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The Activities of the Council for Aid to Jews 

(“

Ż

egota”) In Occupied Poland 

Joseph Kermish 

 

Shortly after its establishment in December 

1

942, the Council for Aid to Jews 

(known by its code-name “

Ż

egota”) became one of the most active and 

dedicated organizations operating in the underground in occupied Poland. In 

spite of the grave dangers which its workers faced daily, and the frequent 

crises as a result of the discovery of the Council’s clandestine apartments, the 

arrest of its leaders and workers, and the constant fear of the Gestapo, the 

Council was able to extend aid to Jewish survivors, and the cooperation 

between the Polish and Jewish members of the Council was very close. 

Thousands of Jews were saved from death as a result of the systematic and 

ramified work carried on by the Council until the liberation, and its cooperation 

with the Jewish National Committee and the Bund. 

The Poles in both camps – those in Poland as well as those in exile – are 

proud of the achievements of “

Ż

egota”, which constituted part of the 

underground in Poland, and Polish historiography has greatly overestimated 

its accomplishments. 

Prof. Madajczyk exaggerated the extent of the aid extended by Poles to 

Jews in order to prove that the rescue of Jews was a common phenomenon in 

occupied Poland. Thus he ignored the role played by certain elements of the 

Polish population in the deportation and liquidation of the Jews. He also 

exaggerated the amounts of money which “

Ż

egota” allegedly received from 

the underground authorities thirty-seven million zlotys and an additional fifty 

thousand dollars. 

Another writer, Iranek-Osmecki, exaggerated to an even greater extent. 

“Underground Poland”, he wrote, “in spite of its being engaged in a struggle 

with the conqueror, established a large-scale organization [the reference is to 

“

Ż

egota”] with its own administration and executive apparatus, which provided 

the Jews with hiding places, communications by messengers and radio with 

the West, and also supplied them with arms and money”. The same author 

 

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also asserted that “hundreds of thousands of Poles proved their attitude to the 

Jews by sincere sacrifice”, and concluded that “it would not be exaggerated to 

state that millions of Poles had to be involved in order to save several tens of 

thousands of Jews”. 

Even eyewitnesses who were themselves members of “

Ż

egota”, such as 

Ferdynand Arczy

ń

ski and Tadeuz Rek, overestimated the number of Jews 

saved by the organization. Another eyewitness, Witold Bie

ń

kowski, a leader of 

the Catholic underground group, “Front for a Reborn Pland” (Front 

Odrodzenia Polski – F.O.P.), who was a member of the Provisional 

Committee of “

Ż

egota” and the permanent representative of the Government’s 

Delegate on the Council, also exaggerated the achievements of “

Ż

egota”. He 

declared that in his capacity as the person responsible for the execution of 

extortionists, he personally signed 

11

7 death sentences, of which 89 were 

carried out, and that a total of 220 people were executed for blackmailing 

offences according to the statistics in his possession. 

It is now possible to refute these tendentious claims on the basis not only 

of Jewish documentation (the reports and surveys of the Jewish National 

Committee and of the Blund which were sent abroad), but mainly using the 

records of “

Ż

egota”, and it is our duty to do so. The documents preserved in 

the “

Ż

egota” archives (copies of which are available on microfilm in the Yad 

Vashem Archives) include the minutes of Council meetings; reports by its 

representatives in the provincial cities; weekly news bulletins issued by the 

Council, which include figures and data on the current activities of the Council; 

and very important documents relating to the pressure which “

Ż

egota” applied 

in order to convince the Delegate of the Polish Government-in-Exile to 

increase its subsidy for relief activities to help the Jews and of the need to 

launch a decisive struggle (including death sentences) against extortion and 

informing by Poles, which had become a common phenomenon. Incidentally, 

considerable significance was attached to the information concerning events 

in which Jewish underground fighters participated. 

A number of important documents related to our subject, which were 

found in the archives of the Jewish National Committee, established by Dr. 

Adolf (Abraham) and Batya Berman, were published by the former in his work 

 

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“The Jews on the Aryan Side”, (Enziklopedia shel Galuyot, Vol. I, “Warsaw”, 

Jerusalem, 

1

953). 

On the other hand, the archives of the Jewish Fighting Organization on the 

Aryan side of Warsaw (in its bases on 5 Panska Street and 

1

8 Leszno Street) 

have not been recovered. They included correspondence with official bodies, 

letters exchanged with prisoners in the concentration and work camps, about 

2,000 testimonies by Jews in the Aryan sector, memoirs, etc. 

It is important to deal initially with the establishment of “

Ż

egota” and the 

motivation for its creation. During the large-scale deportations, various sectors 

of the Polish public evinced a desire to help the Jews. The initiative came from 

Catholic circles and from one of the democratic groups in the underground. In 

August 

1

942, at the height of the large-scale deportations from Warsaw, the 

Catholic organization F.O.P. published a declaration of protest which in harsh 

terms condemned: 

 

“the murder of millions of defenseless human beings which was being 

conducted amidst hostile general silence. The hangmen are silent, they 

do not exult in their deeds; England and America do not raise their 

voices – even the highly influential international Jewry, which was 

always so sensitive to every evil act directed against it, keeps silent; and 

the Poles are also silent…” 

 

Under these circumstances, the proclamation continued, Polish Catholics 

must raise their voice in protest, although their feelings toward the Jews have 

not changed nor have they ceased to regard the latter as the political, 

economic, and ideological enemies of Poland. On the other hand, they have 

also noticed that the Jews hate them more than they do the Germans. 

Nevertheless they asserted that: 

 

“This sensitive consciousness does not exempt us from denouncing the 

crime. We do not wish to be Pilates… we are unable to do anything 

against the murderous German action, we are unable to take action to 

save one person, but we protest from the depths of our hearts, full of 

 

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compassion, anger and dread. This protest is demanded of us by the 

Almighty God who forbade killing. It is demanded by Christian 

conscience”. 

 

One of the principal initiators of the activities to help the Jews was the well-

know Catholic writer Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, authoress of historical novels, 

who was active in the Polish underground and was later interned in Auschwitz 

(

1

943-

1

944). Although she was known for her right-wing, conservative, and 

religious views, the bitter fate suffered by the Jews made such an impression 

on her that she deemed it her Christian duty to help them. She set to work 

with great fervor and to a large extent was responsible for the formation, on 

September 27, 

1

942, of the “Konrad 

Ż

egota Committee”, a code name for the 

Provisional Committee for Aid to Jews. Two others who played a leading role 

on the Committee were Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz (“Alinka”), a Democrat, 

wife of the former Polish Ambassador to Washington, and the lawyer Jozef 

Barski, a Catholic and conservative, who prior to the war had not been 

considered a friend of the Jews. He also underwent a crisis of conscience as 

a result of the annihilation of the Jews and personally endangered his life to 

save Jews. 

The Provisional Committee conducted its operations on a very limited 

scale, as it lacked broad public support. It received a very small subsidy – 

practically a token sum – of 50,000 zlotys per month from the Delegate of the 

Government-in-Exile. The Committee assumed responsibility for 

1

80 Jews in 

hiding (mostly children), 90 of whom were in Warsaw. Aid was extended to a 

dozen people in Cracow, and three children were brought from there to 

Warsaw. 

