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The Ładoś List The Ładoś List Jakub Kumoch (ed.) Monika Maniewska Jędrzej Uszyński Bartłomiej Zygmunt The Ładoś List Cover illustration A Paraguayan passport issued for the Lichtenstern family (Heinz, Margarete Edith, Ruth Regine and Robert John), private archives of K. Heidi Fishman Managing editor Joanna Adamczyk Editing and proofreading John Cornell, Julia Niedzielko, Ian Stephenson Selection and description of illustrations Jędrzej Uszyński, Bartłomiej Zygmunt Reviews by Dr. Bożena Łazowska, Prof. Witold Stankowski Cover and graphic design Beata Dejnarowicz Graphic design of the list and typesetting Zofia Herbich Patronage by Copyright © by Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego, 2020 The Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor ul. Foksal 17 00-372 Warszawa instytutpileckiego.pl ISBN 978-83-66340-18-3 First Edition Warszawa 2020 Printed by Argraf Sp. z o.o. The Ładoś List An index of people to whom the Polish Legation and Jewish organizations in Switzerland issued Latin American passports during the Second World War Jakub Kumoch (ed.) Monika Maniewska Jędrzej Uszyński Bartłomiej Zygmunt Translation by Julia Niedzielko, Ian Stephenson Table of contents Introduction 7 The Ładoś Group 8 Development methodology for the Ładoś List 18 Number of people encompassed by the activities of the Ładoś Group 24 Enquiry results and personal data from the Ładoś List 40 Summary 47 Acknowledgements 49 The Ładoś List (Status as of January 2020) 53 Bibliography (selective) 155 List of illustrations 178 List of tables and graphs 179 6 Introduction 7 The Ładoś Group From at least the beginning of 1941 until the end of 1943, a group of Pol- ish diplomats, led by Aleksander Ładoś, the Polish envoy in Bern, engaged in a remarkable venture. Cooperating with at least two Jewish organiza- tions—the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and Agudat Yisrael (Hebrew: Union of Israel)—the group illegally purchased and issued passports and citizen- ship certificates of four South and Central American states: Paraguay, Hon- duras, Haiti and Peru. They used these documents with the intention of sav- ing Jews during the war. Initially, the passports and certificates were sent exclusively into German- occupied Poland. In time, they became the tool for a rescue operation which was expanded to include Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Slovakia and Italy, but also German and Austrian Jews who had been stripped of their German citizenship, as well as individual citizens of other nations. The doc- uments significantly increased the bearers’ chances of surviving the war, as they declared them to be “foreigners”. As such, those individuals would be included on lists of Jews marked for prisoner exchange, or transported as inmates to transit camps instead of extermination camps.1 The work presented here is the first attempt to create a list of the peo- ple for whom those documents were prepared. This is done without regard to whether those individuals in question were aware of the circumstances 1 J. Kumoch, Grupa Berneńska – dyplomaci Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z pomocą Żydom. Wystąpienie ambasa- dora RP w Szwajcarii, dr. Jakuba Kumocha, wygłoszone 4 lutego 2018 r. w Muzeum Pamięci Shoah w Paryżu, “Polski Przegląd Dyplomatyczny” 2018, no. 2, pp. 146–171. 8 surrounding their issuance and regardless of the later fates of their bear- ers. These documents—both the passports and the citizenship certificates— are conventionally referred to as “Ładoś passports”, in order to differentiate them from Latin American passports forged outside Switzerland, or those issued within Switzerland but probably without significant involvement of the Polish diplomats, such as George Mantello’s Salvadoran papers.2 By using the names “Ładoś passports”, “Ładoś group”, or “Ładoś list”, it is assumed—and it is an assumption that has been confirmed many times by the participants of the rescue operation themselves—that the key to the success of the entire operation was the support of the Polish envoy3 Alek- sander Ładoś.4 As the head of the Legation, Ładoś put himself and his dip- lomats at the disposal of his Jewish partners and gave them political protec- tion. In addition, Ładoś led a significant part of the work along with at least three other Polish diplomats. Together, they began an effective diplomatic campaign to have the documents recognized by the authorities in whose name the documents had been issued. Witnesses at the time often recalled 2 M. Wallace, In the Name of Humanity. The Secret Deal to End the Holocaust, Toronto 2018, p. 99; D. Kranzler, The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz. George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland’s Finest Hour, Syracuse 2000, pp. 28–34; G. Martínez Espinosa, Pasaporte a la vida. La Callada Historia de un Cuencano, Cuenca 2011, p. 136; D. Dorfzaun, Las Corrientes de Resistencia de Apoyo a los Judíos en Contra del Nazismo: El Caso del Cónsul Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero, Quito 2008–2009; Archives of Modern Records (here- after: AAN), file no. 2/495/0/325, Poselstwo RP w Bernie, Depesze Poselstwa RP w Bernie do Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych w Londynie. Książka korespondencji szyfrowej: Depesza nr 91 z 10.06.1941 r. [Telegrams from the Polish Legation in Bern to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in London. Book of coded correspondence: telegram no. 91 dated 10.06.1941], information on the issuing of passports in Italy with the aid of the Chilean Embassy. 