| Adolf Berman | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 17 October 1906 |
| Place of birth | Warsaw, Russian Empire |
| Year of aliyah | 1950 |
| Date of death | 3 February 1978 (aged 71) |
| Place of death | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Knessets | 2 |
| Party | Maki (1954-1955) |
| Former parties | Mapam (1951-1952) Left Faction (1952-1954) |
Adolf Avraham Berman (Hebrew: אדולף אברהם ברמן, born 17 October 1906, died 3 February 1978) was a Polish-Israeli activist and politician.
Born in Warsaw under the Russian Empire (in partitioned Poland), Berman attended the University of Warsaw, where he earned a PhD in philosophy. Whilst a student he joined Poale Zion Left, and edited its two newspapers (one in Polish and one in Yiddish).
During World War II he was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground in the Warsaw Ghetto, and a member of the presidium of the Underground National Committee. He also served as general secretary of Żegota, the Polish Council for Jewish Aid whose aim was to rescue Jews from the Holocaust, and Tsetnum, a children's aid society in Warsaw.[1]
After the war ended, he became a representative of the communist dominated Sejm, and in 1947 became chairman of the Central Committee of Polish Jewry. Berman was forcibly removed as CKŻP chair in April 1949, because he was a Zionist.[2]
In 1950 he made aliyah to Israel, where he joined Mapam (United Workers Party). He was elected to the Knesset on the party's list in 1951 elections, but on 20 February 1952 left the party and formed the Left Faction together with Rostam Bastuni and Moshe Sneh.[3] On 1 November 1954 Berman joined the Communist Party of Israel (Maki), and became a member of its Central Committee.[2] He lost his Knesset seat in the 1955 elections.
In 1961, Berman testified at Adolf Eichmann's trial in Israel. He showed the court a pair of children's shoes he picked up on the fields of Treblinka. Berman served as chairman of the Israel's Organization of Anti-Nazi Fighters, and a member of the presidium of the World Organization of Jewish Partisans and former Nazi Prisoners. He died in 1978 at the age of 71. His older brother, Jakub – Joseph Stalin's right hand in the People's Republic of Poland – was in charge of the notorious State Security Services, the largest secret police in Polish history until 1956.[4]