turned. They journeyed for 100km on foot which took them a week. He returned to Warsaw and fought in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 but that defeat led to Pilecki’s further imprisonment in POW camps in Germany, where he earned the nickname ‘Daddy’ from the younger inmates he looked after. When the camps were liberated at the end of the war, Pilecki was sent to Italy where he joined the Polish Armed Forces and wrote comprehensively about his time in Auschwitz.

‘The game which I was now playing in Auschwitz was dangerous. This sentence does not really convey the reality; in fact, I had gone far beyond what people in the real world would consider dangerous…’ WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948

Despite his relative safety in Italy, Pilecki returned once again to Warsaw to gather intelligence on the newly established Polish Communist government. The Nazis had been overthrown, but so had the Polish Government-in-exile. To Pilecki and the Home Army, Poland was subservient to their Soviet liberators and therefore still not free. Witold Pilecki was captured by the Communist Polish authorities on 8 May 1947 and accused of spying and of planning to assassinate key figures in the Polish police. He was tortured into signing his ‘confession’ and put through a sham-trial, where he was not permitted to testify, and no witnesses were called. The trial was used to deter any other opposition to the Soviet Communist regime. WITOLD PILECKI 1901 - 1948

He was subsequently executed on 25 May 1948. In 1990, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Communist regime in Poland, Pilecki was finally exonerated and recognised for his actions during World War Two. STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler Maximilian Kolbe Emanuel Ringelblum Mordechai Anielewicz Witold Pilecki

Jan Karski Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Father Marceli Godlewski Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942

Janusz Korczak was the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit. He was born in Warsaw, to an assimilated Jewish family. After school he became a medical doctor, doing his best to help the poorest in society. He also began to write prolifically, and his first books aroused great interest. Both as a doctor and a writer, Korczak was drawn to the world of the child. He worked in a Jewish children’s hospital and took groups of children to summer camps, and in 1908 he began to work with orphans. JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942

In 1912 he was appointed director of a new and spacious Jewish orphanage in Warsaw. Throughout his life, his partner in his work was Stefania Wilczynska, who dedicated her life to the care of orphans and greatly influenced Korczak and his career as an educator.

In the orphanage, Korczak developed an approach to child care that called for an understanding of the emotional life of children and urged that children be respected. A child was not to be regarded as something to be shaped and trained to suit adults, but rather as someone whose soul was rich in perception and ideas, who should be observed and listened to within his or her own autonomous sphere. Korczak maintained that every child should be seen as an individual. JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942

In 1914 Korczak was called up for military service in the Russian army, and it was in military hospitals and bases that he wrote his important work Loving Every Child.

After the war he returned to the newly independent Poland. He resumed his role in the Jewish orphanage but was also asked to take charge of an orphanage for Polish children. Thus the 1920’s were a period of intensive and fruitful work in Korczak’s life – he was in charge of two orphanages and served as an instructor at other boarding schools and summer camps, as well as being a lecturer at universities and seminaries. In the late 1920’s, he established a weekly newspaper for children that was also written by children, who related their experiences and their deepest thoughts. JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942

But in the mid-1930’s, Korczak’s public career underwent a change. Following the death of the Polish leader, Jozef Pilsudski, political power in the country fell into radical nationalistic and openly anti- Semitic hands. Korczak was removed from many of the positions in which he had been active, including an extremely popular radio broadcast that had made him famous across the country.

He visited Palestine twice, in 1934 and 1936, showing particular interest in the state of education, especially the educational achievements of the kibbutz movement. On the eve of World War Two Korczak was considering emigration, but his idea failed to reach fruition. JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942

From the very beginning of the war, Korczak dedicated himself to the welfare of children. At first, he refused to acknowledge the German occupation and heed its rules, even refusing to wear the Jewish star, which earned him a prison sentence.

As the situation got worse and the Jews of Warsaw were imprisoned in the ghetto, Korczak concentrated all his efforts on the orphanage. The only thing that gave him the strength to carry on was the duty he felt to preserve and protect his children. Polish friends of Dr Korczak tried to persuade him to escape from the ghetto but he refused to abandon the children.