The first meetings of the Committee for Aid to Jews were held in October 

1

942. One of the subjects discussed was the role of the Jewish 

representatives in the relief organization. The Committee and the Bund should 

have the same rights on the Provisional Committee as the representatives of 

the Polish organizations – F.O.P., Democratic Party (a progressive party of 

radical Polish intelligentsia and small groups of bourgeoisie), Peasants’ Party 

and the right-wing Freedom Equality Independence (Wolno

ść

 Rowno

ść

 

 

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Niepodleglo

ść

 – W.R.N.) faction of the Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S.). The 

representatives of the Jewish Coordinating Committee (made up of members 

of the Jewish National Committee and the Bund), however, believed that the 

relief agency must represent the entire population, Poles and Jews alike. The 

firm stand taken on this issue by the representatives of the Jewish 

underground – “Berezowski” (Dr. Leon Feiner of the Bund) and “Borowski” 

(Dr. Adolf Berman of the Jewish National Committee) – as well as the lack of 

financial means to conduct rescue activities, led to the dissolution of the 

Provisional Committee. At the same time, a plan was drawn up for the 

creation of a Council which would have the broadest possible public support. 

On December 4, 

1

942, a clandestine Council for Aid to Jews – the 

“

Ż

egota” Council – was established by representatives of the Polish parties 

operating in the underground – socialists, peasants, democrats, and 

Catholics, as well as delegates of the Jewish Coordinating Committee. Its 

composition was as follows: 

Chairman – Julian Grobelny (“Trojan”), a veteran worker of the P.P.S. in Lodz. 

Vice-Chairman – Tadeusz Rek (“Rozycki”), editor of the underground organ of 

the Struggle for Victory Party (Przez walke to zwyciestwa) from July 

1

942, and 

one of the outstanding leaders of the Peasants’ Party; the lawyer Leon Feiner 

(“Mikolaj Berezowski”), who had won fame as a defence attorney at political 

trials, one of the leaders of the left wing of the Bund, a former prisoner in the 

Bereza-Kartuska camp, a brave and energetic person, who had a distinctly 

“Polish” appearance; 

Secretary-General – Dr. Adolf Berman (“Adam Borowski”), who since October 

1

942 had been a member of the Presidium of the Jewish National Committee 

and served as the Director of “Centos” (Orphans’ Aid Union) in the ghetto until 

the dissolution of the organizations caring for Jewish children; 

Treasurer – Ferdynand Arcy

ń

ski (“Marek Lukowski”), an active member of the 

Democratic Party who did a great deal to help rescue Jews;  

Members of the Council – the engineer Emilia Hizowa (“Barbara”), a 

Democratic Party activist, and Witold Bie

ń

kowski (“Jan Kalski”), a Catholic 

publicist and F.O.P. activist, who represented the Government Delegate. 

 

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Another person who took part in the initial activities of the Council was 

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a young Catholic, who had been imprisoned in 

Auschwitz from September 

1

940 to April 

1

94

1

. Bartoszewski was a member 

of the Information and Propaganda Bureau of the armed combat organization 

Z.W.Z. which eventually became the Home Army (Armia Krajowa – A.K.) and 

was one of the organizers of the Jewish Section in the International Affairs 

Department of the Office of the Government Delegate. The Catholic 

movement, however, only participated in the work of the Council for a brief 

period. The doubts and reservations within the movement concerning relief 

activities for the Jews became evident later on, and in July 

1

943, the F.O.P. 

withdrew from the Council. 

On the other hand, Piotr Gajewski, a representative of the left wing of the 

Polish socialists, which at time were already known as the R.P.P.S. – Polish 

Workers’ Socialist Party, joined the Council toward the end of 

1

944. It should 

be noted that the Labor Party (Stronnictwo Pracy) and the Syndicalists were 

not represented on the Council. The two most active workers in “

Ż

egota” were 

the General Secretary and the Treasurer. They employed two secretaries, the 

lawyer Dr. Paulina Hauzmann (“Alicja”), and Janina Wasowicz (“Ewa”), both of 

whom were members of the Democratic Party. In addition, tens of dedicated 

and loyal supporters of the Polish underground took part in the Council’s 

various activities. Many Polish underground activists in the provincial towns 

cooperated with the Council in the operations to rescue Jews. 

The Council had at its disposal six secrets apartments in which it 

conducted its office work and held meetings. From December 

1

942 to January 

1

945, the Council held 6

1

 plenary sessions, over 

1

00 meetings of the 

Presidium, more than 30 meetings of the Control Committee, and a large 

number of meetings of the Council’s special departments and committees. To 

ensure secrecy, the Council changed its residence from time to time. It also 

had secret mailboxes, as well as hiding-places for the storage of documents. 

During the initial months of its existence, the Council extended aid only to 

Jews living in the Aryan quarter and the ghetto, but it later extended the scope 

of its activities. The Council had two basic goals in expanding its work – 

 

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material aid to Jews living on the Aryan side, and aid in “legalization”, i.e. 

obtaining Aryan documents for the Jews in hiding. 

The large majority of the Jews on the Aryan side were unable to earn a 

living because they had a distinctly Jewish appearance, did not know Polish 

well enough, were afraid of extortionists, etc. Only a small number of Jews 

had substantial material resources, but they were usually soon depleted due 

to the numerous expenses involved in living in hiding and the rising prices. 

The majority of the Jews who fled to the Aryan side during the days of the 

large-scale deportations were poor people, members of the working 

intelligentsia, laborers, etc. 

The many acts of blackmail economically ruined hundreds of people and 

were it not for the relief afforded by the Council they would have died of 

hunger. Indeed all those who approached the Council for aid were helped – 

either directly or through the organizations represented on “

Ż

egota”. The 

average subsidy was 500 zlotys per person per month. It was by no means a 

large sum, nor could it even assure a minimal existence, but in any event it did 

help those in need. In special cases, such as impoverishment due to extortion, 

or if public or cultural leaders were involved, larger grants were provided. 

There were also instances, however, in which the Council, plagued by 

financial difficulties due to the tremendous increase in the number of the 

needy, was compelled to reduce the average monthly grants to 300-400 zlotys 

per person. 

During the initial stages of its work, the Council received funds for its relief 

activities only from the Delegation of the Polish Government in London. Due 

to the pressure and urgent demands of the Council, the Delegation raised its 

monthly remittance from 50,000 to 

1

50,000 zlotys, and later to 300,000-

400,000 zlotys and more. Yet even this amount was merely a drop in the 

bucket. The Council could not expand the scope of its activities until July 

1

943 

when the Jewish organizations – the Jewish National Committee and the 

Bund – began to receive relief funds sent directly from abroad. (In spite of the 

many secret messages, warnings, and appeals to the Jewish organizations 

abroad, no aid was sent for many months and the first payments from abroad 

arrived only in June 

1

943). From that time on, the Coordinating Committee of 

 

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the Jewish National Committee and the Bund gave the Council 

1

00,000 zlotys 

per month for its relief activities, and eventually significantly increased this 

amount. (In its memorandum of September 5, 

1

943, the Council reported that 

the Coordinating Committee had increased its monthly grant from 

1

00,000 to 

1

50,000 zlotys). 

Both the Jewish National Committee and the Bund conducted their own 

large-scale relief operations. It should be noted that during the period of the 

most intensive activities (in May 

1

944), the Jewish National Committee, the 

largest Jewish relief organization in Warsaw, had over 

1

00 cells which cared 

for 5,000 Jews. Incidentally, it is estimated that the number of Jews living on 

the Aryan side of the capital city in 

1

944 was at least 

1

5,000, and if we take 

into account the Jews living in the environs of the city, the total reached 

20,000. The Committee also dealt with relief activity for the Jews in camps in 

the provincial areas and undertook to rescue the more important leaders who 

were interned in the camps. Until funds were received from abroad, the 

Jewish organizations received grants from the Council for their relief activities, 

but from June 

1

943, they allocated grants to the Council out of their own 

funds. 

After the liquidation of the ghetto, in the latter half of 

1

943 and in 

1

944, 

when the number of those requiring assistance increased, the Council’s 

budget was again greatly augmented. In addition, the Council, like other 

Jewish bodies, extended aid to Jews in the rural areas (see below). 

