Polish Righteous among the Nations

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Polish Righteous among the Nations

Polish citizens have the world's highest count[1] of individuals awarded medals of Righteous among the Nations, given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who saved Jews from extermination during the Holocaust. There are 6,266[1] Polish men and women recognized as "Righteous" to this day, amounting to over 25 per cent of the total number of 22,765 honorary titles awarded already.[2][3]

It is estimated by one study that hundreds of thousands of Poles concealed and aided hundreds of thousands of their Polish-Jewish neighbors.[4] Many of these initiatives were carried out by individuals, but there also existed organized networks of Polish resistance who was dedicated to aiding Jews—most notably, the Żegota organization.

In German-occupied Poland the task of rescuing Jews was especially difficult and dangerous. All household members were punished by death if a Jew was found concealed in their home or on their property.[3] One study estimates of the number of Poles who were killed by the Nazis for aiding Jews, among them 704 posthumously honored with medals, as high as tens of thousands.[4][5][6]

Further information: Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust and The Holocaust in Poland

Contents

Activities

Before World War II, Poland's Jewish community had numbered between 3,300,000[7] and 3,500,000 persons or about 10 percent of the country's total population. During World War II, Germany's Nazi regime sent millions of deportees from every European country to the concentration camps it set in the General Government in occupied Poland.[8] Soon after war had broken out, the Germans began their extermination of Polish Jews, Jews and ethnic Polish mostly then Roms, Russians, Czech and others minorities of Poland,. Most of them were quickly rounded up and imprisoned in ghettos, which they were forbidden to leave.

As it became apparent that not only were conditions in the ghettos terrible (hunger, diseases, etc.) but that the Jews were being singled out for extermination at Nazi concentration camps, they increasingly tried to escape and hide in order to survive the war.[9] Many Polish Gentiles concealed hundreds of thousands of their Jewish neighbors. Many of these efforts arose spontaneously from individual initiatives, but there were also organized networks dedicated to aiding the Jews.[10]

Most notably, in September 1942 a Provisional Committee to Aid Jews (Tymczasowy Komitet Pomocy Żydom) was founded on the initiative of Polish novelist Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, of the famous artistic and literary Kossak family. This body soon became the Council for Aid to Jews (Rada Pomocy Żydom), known by the codename Żegota, with Julian Grobelny as its president and Irena Sendler as head of its children's section.[11][12]

It is not exactly known how many Jews were helped by Żegota, but at one point in 1943 it had 2,500 Jewish children under its care in Warsaw alone. At the end of the war, Sendler attempted to return them to their parents but nearly all of them had died at Treblinka. It is estimated that about half of the Jews who survived the war (thus over 50,000) were aided in some shape or form by Żegota.[13]

Jews were saved by the entire communities (see their partial list) with everyone engaged, such as in the villages of Markowa[14] and Głuchów near Łańcut,[15] Główne, Ozorków, Borkowo near Sierpc, Dąbrowica near Ulanów, in Głupianka near Otwock,[16] Teresin near Chełm[17] Rudka, Jedlanka, Makoszka, Tyśmienica, and Bójki in Parczew-Ostrów Lubelski area,[18] Mętów near Głusk – where "almost the entire population" rescued Jews[19] – and in many other places. Numerous families who concealed their Jewish neighbors paid the ultimate price for doing so.[14] Most notably, several hundred Poles were massacred in Słonim. In Huta Stara near Buczacz, all Polish Christians and the Jewish countrymen they protected, were burned alive in a church.[20]

Risk

Capital punishment of entire families, for aiding Jews, was the most draconian such Nazi practice against any nation in occupied Europe.[3][21][22] On November 10, 1941, the death penalty was expanded by Hans Frank to apply to Poles who helped Jews "in any way: by taking them in for the night, giving them a lift in a vehicle of any kind" or "feed[ing] runaway Jews or sell[ing] them foodstuffs." The law was made public by posters distributed in all major cities. Polish rescuers were fully conscious of the dangers facing them and their families not only from the Germans but also from betrayers (see:szmalcownik) within the local population.[23]

Over 700 Polish "Righteous among the Nations" received their medals of honor posthumously, being murdered by the Germans for aiding or sheltering their Jewish neighbors.[5] Estimates of the number of Poles who were killed for aiding Jews range in the tens of thousands.[4][5]

