"Żegota": 70th Anniversary of the founding

Before 1942, aid dispensed to Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland did not have an organised character. Support to Jews was provided by private individuals or institutions, but these did not act in cooperation.

Seventy years ago, on December 4th, 1942, the Council to Aid Jews – code named Żegota – was established. It was the only state organisation in Europe working to save Jews from the Holocaust. Żegota operated as an agenda of the Polish Government-in-Exile Delegation for Poland, the secret chief organ of administrative power in occupied Poland. The Council continued the work of the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews, a social action initiated in September 1942 by the writer Zofia Kossak-Szczucka.

Żegota was composed of representatives of right and left wing, Polish and Jewish political parties. In later years Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski would say: I think that Żegota was an unprecedented phenomenon in that it was the first organisation where, in conspiracy against the Germans, sitting at one table and workingtogetherwere Zionists, Bund members, Catholics, Polish democrats,socialists, members of the Peasant Party – Jews and Poles. The Council’s first president was Julian Grobelny from the Polish Socialist Party. Żegota was active until January 1945 in Warsaw, Krakow, Lvov and in the Lublin region.

Help was addressed primarily to Jews in hiding on the so-called Aryan side, but also to those in ghettos and camps. Those in hiding were provided with food and financial aid as well as false papers which made it safer for them to live outside the ghetto. Jews without shelter were also helped to find one. Many children were placed in care facilities or in Polish families.

After the war, Yad Vashem honoured the Council with the title of Righteous among the Nations, awarded to those who helped Jews to escape the Holocaust. In the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem is a tree dedicated to Żegota, planted in 1963 by Władysław Bartoszewski. The Council was also honoured by the Polish Parliament. In a resolution passed on November 23rd, 2012, members of parliament expressed their recognition for the organisation’s heroic deeds.

The Żegota monument, unveiled in 1995 by Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski, is a small cube designed by Hanna Szmalenberg and Marek Moderau. Standing in a square on Ludwika Zamenhofa St. in Warsaw, it is today overshadowed by other memorials in its vicinity. The Museum wishes to remind the public about this place and at the same time to pay tribute to Poles who helped Jews during the occupation.

To mark the anniversary of the founding of Żegota, the Museum invited students from high schools in Warsaw’s Muranów district to gather at the monument in order to commemorate the activities of the Council. The meeting was attended by Krzysztof Czubaszek, deputy mayor of Warsaw’s Śródmieście district, Zygmunt Stępiński, deputy director of the Museum, Piotr Kowalik, a Museum educator, as well as representatives of the Association of Children of the Holocaust and the Polish Society of the Righteous among the Nations. Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski, the last living member of Żegota, was an honorary guest. Speeches were followed by the lighting of candles and the laying of a wreath.