Polish ZEGOTA was the only one organization to save Jews, saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust
Czyj jest ten strach? część Polskie obozy koncentracyjne? "Upside Down"
Czyj jest ten strach? część 2 / 2
Polskie obozy koncentracyjne? "Upside Down"
Polish Pilots of the RAF
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
Encouraged by Rabbi Israel Singer's, the General Secretary of the World Jewish Congress, statements in 1996 such as " If Poland does not satisfy Jewish claims, it will be publicly attacked and humiliated in the international forum." So it is a plan to deliberately slander Poland's name and manipulate the American public's opinion against Poles. It was permitted to slander Poles now.
Very beautiful. A GREAT HERO overlooked in the post War history.
Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler, a Catholic hero
ZEGOTA saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust 2/3
Polish ZEGOTA saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust 3/3
Would you risk your own life and your family's to save another human being ? Brave people. Thanks. ZEGOTA was the cryptonym for the clandestine underground organization in German-Nazi- occupied Poland(1939-1945) that provide assistance to the Jewish people. Irena Sendler(Irena Krzyzanowska,Irena Sendlerowa),Zofia Kossak,Wanda Krahelska, Julian Grobelny, Dobrowolski, Tadeusz Rek, Ferdynand Arczynski, Ignacy Barski, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Ewa Brzuska,(Granny) and many others brave people.Splendid
Irena Sendler: A Tribute
enigma code breakers
ZEGOTA saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust 1/3
Polish ZEGOTA saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust 3/3
Żegota" ([ʐε'gɔt̪a] (help·info)), also known as the "Konrad Żegota Committee,"[1] was a codename for the Council to Aid Jews (Rada Pomocy Żydom), an underground organization in German-occupied Poland from 1942 to 1945. It operated under the auspices of the Polish Government in Exile through the Government Delegation for Poland, in Warsaw. Żegota's express purpose was to aid the country's Jews and find places of safety for them in occupied Poland. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where, throughout the war, there existed such a dedicated secret organization.[2]
[edit] Composition
The Council to Aid Jews, Żegota, was the continuation of an earlier secret organization set up for this purpose, called the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews (Tymczasowy Komitet Pomocy Żydom), founded in September 1942 by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz ("Alinka") and made up of democratic as well as Catholic activists. Its members included Władysław Bartoszewski, later Polish Foreign Minister (1995, 2000). Within a short time, the Provisional Committee had 180 persons under its care, but was dissolved for political and financial reasons.[1]
Founded soon after, in October 1942, Żegota was the brainchild of Henryk Woliński of the Home Army (AK). From its inception, the elected General Secretary of Żegota was Julian Grobelny, an activist in prewar Polish Socialist Party. Its Treasurer, Ferdynand Arczyński, was a member of the Polish Democratic Party. They were also the two of its most active workers. Żegota was the only Polish organization in World War II run jointly by Jews and non-Jews from a wide range of political movements. Politically, the organization was formed by Polish and Jewish underground political parties.
Jewish organizations were represented on the central committee by Adolf Bermann and Leon Feiner. The member organizations were the Jewish National Committee (an umbrella group representing the Zionist parties) and the socialist General Jewish Labor Union. Both Jewish parties operated independently also, using money from Jewish organizations abroad channelled to them by the Polish underground. They helped to subsidize the Polish branch of the organization, whose funding from the Polish Government-in-Exile reached significant proportions only in the spring of 1944. On the Polish side, political participation included the Polish Socialist Party as well as Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne) and a small rightist Front Odrodzenia Polski. Notably, the main right-wing party, the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe) refused to participate.
Kossack-Szczucka withdrew from participation from the onset. She had wanted Żegota to become an example of pure Christian charity and argued that the Jews had their own international charity organizations. She went on to act in the Social Self-Help Organization (Społeczna Organizacja Samopomocy - SOS) as a liaison between Żegota and Catholic convents and orphanages, where Catholic clergy hid many Jews.[3]
Żegota had around one hundred (100) sections. According to a letter by Adolf Berman, the Jewish Secretary of Żegota, dated February 26, 1977, there were other activists especially meritorious. He mentioned theatre artist Prof. Maria Grzegorzewski, psychologist Irena Solski, Janina Buchholtz-Bukolski*, educator Irena Sawicki*, scouting activist Dr. Ewa Rybicki, school principal Irena Kurowski, Prof. Stanislaw Ossowski and Prof. Maria Ossowski, zoo director Dr. Jan Zabinski* and his wife Antonina*, a writer, the unforgettable director of children's theatres Stefania Sempolowski, Jan Wesolowski*, Sylwia Rzeczycki*, Maria Laski, Maria Derwisz-Parnowski. Great merits had former Senator Zofia Rodziewicz, Zofia Latallo, Dr. Regina Fleszar and others. Beside the university educated people there were commoners like Waleria Malaczewski, Antonina Roguski, Jadwiga Leszczanin, Zofia Debicki*, tailor Stanislaw Michalski, farmers Kajszczak from Lomianki and Pawel Harmuszko, laborer Kazimierz Kuc and many others. – Those with the asterix (*) after their name have been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations up to the end of 1999.[4]
[edit] Activities
Żegota helped save some 4,000 Polish Jews by providing food, medical care, relief money and false identity documents for those hiding on the so-called "Aryan" side of German-occupied Poland. Most of its activity took place in Warsaw. The Jewish National Committee had some 5,600 Jews under its care, and the Bund an additional 1,500, but the activities of the three organizations overlapped to a considerable degree. Between them, they were able to reach some 8,500 of the 28,000 Jews hiding in Warsaw, as well as perhaps 1,000 elsewhere in Poland.
Help in the form of money, food and medicines was organised by Żegota for the Jews in several forced labour camps in Poland as well.[2] Forged identity documents were procured for those hiding on the 'Aryan side' including financial aid. The escape of Jews from ghettos, camps and deportation trains occurred mostly spontaneously through personal contacts, and most of the help that was extended to Jews in the country was similarly personal in nature. Since Jews in hiding preferred to remain well-concealed, Żegota had trouble finding them. Its activities therefore did not develop on a larger scale until late in 1943.
The German occupying forces made concealing Jews a crime punishable by death for everyone living in a house where Jews were discovered. Over 700 Poles murdered by Germans as a result of helping and sheltering their Jewish neighbors were posthumously awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations.[5] They were only a small part of several thousand Poles reportedly executed by the Nazis for aiding Jews.[6] It is estimated that some 200,000 Poles were engaged in helping Jews even though the threat of death did act as a deterrent.