Gunnar S. Paulsson, in his work on the Jews of Warsaw, has demonstrated that, despite the much harsher conditions, Warsaw's Polish residents managed to support and conceal the same percentage of Jews as did the residents of cities in safer, supposedly less antisemitic countries of Western Europe.[24]

Numbers

As of 2011, there were 6,195 officially recognized Polish Righteous—the highest count among nations of the world.[3] At a 1979 international historical conference dedicated to Holocaust rescuers, J. Friedman said in reference to Poland: "If we knew the names of all the noble people who risked their lives to save the Jews, the area around Yad Vashem would be full of trees and would turn into a forest."[25]

Hans G. Furth holds that the number of Poles who helped Jews is greatly underestimated and there might have been as many as 1,200,000 Polish rescuers.[25] Władysław Bartoszewski, a wartime member of Żegota, estimates that "at least several hundred thousand Poles... participated in various ways and forms in the rescue action."[4] Recent research supports estimates that about a million Poles were involved in such rescue efforts,[4] "but some estimates go as high as 3 million"[4] (the total prewar population of Polish citizens, including Jews, was estimated at 35,100,000, including 23,900,000 ethnic Poles[7]).

How many people in Poland rescued Jews? Of those that meet Yad Vashem's criteria—perhaps 100,000. Of those that offered minor forms of help—perhaps two or three times as many. Of those who were passively protective—undoubtedly the majority of the population. — Gunnar S. Paulsson[26]

Scholars still disagree on exact numbers. Father John T. Pawlikowski remarked that the hundreds of thousands of rescuers strike him as inflated.[27] Historian Martin Gilbert has written that rescuers were an exception, albeit one that could be found in towns and villagers throughout Poland during the war.[28]

Misconception

Prior to the 1941 German invasion of the USSR (see: Operation Barbarossa), the local population in Soviet occupied Poland had witnessed the repressions and mass deportation of up to 1.5 million ethnic Poles to Siberia, conducted by the NKVD,[29] with some of the local Jews collaborating with them and forming armed militias. There were also incidents of Jewish Communists betraying Polish victims to the NKVD.[30][31] The Anti-Semitic attitudes in those areas had been exploited by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen who induced anti-Jewish pogroms on the order of Reinhard Heydrich,[32][33] such as the Jedwabne pogrom, an atrocity committed by a group of ethnic Poles in the presence of German gendarmerie.[31] There were also a number of criminal or opportunistic Poles of various ethnicities[34][35] (known as szmalcownicy) who blackmailed the Jews in hiding and their Polish rescuers or turned them over to the Germans for financial gains. Official collaboration did not exist in Poland as it did in other countries such as France (see World War II collaboration and Poland for details). As Paulsson notes, "a single hooligan or blackmailer could wreak severe damage on Jews in hiding, but it took the silent passivity of a whole crowd to maintain their cover."[24]

The fact that the Polish Jewish community was decimated during World War II, coupled with well-known collaboration stories, has contributed to a stereotype of the Polish population having been passive in regard to, or even supportive of, Jewish suffering.[26][36]