The task of preparing “Aryan” documents for Jews was also very 

important. During the initial phase of its activities, the Council was aided by 

“legalization cells” of the underground organizations, which employed about 

ten people for this purpose. The method used, however, proved to be 

inefficient and consequently, upon the initiative of Arczynski and under his 

supervision, the Council organized a separate cell, which was headed by 

Leon Weiss (“Leon”) and which employed six “professionals”. They produced 

thousands of birth certificates, identity cards (Kennkarten) issued by the 

occupation authorities, residence permits, a variety of work permits, etc. For 

certain very important cases, the Council used government documents issued 

by the German authorities and even S.S. and Gestapo certificates. The 

 

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workmanship on these documents was on a very high level. The Secretariat of 

the Council collected thousands of orders from all the Polish and Jewish 

organizations and the relief cells connected with the Council. 

The staff of the Legalization Office were constantly in danger. They always 

worked with their weapons nearby ready for use, and more than one of them 

fell at his post. The head of the Council’s documents “factory” was a former 

district governor (starosta) of one of the cities in Poland, who had professional 

experience in this field. He worked diligently and loyally until he fell into the 

hands of the Gestapo and was shot. The Council distributed thousands of 

Aryan documents free of charge to Jews in Warsaw and the vicinity; 

thousands were sent to the provincial towns and camps as well as to Jews in 

hiding in other cities. 

It should be noted that the Jewish National Committee, besides sending 

substantial sums of money to the secret committees active in the Poniatowa 

and Trawniki concentrations camps, smuggled – together with “

Ż

egota” – 

scores of sets of “Aryan” papers, stamps (to fill out the documents properly), 

cameras, crucifixes, Catholic medallions, prayer books, and New Testaments 

into these camps in order to help fleeing Jews conceal their identity. 

The Council was particularly concerned about the plight of Jewish 

children, toward whom the Germans were especially cruel. On January 30, 

1

943, the Council urged the Delegate to take the thousands of Jewish children 

who had survived the previous liquidation operations out of the ghetto, but the 

appeal remained unanswered. While the ghetto was still in existence, many 

Jewish parents tried to save their children by sending them over to the Aryan 

side. The number of youngsters involved reached sizeable proportions during 

the first Aktion and especially immediately afterwards – during the latter half of 

1

942 and the beginning of 

1

943. A number of parents were able to get their 

children to the Aryan sector by paying large sums of money to Polish 

smugglers, policemen, and the like. Others turned to the Polish underground, 

especially through its leaders, who were connected with the Social Aid 

Department of the Warsaw Municipality, the Child Care Section of the Central 

Council for Social Aid as well as to Catholic organizations which had access 

to the Child Care Councils of the Church, monasteries, etc. In this way, 

 

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hundreds of Jewish children were smuggled out of the ghetto to the Aryan 

side. 

The function of “

Ż

egota” special department for children, established in the 

wake of a proposal made by Dr. Berman at a meeting held on July 

1

0, 

1

943, 

was first of all to care for orphaned and abandoned children and place them in 

institutions or with families. Irena Sandlerowa (“Jolanta”), and excellent 

underground leader and one of the members of the staff of the Social Aid 

Department. Under her professional and vigorous direction, and with the 

assistance of a bevy of other female workers, the Council’s projects for 

children developed successfully in spite of the many obstacles. Due to the 

bold and exemplary assistance rendered by the author Jan Dobraczy

ń

ski, 

Director of the Child Care Section in the Social Aid Department of the Warsaw 

Municipality, the Jewish children were secretly placed in Polish orphanages 

and monasteries. 

According to information gathered by the department, there were about 

600 Jewish children in various institutions in Warsaw and its environs by the 

end of 

1

943, among them 53 children in municipal establishments, 22 in 

institutions of the Polish relief organization – Central Council for Social Aid 

(Rada Glowna Opieku

ń

cza – R.G.O.) – and over 500 in public and 

ecclesiastical institutions. In addition, there were many children scattered in 

other institutions. In addition, there were many children scattered in other 

institutions throughout the country. The department’s report stated, for 

example, that in September 

1

943 it had dealt with the placement of 58 

children. On December 23, 

1

944, the Council applied to the Delegate with 

regard to granting aid to hostels in which there were 

1

00 Jewish children. 

The Council set up a separate department headed by Stefan Sendlak, a 

P.P.S. leader, to handle the relief operation in the provinces. The department 

worked together with the Jewish National Committee, which was in close 

touch with the Jews in a number of camps. It also sent special couriers in 

order to maintain contact with Lodz, to which access was extremely difficult, 

and with other towns such as Radom, Kielce, Piotrków, etc. from whence they 

were able to reach the work camps (in Czestochowa, Radom, Piotrków, 

Skar

ż

ysko, Starachowice near Kielce, and Plaszów near Cracow) and bring a 

 

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certain amount of aid to the Jewish inmates. One of the most active 

messengers in this area was the poet and journalist Tadeusz Sarnecki (his 

pen-name was Jan Wajdelota) who was connected with the Democratic Party. 

He and his wife Ewa served as contacts with the Jews of the ghettos and 

concentration camps in the vicinity of Radom and Lublin. 

The extension of activities throughout Poland, however, encountered 

serious difficulties. It was only in April 

1

943, that upon the initiative of the 

Central Council, a district council was established for the city and region of 

Cracow. The Council in Cracow gave aid to 9

1

 Jews – including 79 wards of 

the W.R.N., three of the Popular Peasant Party, two of the Democratic and 

seven of the Delegation – and also kept in touch by messenger with a number 

of ghettos and camps in the area. The Council in that city received a monthly 

subsidy of tens of thousands of zlotys. The allocation for May 

1

943 was 

30,000 zlotys (individual subsidies were 400 zlotys and in June they received 

50,000 zlotys, at a time when 320,000 zlotys were required to cover relief 

needs and rescue the Jewish survivors in the city of Cracow). 

In September 

1

943, a district council was formed in Lwow and it was 

allotted 60,000 zlotys, but the grant did not reach its destination because the 

female courier was arrested. There was also a relief committee in Zamo

ść

, 

which at first helped ten Jews in hiding, but later extended relief to 

1

00 

individuals. At the beginning of 

1

943, there were 

1

93 children in hiding in the 

Zamo

ść

-Lublin district but at the end of that year the number of those 

requiring assistance had risen to 220. The cooperation given in the Lublin 

area by the socialist combat organization, Socjalistyczna Organizacja Bojowa 

(S.O.B.) in the Lublin area, within whose ranks quite a few Jews hid, is note-

worthy. 

The Council established a special medical department in order to ensure 

that the hideouts of the Jews who fell ill would not be detected. Reliable 

doctors, who were fully acquainted with the nature of this clandestine 

operation, visited and treated the patients. Prior to entering the lodgings 

where the Jewish patients were hiding, the doctors used prearranged 

passwords to prove that they were not strangers, but members of the 

underground. 

 

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The problem of housing was most difficult due to the German terror, and 

the fact that anyone caught concealing Jews was sentenced to death. 

Moreover, there were many cases of extortion and blackmail. The exorbitants 

rents also impeded a solution of the housing problem. Consequently, the 

Council had to devote much time and extensive means to alleviate the 

situation, and it even set up a special department for this purpose. 

Nevertheless, the aid in this respect was insignificant. The purchase of 

apartments was too expensive and did not always solve the problem, since if 

the dwelling were discovered by blackmailers it could no longer be used. Thus 

those who sought to hide themselves or others were compelled to operate on 

their own, with the help of personal acquaintances or friends, in order to 

overcome these difficulties. 

The Propaganda Department of the Council, which had been set up in 

order to influence the public to extend aid to Jews, issued four leaflets during 

1

943, three of which were addressed to the Polish population (25,000 copies). 

