Seventy years ago marks the creation of the Provisional Committee for Aid to Jews

KJ, 16 November 2016
Seventy years ago, on 27 September 1942, a Provisional Committee for Aid to Jews was created in German-occupied Warsaw. Soon after, it was transformed into Council for Aid to Jews “Żegota” as a section of the Government Delegation for Poland. “Żegota” was the only state-level institution  in all of German-occupied Europe that saved Jews  during the Holocaust.

The Provisional Committee for Aid to Jews was created by the initiative of Zofia-Kossak-Szczucka, a writer and co-founder of the underground Front of Reborn Poland, and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowiczowa, affiliated with the Polish Socialist Party. The creation of the Committee was a direct result of the publication of Kossak-Szczucka’s text “Protest” in August 1942, soon after the great liquidation action in the Warsaw ghetto was unleashed. The writer called Poles to assume a uniform position towards the Jews’ dramatic fate in Poland.

On 4 December 1942, the Committee was transformed into the Council for Aid to Jews, under the pseudonym “Żegota.” It was composed of representatives of three Polish and two Jewish (Jewish National Committee, Bund) political parties. Help consisted of providing allowances to those in hiding, finding apartments and hiding places for them, producing false documents, and placing children in Polish care institutions and with Polish families. Headquartered in Warsaw, the Council’s branches were established in Kraków and Lwów, with the Zamość-Lublin Help Committee subject to Żegota, as well.

Julian Grobelny from the Polish Socialist Party headed the Committee. After his arrest in May 1944, Roman Jabłoński from the same party took over, and from July 1944 – Leon Feiner from the Bund. The Council’s activities were confined mainly to the aforementioned cities; rarely did they reach the countryside. The Council’s activities were financed predominantly from the Delegation’s budget. In summer 1944, some 4,000 people benefited from the financial help of the Council. In total, the Council issued some 50,000 false documents. Members of “Żegota” rescued 2,500 Jewish children.

“Żegota” was awarded the Righteous among the Nations medal by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem. In Poland, two memorials are dedicated to “Żegota” – in Warsaw (unveiled in 1995), and in Łódź (revealed in 2009).