On Thursday 6 August 1942 the Germans deported Korczak, his assistants and the two hundred children. A witness described the scene as follows: “This was not a march to the railway cars - this was an organised, wordless protest against the murder. The children marched in rows of four, with Korczak leading them, looking straight ahead, and holding a child’s hand on each side. Another column was led by Stefania Wilczynska, her children carrying blue knapsacks on their backs.” JANUSZ KORCZAK 1878 - 1942

Korczak, his assistants and all of the children, were killed in Treblinka.

After the war, associations bearing Korczak’s name were formed in Poland, Israel, Germany and other countries, to keep his memory alive and to promote his message and his work. Books, plays and films have all been produced about Korczak, and his own writings have been translated into many languages. STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler Maximilian Kolbe Emanuel Ringelblum Mordechai Anielewicz Witold Pilecki Janusz Korczak

Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Father Marceli Godlewski Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000

Jan Karski was born Jan Kozielewski to a Roman Catholic family in Lodz in 1914. After completing his university studies, Karski joined the Polish diplomatic service.

At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, he joined the Polish army but was taken prisoner by the Soviets and sent to a detention camp. Karski managed to conceal the fact that he was an officer, which enabled him to avoid the Katyń massacre where 22,000 Polish officers were executed. He eventually escaped and joined the Polish underground movement. JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000

With his knowledge of geography and foreign languages and a remarkable memory, Karski became a resourceful courier. He conveyed secret information between the resistance and the Polish government-in-exile. In late 1940, while on a mission, he was captured by the German police and tortured in prison. Afraid that he might give away secret information he attempted to kill himself. He was found alive and transferred to a hospital where he managed to make contact with a fellow undercover agent, who told him that his escape was being planned. Karski feigned illness until the night of his rescue was scheduled. JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000

In late 1942 Karski was smuggled in and out of the Warsaw ghetto and a transit camp at , where he saw for himself the horrors suffered by Jews under Nazi occupation, including mass starvation and transports of Jews to the Belzec death camp. Karski then travelled to London where he delivered a report to the Polish government-in-exile and to senior British authorities including Foreign Minister . He described what he had seen and warned of ’s plans to murder European Jews. In July 1943 Karski went to Washington and met with American President Franklin D. Roosevelt to give the same warning and plead for action. Much to his dismay, Allied governments were focused on the military defeat of Germany, and Karski’s message was greeted with disbelief or indifference. Karski’s report – one of the earliest comprehensive descriptions of what was happening to the Jews of Poland JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000

Disheartened, Karski remained in the . He wrote a book about his time during the war called The Secret State.

He refused to return to Communist Poland and remained in Washington promoting Polish freedom and serving for many decades as a professor at . When Poland regained it’s freedom from communist rule he was honoured by the then Prime Minister Lech Wałęsa. JAN KARSKI 1914 - 2000

Jan Karski is honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. He was also granted honorary citizenship of Israel in honour of his deeds during the war.

He is seen as a pillar of humanity all over the world. There are many “Karski Benches” to commemorate his memory. STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler Maximilian Kolbe Emanuel Ringelblum Mordechai Anielewicz Witold Pilecki Janusz Korczak Jan Karski

Father Marceli Godlewski Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ZEGOTA NETWORK

The story of Zofia Kossak-Szczucka illustrates the complex relations between Jewish and non-Jewish Poles were before and during the German occupation of the country. Before the war she was well known for her intolerant views towards Jews but eventually became one of the main co-ordinators of an organisation that helped many hundreds of Jews escape the dangers of the Nazi regime and continue to support them when in hiding.

In 1936, three years before the German occupation, she wrote – “Jews are so terribly alien to us… they are a race apart… Their argumentativeness, the set of their eyes, the shape of their ears, the winking of their eyelids, the line of their lips, everything…”

In 1942, after the Nazis commenced the extermination of the inhabitants of the Warsaw

ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA ghetto, she wrote – 1890 -1968 “The world is watching the most horrible crime that has ever taken place in history, and keeps silent. The slaughter of millions of defenceless people is being carried out amidst general and ominous silence… We must not tolerate this silence any longer. He who keeps silent in the face of slaughter becomes an accomplice to murder. He who doesn’t condemn, complies with the murder.” ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK

The organisation that Zofia Kossak-Szczucka helped to set up was known as “Żegota” – the codename for the “Council to Aid Jews”. This was a secret underground network that resisted the German occupation in Poland. Żegota was linked to the Polish Government in Exile, which was made up of Polish political leaders who had escaped occupied Poland and who remotely coordinated acts of resistance in their homeland. When Żegota was formed the Polish Government in Exile was based in London.

