Polish Government Officials Involved in Rescue

Prepared by Eric Saul

General Wladyslav Sikorski Head of the Polish government in exile in London, England.

General Wladyslav Sikorski was the Head of the Polish government in exile in London, England.  He protested the treatment of Polish Jews at the hands of the German occupying forces.  He sent numerous protests and requests for intervention to world leaders.

[Braham, Randolph L. The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 695.  Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), pp. 482, 484, 485, 486, 491.]

Bartoszewski Władysław Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews) Deputy-director of the Jewish Section of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Polish government-in-exile in London

From September 1942, even before the establishment of Zegota (the Council for Aid to Jews), Władysław Bartoszewski was a loyal and devoted member of the Provisional Committee for Aid to Jews. When Zegota was established in December 1942, Bartoszewski (whose undercover name was “Ludwik”) threw himself wholeheartedly into working for the organization, as well as helping many Jewish refugees on a personal basis. In Zegota, Bartoszewski represented "The Polish Revival Front,” a clandestine Catholic organization, and served as deputy-director of the Jewish Section of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Polish government-in-exile in London. Bartoszewski saved the lives of many Jews who fled from the Warsaw ghetto and hid on the Aryan side of the city or elsewhere. Throughout his underground activities, Bartoszewski maintained close ties with Jewish representatives of Zegota, including Leon Feiner, the Bund representative and Adolf Berman, representative of the Jewish National Council. As part of his underground activity, Bartoszewski sent information to England and the United States on the situation of the Jews in Poland under the German occupation. The author, Rachel Auerbach, and Dr. A. Berman subsequently testified that, after the war, Bartoszewski, who was, by then, a reputed journalist and publicist, tried hard to bring the heroism of Polish Jewry to the notice of the Polish public. He published many articles and essays noted for their objectivity and sympathy toward the Jewish people, and helped promote harmony between Poles and Jews.

On December 14, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Władysław Bartoszewski as Righteous Among the Nations.

[Laqueur, Walter (Ed.) and Judith Tydor Baumel (Assoc. Ed.).  The Holocaust Encyclopedia. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 55.]