Professor Feliks Tych, Historian, Dies at 85

Over many years, Professor Feliks Tych specialised in the history of the workers’ movement. He worked at the Institute of History at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). From 1995 to 2006, he was Director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

His publications included Długi cień zagłady: szkice historyczne, Następstwa zagłady Żydów. Polska 1944-2010 (The Long Shadow of the Holocaust: Historical Sketches, Consequences of the Mass Murder of the Jews) – editor together with Monika Adamczyk-Grabowska, Facing the Nazi Genocide. Non-Jews and Jews in Europe – editor together with Beata Kosmala.

In 2013, Professor Tych was invited to become academic consultant to our exhibition They Risked Their Lives – Poles Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust. His immediate response was, “It will be a great honour and my duty”. The Professor, himself as a teenager, was rescued from the Holocaust thanks to help provided by a Polish family, who took him in and hid him. During the course of his work on the exhibition, he stressed the heroism of those who helped Jews in occupied Poland.

He was cautious regarding criticism of Polish society. “Even those who rescued Jews for money were brave people. They too would have paid with their lives if it had been discovered that they were hiding Jews. And remember”, he said, “There were also those who wanted to help, but had neither the appropriate conditions nor the possibility”.

Professor Tych was a kind man, who loved his family and his home filled with books.

He was 85 years old.

We extend our sincerest condolences to the family of the late Professor Feliks Tych.