Żegota did play a large part in placing Jewish children with foster families, public orphanages and church institutions (orphanages and convents). The foster families had to be told that the children were Jewish, so that they could take appropriate precautions, especially in the case of boys. (Jewish boys, unlike Poles, were circumcised.) Żegota sometimes paid for the children's care. In Warsaw, Żegota's children department, headed by Irena Sendler, cared for 2,500 of the 9,000 Jewish children smuggled from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Medical attention for the Jews in hiding was also made available through the Committee of Democratic and Socialist Physicians. Żegota had ties with many ghettos and camps. It also made numerous efforts to induce the Polish Government in Exile and the Delegatura to appeal to the Polish population to help the persecuted Jews.[7]
Postwar recognition
Many members of Żegota were memorialised in Israel in 1963 with a planting of a tree in the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. Władysław Bartoszewski was present at the event.
Quotes
“Żegota is the story of extraordinary heroism amidst unique depravity – compelling in its human as well as historical dimensions. It is a particularly valuable addition to our understanding of the many facets of the Holocaust because Żegota as an organized effort was tantamount to ‘Schindler’s List’ multiplied a hundredfold.” ― Zbigniew Brzeziński
Polish Underground State
History of Poland
General:
^ a b Yad Vashem Shoa Resource Center, Zegota, page 4/34 of the Report.
^ a b Andrzej Sławiński, Those who helped Polish Jews during WWII. Translated from Polish by Antoni Bohdanowicz. Article on the pages of the London Branch of the Polish Home Army Ex-Servicemen Association. Last accessed on March 14 2008.
^ Gunnar S. Paulsson Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945 Published 2003 Yale University Press ISBN 0300095465
^ Anna Poraj, Polish Righteous, Those Who Risked Their Lives; see: Rajszczak family, 2004.
^ Chaim Chefer, Righteous of the World: Polish citizens killed while helping Jews During the Holocaust
^ Ron Riesenbach, The Story of the Survival of the Riesenbach Family
^ Paulsson (2002)
(Polish) various authors. in Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert, Andrzej Friszke: „Żegota” Rada Pomocy Żydom 1942–1945. Warsaw: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa. ISBN 83-91666-6-0.
(English) various authors (2003). in Joshua D. Zimmerman: Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Rutgers University Press, 336. ISBN 0813531586.
(English) MS Nechama Tec (1986). When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195051947.
(English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
(English) Gunnar S. Paulsson. Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945. Yale: Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0300095465.
(English) Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski (1994). Zegota: The Rescue of Jews in Wartime Poland. Montreal: Price-Patterson.
(English) Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski (1994). Zegota: The Council to Aid Jews in Occupied Poland 1942-1945. Price-Patterson. ISBN 1896881157.
Monday, June 30, 2008
To Israeli Young Tourists Please change your behavior when coming to Poland or do not come.
To Israeli Young Tourists Please change your behavior when coming to Poland or do not come.
Israeli Tourists with an angry streak
AMONGST some of Israeli Jewish tourists who come to Poland lurk a terrible bunch 'the angry ones'.
There are many 'angry ones' coming ‘back’ to Poland. I don’t have a number, but I know -– I meet them.
I hear them in their noisy groups when they flood the small peaceful streets of Kazimierz, talking as if they forgot to pack any sense of volume control and singing like drunk football fans returning from a soccer match.
I see them obnoxiously draped in Israeli flags which appear as essential to their outfit as their underwear.
Each group that comes 'back' come for its own reasons.
I met a group who, in my opinion, did not come for the right reason.
This group came in order to vent their anger they came to be angry.
One of them suggested that the Jewish community in Poland has been unfairly making money off the tourists that visit.
She further complained (to me and several non-Jewish members of the museum’s staff) of her disappointment and disgust that none of their guides had been Jewish.
When a young member of the Polish Jewish community joined the discussion, she said that she knew how the Jewish community here should be organized.
And she was dumbfounded to hear that the regular Jewish organizations which existed in her own community had not been installed here.
“But why don’t the young Jews of Poland join the lone-soldiers’ program in Israel?” she asked in shock.
“Their parents will be provided with a free ticket to visit their children at the end of the course!”
As if this incentive alone should be enough to convince these young Poles that their only option in life is to join the Israeli army.
It is most definitely important for those Jews who feel the interest to visit Poland to do so.
I urge them to come and see the traces of the vibrant prewar Jewish life in Poland which can still be found.
I wholly support that they visit as a means to pay respect to those who were murdered in the Shoah.
But I beg that each travelers asks himself first -– why am I coming?
Please don’t come as a way of releasing your anger on the Polish population.
Yes, the vast majority of Jews who were killed in the Shoah were done so on Polish soil.
But it was the Nazis who perpetrated this act, and even if some Poles supported their actions, it was not the Poles who committed the Holocaust.
Please don’t come to draw inappropriate levels of attention toward yourself as a way of proving to the Poles that the Jewish nation is still alive.
It is unfair on today’s Poles, the vast majority of whom are completely innocent.
It is also an inappropriate expression of nationalism in a foreign country.
The "angry" jews have no idea about the polish-jewish history.
They have no idea who Irena Sendler was or who Jan Karski was and how Poland looked like between 1939-45.
They have no idea how many Polish families helped Jews during the war and how many Poles were killed instantly because of that by the German nazis.
Kasia in Kazimierz asks Jewish tourists to not come to Poland “to be angry”: “Rather, come to learn about the past and perhaps about your family’s heritage. Come to learn from Poland’s diverse Jewish community, a community who really understands what it means to look after one another. Come to meet with non-Jewish Poles who really do care about restoring the memory of the Jewish community which was wiped off their map. Come to understand the true complexities of Polish-Jewish relations.”
Śmiechy i dowcipy podczas uroczystości
piątek 25 kwietnia 2008 18:20
Oburzające zachowanie młodych Żydów w getcie
» Oburzające zachowanie młodych Żydów w getcie Zamknij X
zobacz galerię fot. Michał Rozbicki Opowiadali sobie dowcipy, grali w berka, drzemali na trawie... Uczniowie z Izraela nie potrafili zachować się podczas niedawnych obchodów 65. rocznicy powstania w warszawskim getcie. Zwrócił na to uwagę izraelski portal "Ynetnews". Autor informacji nie kryje oburzenia.
Attila Somfalwi jest zażenowany zachowaniem izraelskiej młodzieży, która przyjechała na uroczystości w Warszawie. Podczas gdy setki uczestników obchodów rocznicowych, w obecności prezydentów Polski i Izraela, w wielkim skupieniu słuchało przemówień, uczniowie zorganizowali sobie coś w rodzaju równoległego "festynu" - ubolewa.
Somfalwi nie szczędzi też krytyki nauczycielom, którzy powinni byli uspokoić swoich podopiecznych. Jego zdaniem, zamiast to zrobić, obojętnie przypatrywali się ekscesom bądź nawet próbowali tłumaczyć zachowanie uczniów.