Notable persons

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Righteous Among the Nations per Country & Ethnic Origin, January 1, 2008, Yad Vashem
  2. ^ "First Arab Nominated for Holocaust Honor". Associated Press. 2007-01-30. Archived from the original on 2007-11-16. http://web.archive.org/web/20071116180646/http://www.beliefnet.com/story/211/story_21108_1.html. Retrieved 2010-10-29. "As of Jan. 30, 2007: Yad Vashem has conferred the status on 21,700 people" 
  3. ^ a b c d “Righteous Among the Nations” by country at Jewish Virtual Library
  4. ^ a b c d e f Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust University Press of Kentucky 1989 - 201 pages. Page 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944, University Press of Kentucky 1986 - 300 pages.
  5. ^ a b c Holocaustforgotten Web site. Righteous of the World: Polish citizens killed while helping Jews During the Holocaust
  6. ^ Gunnar S. Paulsson. Secret City. The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945. Yale University Press, 2002.
  7. ^ a b London Nakl. Stowarzyszenia Prawników Polskich w Zjednoczonym Królestwie [1941] ,Polska w liczbach. Poland in numbers. Zebrali i opracowali Jan Jankowski i Antoni Serafinski. Przedmowa zaopatrzyl Stanislaw Szurlej.
  8. ^ Piper, Franciszek Piper. "The Number of Victims" in Gutman, Yisrael & Berenbaum, Michael. Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Indiana University Press, 1994; this edition 1998, p. 62.
  9. ^ Martin Gilbert. The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust. Macmillan, 2003. pp 101.
  10. ^ Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). "Assistance to Jews". Poland's Holocaust. McFarland & Company. p. 117. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. http://books.google.com/?id=hC0-dk7vpM8C&pg=PA117&vq=%22Committee+for+Rendering+Assistance+to+Jews%22&dq=Number+of+Jews+helped+by+Zegota. 
  11. ^ John T. Pawlikowski, Polish Catholics and the Jews during the Holocaust, in, Google Print, p. 113 in Joshua D. Zimmerman, Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath, Rutgers University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8135-3158-6
  12. ^ Andrzej Sławiński, Those who helped Polish Jews during WWII. Translated from Polish by Antoni Bohdanowicz. Article on the pages of the London Branch of the Polish Home Army Ex-Servicemen Association. Last accessed on March 14, 2008.
  13. ^ Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). "Assistance to Jews". Poland's Holocaust. McFarland & Company. p. 118. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. http://books.google.com/?id=hC0-dk7vpM8C&pg=PA118&vq=%22half+were+aided%22&dq=Number+of+Jews+helped+by+Zegota. 
  14. ^ a b The Righteous and their world. Markowa through the lens of Józef Ulma, by Mateusz Szpytma, Institute of National Remembrance
  15. ^ (Polish) Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Wystawa „Sprawiedliwi wśród Narodów Świata”– 15 czerwca 2004 r., Rzeszów. „Polacy pomagali Żydom podczas wojny, choć groziła za to kara śmierci – o tym wie większość z nas.” (Exhibition "Righteous among the Nations." Rzeszów, June 15, 2004. Subtitled: "The Poles were helping Jews during the war - most of us already know that.") Last actualization November 8, 2008.
  16. ^ (Polish) Jolanta Chodorska, ed., "Godni synowie naszej Ojczyzny: Świadectwa," Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Sióstr Loretanek, 2002, Part Two, pp.161–62. ISBN 83-7257-103-1
  17. ^ Kalmen Wawryk, To Sobibor and Back: An Eyewitness Account (Montreal: The Concordia University Chair in Canadian Jewish Studies, and The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, 1999), pp.66–68, 71.
  18. ^ Bartoszewski and Lewinówna, Ten jest z ojczyzny mojej, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Znak, 1969, pp.533–34.
  19. ^ (Polish) Dariusz Libionka, "Polska ludność chrześcijańska wobec eksterminacji Żydów—dystrykt lubelski," in Dariusz Libionka, Akcja Reinhardt: Zagłada Żydów w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie (Warsaw: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej–Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, 2004), p.325.