(left) British Prime Minister Winston Churchill with Władysław Sikorski, the Prime Minister of the Polish Government in exile, until he tragically died in an air crash in July 1943.

Members of the Polish Government in Exile that was based in London for most of the war ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK

At considerable personal risk, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka devoted her time and energy to bringing together a wide range of people to help organise rescue and assistance to Jews in occupied Poland. Half of the 6 million Jews who died during The Holocaust were Polish and in that context, despite Żegota’s best efforts, only a tiny number of people could be helped. But rather than judge its impact on purely numerical terms (approximately 5,000 people received, financial assistance, forged identity documents or a safe place to hide) it should be remembered that, in a time of such hopelessness, where the Jews of Europe felt abandoned, Żegota was a symbol of humanity and resistance…

Here are some of the prominent members of this remarkable organisation…

Julian Grobelny (whose code name was Trojan) was the president of Żegota since its establishment in 1942. Together with his wife, Halina, he was personally involved in the rescue of a large number of Jewish children. Both Julian and Halina devoted most of their time and energy to their rescue work, turning their small house in into a temporary shelter for Jewish children until they could move into more permanent accommodations. The Grobelnys were in close contact with Irena Sendler, who by then was the head of the children’s section of Żegota. They also helped Jewish adults who fled from the ghetto, by supplying them with “Aryan” documents, money and medicines. ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK

Another important figure in the organisation was Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz. She was not new to underground resistance activities, as in 1906, during the time when Poland was still partitioned among Russia, Germany and Austria, she participated in a bombing attack on the then Russian Governor-General of Warsaw. She was a Socialist activist and the wife of a former Ambassador to the United States. She used her considerable influence to persuade others to support the rescue operation both with their time and, if they were based outside Poland, with their financial support. Using the code-name ”Alicja,” as well as helping to coordinate the wider organisation, she offered shelter to Jews in her own home.

Leon Feiner was chairman of Żegota from August ‘44 to January ‘45. He was imprisoned in the USSR when the Germans invaded in June 1941 and escaped to Warsaw where he joined the underground network. In October 1942 he managed to send a telegram to the Polish Government-in-Exile in London, with information of what was happening to Poland’s Jews. He also met with Jan Karski and made the following appeal - " The Germans are not trying to make us slaves as they are doing with other peoples - we are being systematically murdered. Our entire people will be destroyed. A few can probably be saved, but the fate of three million Jews is sealed… the earth should be shaken to its very foundations and the world needs to be roused. Maybe then, it will wake up, understand and see". ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK

Władysław Bartoszewski was in Auschwitz as a Polish prisoner from the autumn of 1940 to the spring of 1941. From then on her resolved never to turn his back on suffering. Zofia Kossak persuaded him to join the underground and he began to use his close contacts in the Jewish community to help ghetto escapees find employment and obtained medical assistance for children. He also organised over 50,000 forged identity documents. “Did every document save a life? Who knows? We didn’t keep those statistics. People needed to be rescued. We did whatever we could”. After the war he worked as a historian, journalist and diplomat and when Poland regained independence he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Until the deportations to Treblinka in the summer of 1942 Dr Adolf Bermann was involved in providing help for Jewish children in the Warsaw Ghetto. He managed to escape to the “Aryan” side of the city and forged links between the Polish and Jewish Underground networks. Although he had a new non-Jewish identity it was still highly risky to move about the city. Eventually he was denounced to the Germans by blackmailers and captured by the Gestapo. Zegota paid a bride to secure his release and Bermann resumed his clandestine work. After the war he devoted his time to supporting fellow Holocaust survivors and eventually moved to Israel. ZOFIA KOSSAK-SZCZUCKA & THE ŻEGOTA NETWORK