Dziennikarz wylicza: głośne śmiechy, krótkie drzemki na trawie, słuchanie muzyki, opowiadanie dowcipów, palenie, jedzenie, chichoty, krzyki, zabawy w "berka". I podsumowuje, że w Izraelu zapomniano o wpojeniu młodym ludziom zasad moralnych.
"Nie wspomnę o postawie uczniów podczas polskiego hymnu, bo mi po prostu wstyd" - dodaje Somfalwi.
The list of losses Israeli teenagers’ visits leave behind is long and costly. It begins with burned carpets in Polish hotels, and ends with Jewish teenagers’ trauma. But more and more often with local residents’ trauma too.
Roberto Lucchesini, originally from Tuscany, for several years now a resident of Krakow, hasn’t been sleeping well recently. Before he will be able to move his arms normally again, he will have to go through long rehab. All this because of how he was treated, in broad daylight in front of passers-by and several teenagers who were hermetically closed in their coach-buses. Israeli bodyguards, equipped with firearms, binded his arms behind his back over his head with handcuffs. In Krakow, in the middle of the street. A moment before, the Italian was trying to make coach drivers parking in front of his house turn their engines off. - ‘Israelis handcuffed me, threw me on the ground, my face landed in dog excrement, and then they were kicking me’. After that the perpetrators were gone. Italian had to be freed by the Polish police.
Lucchesini moved to Kazimierz, a district of Kraków, that used to be a Jewish commune of which the only things left now are synagogues and memories, often painful. He found an apartment with a view on the synagogue. - ‘Back then I had thought this was the most beautiful place on Earth’ - he says - ‘after some time I understood that the place is indeed beautiful, but not for its today’s residents’.
Kicking instead of answers
Jews search tourist
Other resident of Kazimierz, Beata W., office worker is of similar opinion. Israeli security searched her handbag on one of the streets, without telling her why.
- ‘When I asked what was this all about, they told me to shut up. I listened, I stopped talking, I was afraid they’d tell me to get undressed next’ - she says annoyed.
A young polish Jew, who as usual in Sabbath, went to pray in his synagogue couple months ago, also didn’t get his answer. He only asked, why can’t he enter the temple. Instead of an answer, he got kicked.
- ‘I saw this with my own eyes’ - says Mike Urbaniak, the editor of Forum Of Polish Jews and correspondent of European Jewish Press in Poland. - ‘I saw how my friend is being brutally attacked by security agents from Israel, without any reason.’
All this apparently in sake of Israeli childrens’ safety.
- ‘For Poles it may be difficult to understand, but security agents accompany Israelis at all times, both in Israel and abroad’ - explains Michał Sobelman, a spokesman for Israeli embassy in Poland. - ‘This is a parents’ demand, otherwise they wouldn’t agree for any kind of trip. Poland is no exception.’
But it was in Poland, as Mike Urbaniak reports, where Jews from Israel brutally kicked a Polish Jew in front of a synagogue, and then threatened him with prison. In plain view of the Israeli teenagers.
- ‘We are very sorry when we hear about such incidents’ - Sobelman admits - ‘Detailed analysis is carried out in each case. We will do everything we can, to prevent such situations in the future. Maybe we will have to change training methods of our security agents, so that they would know Poland is not like Israel, that the scale of threats here is insignificant?
Professor Moshe Zimmermann, head of German History Institute at Hebrew University in Jerusalem thinks however, that the problem is not only in the security agents’ behaviour. He thinks Israelis basically think that Poles aren’t equal partners for them. And it’s not only that they think Poles can’t ensure their children’s safety.
- ‘They are not equal partners to any kind of discussion. It applies also to our common history, contemporary history and politics. In result Israeli youth see Poles as second category people, as potential enemies’ - he explains bluntly.
An instruction on conduct with the local inhabitants given away to Israeli teenagers coming to Poland couple years ago may confirm professor’s opinion. It contained such a paragraph: ‘Everywhere we will be surrounded by Poles. We will hate them because of their participation in Holocaust’.
Jews hate Poles
- ‘Agendas of our teenagers’ trips to Poland are set in advance by the Israeli government, and are not flexible’ - says Ilona Dworak-Cousin, the chairwoman of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel. - ‘Those trips basically come down to visiting, one by one, the places of extermination of Jews. From that perspective Poland is just a huge Jewish graveyard. And nothing more. Meeting living people, for those who organise these trips, is meaningless.’
A resident of Kraków’s Kazimierz district, who is of Jewish descent, says that there is nothing wrong with that: - ‘Israelis don’t come to Poland for holiday. Their aim is to see the sites of Shoah and listen to the terrifying history of their families, history that often is not told to them by their grandparents, because of its emotional weight. Often young people who are leaving, cry, phone their parents and say “why didn’t you tell me it was that horrible?”. To be frank, I am not surprised they have no interest in talking about Lajkonik‘.
However according to Ilona Dworak-Cousin the lack of contact with Poles, causes Israeli youth to confuse victims with the perpetrators. - ‘They start to think it were the Poles who created concentration camps for Jews, that it is the Polish who were and still are the biggest anti-Semites in the world’ - adds Dworak-Cousin, who is Jewish herself.
The above mentioned Kraków resident has a different opinion. - ‘I don’t believe anyone was telling them that the Poles had been doing this. That’s why there is no need for discussing anything with the Poles’.
Teenagers behaving badly
However, many Israelis say that although the instruction was eventually changed, the attitude to Poles has not changed at all.
- ‘Someone in Israel some day decided, that our children going to Poland have to be hermetically surrounded by security’ - says Lili Haber president of Cracovians Association in Israel. - ‘Someone decided that young Israelis cannot meet young Poles, and cannot walk the streets. Basically these visits aren’t anything else but a several-day-long voluntary prison.’
RIch brat jews
Voluntary, but also very expensive: 1400 USD per person. Not every Israeli parent can afford such a trip.
- ‘Moreover, as it turns out, the children are too young, to visit sites of mass murders’ - adds dr Ilona Dworak-Cousin. Traumatic experiences that accompany visits in death camps have its consequences. Kids become aggressive. And instead of getting to know the country of their ancestors, in which Jews and Poles lived in symbiosis for over 1000 years, Israeli teenagers cause one scandal after another.
Shitting in beds
It happens sometimes, that somewhere between Majdanek and Treblinka, young Israelis spend their time on striptease ordered via the hotel telephone. It happens sometimes, that the hotel service has to collect human excrement from hotel beds and washbasins. It happens sometimes, that hotels have to give money back to other tourists, who cannot sleep because Israeli kids decided to play football in hotel corridor. In the middle of the night.
Jews block streets
6-year-old Krzys from Kazimierz played football too. On Sunday night on 15th April, after shooting two goals, he wanted to go home, as usual. He lives near a synagogue, in front of which hundreds of young Israelis have gathered on celebrations preceding March of Living. Just before Szeroka street he was stopped by some not-so-nice men. - ‘This is a semi-private area today. There is no entry’ - he was told. It didn’t help, when he told them, his mum will get upset if he won’t be home on time.