The fourth was published in German (8,000 copies), under the pretense that it 

was issued by a clandestine German organization. These leaflets were 

distributed among the houses, posted on walls in Warsaw and provincial 

towns, and sent to various offices. In addition, the Council published 

underground bulletins on what was happening to the Jews and about Jewish 

acts of resistance – information it reprinted from journals published by the 

Socialists and the Democrats. 

The Council, it should be noted, also did a great deal to distribute 

underground publications on Jewish subjects – for propaganda purposes and 

to help Jewish relief operations. According to the minutes of the Council 

meeting of November 27, 

1

943, all 4,000 copies of the now-renowned bulletin, 

“Before the Eyes of the World” (Na oczach 

ś

wiata), which deals with the 

martyrology and armed struggle of Warsaw Jewry and was published by the 

Armia Krajowa, were distributed. As a precautionary measure, the place and 

date of publication were listed as “Zamo

ść

 

1

932”. The Catholic authoress 

Maria Kann, wrote and assembled the material, which included a series of 

documents and reports by Polish and Jewish eyewitnesses and observers, 

and it had a great effect on Polish readers. Special mention should be made 

 

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of the evaluation of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in the chapter “In the Steps of 

Bar Kochba”. Nonetheless, Jewish underground leaders who were on the 

Aryan side – Dr. Emmanuel Ringelblum, Yitzhak Zukerman (“Antek”), and Dr. 

Adolf Berman – saw fit to convey their critical comments on a number of 

inaccuracies which appeared in the bulletin regarding the history of the Jewish 

people, as well as general tendencies which they considered fallacious, to the 

“

Ż

egota” Council and the Government Delegation. 

In May 

1

944, the Coordinating Committee published a frightening booklet 

entitled “A Year in Treblinka”, written by Yankel Wiernik, one of the 

participants in the Treblinka uprising. This publication (3,000 copies) was also 

circulated with the help of “

Ż

egota” and was smuggled abroad. 

The Propaganda Department of “

Ż

egota” also circulated a small book of 

poems (22 pages) by Polish and Jewish poets on the struggle and destruction 

of Polish Jewry, which was published by the Jewish National Committee in the 

early months of 

1

944. This small collection of poems, made up of ten poems 

and one elegy, “Lament After the Death of Martyrs”, was sent to Batya and Dr. 

Berman through the channels of the Jewish and Polish resistance, with the 

help of the Polish author of Jewish origin Adolf Rudnicki. Five thousands 

copies were printed in the printing works of the Polish Democratic Party with 

the aid of “Marek” Arcy

ń

ski, the treasurer of “

Ż

egota”. (According to the 

minutes of the meeting of November 27, 

1

942, all the copies were distributed). 

The Council was powerless in the face of the plague of blackmailing, 

which became a serious menace for all the Jews in hiding on the Aryan side, 

due to the refusal of the underground leaders to help in the struggle. Following 

the liquidation operations in the ghetto, the scourge of blackmail and extortion 

became even more severe. Large gangs of blackmailers called 

Schmatzowniki, as well as informers, roamed through  Warsaw and its 

environs and lay in wait for Jews concealed on the Aryan side, as well as for 

those who provided them with shelter. Polish policemen who were members 

of the extremist anti-Semitic organizations joined these gangs, as did Polish 

agents of the Gestapo and the Kripo, smugglers, speculators, and various 

criminal underworld types. The victims were ruthlessly stripped of their 

belongings and robbed of their cash, jewellery, and clothes. At best, the Jews 

 

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would lose their dwellings and be compelled to flee for their lives; more than 

once the victims would return to the ghetto, as long as its existed, and die 

there. The most dangerous blackmailers and informers were the members of 

the Polish anti-Semitic fascist organizations such as Szaniec (The Wall) and 

Miecz I Plug (Sword and Plough), who did their despicable work for its own 

sake, without any remuneration. 

The Gestapo and Kripo offered cash rewards for any Jew caught hiding. 

Hardly a day passed without Jews being blackmailed and, in many cases, 

being forced to relinquish their last possessions. It often happened that 

individuals or families were victimized by extortionists time after time and very 

often these Jews either committed suicide or were killed by the Germans after 

being handed over by the blackmailers. 

The “

Ż

egota” Council repeatedly appealed to the government 

representatives to undertake a systematic and rapid campaign against the 

blackmailers (see, for example, the letters of the Council to the Government 

Delegate dated the end of March and April 6, 

1

943), and called upon them to 

publicly announce that anyone caught engaging in blackmail would be 

sentenced to death. Indeed, official announcements of this sort were 

published several times in the underground press. The Command in Charge 

of Civilian Struggle, (Kierownictwo Walki Cywilnej – K. W.C.) which was under 

the control of the Government Delegate, published an announcement on 

March 

1

8, 

1

943 condemning those who blackmailed Jews and\or Poles who 

aided Jews. A strongly-worded article also appeared in the March 

1

943 issue 

of Prawda, the journal of the Catholic Front, inveighing against blackmailing. 

Similar articles were published in the official underground organ 

Rzeczpospolita Polska (March 6, 

1

943): the journal of the W.R.N. (March 2

1

, 

1

943); and in Nowas Droga (February 7, 

1

944). In addition, the Council itself 

issued leaflets from time to time censuring acts of blackmail and robbery and 

calling upon the public to help the Jews against the extortionists. 

The pressure of the Council and Jewish organizations in regard to this 

issue was so strong that, in August and September of 

1

943, two 

proclamations appeared one after the other signed by the “Polish 

Independence Organizations”, (which were actually bodies represented on 

 

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“

Ż

egota”), concerning the blackmail operations and the need to aid the Jews. 

Both manifestos were circulated in large numbers among all sectors of the 

Polish population. 

Nonetheless, the warnings issued by official circles in March 

1

943 and on 

January 3

1

, 

1

944, which stated that acts of extortion against Jews were 

punishable crimes in accordance with the laws of the Polish Republic and that 

the punishment for extortion would in certain cases be carried out on the spot, 

remained on paper alone. The execution of death sentences against the 

blackmailers responsible for the deaths of ten of thousands of Jews and 

notices posted on walls as well as in the underground press, would certainly 

have made an impression, but this was never done. 

On April 6, 

1

943, in view of the tremendous increase in the cases of 

blackmail, the Council appealed to the Delegate to least publicize – as widely 

as possible by street posters – a number of fictitious death sentences, but this 

request also went unanswered. 

On July 

1

2, 

1

943, the Council asked the Government Delegation to 

provide a list of the cases of blackmail which were referred to the Special 

Tribunal (the number of verdicts handed down and how many had been 

executed). On August 9, 

1

943, the Council received a reply that only eight 

such cases had been submitted to the Tribunal. On September 4, 

1

943, 

Witold Bie

ń

kowski (“Wencki”), the representative of the Government Delegate 

on “

Ż

egota”, informed the Council of the execution of Boris Pilnik, the leader 

of a blackmail gang who had previously been sentenced to death by the 

underground, and the confiscation of important material found in his 

possession. It should also be noted that the Polish underground also executed 

Jacek Gonczarek, a Kripo agent and blackmailer. Several death sentences 

passed against blackmailers and informers were announced in November 

1

943. Several others verdicts were handed down and executed in 

1

944 “for 

the crime of collaboration with the conqueror in the persecution of Polish 

citizens of Jewish origin”. (The execution of a death sentence handed down 

by the Special Civilian Tribunal against a Pole convicted of killing two Jews 

was announced on March 9, 

1

944). 

 

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It should be noted that there were very few blackmailers and informers 

who persecuted Jews among the thousands of collaborators executed by the 

Polish underground. The Council, as well as the representatives of the Jewish 

resistance movement, more than once expressed their dissatisfaction with this 

state of affairs, and they were especially perturbed because these sentences 

were not announced on street posters, but only in the underground press. 