A memorial to Żegota is situated outside POLIN, the Museum to the History of Poland’s Jews in Warsaw and a special tree of remembrance has been planted in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in . STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler Maximilian Kolbe Emanuel Ringelblum Mordechai Anielewicz Witold Pilecki Janusz Korczak Jan Karski Zofia Kossak-Szczucka

Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma FATHER MARCELI GODLEWSKI 1865 - 1945

When the German Army invaded Poland in September 1939 Father Marceli Godlewski had been the parish priest of the All Saints' Church in Warsaw for almost 25 years and was planning to spend his retirement in Anin, a small town just east of the Polish capital.

Between the end of World War One, when Poland regained it’s independence, and the eve of World War Two, Warsaw’s population grew by 30%. The city struggled to cope with this increase in humanity and many families lived in unsanitary, over-crowded conditions, relying upon the charity of the Catholic Church to alleviate the effects of the such poverty. Father Godlewski considered it to be his duty to do everything he could to help his parishioners,

but although about a third of the city was Jewish he refused to extend a helping hand to them. Both in sermons from the pulpit and in his many newspaper articles he urged his All Saints’ Church dominated Grzybowska Square in Warsaw fellow Catholics to avoid any dealing with Jews. “ ‘Each to his own’ is a wonderful slogan” since its completion in 1883 he once said. In fact his anti-Jewish views were widely known, which makes the acts of rescue and resistance he embarked upon during the German occupation of Poland all the more remarkable. This one-time hater of Jews was to risk his life to save hundreds… THE CHURCH IN THE GHETTO

In the weeks prior to The Warsaw Ghetto being sealed, in November 1940, there was a massive forced movement of people – Jews who lived outside the boundaries had to move inside and non-Jews who lived where The Ghetto was to be, had to leave. There were also about 2000 “baptised Jews”, who had converted Part of The Ghetto wall being built

All Saints’ Church to Christianity. Although they no longer considered themselves to be was situated within The Warsaw Ghetto Jewish, the Germans did and so they were forced to live within The Ghetto walls as well. All Saints Church was now located within The Ghetto and Father Godlewski chose to remain inside as well, so that this small group of people could continue to worship.

But Father Godlewski was providing much more than just the chance for people to pray… RESCUE AND RESISTANCE

Movement into and out of the ghetto was restricted to those who had been issued with official passes from the German authorities. As priests Father Godlewski and his staff were able to obtain these passes, which enabled them to smuggle in much needed food and medicine. At first such assistance was specifically for the parishioners of the church, but as starvation and disease claimed more and more lives, Father Godlewski decreed that, as all life is of equal worth, then all residents of the ghetto were deserving of help.

Starvation ravaged the ghetto residents

A soup-kitchen was established in the church where starving ghetto residents could supplement their meagre diet and part of the building was turned into a temporary shelter for those who could no longer afford to rent their own homes. And as conditions deteriorated, and more and more desperate Jewish ghetto residents decided to risk escape, Father Godlewski issued false baptismal and identity documents to help them survive.

A queue outside a ghetto soup-kitchen RESCUE AND RESISTANCE

Father Godlewski was particularly concerned with the plight of orphaned children begging on the streets. At first he organised a kindergarten in the grounds of the church, but later, through his contacts in convents around Warsaw, he arranged for children to be secretly taken out of the ghetto and placed in the care of the Franciscan Sisters. Many of these convents were run by Sister Matylda Getter, who never refused to take on another child despite the considerable risks. Father Godlewski eventually gave the building he was planning to retire to in Orphaned Jewish child Anin to the Franciscan Sisters who established an orphanage. in The Warsaw Ghetto Sister Matylda Getter

When the daily transports of Jews to the Treblinka Death Camp began in July 1942, the boundaries of the ghetto shrunk. Eventually All Saints Church was no longer in the restricted area of the city, but Father Godlewski continued to support the many people he knew who were in hiding, despite the fact that if he had been discovered by the Germans he would have been killed. It is impossible to say how many people benefited from the work that Father Godlewski undertook, as most of them would have died in Treblinka. But those who managed to survive the Holocaust because of his efforts always emphasised how much they owe him. LEGACY

Father Godlewski and many of the Priests and Sisters who worked with him have been recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. It is particularly significant that a person who was once openly antisemitic was able to alter his views and put himself in considerable danger by devoting his life to saving Jews.