Security officers, which is interesting, were Polish this time and accompanied by the Polish police. They also denied access to the area to a Dutch couple, who had reserved a table at one of the restaurants on Szeroka street six months ago. - ‘Is this a free country?’ - One of the tourists tried to make sure.
On a normal day you can access Szeroka street from several sides. That evening from none. I tried to get through myself, without any success. Only eventually, the police helped me to pass the security line.
- ‘There are no official restrictions here’ - they were convincing me a moment later, although the “unofficial practice” was different.
- ‘We have only set certain restrictions in movement’ - Sylvia Bober-Jasnoch, a spokeswoman for Malopolska Region Police press service, explained to me later.
The police cannot say anything else. Polish law does not allow residents to be denied access to the streets they live at. Even during the so called mass events (however the celebrations on Szeroka did not have that status) residents have the right to go back to their homes and tourists have the right to dine in a restaurant. Also Israeli security agents have no right to stop or search passers-by.
I tried to find out more on the rights of Israeli security agents in Poland. First at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from where my question was sent to…. the Ministry of Education. I have also sent questions to the Home Office. Although I was promised, I received no answer. Only person eager to talk on that matter was Maciej Kozłowski, former ambassador in Israel, currently the Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Polish-Israeli relations.
- ‘Regulations are imprecise’ - admits Kozłowski. ‘Basically bodyguards from a foreign country should not move around Poland armed. However for the government of Israel security matters are a priority. Any convincing that their citizens should use the services of Polish security turned unsuccessful’.
Airplane like battle field
The Polish-Italian couple, Robert Lucchesini, his wife Anna, and their two-year-old daughter, cannot understand Polish government’s attitude. Which contrary to the Israeli government, is not able to ensure the safety of its citizens. Safety is not the only thing among the pair’s priorities, but also peace and quietness. They are however being woken up every morning by the loud noises of engines, of the Polish coach-buses with groups of Israeli youth. Their Polish drivers brake driving regulations all the time. They’re allowed to park at the square near the synagogue (in front of Robert’s house) only for up to 10 minutes. They stay there much longer, even hours. With their engines turned on. Reason? Youth’s safety - they would be able to leave quicker in case of a threat. And because Israeli kids need to be served coffee. Because even though Kazimierz is full of cafes, Israeli teenagers don’t go there. They are being told: no contacts with environment, no talking to passers-by, no smiles nor gestures.
This has been going for years. Israeli groups contact with Poles only there where they have to. First in airplanes.
Slapped stewardess
- ‘A plane after such group has landed, looks like a battle field’ - admits a worker of LOT Polish Airlines asking for his name not to be published. - ‘The worst thing is these kids’ attitude to Polish staff. Recently a stewardess was slapped by a teenager in her face. Because he had been waiting for his coca-cola too long’.
Leszek Chorzewski, LOT spokesman, admits that Israeli youth is a difficult customer. - ‘They demand not only more attention then other passengers, but also more security precautions’ - he adds. These precautions are long aircraft and airport controls conducted by Israeli services. These are also the high demands of the teenagers’ security agents.
Katarzyna Łazuga, student from Poznań, could see that first hand. She participated in a tourist guides’ training on one of Polish airports. ‘Young people from Israel entered the room we were in’, she recalls. - ‘Our group was then made to stop classes and rushed out of the room. Israeli security officers told us to go out, right now and without any talking. Because… we were “staring” at their clients. Yes, we were looking at them. They were catching attention, they were good looking.’
Young Israelis see Poles also there, where they board - in Polish hotels. If any of them still wants to have them. Most of those in Kraków don’t want to any more.
- ‘We have resigned from admitting Israeli youth once and for all’ - admits Agnieszka Tomczyk, assistant manageress in a chain of hotels called System. ‘We could not afford to refund the loses after their stays any more’.
Shiting in beds
These loses being: demolished rooms, broken chairs and tables, human excrements in washbasins or trash bins, or like in Astoria, other hotel in Kraków, burned carpet. Astoria also backs out from having Israeli groups. One of the reasons is that the teenagers’ security agents were ordering other guests, whom they didn’t like, to leave.
- ‘I understand that Israeli security agents are over-sensitive to any disturbing signals. They are coming from a country where bombs explode almost daily, and young people die in terrorist attacks’ - ensures Mike Urbaniak. - ‘But Poland is one of the safest countries in Europe. Here, excluding tiny number of incidents, Jews are not being attacked, and Jewish institutions don’t need security, which is very unusual on a world scale’.
Huge business
Chasidim, travelling in great numbers from Israel, also (surprisingly) don’t need security agents. Including for example many Orthodox Jews, who came to visit our country recently, as they wanted to pray at Tzadik of Lelów’s grave. They came to the market square in Kazimierz without any security assistance and without any fear.
- ‘They chatted eagerly with tourists interested in their outfits, with passers-by who don’t see Jews with side curls every day’ - adds Urbaniak.
In Kazimierz chasidim are nothing unusual. Like groups of Israeli teenagers. This year 30,000 Israeli teenagers are coming to Poland, and they will have 800 security agents to protect them.
Roberto Lucchesini reported to the Polish police that he got beaten by Israeli security. Krakow Prosecution Office is investigating the case, and so is its counterpart in Israel.
- ‘Results of this investigation are of medium importance’ - thinks Ilona Dworak-Cousin. - ‘What matters is if the youth that visits Poland, will still treat it as hostile and completely alien country’.
Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel and Cracovians Association in Israel both try to convince the government of their country, not to send any more teenagers to see only the death camps in Poland. Chances are slim.
- ‘These trips are mostly a huge business for people who organise them’ - says Lili Haber - ‘including Israeli bodyguards’.
Israeli Tourists with an angry streak
AMONGST some of Israeli Jewish tourists who come to Poland lurk a terrible bunch 'the angry ones'.
There are many 'angry ones' coming ‘back’ to Poland. I don’t have a number, but I know -– I meet them.
I hear them in their noisy groups when they flood the small peaceful streets of Kazimierz, talking as if they forgot to pack any sense of volume control and singing like drunk football fans returning from a soccer match.
I see them obnoxiously draped in Israeli flags which appear as essential to their outfit as their underwear.
Each group that comes 'back' come for its own reasons.
I met a group who, in my opinion, did not come for the right reason.
This group came in order to vent their anger they came to be angry.
One of them suggested that the Jewish community in Poland has been unfairly making money off the tourists that visit.
She further complained (to me and several non-Jewish members of the museum’s staff) of her disappointment and disgust that none of their guides had been Jewish.
When a young member of the Polish Jewish community joined the discussion, she said that she knew how the Jewish community here should be organized.