3 In the 1940s, there were very few diplomatic institutions in the world that functioned at the highest level of representation, i.e., at the level of an embassy with an ambassador at its head. Usually, as was the case in both Poland and Switzerland, bilateral diplomatic relations were maintained by lower-ranked Legation staff who were directed by an envoy (the Polish Legation in Switzerland was elevated to the rank of embassy during the Polish People’s Republic in 1958). It must also be noted that German pressure resulted in the Swiss authorities’ refusal to recognize Aleksander Ładoś’ diplomatic rank, as a result of which he formally served as the head of the Polish Legation (chargé d’affaires) throughout the entire period of his work in the years 1940–1945. Internally, however, Ładoś was considered a fully authorized envoy and his nomination to the position bears the signatures of Poland’s erstwhile President, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, see Swiss Federal Archives, file no. E2001E#1000/1571#477*, ref. B.22.21477, Lados, Aleksander, Ex-Chargé d’Affaires, 1940–1950, Dossier; Central Military Archives (hereafter: CAW), file no. WBBH IX.1.2.19, Pamiętniki A. Ładosia, vol. II, pp. 146–166; Documents Diplomatiques Suisses 1848–1945, vol. 13, pp. 653–657. 4 Aleksander Ładoś (1891–1963) was the Polish envoy to Latvia (1923–1926), Consul General in Munich (1927–1931) and Minister without Portfolio in Gen. Władysław Sikorski’s government in exile (1939–1940). He played the central role in the passport campaign, authorizing and overseeing the work of his diplomats and surrounding his subordinates with complete diplomatic and political support which included intervention and coming to their defense when the operation was discovered by the Swiss authorities. Thanks to his determination, Swiss officers suspended their investigation into the Polish and Jewish participants in the campaign in fall 1943. At the end of that year, Ładoś began to intervene diplomatically, after which the Polish government in exile— supported by both the USA and the Vatican—was able to convince Paraguay to temporarily recognize the forged passports. Moreover, Ładoś made it possible for Jewish organizations to make use of Poland’s diplo- matic ciphers in order for them to remain in constant contact with the USA and, towards the end of the war, to inform them of the on-going negotiations regarding the evacuation of Jews still being held by the German occupier. Ładoś died in Poland shortly after his return from France, leaving unpublished memoirs behind. 9 that the operation would not have been successful without Ładoś’s support,5 and he was referred to by at least one of the Jewish members of the rescue operation, as “Righteous Among the Nations” (see Document 1). Document 1. Letter from Chaim Eiss to Juliusz Kühl dated 7 October 1943 in which he calls Aleksander Ładoś “Righteous Among the Nations” (copy currently located in the Polish Embassy in Bern, acquired from the Eiss family) 5 J. Friedenson, D. Kranzler, The Heroine of Rescue: The Incredible Story of Recha Sternbuch, New York 1984, p. 58; J. Fridenzon, Chasidei Umot HaOlam, “Dos Yidishe Vort” 1982, no. 230, p. 45. 10 Alongside Ładoś himself, the group included the deputy head of the Lega- tion, Stefan Ryniewicz,6 Vice-Consul Konstanty Rokicki,7 attaché of the Polish Legation, Juliusz Kühl,8 and two representatives of Jewish organizations: Abra- ham Silberschein9 (WJC and RELICO – Committee for Relief of the War-Stricken 6 Stefan Jan Ryniewicz (1903–1988) was the deputy head of the Polish Legation in Bern in the years 1938–1945 and simultaneously the formal head of the Consular Section. He was one of the initiators of the passport campaign. His duties included convincing RELICO to become involved in the operation, arranging conditions conducive to its continuation (keeping contact with Jewish organizations, the consuls of the USA and Latin American nations, the remaining diplomatic corps in Bern and with the federal authorities in Switzerland). Ryniewicz—the former Consul in Bern and Riga and the highest-ranked professional diplomat in the Lega- tion—was attributed to several cases in which he was personally involved in both the filling out of Paraguayan passports and in the transport of the documents between consulates. Following the end of the war, Stefan Ryniewicz settled in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he was a well-known member of the Polish diaspora. He was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta by the president of Poland’s government in exile in 1972, see Swiss Federal Archives, file no.
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