The failure to punish the extortionists led to more wild behavior on their 

part and an increase in the scope of their criminal activities. Following the 

suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto revolt and the bloody destruction of the 

ghetto, the situation on the Aryan side deteriorated noticeably. As more and 

more Jews made their way to the Aryan sector, the Gestapo and Kripo sent 

squads of plainclothesmen to the streets to hunt down the Jews and those 

who gave them refuge. A new wave of anti-Semitism swept the city and the 

plague of blackmail became much worse. This atmosphere was reinforced by 

the political changes which took place in the Polish underground. General 

Rowecki (“Grot”), commander of the underground Z.W.Z., the combat 

organization that united military groups and organizations, was arrested by the 

Gestapo at the end of June 

1

943 and was replaced by General Bór-

Komorowski. 

The Prime Minister of the Polish Government-in-Exile, General Wladyslaw 

Sikorski, was killed in a plane crash over Gibraltar under mysterious 

circumstances on July 5, 

1

943. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by 

Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, the leader of the Peasant Party, and as Chief of Staff 

by General Sosnkowski. This development immediately had strong 

repercussions in the underground movement in Poland. The Z.W.Z., which 

had became the Home Army (A.K.), was under the influence of the Sanacja 

political bloc and anti-Soviet political elements. The ranks of the National 

Armed Forces (Narodowe Sily Zbrojne – N.S.Z.), which had been founded at 

the end of 

1

942, began to swell. It was the adherents of the National Radical 

Camp (Oboz Narodowo-Radykalny – O.N.R.), the “Falanga” group, and other 

organizations who sowed the seeds of blatant Nazism in Poland. There was 

little difficulty in disseminating propaganda against Jews and Communists in 

this poisoned atmosphere, under the patronage of the Nazi authorities. Under 

 

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these conditions, the Catholic “Front for Polish Rebirth” withdrew from 

“

Ż

egota”. 

It should be noted that the attitude of the Government Delegate, 

Jankowski, a leader of the Labor Party, toward “

Ż

egota” was, according to its 

chairman, generally restrained, and increasingly “cool” according to the 

minutes of the Council meeting of November 27, 

1

943. The Council, however, 

did not cease to demand redress from the Delegate. In its letter of September 

9, 

1

943 to Jankowski, the Council praised the contributions of the Jewish 

organizations in “

Ż

egota” – initially 

1

00,000 zlotys a months and subsequently 

1

50,000 zlotys a month. The Council therefore requested that the budget be 

increased to one million zlotys, the amount required to cover its most minimal 

needs. During interviews with the Delegate, Council representatives 

expressed their dissatisfaction with the inadequate allocations, which made it 

impossible to distribute essential relief, even to those who were already under 

the Council’s care. They also warned of the hostility vis-à-vis the activities to 

aid Jews. Dr Berman. Declared during an interview on October 28, 

1

943 that: 

 

“The Germans murdered three millions Jews and the Council is giving its 

help to no more than 

1

,000-

1

,500 people. It is a drop in the ocean”. 

 

During the same interview, Tadeusz Rek, the Deputy Chairman of the 

Council, declared that the Council’s budget made it impossible to meet the 

great and growing needs and that the aid given by the Council had shrunk to 

300-350 zlotys per individual per month. 

In a letter written to the Delegate on the same day, the Council 

emphasized the fact that due to the devaluation of the currency and the 

increases in the prices of the essential food commodities, the relief grants 

given to the needy were in effect merely symbolic. “It should be objectively 

stated”. Rek asserted bitingly at that interview, “that the overwhelming majority 

of Polish society are hostile toward those extending relief [to the Jews]”. The 

Council representative insisted that the Delegate should create a more 

favorable atmosphere, vis-à-vis this operation through the underground press 

and by means of propaganda. 

 

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No response was made to these demands. The Delegate exploited the 

occasions when the Council representatives came to see him to express his 

surprise at “the lack of response” by world Jewry to the Holocaust. The first 

time the Delegate made such a statement, was on April 28, 

1

943, in a 

conversation with “

Ż

egota” representatives during the Warsaw Ghetto 

uprising. He subsequently repeated this allegations at his meetings with them 

on October 28, 

1

943, and in April 

1

944. 

It must be pointed out that the Jewish survivors were preoccupied with the 

question of why the great democracies were not prepared to exert the 

slightest effort to save the remnants of the Jewish people. That was the 

reason that Zsmul Zygielbojm, the Bund leader, committed suicide in London 

during the Warsaw Ghetto revolt. His intention was to protest against the 

indifference of the Allies toward the destruction of the Jewish people, and his 

act made a deep impression on the Jewish survivors in occupied Poland. The 

Jewish National Committee gave appropriate expression to these sentiments 

in its message to Jewish organizations abroad toward the end of 

1

943: 

 

“Vengeance for the blood of three million Jews will be sought not only 

from the Hitlerite beasts of prey but also from those indifferent and 

reluctant circles who, apart from hollow words, did nothing to save a 

people condemned to extermination by the Hitlerite assassins. No one 

among us will forgive or forget this” 

 

Unfortunately, the repeated demands of the Council to the Government 

Delegate regarding the need to increase the monthly subsidy were to no avail. 

Under these circumstances, the Council turned directly to the Government-in-

Exile in London in February 

1

943 and demanded that it raise its monthly 

allocation to six to eight million zlotys, “if the relief project is to be something 

concrete and not a fiction”. The appeal did not elicit any response. On May 

1

2, 

1

943, the Council appealed by cable to the Ministry of Social Welfare of the 

Government-in-Exile, emphasizing that they had not received a reply to their 

previous appeal to the government. This appeal, however, was also to no 

avail. 

 

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The Polish Government-in-Exile played an important role in establishing 

the policy which determined and influenced the events in Poland, and 

therefore should be considered responsible for those actions of the 

underground which affected the fate of the Jews in occupied Poland. A Polish 

source (A. Wyle

ż

ynska) declared: 

 

“The Polish Government in London failed to stand by its Jewish citizens 

here [in Poland], although it initiated relief for Jewish refugees who had 

fled from France to Switzerland”. 

 

We know that the Council received the following remittances from the 

Government Delegation in 

1

943: January – 

1

50,000 zlotys; February – 

300,000 zlotys; March – 250,000 zlotys; April-October (at a rate of 400,000 

zlotys per month) – 2,800,000 zlotys. 

Following the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the Council 

expanded the scope of its activities in order to aid additional Jewish survivors. 

After making urgent demands to the Government Delegation, the Council 

received an additional one-time allocation of 500,000 zlotys. This grant 

enabled the Jewish organizations to expand their activities. In its 

memorandum of September 9, 

1

943 to the Delegate, the Council demanded a 

minimum subsidy of one million zlotys a month, but it received only 

1

,500,000 

zlotys a month on behalf of the provincial towns and cities (Cracow, Lwow, 

Siedlce, Ostrowiec, etc.) The total sum received by the Council during 

1

943 

was 6,550,000 zlotys. In addition, 600,000 zlotys were received from the 

representatives of the Jewish Coordinating Committee, and in November 

1

943 the Delegate gave the Council the one-time sum of $25,000 that had 

come from the International Organization of Polish Jews in the United States 

and was earmarked for Jews hiding in the Aryan sector. (The Council gave 

$2,000 out of this sum to Polish farmers who had been banished from the 

Lublin District). With these allocations, the Council was able to spend the peak 

sum of two million zlotys during the month of November 

1

943 for relief and 

social welfare. 

 

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During the period of January-July 

1

944, the Council was given one million 

zlotys per month by the Government Delegation. An additional million zlotys 

was received in April 

1

944 (500,000 from the Delegate and 500,000 from the 

Jewish Coordinating Committee). Prior to the outbreak of the Warsaw revolt 

on August 

1

, 

1

944 and at the end of 

1

944, the Council received two million 

zlotys a month. 