And she was dumbfounded to hear that the regular Jewish organizations which existed in her own community had not been installed here.
“But why don’t the young Jews of Poland join the lone-soldiers’ program in Israel?” she asked in shock.
“Their parents will be provided with a free ticket to visit their children at the end of the course!”
As if this incentive alone should be enough to convince these young Poles that their only option in life is to join the Israeli army.
It is most definitely important for those Jews who feel the interest to visit Poland to do so.
I urge them to come and see the traces of the vibrant prewar Jewish life in Poland which can still be found.
I wholly support that they visit as a means to pay respect to those who were murdered in the Shoah.
But I beg that each travelers asks himself first -– why am I coming?
Please don’t come as a way of releasing your anger on the Polish population.
Yes, the vast majority of Jews who were killed in the Shoah were done so on Polish soil.
But it was the Nazis who perpetrated this act, and even if some Poles supported their actions, it was not the Poles who committed the Holocaust.
Please don’t come to draw inappropriate levels of attention toward yourself as a way of proving to the Poles that the Jewish nation is still alive.
It is unfair on today’s Poles, the vast majority of whom are completely innocent.
It is also an inappropriate expression of nationalism in a foreign country.
The "angry" jews have no idea about the polish-jewish history.
They have no idea who Irena Sendler was or who Jan Karski was and how Poland looked like between 1939-45.
They have no idea how many Polish families helped Jews during the war and how many Poles were killed instantly because of that by the German nazis.
Kasia in Kazimierz asks Jewish tourists to not come to Poland “to be angry”: “Rather, come to learn about the past and perhaps about your family’s heritage. Come to learn from Poland’s diverse Jewish community, a community who really understands what it means to look after one another. Come to meet with non-Jewish Poles who really do care about restoring the memory of the Jewish community which was wiped off their map. Come to understand the true complexities of Polish-Jewish relations.”
Śmiechy i dowcipy podczas uroczystości
piątek 25 kwietnia 2008 18:20
Oburzające zachowanie młodych Żydów w getcie
» Oburzające zachowanie młodych Żydów w getcie Zamknij X
zobacz galerię fot. Michał Rozbicki Opowiadali sobie dowcipy, grali w berka, drzemali na trawie... Uczniowie z Izraela nie potrafili zachować się podczas niedawnych obchodów 65. rocznicy powstania w warszawskim getcie. Zwrócił na to uwagę izraelski portal "Ynetnews". Autor informacji nie kryje oburzenia.
Attila Somfalwi jest zażenowany zachowaniem izraelskiej młodzieży, która przyjechała na uroczystości w Warszawie. Podczas gdy setki uczestników obchodów rocznicowych, w obecności prezydentów Polski i Izraela, w wielkim skupieniu słuchało przemówień, uczniowie zorganizowali sobie coś w rodzaju równoległego "festynu" - ubolewa.
Somfalwi nie szczędzi też krytyki nauczycielom, którzy powinni byli uspokoić swoich podopiecznych. Jego zdaniem, zamiast to zrobić, obojętnie przypatrywali się ekscesom bądź nawet próbowali tłumaczyć zachowanie uczniów.
Dziennikarz wylicza: głośne śmiechy, krótkie drzemki na trawie, słuchanie muzyki, opowiadanie dowcipów, palenie, jedzenie, chichoty, krzyki, zabawy w "berka". I podsumowuje, że w Izraelu zapomniano o wpojeniu młodym ludziom zasad moralnych.
"Nie wspomnę o postawie uczniów podczas polskiego hymnu, bo mi po prostu wstyd" - dodaje Somfalwi.
The list of losses Israeli teenagers’ visits leave behind is long and costly. It begins with burned carpets in Polish hotels, and ends with Jewish teenagers’ trauma. But more and more often with local residents’ trauma too.
Roberto Lucchesini, originally from Tuscany, for several years now a resident of Krakow, hasn’t been sleeping well recently. Before he will be able to move his arms normally again, he will have to go through long rehab. All this because of how he was treated, in broad daylight in front of passers-by and several teenagers who were hermetically closed in their coach-buses. Israeli bodyguards, equipped with firearms, binded his arms behind his back over his head with handcuffs. In Krakow, in the middle of the street. A moment before, the Italian was trying to make coach drivers parking in front of his house turn their engines off. - ‘Israelis handcuffed me, threw me on the ground, my face landed in dog excrement, and then they were kicking me’. After that the perpetrators were gone. Italian had to be freed by the Polish police.
Lucchesini moved to Kazimierz, a district of Kraków, that used to be a Jewish commune of which the only things left now are synagogues and memories, often painful. He found an apartment with a view on the synagogue. - ‘Back then I had thought this was the most beautiful place on Earth’ - he says - ‘after some time I understood that the place is indeed beautiful, but not for its today’s residents’.
Kicking instead of answers
Jews search tourist
Other resident of Kazimierz, Beata W., office worker is of similar opinion. Israeli security searched her handbag on one of the streets, without telling her why.
- ‘When I asked what was this all about, they told me to shut up. I listened, I stopped talking, I was afraid they’d tell me to get undressed next’ - she says annoyed.
A young polish Jew, who as usual in Sabbath, went to pray in his synagogue couple months ago, also didn’t get his answer. He only asked, why can’t he enter the temple. Instead of an answer, he got kicked.
- ‘I saw this with my own eyes’ - says Mike Urbaniak, the editor of Forum Of Polish Jews and correspondent of European Jewish Press in Poland. - ‘I saw how my friend is being brutally attacked by security agents from Israel, without any reason.’
All this apparently in sake of Israeli childrens’ safety.
- ‘For Poles it may be difficult to understand, but security agents accompany Israelis at all times, both in Israel and abroad’ - explains Michał Sobelman, a spokesman for Israeli embassy in Poland. - ‘This is a parents’ demand, otherwise they wouldn’t agree for any kind of trip. Poland is no exception.’
But it was in Poland, as Mike Urbaniak reports, where Jews from Israel brutally kicked a Polish Jew in front of a synagogue, and then threatened him with prison. In plain view of the Israeli teenagers.
- ‘We are very sorry when we hear about such incidents’ - Sobelman admits - ‘Detailed analysis is carried out in each case. We will do everything we can, to prevent such situations in the future. Maybe we will have to change training methods of our security agents, so that they would know Poland is not like Israel, that the scale of threats here is insignificant?
Professor Moshe Zimmermann, head of German History Institute at Hebrew University in Jerusalem thinks however, that the problem is not only in the security agents’ behaviour. He thinks Israelis basically think that Poles aren’t equal partners for them. And it’s not only that they think Poles can’t ensure their children’s safety.
- ‘They are not equal partners to any kind of discussion. It applies also to our common history, contemporary history and politics. In result Israeli youth see Poles as second category people, as potential enemies’ - he explains bluntly.
