Alexander Lados Biography by Sebastian Lados

Ambassador Aleksander Ładoś (1891-1963) - Leader of the Bernese Group Saving Jews during World War II.

By Sebastian Ładoś, grandson of Aleksander Ładoś

This article is a short biography of Aleksander Ładoś and an attempt to answer the question: who was the man who led one of the largest rescue operations during World War II.

A native of Lviv

Aleksander Ładoś was born on July 27, 1891, in Lviv. Childhood and youth in this city shaped the future diplomat. At that time Lviv was part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. However, it was a traditional Polish city. Jews constituted over 30% of the population there. There were also other nationalities and cultures. Years later, Aleksander Ładoś recalled that for the rest of his life he missed this cultural mix like oxygen.

In 1918, Poland returned to the map of Europe as an independent state. Aleksander Ładoś at that time was in Switzerland, where he graduated in history. He was fluent in five languages. He was a lover of ancient culture. He gained his first diplomatic experience among Polish emigrants to Switzerland. However, he did not accept the proposal to join the Roman Dmowski national committee in Paris, which was to represent Poland at the Versailles peace conference. Aleksander Ładoś had only one dream: to return to independent Poland as soon as possible.

The youngest Polish diplomat

Poland's regained independence was soon threatened. In August 1920, the Polish-Bolshevik war continued. Russian troops were approaching Warsaw. Almost all embassies and state offices were evacuated from the Polish capital. The Bolsheviks wanted to annex Poland to Soviet Russia.

At that time, a Polish delegation from Warsaw to Minsk was leaving for peace talks with the Bolsheviks. Among the delegates was a young diplomat, Aleksander Ładoś. Negotiations were very difficult. Ultimately, the Polish delegation did not accept any conditions imposed by the Russians. At the same time, Polish soldiers delivered a heavy blow to the Red Army in the Battle of Warsaw. Poles went on the counteroffensive. The Polish-Bolshevik war ended with Poland's victory. Years later, Aleksander Ładoś recalled that this was his first important experience in diplomacy: “never rush to sign the agreement on your knees.”

Peace talks continued under completely different conditions: now the Bolsheviks were anxious to end the war as soon as possible. Aleksander Ładoś became the secretary general of the Polish delegation for talks in Riga. He had a great influence on the content of the treaty that allowed the war to end and regulated the Polish border in the east (breached by the USSR only in September 1939).

The Jagiellonian idea and the Baltic idea

At the beginning of 1923, Aleksander Ładoś unexpectedly received a proposal to take up the post of an envoy of the Republic of Poland in Latvia (at that time, the position was identical to that of an ambassador). He was surprised because he was only 32 years old. Probably this record has never been broken in Polish diplomacy. His excellent qualifications, however, were complemented by experiences from the Polish-Bolshevik war.

In his new position, Aleksander Ładoś had bold visions of Polish foreign policy. He supported Józef Piłsudski's program for Poland to create a federation with Ukraine and Belarus in the east. Such a block of states would protect Poland against expansion by Russia. For Aleksander Ładoś, the federation would make the Jagiellonian idea a reality, i.e. a power made up of smaller states.

Aleksander Ładoś promoted a similar concept in relation to the Baltic states. Above all, he supported the idea of ​​a federation with Latvia, Estonia and Finland. Unfortunately, these plans were never put into practice.

Consul in Munich

In 1927, Aleksander Ładoś became the consul of the Republic of Poland in Munich. This was a very important stage in his diplomatic career. Before Ładoś’ eyes, the Nazi movement was growing in strength. Aleksander Ładoś even had the opportunity to observe Hitler's speech in one of the Munich beer halls. He was terrified, not so much by his demagogy as by the reaction of German intellectuals who were fascinated by the Nazi program. Years later, he called this phenomenon "the disease of the German nation." He pointed to Hitler's particularly dangerous social engineering, which appealed to the sense of injustice in the German nation left after losing the First World War.

