The Council to Aid Jews Żegota

zegota_pap.jpg, default, The Council to Aid Jews Żegota, A postcard released in honour of the 75th anniversary of the Council to Aid Jews 'Żegota', IPN Educational Centre, Warsaw, 2017, photo: Tomasz Gzel / , center

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This was the codename for the underground Council to Aid Jews in 1942–45. At first, it was used unofficially in correspondence and receipts, but eventually, the organisation became known as the Konrad Żegota Council. Sometimes, the word Żegota was used loosely to describe various other assistance provided to Jews during the occupation, not just the activities of the Council to Aid Jews.

Derived from Old Polish, the word Żegota is the Polonised equivalent of the name Ignacy (Ignatius). It was used in conversation and correspondence to avoid directly mentioning Jews or any assistance for them, plus it sounded more like a charity organisation, in which the Germans showed very little interest. The fictional character Konrad Żegota was dreamt up by the writer Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, possibly inspired by the names of characters from Part III of Adam Mickiewicz’s Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve).

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Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, photo: Wikimedia Commons

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For Jews in Poland, the situation changed radically in summer 1942, when the Nazi German occupying authorities began to liquidate the ghettos in the General Gouvernement. The first major repression started in the Warsaw Ghetto on 22nd July 1942, resulting in over 300,000 people being dispatched to Treblinka or executed on the spot. Thousands of escapees sought shelter in Polish districts of the city.

The sheer numbers and terrible plight of people hiding outside the ghettos in Warsaw and other cities of the General Gouvernement demonstrated the need for more widespread, organised assistance to cover the whole country in a structured, comprehensive way. In August 1942, the underground Catholic Front for the Rebirth of Poland, headed by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, published a leaflet titled Protest! that urged all Catholics, regardless of their political views, to immediately assist the dying Jews.

The document condemned the international community’s silence regarding the ongoing Holocaust:

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England is silent, so is America, even the influential international Jewry, so sensitive in its reaction to any transgression against its people, is silent. Poland is silent. (…) Dying Jews are surrounded only by a host of Pilates washing their hands in innocence. (…) Whoever remains silent in the face of murder becomes an accomplice of the murderer. He who does not condemn, condones.

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Warsaw ghetto. The footbridge over Chłodna Street, 1942, photo: NN / wikimedia.org

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Zofia Kossak-Szczucka’s appeal stressed that the Jews blamed Poles for their fate in World War II, not the Nazi Germans who had actually exterminated them:

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Our feelings towards the Jews have not changed. We continue to regard them as political, economic, and ideological enemies of Poland. Moreover, we realise they hate us more than they hate the Germans, and that they make us responsible for their misfortune Why, and on what basis, remains a mystery of the Jewish soul. Nevertheless, this is a fact. Awareness of this fact, however, does not release us from the duty of condemning the murder. We do not wish to resemble Pilates.

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Władysław Bartoszewski plants a tree for the Council to Aid Jews "Żegota" at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1963

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Władysław Bartoszewski, the author’s colleague, explained the anti-Semitic tone of her text as being intended to win over her compatriots who were dubious or even hostile regarding the ‘alien’ Jewish community. The writer emphasised that no true believers could consent to the Nazi crimes perpetrated against the Jews:

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Those who do not understand this, and believe that a proud and free future for Poland can be combined with acceptance of the grief of their fellow men, are neither Catholics nor Poles.

Almost at the same time as this appeal, the socialist press (of the Alliance of Democrats and Polish Workers’ Party) called on Jews to organise resistance against deportation and to save themselves by escaping the ghetto. Then, on 27th September 1942, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz set up the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews. In her book Był Dom… Wspomnienia (There Was a House… Memories), Kossak-Szczucka’s daughter, Anna Szatkowska, revealed that:

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Both founders held radically opposed beliefs: one was a fervent Catholic, the other an equally fervent socialist and even a revolutionary. After gaining the support of the Government Delegation for Poland, they gathered together a group of Poles and Jews of all political beliefs and professions. All those people shared a deep conviction that it was wrong to stay indifferent and passive in such a tragic situation.

Therefore, in conjunction with representatives of the Alliance of Democrats, a social institution was set up to coordinate efforts to bring assistance to Jews in agreement with the principal centres of the Polish and Jewish independence movement. Rzeczpospolita Polska (no. 18 of October 14, 1942), the underground organ of the Government Delegation for Poland, officially backed the fledgling aid effort by informing the public that:

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On the initiative of a range of Catholic and democratic social organisations, a social aid commission is being set up for the Jewish community affected by brutal persecution at the hands of the Germans. This commission will strive to assist victims of the Nazi violence, to the best of its ability in a country under occupation.

In October 1942, a clandestine, nationwide Council to Aid Jews was set up in Warsaw, with members from various Polish underground organisations (the Polish Socialist Party ‘Freedom, Equality, Independence’, People’s Party, Alliance of Democrats, Catholic Front for the Rebirth of Poland, and Workers’ Party of Polish Socialists) and the Jewish underground (Bund and several organisations under the umbrella of the Jewish National Committee). A representative of the Government Delegation and the head of the Żegota section at the department of internal affairs also participated in the council’s meetings. The Jewish section of the Government Delegation was in charge of the council’s activities, mediated in transferring regular financial aid to the council from the Polish government-in-exile in London, documented Jewish affairs in the country, compiled Delegation material transmitted abroad by radio and courier, and acted as Government Representative in contacts with Jewish social and political organisations.