The Council deeply sympathized with the plight of the Jewish underground 

groups that lacked financial support. In its December 

1

5, 

1

944 memorandum 

to the Delegate, the Council noted that it had received no assistance from the 

Jewish Coordinating Committee for the past six months, and therefore asked 

the Delegate to double the monthly budget (to four million zlotys), since the 

value of the zloty had dropped in comparison with the period prior to the 

outbreak of the revolt. It also requested a one-time grant that had been 

promised by the Delegate as early as July 

1

944. 

The Jewish underground organizations suffered a financial crisis at the 

beginning of 

1

944. The remittances sent from abroad did not reach their 

destination. Having no alternative, the Jewish National Committee was forced 

to reduce its grants and to limit the scope of its relief activities. People faced 

starvation, the loss of their dwellings, and even death. 

The massive Soviet offensive in the spring of 

1

944 and the entry of Soviet 

forces into areas which had formerly belonged to Poland brought about a 

change in the course of the war. The survivors of the Holocaust pinned their 

hopes on the victories of the Soviet armies. Yet during this period, the 

Gestapo persistently searched for Jews in hiding on the Aryan side. (Thus, in 

April 

1

944, it surrounded a large part of the 

Ż

olibórz quarter in which many 

Jews were concealed; 50 Jews were apprehended and shot). A reliable 

Jewish source described the situation in those days: 

 

“In the Aryan quarters, the fear of death persisted day and night. People 

lived constantly under the shadow of the Gestapo beast of prey, the S.S. 

and the gendarmerie, the Blue Police, the blackmailers and informers… 

Not a single day passed without scores of people in Warsaw being killed 

due to these saboteurs”. 

 

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The front-lines were getting closer. The decisive battles between the 

Soviet Union and Germany and the growing influence of the Polish 

Communists led to the increase of political tension in the Polish underground 

and considerable nervousness among Government Delegation circles and in 

the Home Army. The influence of the extreme nationalists mounted daily in 

these circles. A rapprochement took place between the Sanacja and Endecja 

parties and such openly anti-Semitic factions as the National Radicals. The 

gangs of the National Armed Forces officially joined the Home Army in March 

1

944 and were received warmly by General Bór-Komorowski. This fact 

angered the Democratic underground movement and aroused the fears of the 

Jewish survivors. (Moderate democratic elements in the A.K., such as the 

“New Paths” group, also rebelled against his gesture). 

In addition, the Jewish organizations had learned that in the spring of 

1

944, Roman Knoll, the Director of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the 

Government Delegation (who had formerly served a Polish Minister in Berlin), 

had, in an official Delegation journal, advanced the assumption that after the 

war there would still be “too many Jews” left and that it would be necessary to 

set up a special “closed area” for them in the East. According to Knoll: 

 

“The prevailing mood throughout the country is one which leaves no 

openings for the return of the Jews, in however small numbers, to their 

previous businesses and workshops. The non-Jewish population has 

taken the place of the Jews in the cities and towns and their return would 

be regarded not as restitution but as an invasion to be resisted by 

physical force”. 

 

Moreover, the Delegation rejected the proposal submitted by Jewish 

organizations to the National Minorities Department of the Government 

Delegation regarding the exchange of civilians – mainly Jews – for German 

civilians living in the Allied occupied areas of Poland. According to their reply: 

 

 

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“Polish citizens of Jewish nationality do not constitute a separate 

community with special prerogatives on whose behalf it will be possible 

to conduct talks in the international sector, other than those concerning 

Polish citizens of Polish nationality”. 

 

This was written at a time when the Germans were engaged in wiping out 

the remnants of Polish Jewry! 

Reports about Jewish soldiers “deserting” the Polish Army commanded by 

General Anders in the Middle East, Palestine, and Great Britain were used by 

official circles as a pretext for launching an overt anti-Semitic campaign. It was 

clear to the Jewish underground organizations that these “desertions” had 

been provoked by the anti-Semitism rife in General Ander’s army. The 

National Minorities Department of the Delegation endeavored to persuade the 

Jewish Coordinating Committee to publish a declaration condemning the 

deserters, but the Committee immediately rejected the proposal out of hand. A 

proposal by the Government Delegation that the Jewish organizations should 

join the Council of National Unity, which was to be a sort of substitute 

clandestine parliament alongside the Government Delegation, was similarly 

turned down. 

This policy still further cooled the relations between the Delegate and the 

Jewish underground movement, as well as between the former and the 

“

Ż

egota” Council. 

The strained relations reached a climax when a shocking report was 

received that a unit of the Jewish Fighting Organization in a village near 

Koniecpol in the Czestochowa district had been attached by a band of the 

N.S.Z. or the A.K. under the command of “Eagle”. Eleven of the 24-man unit 

were murdered. The Coordinating Committee and the Jewish Fighting 

Organization protested to all the organizations in the Polish underground 

movement. “

Ż

egota” immediately sent a letter to the Government Delegate 

(May 

1

944) in which it expressed its anger at the murder of the Jewish 

fighters, as well as at the murder of 200 Jews who had been in hiding in the 

area of Czestochowa, Radom, and Kielce. It should be noted that N.S.Z. 

 

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bands also killed Polish Democratic activists linked with the A.K., particularly 

those of Jewish origin. 

Considerable resentment was aroused in “

Ż

egota” circles and among the 

members of the Jewish organizations by the fact that anti-Semitic attacks 

were frequently featured prominently in official publications of the Government 

Delegation. This situation motivated the Council to request another meeting 

with the Government Delegate, which took place on July 

1

7, 

1

944. The 

representatives of the Council for Aid to Jews emphasized that the 

atmosphere regarding the Jewish question had been poisoned and that the 

Jewish relief activities had of late encountered increasing difficulties. One of 

the reasons was the attitude displayed by a certain section of the Polish 

underground press which engaged in anti-Semitic propaganda. Several 

publications of the Government Delegation, such as the Nowy Wspólny Dom 

(The New Cooperative House), published by the Agricultural Division of the 

Delegation, contained anti-Semitic passages. Anti-Semitic tendencies were 

also evident in a booklet called “The Imperialist War” published by a group 

supported by the Delegation. The representatives of the Council stated that it 

was essential to act against the anti-Semitic campaign being waged in the 

underground press. 

Detailed factual reports regarding the cats of murder perpetrated by N.S.Z. 

gangs were presented at the meeting. However, the alarming protests sent by 

the Jewish Fighting Organization and the Coordinating Committee about the 

killings near Koniecpol, the murder of a group of 

1

8 Jews in the village of 

Wygoda, and other killings brought no results. The Jewish representatives 

also stated that member of the N.S.Z. had organized a special group at 

Josefow near Warsaw to search for Jews and kill them. 

The “

Ż

egota” envoys demanded that an end be put to these abominable 

murders by the N.S.Z. and proposed that the Government Delegate publish 

an announcement condemning the murderous acts, and the A.K. issue an 

“Order of the Day” on the same subject to all units in Poland. (After the N.S.Z. 

formally joined the A.K. in March 

1

944, however, the actual responsibility for 

its acts rested with the Home Army). The Jewish envoys added that the 

 

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declaration must also denounce all anti-Semitic manifestations. The 

publication of such a statement would help to ease the hostility. 

Another matter dealt with at the meeting was the problem of the camps. At 

that time, there were 20 camps for Jews in occupied Poland, which had a total 

of approximately 20,0000 Jewish inmates. There were also other 

concentration camps with both Polish and Jewish prisoners. The Council 

representatives stated that during the turn about in the course of the war, it 

would be imperative to take extraordinary measures to protect the camps in 

order to save tens of thousands of people from certain extermination. They 

suggested that the Allies be approached to help in this matter.  