All Saints Church was extensively damaged during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising In 2017 All Saints Church was declared a “House of Life” due tot he work that Father Godlewski undertook. STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler Maximilian Kolbe Emanuel Ringelblum Mordechai Anielewicz Witold Pilecki Janusz Korczak Jan Karski Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Father Marceli Godlewski

Created by Józef & Wiktoria Ulma JAN (1897-1974) & ANTONINA (1908-1971) ZABINSKI

By the mid-1930's the Warsaw Zoo had become one of Europe's largest zoos and when war broke out in 1939 Jan Zabinski was the zoo director. Over the course of the German occupation of the city Jan, along with his wife Antonina, provided refuge for many Jews in the bombed out cages and the empty basement rooms in their villa. During the bombardment many animals were killed and lions and tigers that had escaped from their cages had to be shot as they roamed the streets. After the Germans entered Warsaw many of the surviving animals were taken to zoos in Austria and Germany by German zoologists. . The first victims of the German occupation that Jan and Antonina The Zabinski villa, where many Jews were Zabinski helped were physically hidden from the Nazis. It is now a museum that disabled Poles, who were the first tells the story of the events that took place there. vulnerable group targeted by the Nazis. THE LOCATION OF THE WARSAW ZOO

The Warsaw Zoo The zoo was situated on the east bank of the Vistula river in the Praga district of Warsaw. By the time the Warsaw Ghetto was established, in late 1940, it was no longer a functioning zoo.

This illustration made by Jan Zabinski in 1940 shows that much of the zoo, by then, was used to grow vegetables and breed pigs for local consumption. GAINING ENTRY TO THE GHETTO

Szymon Tenenbaum was a fellow zoologist and close friend of Jan Zabinski who specialised in the study of insects. His beetle collection was being stored in the zoo for safety when, to his complete surprise, one of the occupying German officers asked Szymon to show it to him. When he took the officer to the zoo to view the collection, Jan immediately befriended him and exploited this contact to obtain permission to enter the ghetto.

Szymon Tenenbaum and part of his huge collection of beetles.

To begin with Jan would smuggle food and supplies into the ghetto, but as conditions worsened he decided to offer shelter to Jews who were willing to risk escaping. On several occasions he personally smuggled Jews out where, because of the friendly relationships he had cultivated with German guards, he was able to casually walk Jews out of the ghetto without raising suspicion. The Warsaw Ghetto, which covered 1.3 square miles and held over 400,000 Jews, was the most populace of the many ghettos created in Poland by the Germans. IN HIDING

As part of the Polish Underground Jan and Antonina decided to provide temporary shelter at the zoo for escapees from the ghetto until a more permanent place of refuge could be found and forged identity documents could be produced. They were helped in this dangerous undertaking by their young son, Ryszard, who supplied food and looked after the needs of the many “guests”.

The Zabinskis bred pigs on the zoo grounds and supplied them to local Nazi officers. It wasn’t uncommon for these Germans to visit the villa to negotiate their sale. When this happened a special code-tune was played on the piano to warn the Jews hidden in the basement below that there was a Nazi in the building and not to make a sound.

Ryszard on the zoo’s baby elephant, Tuzinka RECOGNITION

Jan Zabinski was injured during in the Warsaw Uprising in August and September 1944 and was taken as a prisoner to Germany. His wife continued his work, looking after the needs of some of the Jews left behind in the ruins of the city. The Zabinskis were honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1965. STORIES OF POLISH RESISTANCE Irena Sendler Maximilian Kolbe Emanuel Ringelblum Mordechai Anielewicz Witold Pilecki Janusz Korczak Jan Karski Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Father Marceli Godlewski Jan and Antonina Zabinski Created by JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA

Józef and Wiktoria Ulma lived in Markowa, in the Podkarpackie Province, in the south east of Poland.