On 4th December 1942, the Government Delegation for Poland created the Konrad Żegota Council to Aid Jews. In the end, Kossak-Szczucka did not join Żegota as she believed the organisation should be run exclusively by Poles, not Poles and Jews.

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A board from an IPN (Institute for National Remembrance) exhibition "Żegota" - the Council to Aid Jews, Poznań 2018, photo: Jakub Kaczmarczyk / PAP

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Żegota’s first leader was Julian Grobelny of the Polish Socialist Party, and his deputies were Tadeusz Rek from the People’s Party and Leon Feiner of Bund. Its presidium comprised Ferdynand ‘Marek’ Arczyński from the Alliance of Democrats, Władysław Bartoszewski of the Front for the Rebirth of Poland, Adolf Berman, secretary of the Jewish National Committee, Emilia Hiżowa from the Alliance of Democrats, Witold Bieńkowski, head of the Jewish section of the Government Delegation, Ignacy Barski of the Front for the Rebirth of Poland, and Piotr Gajewski from the Workers’ Party of Polish Socialists.

In March 1943, Witold ‘Wencki’ Bieńkowski set up the Jewish section of the Government Delegation, and his deputy was Władysław Bartoszewski. The unit’s tasks included transferring monetary aid to the council and reporting to the government-in-exile in London. Its committee included about 180 people, including Irena Sendler, who was instrumental in saving Jewish children.

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Irena Sendlerowa, a medical assistant during the Warsaw Uprising, 1944, photo: Janina Zgrzembska's archive / East News

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Żegota existed thanks to funds brought into the country illegally, such as a fixed monthly subsidy from the government-in-exile in London, amounting to 250,000 zł in 1942, 500,000 zł in 1943, and up to a million zł in 1944, as well as financial assistance from Jewish organisations abroad. Żegota had a reliable network of several thousand people. Every social and political group represented on the council handled a certain number of people and distributed monthly allowances to Jews hiding outside the ghettos. This was carried out by units subordinate to Żegota and subdivided into clandestine socio-political and military organisations, and professional groups, e.g., teachers, lawyers, journalists and priests.

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Starving Jewish children in the Warsaw Ghetto established by the Germans, existing between 1940 and 1943, photo: Ernst Herrmann / wikimedia.org

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Żegota’s special legalisation office produced thousands of false identity cards, work permits, birth, marriage, and other certificates for Jews in hiding, allowing them to move around more freely and even work legally. Jewish orphans and children separated from their parents were lodged individually with willing Polish families, or together in various shelters, orphanages, hospitals, monasteries, and municipal care or educational institutions. Assistance and medicines were provided for sick people with no access to legal medical care. As Anna Szatkowska recalled:

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Helping a Jew meant firstly hiding him, finding him accommodation and possibly a job, arranging false documents, clothing, feeding, and healing him, finding a surgeon who would agree to operate on him if required… In case of imminent danger he had to be quickly moved to another flat, etc. This all required a lot of committed, kind volunteers. The Żegota network extended throughout the whole General Gouvernement, even the remotest areas. It is estimated to have regularly involved around 14,000 people.

The original premise for setting up Żegota envisaged only charity work. In actual fact, by 1943, it was already approaching the leaders of the resistance, requesting that action be taken to fight against blackmail, dispel anti-Semitic sentiment, and educate the public.

In early 1943, branches of Żegota were set up in Kraków and Lviv. From there and its Warsaw headquarters, its activity expanded to several dozen towns and cities in the General Gouvernement and the Reich. It also covered camps and factories where Jewish prisoners were still alive (including the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Poniatów, Trawniki, Płaszów, and Pustków near Dębica).

In Warsaw, Żegota also supported a range of campaigns to raise awareness and stir up people’s goodwill for the persecuted. It helped distribute several thousand copies of the diary of Treblinka escapee Jankiel Wiernik, Rok w Treblince (A Year in Treblinka), Maria Kann’s documentary brochure Na Oczach Świata (In the Eyes of the World), and a poetry collection Z Otchłani (From the Abyss, ed. Tadeusz Sarnecki), published by the Jewish National Committee in 1944.

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Żegota activists celebrating the third anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 1946. Present (from the right): Piotr Gajewski, Marek Ferdynand Arczyński, Władysław Bartoszewski, Adolf Berman, Tadeusz Rek, photo: Teresa Prekerowa "A Conspiratorial Council to Aid Jews in Warsaw 1942–1945", Warsaw 1982 / PAP

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Żegota was active in Warsaw until the Warsaw Uprising broke out, then continued with reduced staff and scope from Milanówek near Warsaw right up until 16th January 1945, as did its Kraków branch. Żegota’s activity was commemorated with a tree planted by the Yad Vashem Institute, and a memorial plaque in the Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem.

Originally written in Polish, Sept 2019, translated by Mark Bence, Nov 2020

Language English

Zofia Kossak-Szczucka

władysław bartoszewski