As far as increased aid for relief activities, the Jewish representatives 

stressed that the National Committee was caring for 5,600 people in Warsaw. 

Together with those being aided by “

Ż

egota” and the Bund (about 2,000 

Jews), the number of those receiving relief was about 

1

2,000, apart from 

those in the provinces. 

In response to the demands of the “

Ż

egota” representatives, the 

Government Delegate rejected the contention that anti-Semitic tendencies 

were increasingly evident in official publications. As for the general 

atmosphere regarding the Jews, he asserted that this matter was dependent 

on both sides. The frequent instances of Jews disclosing the names of their 

Polish protectors to the Germans or their collaborators had aroused great 

resentment. The behavior of Jewish partisan units in the rural areas (where 

they were forced to steal food from the peasants in order to survive) had also 

evoked negative reactions among the population. Reports of Jewish soldiers 

“deserting” from the Polish Army, especially the “desertion” of 2,000 Jewish 

soldiers from the Second Corps in the Middle East, had added fuel to the fire, 

since these acts were considered anti-Polish demonstrations. The 

Government Delegate added: “The recollection of the behavior of the Jews in 

the areas occupied by the Soviets also influenced the hostile attitude toward 

them”. 

Incidentally, the complaint about close collaborations between the Soviet 

authorities and the Jews, and the charges that the Jews had “taken an active 

part in the Communist governing bodies that had been set up by the 

 

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conqueror [the Soviet Union]”, was leveled every time the Jewish underground 

leaders met with their Polish counterparts. A trenchant reply to these charges 

was given by Mordechai Tennenbaum-Tamaroff in his letter of April 2, 

1

943 to 

the Bialystock Regional Command of the Civilian Struggle (in which the 

commander of the Jewish Fighting Organization asked for 200 handgrenades 

and a few dozen revolvers): 

 

“Had the time and conditions been different, I could prove to the Poles 

that all the organizations which make up the “Jewish National 

Committee” were disbanded and [their members were] tortured in the 

Soviet Union, and their leaders were banished to Siberia”. 

 

As far as the camps are concerned, the Government Delegate declared 

that it would be extremely difficult to protect them. He would discuss the 

matter with the Commander of the A.K. and would refer appropriate 

suggestions to London. In addition, the Delegate promised to respond to the 

murders by the N.S.Z. and the cases of blackmail, but he did not promise to 

publish any declaration in this respect since, “He did not believe that the 

present time was right for such action”. As far as financial problems, the 

Delegate promised at the meeting, “which was conducted throughout in an 

atmosphere of coolness mixed with tension and a mutual lack of confidence”, 

to increase the allocation. 

In mid-

1

944, alarming reports from the international underground in 

Auschwitz of the murder of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews began 

reaching the organizations of the Polish underground and especially the 

Council for Aid to Jews. “

Ż

egota” immediately sent a message to the 

Government Delegate urging him to arouse world opinion by radio and call for 

immediate intervention in order to halt the slaughter. However, no significant 

action was taken by the Government Delegation this time either; the Council’s 

plea remained un-answered. 

At their next meeting with the Government Delegate, which took place in 

December 

1

944, the Council representatives categorically reiterated that the 

Jewish organizations had not received the amounts, which according to prior 

 

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reports had been dispatched, and as a result had not received any financial 

support from “

Ż

egota”. (It should be noted that the funds sent by Jewish 

organizations abroad for the Jewish underground in Poland were transmitted 

via the channels of the underground of the Polish Government-in-Exile in 

London). It is clear from the letters sent by Feiner, the Bund representative, to 

the Government Delegate in May and June of 

1

943, as well as in February 

1

944, that part of the sums intended for the Bund were in effect frozen by the 

Government Delegation. 

On August 

11

, 

1

943, Feiner again sent a request to the Delegate to 

release the sums that were being held by the latter - $5,000 of a total 

remittance of $

1

5,000 which had arrived in February 

1

943, and $25,000 out of 

$38,000 which had been received from London in April 

1

943. 

During the period from June through September, the Jewish National 

Committee received $40,000, which was converted into 3,030,550 zlotys. The 

sum apparently included 

₤1

5,000 which had been remitted by the Jewish 

Agency prior to July 

1

943. Larger amounts began arriving in November 

1

943. 

Thus $

1

00,000 was received from the American Jewish Joint Distribution 

Committee in December 

1

943 as the first installment of the $500,000 which it 

had earmarked for the Jewish National Committee. The Jewish Agency was 

supposed to send an additional $200,000 and 

₤1

0,000 on this account shortly 

thereafter, but these funds were “tied up” en route. 

The failure – from January 

1

944 onward – to deliver the funds to the 

Jewish organizations was denounced by Aleksander Kami

ń

ski (“Juliusz 

Gorecki”), editor-in-chief of the official underground organ Biuletyn 

Informacyjny, in his sharp letter of May 

1

8, 

1

944 to Jerzy Makowiecki, 

(“Malicki”), head of the Information and Propaganda Department of the 

Government Delegate. 

It seems that the funds from overseas were not delivered due to a 

controversy that broke out between the Jewish organizations, and the 

Government Delegation and the A.K. The Jewish organizations used the 

funds received from abroad not only for relief activities but also to purchase 

arms for the Jewish Fighting Organization and to prepare resistance activities 

in the concentration camps. Thus according to a brief financial report 

 

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presented by Dr. Berman at the Council meeting held on July 

1

0, 

1

943, most 

of the funds received from Poalei Zion and the General Zionists abroad were 

spent on the acquisition of arms, part of which were sent to Zaglebie and 

Czestochowa; 

1

30,000 zlotys were sent to the Poniatowa camp, and 

1

00,000 

to the camp at Trawniki. It should also be noted that on September 27, 

1

943, 

the Council received a report that the situation in the Poniatowa camp had 

deteriorated and that the German guards had found arms in one of the huts. 

The Government Delegation and A.K. command vigorously and 

consistently opposed the acquisition of arms by the Jewish underground 

organizations. It should be noted that the underground military authorities 

refused to recognize the Jewish partisan movement, support its organization 

by the youth who were saved from the liquidated ghettos, or to maintain 

contact with the so-called “wild” groups in order to ensure that they would not 

be forced to resort to robbery. The Delegation insisted that the Jewish bodies 

observe this condition as a sine qua non for continued receipt of the financial 

grants which arrived from Jewish organizations abroad. The representatives 

of the Jewish Fighting Organization and the Coordinating Committee declared 

that they would not accept this condition under any circumstances. As a result 

of the firm and unequivocal position they adopted, the withholding of 

remittances from abroad was stopped shortly thereafter; they payments were 

resumed and they reached their intended destination. 

Unlike the Government Delegation and the A.K., “

Ż

egota” supported the 

purchase of arms by Jewish organizations. As early as the Warsaw Ghetto 

uprising, the Council earmarked a special grant of 500,000 zlotys, received 

from the Government Delegate, for the purchase of weapons. This allocation 

was in line with the Council’s policy vis-à-vis “acts of resistance”, which were 

initiated in Warsaw Ghetto on April 

1

9, 

1

943. The Council had immediately 

voiced its “full solidarity with the justice of the cause of those who fell for the 

dignity and freedom of man”. 

In its letter of April 30, 

1

943 to the Government Delegate, the Council 

urged him to issue “a protest for the whole world which would shock the 

conscience and heart of the entire world”, as well as a manifesto to the Polish 

public, “which will express not only the official attitude of the Polish 

 

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Government in regard to that terrible murder, but primarily the emotional 

reaction of the Polish people to Jewish martyrdom”. 

