82nd Anniversary of the “Żegota” Council to Aid Jews

Redakcja / Editorial staff; English translation: Andrew Rajcher, 13 December 2024

It was the only state-supported organisation in occupied Europe, established to help Jews during the Holocaust. Its member and collaborators - Poles and Jews - were active in the underground. They helped adults and children - Jews hiding in German-occupied Poland. . Marking the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the "Żegota” Council to Aid Jews, we present the activities of this secret organisation. Check out what we have prepared for this anniversary – read what is new on the Polish Righteous portal and see memorabilia from the POLIN Museum collection.

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"It was the first organisation in which Zionists, Bundists, Catholics, Polish democrats, Polish socialists and peasants, both Jews and Poles, sat together at one table, in a conspiracy against the Germans", wrote Władysław Bartoszewski (1922-2015), a member of the Council to Aid Jews, honoured after the War with the title of "Righteous Among the Nations". (1965).

"Żegota” was established, in Warsaw, on 4th December 1942, continuing the mission of the social Committee to Aid Jews, established a few months earlier by Zofia Kossak and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowiczow.

The activities of "Żegota”, conducted until January1945, consisted mainly of providing financial support to Jews in hiding, organising hiding places, finding work and supplying them with false documents. Those for whom they cared were both adults and children.

The first chairman of the Council to Aid Jews, from January 1943 to February 1944, was Julian Grobelny (1893-1944). The 5th December 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of his death.

It is not possible to precisely determine the scale of help provided by "Żegota” - how many Jews were saved. It is impossible to determine just how many of these rescue activities were successful. It is known that "Żegota” supplied circa 50,000 false documents to those under its care. Initially, 300 people benefited from its financial support. At the end of 1943, it was 2,000 and, in the summer of 1944, circa 4,000.

Należy jednak pamiętać, że powołanie „Żegoty” nastąpiło w okresie, gdy organizowane przez Niemców masowe wywózki Żydów z gett do ośrodków zagłady dobiegały już końca.

"However, it should be remembered that the establishment of "Żegota" took place at a time when the mass deportations of Jews from the ghettos to extermination camps, organised by the Germans, were already coming to an end.

New on the Polish Righteous portal

"He was a nice young man [...], so calm and balanced that it was enough for me to enter the office on Jagiellońska to feel certain and safe. In those times, it was merely an illusion, but it had a positive effect on the mood, and that was already a great achievement", wrote Maria Hochberg-Mariańska, his colleague, about Stanisław Wincenty Dobrowolski.

Forty five years ago, the title of Righteous Among the Nations was awarded to the deserving member of the Council for Aid to Jews, the chairman of its Kraków branch, Stanisław Wincenty Dobrowolski (1915–1993). In his memory, we dedicate the latest publication on the Polscy Sprawiedliwi portal, entirely devoted to the history of "Żegota" in Kraków.

As noted by the author of the article and researcher of this subject, Bartosz Heksel:

"At one of the first meetings, the executive of the Council for Aid to Jews in Warsaw made the decision to expand its activities by establishing regional councils in other centres of occupied Poland. The attempts made led, in the spring of 1943, to the creation of two branches of the Council for Aid to Jews – in Kraków and Lwów. The Kraków branch was the only one which was to operate continuously until the end of the German occupation."

Read the new article: The Kraków branch of the"Żegota” Council to Aid Jews [online from 04/12/2024] →

Nowe opracowanie ilustrujemy fotografiami archiwalnymi, przedstawiającymi członków i członkinie krakowskiej „Żegoty”, a także współczesnymi zdjęciami, dokumentującymi zachowane do naszych czasów historyczne miejsca związane z ich działalnością w Krakowie.

Thisnew study is illustrated with archival photographs depicting members of the Kraków "Żegota" branch,,' as well as contemporary photos documenting historical locations, related to their activities in Kraków, which have been preserved to this day.

Amongst these "good addresses“ are, among others, the headquarters of the secret RPŻ office at ul Jagiellońska 11, the location of clandestine meetings at ul Wielopole 6, the place of document forgery in Wanda Wójcik's beauty salon at ul Wrzesińska 3 and the secret contact locations of collaborators at ul Topolowa 30, ul Kołłątaja 10 and ul Św. Sebastiana 22.

Selected photographs are also presented in the photo gallery at the top of this page.

Flowers at the "Żegota” Monument

W listopadzie minęła również 50. rocznica śmierci Leona Bukowińskiego (1900–1974), członka „Żegoty” w Warszawie. Podczas okupacji niemieckiej Bukowiński wyprowadził z getta warszawskiego przez gmach Sądów na Lesznie znajomą Rywkę Borensztajn i jej dzieci, Chaima i Ruth.

„Pamiętam silny uścisk jego ręki”, wspominała wyjście z getta Ruth Heber z d. Borensztajn, która odwiedziła Muzeum POLIN w 2018 roku.

On the 82nd anniversary of the establishment of the Council for Aid to Jews, Leon Bukowiński's son, Tadeusz, together with Jolanta Gumula, Deputy Director of the POLIN Museum, laid flowers at the "Żegota" monument. Photographs from this meeting are presented in the photo gallery. We will also soon publish an oral history interview with Tadeusz Bukowiński regarding his father's clandestine activities.

"My father was a member of 'Żegota'. He helped Jews. He was a courier, taking Jewish families to hiding places. He usually took them to friends in Warsaw, but not only. For example, to Ciechanów, to his brother who, at the time, was the director of a school", said Tadeusz Bukowiński, who was a young child during the war.