  20. ^ Moroz and Datko, Męczennicy za wiarę 1939–1945, pp.385–86 and 390–91. Stanisław Łukomski, “Wspomnienia,” in Rozporządzenia urzędowe Łomżyńskiej Kurii Diecezjalnej, no. 5–7 (May–July) 1974: p.62; Witold Jemielity, “Martyrologium księży diecezji łomżyńskiej 1939–1945,” in Rozporządzenia urzędowe Łomżyńskiej Kurii Diecezjalnej, no. 8–9 (August-September) 1974: p.55; Jan Żaryn, “Przez pomyłkę: Ziemia łomżyńska w latach 1939–1945.” Conversation with Rev. Kazimierz Łupiński from Szumowo parish, Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, no. 8–9 (September–October 2002): pp.112–17. In Mark Paul, Wartime Rescue of Jews. Page 252.
  21. ^ Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project: Poland
  22. ^ Robert Cherry, Annamaria Orla-Bukowska, Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, ISBN 0-7425-4666-7, Google Print, p.5
  23. ^ Mordecai Paldiel, The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews, page 184. Published by KTAV Publishing House Inc.
  24. ^ a b Unveiling the Secret City H-Net Review: John Radzilowski
  25. ^ a b Furth, Hans G. One million Polish rescuers of hunted Jews?. Journal of Genocide Research, Jun99, Vol. 1 Issue 2, p227, 6p; (AN 6025705)
  26. ^ a b c Gunnar S. Paulsson, “The Rescue of Jews by Non-Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland,” published in The Journal of Holocaust Education, volume 7, nos. 1 & 2 (summer/autumn 1998): pp.19–44. Reprinted in: "Collective Rescue Efforts of the Poles," p. 256. Quoted in: "Wartime Rescue of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy. The Testimony of Survivors," compiled by Mark Paul, with selected bibliography; the Polish Educational Foundation in North America, Toronto 2007
  27. ^ John T. Pawlikowski. Polish Catholics and the Jews during the Holocaust. In: Joshua D. Zimmerman, Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath, Rutgers University Press, 2003.
  28. ^ Martin Gilbert. The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust. Macmillan, 2003. pp 102-103.
  29. ^ Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki, Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 0-313-26007-9, Google Print, 538
  30. ^ Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, "Jedwabne: The Politics of Apology", presented at the Panel Jedwabne – A Scientific Analysis, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., June 8, 2002, Georgetown University, Washington DC.
  31. ^ a b Tomasz Strzembosz, “Inny obraz sąsiadów” archived by Internet Wayback Machine
  32. ^ Christopher R. Browning, Jurgen Matthaus, The Origins of the Final Solution, page 262 Publisher University of Nebraska Press, 2007. ISBN 0-8032-5979-4
  33. ^ Michael C. Steinlauf. Bondage to the Dead. Syracuse University Press, p. 30.
  34. ^ Emanuel Ringelblum, Joseph Kermish, Shmuel Krakowski, Polish-Jewish relations during the Second World War‎ - Page 226 Quote from chapter "The Idealists": "Informing and denunciation flourish throughout the country, thanks largely to the Volksdeutsche. Arrests and round-ups at every step and constant searches..."
  35. ^ Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen, Immigration and Asylum, page 202. Quote: "[ethnic Ukrainians] assisted the German security police in arrests and executions of [..] Jewish civilians."
  36. ^ Robert Cherry, Annamaria Orla-Bukowska, Rethinking Poles and Jews, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, ISBN 0-7425-4666-7, Google Print, p.25
  37. ^ a b c d Anna Poray, "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous" (a-v)
  38. ^ W. Bartoszewski and Z. Lewinowna, Appeal by the Polish Underground Association For Aid to the Jews, Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority, 2004.
  39. ^ Anna Poray, "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous. Those Who Risked Their Lives" (b-v); Władysław Bartoszewski
  40. ^ Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority 2008, The Righteous: Anna Borkowska, Poland
  41. ^ "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous" (b-v): Banasiewicz family including Franciszek, Magdalena, Maria, Tadeusz and Jerzy
  42. ^ Anna Poray, "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous. Those Who Risked Their Lives" (b-v); Bradlo family
  43. ^ Kystyna Danko, Poland; International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
  44. ^ Anna Poray, ibidem (d-v); Dobraczyński, Jan
  45. ^ About Maria Fedecka at www.mariafedecka.republika.pl, 2005
  46. ^ Anna Poray, ibidem (f-v); Maria Fedecki, 2004.
  47. ^ Anna Poray, "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous" (f-v); Mieczysław Fogg
  48. ^ Anna Poray, "Saving Jews" (g-v): Andrzej Garbuliński, Polish Righteous
  49. ^ The Righteous Among the Nations, Yad Vashem
