Żegota
German occupied Poland | |
Key people | Henryk Woliński, Julian Grobelny, Ferdynand Arczyński, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz, Adolf Berman, Leon Feiner, Władysław Bartoszewski |
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Żegota (pronounced
Estimates of the number of Jews that Żegota provided aid to, and eventually saved, range from several thousands to tens of thousands.[8][10]
Operatives of Żegota worked in extreme circumstances – under threat of death by the Nazi forces.[8]
Origins
The Council to Aid Jews, or Żegota, was the continuation of an earlier aid organization, the
Kossak-Szczucka initially wanted Żegota to become an example of a "pure Christian charity", arguing that Jews had their own international charity organizations.[
Operations
Żegota had specialized departments for issues such as clothing, children welfare, medical care, housing and other relevant issues.[8] It had around one hundred cells that provided food, medical care, money, and false identification documents to thousands of Polish Jews hiding in the "Aryan" side of the German occupation zone.[8] Creation and distribution of false documents has been described as one of the organization's major tasks, and it is estimated to have produced up to a hundred sets of false identities for Jewish refugees.[8] Another estimate credits Żegota with forging about 50,000 documents such as marriage certificates, baptismal records, death certificates and employment cards to help Jews pass off as Christians.[13] In forging documents, Żegota cooperated with the Home Army, which often provided facilities for forging German identification papers.[14][15]
The organization headquarters was located in Warsaw at 24
Żegota's children's section in Warsaw, headed by a Polish social worker Irena Sendler, cared for 2,500 Jewish children. Many were placed with foster families, in public orphanages, church orphanages, and convents.[8]
Żegota repeatedly asked the
Challenges
Under the German occupation, hiding or assisting Jewish refugees was punishable by death.[8][18][19] However, it was no less dangerous due to the risk posed by fellow Poles, some of whom did not see kindly lending help for Jews.[20] Irena Sendler is quoted as saying "during [the war] it was simpler to hide a tank under the carpet than shelter a Jewish child."[21]
According to Richard C. Lukas, "The number of Poles who perished at the hands of the Germans for aiding Jews" is difficult to establish, with estimates ranging from several thousand to as high as fifty thousand.[22] Paul R. Bartrop estimated that about 20,000 Żegota operatives were killed by the Nazis, and thousands of others were arrested and imprisoned.[8]
Financial situation
The
Despite these difficulties, throughout the war, the Polish Government-in-Exile continually increased its funding for Żegota: the Polish Government's monthly support was increased from 30,000
Joseph Kermish describes the relationship between Żegota and the Government Delegation for Poland as strained, with frequent disagreements about funding and the extent of the humanitarian crisis Żegota was trying to address.[30]
It has been estimated that the cost of saving one Jewish life was around 6,000–15,000 Polish zloties.[8]
Allocated to | Date | Sum | Type | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Żegota | May 1943 – Feb. 1944 | 6,250,000 zł | total | [31] |
Jan. 1943 – May 1944 | 11,250,000 zł | total | According to Witold Bieńkowski[31] | |
Before May 1944 | 30,000 zł | monthly | ||
After May 1944 | 338,000 zł | monthly | ||
Nov. 1944 – Dec. 1944 | 14,000,00 zł | total | Allotted to help 1,500–1,800 Jews hiding on Warsaw's left bank[31] | |
Nov. 1944 – Dec. 1944 | $32,000 | n/a | [31] | |
March 1945 – April 1945 | $65,000 | n/a | [31] | |
By Sept. 1945 | 1,000,000 zł | monthly | ||
1939–1945 | $250,000 | total | Sum of all funds allocated to Żegota expressed in USD[29] | |
All Jewish organizations | 1939–1945 | 37,400,000 zł
$1,000,000 200,000 CHF |
total | Combined total, including the funds allocated to Żegota |
All organizations | 1939–1945 | $35,000,000
DM 20,000,000 |
total | Based on partial data – actual figure probably higher[29] |
Prominent activists
In a letter from 26 February 1977 Adolf Berman mentions the following activists as especially meritorious:[33]
- Maria Grzegorzewska
- Irena Solska
- Janina Buchholtz-Bukolska
- Irena Sawicka
- Ewa Rybicka
- Irena Kurowska
- Stanisław and Maria Ossowscy
- Jan and Antonina Żabińscy
- Stefania Sempołowska
- Jan Wesołowski
- Sylwia Rzeczycka
- Maria Laska
- Maria Derwisz-Parnowska
- Zofia Rodziewicz
- Regina Fleszarowa
- and others
Postwar recognition
In 1963 Żegota was commemorated in
See also
- List of Żegota members
- Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust
- Aleksander Ładoś
- History of the Jews in Poland
- Timeline of Jewish-Polish history
- Polish resistance movement in World War II
- Occupation of Poland (1939–45)
Notes and references
Part of a series on the |
Polish Underground State |
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Specific
- ISBN 978-0-300-09546-3.
- ^ a b c Yad Vashem Shoa Resource Center, Zegota
- ^ Władysław Bartoszewski: środowisko naturalne korzenie Michal Komar, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski Świat Ksia̜żki, page 238, 210
- ^ "The Council to Aid Jews "Żegota" | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews). Warsaw. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
The Council to Aid Jews, Żegota, was the only state-sponsored organization in occupied Europe which was set up with the aim of saving Jews.
- ISBN 9781456746605.
This was the only organization in German-occupied countries established specifically to save Jews.
- ISBN 9780781806046.
- ISBN 9780857735003.
Żegota was the only organization of its kind in Europe
- ^ ISBN 9781440840845.