Despite the fact that the occupying German Army executed Poles who gave shelter to Jews, they hid eight Jewish people in the attic of their home for over a year. On 24th March 1944, after this act of rescue was reported to the local Gestapo by a vindictive, antisemitic neighbour, they were shot, along with their six children and the hidden Jews.

Rzeszów

Markowa JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA

The Ulmas were farmers who lived in a remote part of the countryside. They produced a wide range of vegetables and nuts and kept many beehives as well as silkworms. Józef was very active in the local community, but his biggest passion was photography. Consequently, there are many images of life on the Ulma farm before and during the war. JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA

By the summer of 1942 most of Markowa’s 1000 Jews had either been shot by German death squads or were deported to Bełżec . From July the Germans led hunts in the surrounding forests to search for any Jews who were hiding there. For the few who remained the only option was to hope that a friendly Polish family would agree to offer them shelter. One such family was the Goldmans. They had previously leant their home to a Polish policeman called Włodzimierz Leś in return for supplies, but Leś deceived the family and claimed the property for himself.

One evening in the autumn of 1942, Saul, the father of the family, arrived at the farm with his four sons. He had known the Ulmas before the war and knew them to be humane principled people. Józef agreed to offer them shelter in their attic. A few weeks later they were joined by Saul’s two daughters and a granddaughter. JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA

A neighbour, Stanislaw Niemczak, testified after the war that - “They stayed on the premises and slept in the attic of the house... They never hid in particular, since all of them were busy helping to run the farm. They helped in tanning animal hides and chopped wood from the nearby forest for fuel.” This went on for over a year. Józef even photographed them at work (above).

But this act of rescue was tragically brought to an end on March 24th 1944… JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA

The Goldman family contacted Włodzimierz Leś, who had taken up residence in their home, to request that he at least return some of their property. Instead of agreeing to this request, Leś responded by reporting the Ulma family to the local German authorities. Consequently, German police came to Markowa, found the Jews on the Ulma farm and executed them.

Afterwards they summoned the entire Ulma family to stand beside their murdered guests and they too were shot - Józef, Wiktoria, who was seven months pregnant, and their children - Stanislawa, Barbara, Wladyslawa, Franciszka, Maria, and Antoni. JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA

The German’s brought local people to see the bodies in order to warn other family’s who were sheltering Jews of the consequences of being caught. News of the Ulma atrocity spread fear amongst the local population and there is evidence that this terror-tactic had a profound and tragic effect on the population. Yehuda Erlich, a Jewish man who was hiding in a village a couple of miles from Markowa, wrote after the war - “Searches were conducted both by the Germans and the Polish peasants themselves, who wanted to find the hiding Jews. In spring 1944 a Jewish family (the Goldmans) was discovered hiding with Polish peasants (the Ulmas). The Polish family – eight souls, including the pregnant wife – was killed with the hiding Jews. As a result, there was enormous panic among the Polish peasants who were hiding Jews. In the days after these murders the bodies of 24 other Jews were discovered in the fields - they had been murdered by the peasants who had been sheltering them for the past two years”. A monument to the Ulma Family in Markowa

The fact that rescuers could so quickly become murderers illustrates how terrified the local population were of the German authorities – they decided that the only certain way of hiding the fact that they had been sheltering Jews was to silence the very people they had been hiding and anonymously leave their remains in a field. But many other family’s in Markowa and the surroundings continued to shelter the Jews. JÓZEF (1900-42) & WIKTORIA (1912-42) ULMA

A museum in honour of the Ulmas and other Polish rescuers in the region, opened in 2016. It teaches about the compassionate and self-sacrificing rescuers who helped Jews during World War II, as well as the more shameful aspects of Polish-Jewish relations during German occupation. The aim of this museum is to promote honest dialogue and mutual respect against the background of the tragic events experienced by Poland and Europe during World War II.

The Ulma family are recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem and there is a process underway to have Józef and Wiktoria recognised as saints by The Vatican. In March each year the museum in Markowa marks the National Day of Remembrance of Poles who saved Jews from the Holocaust during World War Two.