An instruction on conduct with the local inhabitants given away to Israeli teenagers coming to Poland couple years ago may confirm professor’s opinion. It contained such a paragraph: ‘Everywhere we will be surrounded by Poles. We will hate them because of their participation in Holocaust’.
Jews hate Poles
- ‘Agendas of our teenagers’ trips to Poland are set in advance by the Israeli government, and are not flexible’ - says Ilona Dworak-Cousin, the chairwoman of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel. - ‘Those trips basically come down to visiting, one by one, the places of extermination of Jews. From that perspective Poland is just a huge Jewish graveyard. And nothing more. Meeting living people, for those who organise these trips, is meaningless.’
A resident of Kraków’s Kazimierz district, who is of Jewish descent, says that there is nothing wrong with that: - ‘Israelis don’t come to Poland for holiday. Their aim is to see the sites of Shoah and listen to the terrifying history of their families, history that often is not told to them by their grandparents, because of its emotional weight. Often young people who are leaving, cry, phone their parents and say “why didn’t you tell me it was that horrible?”. To be frank, I am not surprised they have no interest in talking about Lajkonik‘.
However according to Ilona Dworak-Cousin the lack of contact with Poles, causes Israeli youth to confuse victims with the perpetrators. - ‘They start to think it were the Poles who created concentration camps for Jews, that it is the Polish who were and still are the biggest anti-Semites in the world’ - adds Dworak-Cousin, who is Jewish herself.
The above mentioned Kraków resident has a different opinion. - ‘I don’t believe anyone was telling them that the Poles had been doing this. That’s why there is no need for discussing anything with the Poles’.
Teenagers behaving badly
However, many Israelis say that although the instruction was eventually changed, the attitude to Poles has not changed at all.
- ‘Someone in Israel some day decided, that our children going to Poland have to be hermetically surrounded by security’ - says Lili Haber president of Cracovians Association in Israel. - ‘Someone decided that young Israelis cannot meet young Poles, and cannot walk the streets. Basically these visits aren’t anything else but a several-day-long voluntary prison.’
RIch brat jews
Voluntary, but also very expensive: 1400 USD per person. Not every Israeli parent can afford such a trip.
- ‘Moreover, as it turns out, the children are too young, to visit sites of mass murders’ - adds dr Ilona Dworak-Cousin. Traumatic experiences that accompany visits in death camps have its consequences. Kids become aggressive. And instead of getting to know the country of their ancestors, in which Jews and Poles lived in symbiosis for over 1000 years, Israeli teenagers cause one scandal after another.
Shitting in beds
It happens sometimes, that somewhere between Majdanek and Treblinka, young Israelis spend their time on striptease ordered via the hotel telephone. It happens sometimes, that the hotel service has to collect human excrement from hotel beds and washbasins. It happens sometimes, that hotels have to give money back to other tourists, who cannot sleep because Israeli kids decided to play football in hotel corridor. In the middle of the night.
Jews block streets
6-year-old Krzys from Kazimierz played football too. On Sunday night on 15th April, after shooting two goals, he wanted to go home, as usual. He lives near a synagogue, in front of which hundreds of young Israelis have gathered on celebrations preceding March of Living. Just before Szeroka street he was stopped by some not-so-nice men. - ‘This is a semi-private area today. There is no entry’ - he was told. It didn’t help, when he told them, his mum will get upset if he won’t be home on time.
Security officers, which is interesting, were Polish this time and accompanied by the Polish police. They also denied access to the area to a Dutch couple, who had reserved a table at one of the restaurants on Szeroka street six months ago. - ‘Is this a free country?’ - One of the tourists tried to make sure.
On a normal day you can access Szeroka street from several sides. That evening from none. I tried to get through myself, without any success. Only eventually, the police helped me to pass the security line.
- ‘There are no official restrictions here’ - they were convincing me a moment later, although the “unofficial practice” was different.
- ‘We have only set certain restrictions in movement’ - Sylvia Bober-Jasnoch, a spokeswoman for Malopolska Region Police press service, explained to me later.
The police cannot say anything else. Polish law does not allow residents to be denied access to the streets they live at. Even during the so called mass events (however the celebrations on Szeroka did not have that status) residents have the right to go back to their homes and tourists have the right to dine in a restaurant. Also Israeli security agents have no right to stop or search passers-by.
I tried to find out more on the rights of Israeli security agents in Poland. First at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from where my question was sent to…. the Ministry of Education. I have also sent questions to the Home Office. Although I was promised, I received no answer. Only person eager to talk on that matter was Maciej Kozłowski, former ambassador in Israel, currently the Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Polish-Israeli relations.
- ‘Regulations are imprecise’ - admits Kozłowski. ‘Basically bodyguards from a foreign country should not move around Poland armed. However for the government of Israel security matters are a priority. Any convincing that their citizens should use the services of Polish security turned unsuccessful’.
Airplane like battle field
The Polish-Italian couple, Robert Lucchesini, his wife Anna, and their two-year-old daughter, cannot understand Polish government’s attitude. Which contrary to the Israeli government, is not able to ensure the safety of its citizens. Safety is not the only thing among the pair’s priorities, but also peace and quietness. They are however being woken up every morning by the loud noises of engines, of the Polish coach-buses with groups of Israeli youth. Their Polish drivers brake driving regulations all the time. They’re allowed to park at the square near the synagogue (in front of Robert’s house) only for up to 10 minutes. They stay there much longer, even hours. With their engines turned on. Reason? Youth’s safety - they would be able to leave quicker in case of a threat. And because Israeli kids need to be served coffee. Because even though Kazimierz is full of cafes, Israeli teenagers don’t go there. They are being told: no contacts with environment, no talking to passers-by, no smiles nor gestures.
This has been going for years. Israeli groups contact with Poles only there where they have to. First in airplanes.
Slapped stewardess
- ‘A plane after such group has landed, looks like a battle field’ - admits a worker of LOT Polish Airlines asking for his name not to be published. - ‘The worst thing is these kids’ attitude to Polish staff. Recently a stewardess was slapped by a teenager in her face. Because he had been waiting for his coca-cola too long’.
Leszek Chorzewski, LOT spokesman, admits that Israeli youth is a difficult customer. - ‘They demand not only more attention then other passengers, but also more security precautions’ - he adds. These precautions are long aircraft and airport controls conducted by Israeli services. These are also the high demands of the teenagers’ security agents.
Katarzyna Łazuga, student from Poznań, could see that first hand. She participated in a tourist guides’ training on one of Polish airports. ‘Young people from Israel entered the room we were in’, she recalls. - ‘Our group was then made to stop classes and rushed out of the room. Israeli security officers told us to go out, right now and without any talking. Because… we were “staring” at their clients. Yes, we were looking at them. They were catching attention, they were good looking.’