On May 6, the Government Delegation published a statement in its official 

organ, in which it “displayed a sense of honor and feelings of solidarity with 

the Jews who were defending themselves and feelings of contempt vis-à-vis 

their German murderers”. The Polish population was also called upon to 

extend aid to the persecuted Jews. An appeal signed by “The Organizations 

of Polish Independence” appeared at the beginning of May 

1

943. It contained 

the announcement made by General Sikorski (repeated by his Delegate in 

occupied Poland), and stated inter alia that: 

 

“Under the given conditions all help extended directly or indirectly to the 

Germans in their murderous activities is a most heinous crime against 

Poland. Any Pole who collaborates in their acts of murder, whether by 

extortion, informing on Jews, or by exploiting their terrible plight or 

participating in acts of robbery, is committing a most serious offence 

against the laws of the Polish Republic”. 

 

Unfortunately, however, there statements did not command proper 

attention and, in effect, not concrete aid was given to the ghetto fighters. 

A special meeting of the Council dealt with practical steps to extend help 

to those Jews and Jewish fighters who would succeed in reaching the Aryan 

side, such as the preparation of sufficient documents, financial aid, etc. 

Council members tried to obtain a map of the Warsaw sewer system in order 

to carry out rescue activities. 

“

Ż

egota” widened the scope of its activities in order to care for the groups 

of Jews who reached the Aryan side. According to the information which the 

Council received, approximately 500 Jews remained underground in 

troglodytic conditions after the suppression of the revolt. After making insistent 

demands, the Council received an additional one-time grant of 500,000 zlotys 

from the Government Delegation in September 

1

943, and thus the clandestine 

Jewish organizations were able to extend their activities. 

 

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In addition, it should be noted that the Council solemnly observed the first 

anniversary of the ghetto uprising at a special meeting, held in mid-April 

1

944, 

by passing the following resolution: 

 

“The most appropriate way to honor the anniversary of the Warsaw 

Ghetto battles and the memory of the fighters who fell holding their 

weapons and of the millions of murdered Polish Jews is by giving the 

greatest possible help in order to enable the remnants who survived to 

go on living and to continue the common struggle for liberation”. 

 

The resolution was sent to the Polish and Jewish underground 

organizations. A letter was also sent to the Government Delegate suggesting 

that he issue a proclamation to the Polish people on the anniversary of the 

Warsaw Ghetto revolt. However, no official statement was made by the 

Delegate or by the Armed Forces Command – an omission that caused great 

resentment among the Jewish leaders on the Aryan side. 

The Council also wrote to the Jewish Coordinating Committee “expressing 

words of admiration and respect for the memory of the heroes of the Jewish 

Fighting Organization who fell in the unequal fight against the German 

wildmen”, as well as its “admiration and respect for the memory of the millions 

of defenseless Jews in Poland who were savagely murdered by the German 

barbarians”. Finally, the Council expressed its readiness and desire to present 

an official proposal, “even now during the period of occupation… to name the 

streets of Warsaw which witnessed the glorious battles of the Jewish Fighting 

Organization for the leaders of the armed struggle and the battle of valor”. 

* * * 

The motivations for the establishment of “

Ż

egota” and its beneficent activities 

were defined by its leaders. According to a letter which the Council sent to the 

Coordinating Committee on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto revolt: 

 

“The cooperation between the Council for Aid to Jews and the 

Coordinating Committee [of the Jewish National Committee and the 

Bund] was based on the most noble, Christian and humanitarian 

 

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motives, and it began during the most tragic hours for our two peoples. It 

is of lasting value and will serve as a cornerstone for mutual relations in 

liberated Poland”. 

 

The Chairman of the Council, Julian Grobelny, declared in a statement 

made in March 

1

943: 

 

“The rescue of people condemned to death by the brutal conqueror is a 

duty of conscience for the [Polish] nation and is required for the good 

name of the state”. 

 

The Deputy Chairman of the Council, Tadeusz Rek, on the other hand, 

made no effort to conceal his view that the major motivation for the creation of 

“

Ż

egota” was the realization that “it was needed for the good of Poland”. 

There are very significant differences between Polish and Jewish sources 

on the number of people helped by “

Ż

egota”. Rek declares that at least 

40,000 Jews in Poland (including the camps) received aid from “

Ż

egota”. 

According to Arczy

ń

ski, 50,000 Jews benefited from the various forms of 

assistance – financial, legalization, medical, child care, and help against 

blackmailers. Jewish sources (Dr. Berman, Yitzhak Zuckerman, and Yaakov 

Zelemenski), on the other hand, assert that during the years 

1

943-

1

944, over 

4,000, out of a total of 20,000 Jews in hiding in occupied Warsaw, received 

direct assistance from “

Ż

egota”. Emmanuel Ringelblum, who followed the 

work of the Council, was aware of the fact that it failed to fulfill the 

expectations of its founders. Nonetheless, it “had 300 Jewish families under 

its wing, who were on the Aryan side and whose existence was solely 

dependent on the aid of the Council”. 

In summation, the Council was not given the opportunity to develop large-

scale relief activities due to the lack of funds (a fact that was emphasized by 

Rek and Zrczy

ń

ski, who reiterated categorically that the Government 

Delegation consistently refused to make significant sums available to 

“

Ż

egota”) as well as the lack of assistance by government circles, which did 

nothing to save the surviving remnants of Polish Jewry. The government even 

 

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allocated ridiculously small amounts to stimulate the cultural, intellectual, and 

communal activities of Warsaw Jewry, whereas nothing was done to find safe 

lodgings for various people. (Thus, for example, there was no money to 

arrange a hiding place on the Aryan side for the noted historian Dr. Yitzhak 

Schiper). As a result, the small nucleus of scientists, authors, and political 

figures, who had survived the previous deportations, were eventually 

murdered. 

Despite the limited funds allocated to the Council by the Government 

Delegate, and the political and ideological differences among its various 

components, the Council vigorously undertook many activities attaining an 

unusual degree of harmony. Despite the fact that its members risked their 

lives daily, they continued to operate with great dedication, under all 

conditions, until the liberation. Great fear was aroused by the frequent official 

German announcements which threatened that anyone who hid or lodged 

Jews and all the tenants of houses in which Jews were found hiding would b 

executed. In many cases, the German butchers carried out their threats and 

shot the “offenders”. Nonetheless, thousands of Poles, headed by the 

personnel of “

Ż

egota” extended aid to Jews, many without any thought of 

recompense. 

Ringelblum praises the dedication of the Poles who risked their lives to 

save Jews. He wrote: 

 

“There are thousands [of idealists] like these in Warsaw and the whole 

country… The names of the people who do this, and whom the Poland 

which shall be established should decorate with the “Order of 

Humanitarianism”, will remain in our memory as the names of heroes 

who saved thousands of human beings from certain death by fighting 

against the greatest enemy the human race has even known”. 

 

Dr. Berman also stressed “the noble stand of a significant part of the 

polish intellectuals, party leaders, and other classes, and many ordinary and 

good people”. 

 

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The rescue of Jews by their removal from the ghetto to the Aryan side was 

done by individuals, and was not carried out in an organized manner. This 

conclusion by Ringelblum has found corroboration in Arczy

ń

ski’s assessment 

that “the aid given in saving Jews was based on humanitarian principles and 

was an individual effort which manifested itself in providing shelter, help in 

legalization, etc.” 

Nonetheless the ramified activities of the Council for Aid to Jews – in 

addition it should be noted that, besides their public functions, each of the 

members of the Council personally cared for several Jews – constitute one of 

the most brilliant chapters in the efforts to extend relief to Jews. 

 

 

 

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FROM: ”Rescue attempts during the holocaust, proceedings of the 

second yad vashem international historical conference”, 1977, Yisrael 

Gutman and Efraim Zuroff (editors), Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. Pages 367-

398