Poland was the only country in Nazi-occupied Europe where such an organization, run jointly by Jews and non-Jews from a wide range of political movements, existed... Żegota was a truly unique phenomenon within the horror of the Holocaust
- ^ "The History of "Żegota" | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews). 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
By the spring of 1943, the Council had branches in Kraków, Lwów, and the Lublin area. In all of occupied Europe, it was the only institution officially established and supported by a government, with the aim of saving Jews.
- ^ ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
- ISBN 9788387224172.
Kierujący referatem żydowskim Henryk Woliński był też współinicjatorem utworzenia w 1942 r. Rady Pomocy Żydom „Żegota
- ISBN 978-0823271733.
- ISBN 9781894917100.
- ^ Żydzi w Polsce: dzieje i kultura : leksykon Jerzy Tomaszewski, Andrzej Żbikowski Wydawnictwo Cyklady, 2001, page 552
- ^ Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, volumes 3–4 Israel Gutman Macmillan Library Reference USA, page 1730
- ^ Zagłada Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej: 1945–1947 – page 129 Aleksander Gella – 1998
- ^ https://sprawiedliwi.org.pl/pl/aktualnosci/75-lat-temu-powstala-krakowska-zegota "Żegota" in Kraków Established 75 Years Ago Mateusz Szczepaniak / English translation: Andrew Rajcher, 14 March 2018 POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
- ISBN 080148104X.
- ^ "Death Penalty for Aiding Jews — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". www.ushmm.org. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78076-477-1.
- ^ Michman, Dan; Dreifuss, Havi; Silberklang, David (5 July 2018). "תגובת ההיסטוריונים של יד ושם להצהרה המשותפת של ממשלות פולין וישראל בנוגע לתיקון מיום 26 בינואר 2018 לחוק "המכון לזיכרון לאומי" של פולין" [Reply by the historians of Yad Vashem to the joint statement by the governments of Poland and Israel on the 26 January 2018 amendment to the law of the "Institute of National Remembrance" of Poland] (Press release) (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
[Some] Polish resistance fighters, that were willing to fight bravely and faithfully against the German conqueror, contributed on their end to a certain aspect of Nazi policy in occupied Poland to its broad success: the murder of Jews. These trends are also expressed in the words of Righteous Among the Nations and member of the Żegota organization Irena Sendler, that during the Second World War it was simpler to hid a tank under the carpet than shelter a Jewish child."
- ^ Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust University Press of Kentucky, 1989; 201 pp.; p. 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation, 1939–1944, University Press of Kentucky, 1986; 300 pp.
- ^ Waldemar Grabowski, "Rada Pomocy Żydom »Żegota« w strukturach Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego" ("Żegota within the Structures of the Polish Underground State"), Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance), no. 11 (120), November 2010, IPN, pp 50–51.
- ^ Aleksander Gella, Zagłada Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej: 1945–1947 (The Demise of the Polish Second Republic: 1945–1947), 1998, p. 129.
- ^ a b https://sprawiedliwi.org.pl/pl/aktualnosci/75-lat-temu-powstala-krakowska-zegota ("Żegota Was Established in Kraków 75 Years Ago").
- ^ a b Stefan Korboński, Polacy, Żydzi i Holocaust (The Poles, the Jews, and the Holocaust), 1999, p. 58.
- ^ Marcin Urynowicz, “Zorganizowana i indywidualna pomoc Polaków dla ludności żydowskiej eksterminowanej przez okupanta niemieckiego w okresie drugiej wojny światowej” ("Poles' Organized and Individual Help to the Jewish Population Being Exterminated by the Occupying Germans during World War II"), in Andrzej Żbikowski, ed., Polacy i Żydzi pod okupacją niemiecką 1939–1945 (Poles and Jews under the German Occupation, 1939–1945), Warsaw, IPN, 2006, p. 225–26.
- ISBN 978-0-415-27509-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8135-3158-8.
- ^ Kermish, Joseph. "The Activities of the Council for Aid to Jews ("Żegota") In Occupied Poland". www.yadvashem.org. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f Waldemar Grabowski, "Rada Pomocy Żydom »Żegota« w strukturach Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego" ("Żegota within the Structures of the Polish Underground State"), Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance), no. 11 (120), November 2010, IPN
- ^ Aleksander Gella, Zagłada Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej: 1945–1947 (The Demise of the Polish Second Republic: 1945–1947), 1998, p. 129
- ^ "The Żegota". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
- ^ Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert (2002). "Żegota": The Council for Aid to Jews 1942–1945 : Selected Documents : Preceded by an Interview with Władysław Bartoszewski by Andrzej Friszke. Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa. p. 155.
- ^ "17th Anniversary of the "Żegota" Monument Unveiling | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ "W Łodzi uczczono pamięć Polaków ratujących Żydów". dzieje.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ "W Łodzi uczczono pamięć Polaków ratujących Żydów". www.gazetaprawna.pl. 24 March 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ a b "Upamiętnienia "Żegoty" | Polscy Sprawiedliwi". sprawiedliwi.org.pl. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
General
- ISBN 83-916666-0-3.
- Joshua D. Zimmerman, ed. (2003). Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. ISBN 0-8135-3158-6.
- MS Nechama Tec (1986). When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. Oxford: ISBN 0-19-505194-7.
Zegota.
- ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
- ISBN 0-300-09546-5.
- Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski (1994). Zegota: The Rescue of Jews in Wartime Poland. Montreal: Price-Patterson.
- Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski (1994). Zegota: The Council to Aid Jews in Occupied Poland 1942–1945. Price-Patterson. ISBN 1-896881-15-7.