Young Israelis see Poles also there, where they board - in Polish hotels. If any of them still wants to have them. Most of those in Kraków don’t want to any more.
- ‘We have resigned from admitting Israeli youth once and for all’ - admits Agnieszka Tomczyk, assistant manageress in a chain of hotels called System. ‘We could not afford to refund the loses after their stays any more’.
Shiting in beds
These loses being: demolished rooms, broken chairs and tables, human excrements in washbasins or trash bins, or like in Astoria, other hotel in Kraków, burned carpet. Astoria also backs out from having Israeli groups. One of the reasons is that the teenagers’ security agents were ordering other guests, whom they didn’t like, to leave.
- ‘I understand that Israeli security agents are over-sensitive to any disturbing signals. They are coming from a country where bombs explode almost daily, and young people die in terrorist attacks’ - ensures Mike Urbaniak. - ‘But Poland is one of the safest countries in Europe. Here, excluding tiny number of incidents, Jews are not being attacked, and Jewish institutions don’t need security, which is very unusual on a world scale’.
Huge business
Chasidim, travelling in great numbers from Israel, also (surprisingly) don’t need security agents. Including for example many Orthodox Jews, who came to visit our country recently, as they wanted to pray at Tzadik of Lelów’s grave. They came to the market square in Kazimierz without any security assistance and without any fear.
- ‘They chatted eagerly with tourists interested in their outfits, with passers-by who don’t see Jews with side curls every day’ - adds Urbaniak.
In Kazimierz chasidim are nothing unusual. Like groups of Israeli teenagers. This year 30,000 Israeli teenagers are coming to Poland, and they will have 800 security agents to protect them.
Roberto Lucchesini reported to the Polish police that he got beaten by Israeli security. Krakow Prosecution Office is investigating the case, and so is its counterpart in Israel.
- ‘Results of this investigation are of medium importance’ - thinks Ilona Dworak-Cousin. - ‘What matters is if the youth that visits Poland, will still treat it as hostile and completely alien country’.
Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel and Cracovians Association in Israel both try to convince the government of their country, not to send any more teenagers to see only the death camps in Poland. Chances are slim.
- ‘These trips are mostly a huge business for people who organise them’ - says Lili Haber - ‘including Israeli bodyguards’.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
"Myśląc Ojczyzna" prof. dr hab. Piotr Jaroszyński
"Myśląc Ojczyzna" prof. dr hab. Piotr Jaroszyński
"Myśląc Ojczyzna"
prof. dr hab. Piotr Jaroszyński (2008-06-03)
Felieton
słuchajzapisz
Władysław Konopczyński, pseud. Dantyszek, Korzonek (ur. 26 listopada 1880 w Warszawie, zm. 12 lipca 1952 w Młyniku koło Ojcowa), historyk polski, profesor Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, członek Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego i Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, współtwórca i pierwszy redaktor naczelny Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego.
Był synem Ignacego (inżyniera komunikacji, uczestnika powstania styczniowego) i Ludwiki z Obrąpalskich, bratankiem Emiliana (pedagoga, dyrektora IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie). Szwagrem Władysława Konopczyńskiego został prawnik, profesor Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego Karol Lutostański.
Uczęszczał do Gimnazjum W. Górskiego i IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie (1891-1899), działając aktywnie w młodzieżowych kółkach politycznych i samokształceniowych. Studiował prawo na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim (1899-1904, kończąc studia ze stopniem kandydata nauk prawnych i politycznych na podstawie pracy Przyczynki do kwestyi powstania liberi veto) oraz historię na Uniwersytecie Lwowskim (1907-1908, 1908 doktorat pod kierunkiem Szymona Askenazego). Był nauczycielem historii w IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie, wykładał także w Towarzystwie Kursów Naukowych tamże. Na podstawie pracy Polska w dobie wojny siedmioletniej (przygotowanej pod kierunkiem Wacława Tokarza) habilitował się w 1911 na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
W 1913 został docentem w Katedrze Historii Powszechnej Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego; lata 1914-1916 spędził w Szwecji. W 1917 mianowany profesorem nadzwyczajnym i kierownikiem Katedry Historii Polski Nowożytnej i Najnowszej, profesorem zwyczajnym został w 1921. W 1939 objął funkcję dziekana Wydziału Filozoficznego, zachowując ją formalnie przez cały okres wojny. Znalazł się w gronie pracowników Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, zatrzymanych w ramach Sonderaktion Krakau; był więziony w Krakowie, Wrocławiu i obozie koncentracyjnym Sachsenhausen, gdzie organizował wykłady i dyskusje naukowe. Po zwolnieniu w lutym 1940 brał udział w tajnym nauczaniu, wykładając historię nowożytną na Tajnym Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim. Po wojnie powrócił do pracy na uniwersytecie; w 1948, oskarżany o publikacje "szowinistycznie obciążone" i przepojone "furią rasistowską", został zmuszony do rezygnacji z pracy. Ostatnie lata życia spędził w posiadłości w Młyniku, chorując na niewydolność serca.
W 1908 został członkiem rzeczywistym, a w 1929 członkiem czynnym Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego; w latach 1925-1926 wchodził w skład Zarządu towarzystwa. W 1922 został członkiem-korespondentem, w 1933 członkiem czynnym Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności. Pełnił funkcję sekretarza (1917-1921), później przewodniczącego (1945-1949) Komisji Historycznej PAU, w latach 1931-1949 przewodniczył Komitetowi Redakcyjnemu Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego, wydawanego przez PAU. Należał również do Towarzystwa Historycznego we Lwowie (1913 członek-założyciel Oddziału Krakowskiego), Polskiego Towarzystwa Historycznego (1946-1952 przewodniczący Oddziału Krakowskiego, 1947 prezes Zarządu Głównego), Towarzystwa Naukowego w Toruniu, Związku Inteligencji Polskiej, Szwedzkiej Akademii Literatury, Historii i Archeologii, Towarzystwa Naukowego w Lund, Królewskiego Towarzystwa dla Wydawania Źródeł do Dziejów Skandynawii w Sztokholmie, Towarzystwa Żeglugi Polskiej.
Był także aktywny politycznie. W 1918 był członkiem Organizacji Narodowej, w latach 1922-1927 pełnił mandat poselski z ramienia Związku Ludowo-Narodowego. Krytykował politykę Józefa Piłsudskiego (m.in. na łamach "Trybuny Narodu"). W czasie wojny polsko-bolszewickiej był instruktorem artylerii. Został odznaczony m.in. Krzyżem Oficerskim szwedzkiego Orderu Gwiazdy Polarnej oraz Krzyżem Oficerskim francuskiej Legii Honorowej.