Aleksander Ładoś was particularly concerned about anti-Semitic slogans. He never believed it was just a method of gaining power. He saw a sincere hatred of Jews in the Nazi movement. At the same time, he remained very critical of the proposal to bring Poland closer to Germany at that time. This critical attitude was probably the reason for his dismissal in 1931. The new foreign minister, Józef Beck, saw an opportunity for a tactical alliance with Germany, which was intended to save Poland from entering the war.

In early retirement

After returning from Munich, Aleksander Ładoś was forced to retire. He continued to criticize the policy of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In numerous publications, he emphasized that the only sensible direction of Polish diplomacy was the alliance with the Western allies, including France and Great Britain. Unfortunately, Minister Józef Beck returned to talks with the Western Allies almost "at the last minute," just before the outbreak of the war. Then, it was known that no pact with Germany would save Poland from war. Years later, Aleksander Ładoś summed up this strategy with the words: in politics, the result is the most important, and the result of Beck's policy was that in September 1939 Poland had allies, but no friends.

Evacuation from Warsaw

In the early morning of September 1, 1939, Aleksander Ładoś was awakened by the roar of German bombs falling on Warsaw. In his diary, he noted: the German invasion took place in a barbaric manner: without declaring war and quite unexpectedly.

On September 17, the Russians entered the eastern territories of the Republic of Poland, violating the Treaty of Riga of 1921.

Aleksander Ładoś made a dramatic decision to evacuate from Warsaw in order to get to Paris, where the Polish government in exile was being established. His friend, General Władysław Sikorski, became the Prime Minister. After arriving in Paris, Aleksander Ładoś joined the government as a minister with no portfolio. He was actually designing the structures of the Polish underground state.

In April 1940, Aleksander Ładoś unexpectedly received a proposal from Prime Minister Sikorski to become the Polish ambassador to Switzerland.

The Bernese Group, aka the Ładoś Group

During the war, Switzerland remained neutral, which allowed the Polish government to maintain a diplomatic representation there. Aleksander Ładoś performed this function until the end of the war.

As early as 1940, the first reports of mass shooting of Jews in the territories occupied by the Nazis reached the Polish embassy in Switzerland. Aleksander Ładoś considered these reports credible from the very beginning (in contrast to his fellow diplomats in Bern, who treated them with great reserve). From the beginning of 1942, Ładoś received more information about the death camps.

At that time, Aleksander Ładoś was holding heated discussions with his associates about saving Jews who were threatened with mass murder. His co-workers included: his deputy Stefan Ryniewicz, consul Konstanty Rokicki and advisor Juliusz Kuehl. Polish diplomats began cooperating with with Jewish communities in Switzerland, represented by Chaim Eiss and Abraham Silberschein. This group is today referred to as the Bernese Group (also known as the Ładoś Group). Its members began mass production of false passports and other documents for Jews that certified citizenship of South American countries. Notarized photocopies of these documents were sent to Jews in the occupied territories (in camps and ghettos). This was a real chance to save their lives, because the countries of South America remained neutral during the war. At the same time, Germany was very concerned that these countries might join the Allied coalition. Therefore, in many cases, they released Jews - false citizens of Paraguay, Chile and other neutral countries. The holders of these documents were also sent to internment camps (e.g., Vittel in France), where, however, the material conditions were much better than in the ghettos.

The latest research shows that the Ładoś Group fabricated such documents for over 10,000 Jews. It is not known exactly how many holders of these documents were saved. However, we know many of the survivors by name. It should also be remembered that even after the war, most of the Jews who survived did not know that Polish diplomats from Bern were responsible for the passports that saved their lives.

Difficult post-war times

As a result of the Allied agreements at the Yalta Conference in 1943, Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, remained in the Soviet sphere of influence. Even before the end of the war, a communist government was established in Warsaw. Western European countries withdrew recognition for the Polish government-in-exile. The new communist government in Poland began to appoint new ambassadors. Aleksander Ładoś was dismissed from his ambassadorial post.

From family records and preserved correspondence, it is known that Aleksander Ładoś lived the last years of his life in poverty. From Switzerland, he first emigrated to France. His deteriorating health made it impossible for him to work. Three years before his death, he decided to return to Poland for good. He died on December 29, 1963, due to cancer.