Marek Edelman is dead

AK, 16 November 2016
Marek Edelman, one of the leaders of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, has passed away on Friday, October 2. The funeral will take place on Friday, October 9. It will start at 11 a.m. in front of the monument of Heroes of the Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. Marek Edelman is to be buried in the Jewish Cemetery, next to his companions from the Jewish Combat Organization.

 
Marek Edelman was born to a Jewish family in 1921 in Homel, Belarus. Soon after that, his parents moved to Warsaw.

He was a member of the Bund and one of the founders of the Jewish Combat Organization. He became the leader of the Jewish Combat Organization during the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, after Mordechaj Anielewicz died. He also took part in the Warsaw Uprising. After World War II, he settled down in Lodz.

He graduated from the Medical Academy of Lodz in 1951. He specialized in cardiology.

Edelman was a distinguished political and social activist. In the middle of 1970s, he began his opposition activity by joining the ranks of the Workers’ Defence Committee. He joined ‘Solidarity’ in the beginning of 1980s. He also participated in the Polish Round Table talks.

In 1998, he was awarded Poland’s highest decoration – the Order of the White Eagle. He was also awarded the degree honoris causa by Jagiellonian University in Cracow and by Yale University. In 2008, the President of France decorated Edelman with the National Order of the Legion of Honour.

He wrote several books, among others: ‘The Ghetto Fights. The Bund's Role in the Defense of the Warsaw Ghetto’, ‘And There Was Love in the Ghetto, Too’. His memories were written down in Hanna Krall’s famous interview ‘Shielding the Flame’.

Edelman spent the last years of his life in Warsaw.