  50. ^ Mordecai Paldiel "Churches and the Holocaust: unholy teaching, good samaritans, and reconciliation" p.209-210, KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 2006, ISBN 0-88125-908-X, ISBN 978-0-88125-908-7
  51. ^ Sylwia Kesler, Halina and Julian Grobelny as Righteous Among the Nations
  52. ^ Curtis M. Urness, Sr., edited by Terese Pencak Schwartz, Irene Gut Opdyke: She Hid Polish Jews Inside a German Officers' Villa, at www.holocaustforgotten.com
  53. ^ Holocaust Memorial Center, 1988 - 2007, Opdyke, Irene; Righteous Gentile
  54. ^ Anna Poray, ibidem (w-v); Henryk Iwanski alias Bystry, Armia Krajowa mayor.
  55. ^ Stefan Jagodzinski at the www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
  56. ^ Anna Poray, ibidem (cover page)
  57. ^ Poles Honoured by Israel, Warsaw Life news agency
  58. ^ Anna Poray, "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous. Those Who Risked Their Lives" (k-v); Aleksander Kamiński
  59. ^ Michael T. Kaufman, Jan Karski warns the West about Holocaust, The New York Times, July 15, 2000
  60. ^ Anna Poray, "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous. Those Who Risked Their Lives" (k-v); Jan Karski
  61. ^ Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority, The Tree in Honor of Zegota, 2008
  62. ^ Maria Kotarba at www.auschwitz.org.pl
  63. ^ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2008, The Righteous Among the Nations, 28 Jun 2003
  64. ^ Peggy Curran, "Pole to be honoured for sheltering Jews from Gestapo," Reprinted by the Canadian Foundation of Polish-Jewish Heritage, Montreal Chapter. Station Cote St.Luc, C. 284, Montreal QC, Canada H4V 2Y4. First published: Montreal Gazette, August 5, 2003, and: Montreal Gazette, December 10, 1994.
  65. ^ Jerzy Jan Lerski. Short bio based on biography featured in Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945
  66. ^ March of the Living International, The Warsaw Ghetto
  67. ^ Anna Poray, "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous. Those Who Risked Their Lives" (a-v): Igor Newerly
  68. ^ "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous" (n-v); Wacław Nowiński
  69. ^ David M. Crowe, The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath. Published by Westview Press. Page 180.
  70. ^ Wartime Rescue of Jews, edited and compiled by Mark Paul Polish Educational Foundation in North America, Toronto 2007. "Collective Rescue Efforts of the Poles", (pdf file: 1.44 MB).
  71. ^ Stefania and her younger sister Helena Podgorska, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., 2008
  72. ^ Lewis 1999, p. 390
  73. ^ Anna Poray, (ibidem, p-v) Three Puchalski families: Jan Puchalski (1879-1946), Anna (1894-1994), and Stanisław (1920-2000), the Polish Righteous
  74. ^ www.mateusz.pl - interview with Konrad Rudnicki (Polish)
  75. ^ Polish righteous: Rodzina Szczygłów (Szczygieł family), with daughter Joanna Załucka. Museum of the History of Polish Jews. (Polish) (English) Also in: 1). "Jewish Holocaust Survivor Is Reunited with Her Christian Rescuer For First Time Since 1944," Rugged Elegance. 2). Yiddishe Mamas: The Truth About the Jewish Mother, Marnie Winston-Macauley, pp. 299-300, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2007, ISBN 0740763768
  76. ^ Monika Scislowska, Associated Press, May 12, 2008, "Irena Sendler, Holocaust hero". http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jb2-kVEZARAOQGiSVSmc3d0K59NgD90KE8T02. Retrieved 2008-06-10. 
  77. ^ Grzegorz Łubczyk, FKCh "ZNAK" 1999-2008, Henryk Slawik - Our Raoul Wallenberg, Trybuna 120 (3717), May 24, 2002, p. Aneks 204, p. A, F.
  78. ^ Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, „Sprawiedliwi wśród Narodów Świata” – Warszawa, 7 stycznia 2004
  79. ^ Anna Poray, "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous" (t-v); Józef Tkaczyk
  80. ^ "Sunday - Catholic Magazine". Sunday.niedziela.pl. http://sunday.niedziela.pl/artykul.php?nr=200409&dz=z_historii&id_art=00022. Retrieved 2011-10-07. 
  81. ^ FKCh "ZNAK" - 1999-2008, Righteous from Wroclaw (incl. Professor Rudolf Wiegl) 24.07.2003, from the Internet Archive
  82. ^ Anna Poray, ibidem (w-v); Henryk Wolinski alias Waclaw
  83. ^ Anna Poray, ibidem (z-v); Zagorski Jerzy & Maria. 2004
  84. ^ Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority, 2008, Hiding in Zoo Cages; Jan & Antonina Zabinski, Poland
  85. ^ Anna Poray, "Saving Jews: Polish Righteous" (z-v); Jan & Antonina Zabinski, Poland

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