Zainteresowania naukowe Władysława Konopczyńskiego obejmowały historię Polski XVI i XVII wieku, historię państwa i prawa polskiego, historię parlamentaryzmu europejskiego, edytorstwo i biografistykę. Jest uważany za współtwórcę (obok Wacława Sobieskiego) tzw. nowej historycznej szkoły krakowskiej. Prowadził wieloletnie badania archiwalne (w Wiedniu, Dreźnie, Paryżu, Londynie. Kopenhadze, Berlinie), gromadząc liczne materiały do dziejów politycznych Polski w połowie XVIII wieku. Badał genezę i znaczenie konfederacji barskiej. Zainicjował prace nad utworzeniem polskiego ośrodka dokumentacyjno-informacyjnego. Przygotował do wydania m.in. Dyaryusze sejmowe z wieku XVIII (1911-1937, 3 tomy), Pamiętniki Stanisława Augusta Poniatowskiego (1915, ze Stanisławem Ptaszyckim), Materiały do dziejów wojny konfederackiej 1768-1774r. (1931), Reforma elekcji czy naprawa Rzeczypospolitej (1949, wybór tekstów politycznych z XVIII wieku). Współpracował z Wielką Encyklopedią Powszechną Ilustrowaną (1902-1914), "Biblioteką Warszawską", "Gazetą Polską", "Kwartalnikiem Historycznym", "Przeglądem Historycznym", "Przeglądem Polskim".
W 1921 zgłosił projekt wydania Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego. Po dziesięciu latach idea doczekała się realizacji i Konopczyński został pierwszym redaktorem naczelnym wydawnictwa (1931), publikując do wybuchu wojny cztery tomy (do początku litery "D"); po przerwie wojennej słownik wznowiono i pod redakcją Konopczyńskiego ukazały się kolejne dwa tomy (do połowy litery "F"). W 1948, wraz z przymusową emeryturą redaktora, nastąpiła kolejna przerwa w wydawaniu; tom VII ukazał się już po śmierci Konopczyńskiego w 1958. W gronie studentów Konopczyńskiego byli przyszli redaktorzy Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego - Kazimierz Lepszy i Emanuel Rostworowski, a także m.in. Józef Feldman.
"Myśląc Ojczyzna"
prof. dr hab. Piotr Jaroszyński (2008-06-03)
Felieton
słuchajzapisz
Władysław Konopczyński, pseud. Dantyszek, Korzonek (ur. 26 listopada 1880 w Warszawie, zm. 12 lipca 1952 w Młyniku koło Ojcowa), historyk polski, profesor Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, członek Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego i Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, współtwórca i pierwszy redaktor naczelny Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego.
Był synem Ignacego (inżyniera komunikacji, uczestnika powstania styczniowego) i Ludwiki z Obrąpalskich, bratankiem Emiliana (pedagoga, dyrektora IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie). Szwagrem Władysława Konopczyńskiego został prawnik, profesor Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego Karol Lutostański.
Uczęszczał do Gimnazjum W. Górskiego i IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie (1891-1899), działając aktywnie w młodzieżowych kółkach politycznych i samokształceniowych. Studiował prawo na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim (1899-1904, kończąc studia ze stopniem kandydata nauk prawnych i politycznych na podstawie pracy Przyczynki do kwestyi powstania liberi veto) oraz historię na Uniwersytecie Lwowskim (1907-1908, 1908 doktorat pod kierunkiem Szymona Askenazego). Był nauczycielem historii w IV Gimnazjum w Warszawie, wykładał także w Towarzystwie Kursów Naukowych tamże. Na podstawie pracy Polska w dobie wojny siedmioletniej (przygotowanej pod kierunkiem Wacława Tokarza) habilitował się w 1911 na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim.
W 1913 został docentem w Katedrze Historii Powszechnej Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego; lata 1914-1916 spędził w Szwecji. W 1917 mianowany profesorem nadzwyczajnym i kierownikiem Katedry Historii Polski Nowożytnej i Najnowszej, profesorem zwyczajnym został w 1921. W 1939 objął funkcję dziekana Wydziału Filozoficznego, zachowując ją formalnie przez cały okres wojny. Znalazł się w gronie pracowników Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, zatrzymanych w ramach Sonderaktion Krakau; był więziony w Krakowie, Wrocławiu i obozie koncentracyjnym Sachsenhausen, gdzie organizował wykłady i dyskusje naukowe. Po zwolnieniu w lutym 1940 brał udział w tajnym nauczaniu, wykładając historię nowożytną na Tajnym Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim. Po wojnie powrócił do pracy na uniwersytecie; w 1948, oskarżany o publikacje "szowinistycznie obciążone" i przepojone "furią rasistowską", został zmuszony do rezygnacji z pracy. Ostatnie lata życia spędził w posiadłości w Młyniku, chorując na niewydolność serca.
W 1908 został członkiem rzeczywistym, a w 1929 członkiem czynnym Towarzystwa Naukowego Warszawskiego; w latach 1925-1926 wchodził w skład Zarządu towarzystwa. W 1922 został członkiem-korespondentem, w 1933 członkiem czynnym Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności. Pełnił funkcję sekretarza (1917-1921), później przewodniczącego (1945-1949) Komisji Historycznej PAU, w latach 1931-1949 przewodniczył Komitetowi Redakcyjnemu Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego, wydawanego przez PAU. Należał również do Towarzystwa Historycznego we Lwowie (1913 członek-założyciel Oddziału Krakowskiego), Polskiego Towarzystwa Historycznego (1946-1952 przewodniczący Oddziału Krakowskiego, 1947 prezes Zarządu Głównego), Towarzystwa Naukowego w Toruniu, Związku Inteligencji Polskiej, Szwedzkiej Akademii Literatury, Historii i Archeologii, Towarzystwa Naukowego w Lund, Królewskiego Towarzystwa dla Wydawania Źródeł do Dziejów Skandynawii w Sztokholmie, Towarzystwa Żeglugi Polskiej.
Był także aktywny politycznie. W 1918 był członkiem Organizacji Narodowej, w latach 1922-1927 pełnił mandat poselski z ramienia Związku Ludowo-Narodowego. Krytykował politykę Józefa Piłsudskiego (m.in. na łamach "Trybuny Narodu"). W czasie wojny polsko-bolszewickiej był instruktorem artylerii. Został odznaczony m.in. Krzyżem Oficerskim szwedzkiego Orderu Gwiazdy Polarnej oraz Krzyżem Oficerskim francuskiej Legii Honorowej.
Zainteresowania naukowe Władysława Konopczyńskiego obejmowały historię Polski XVI i XVII wieku, historię państwa i prawa polskiego, historię parlamentaryzmu europejskiego, edytorstwo i biografistykę. Jest uważany za współtwórcę (obok Wacława Sobieskiego) tzw. nowej historycznej szkoły krakowskiej. Prowadził wieloletnie badania archiwalne (w Wiedniu, Dreźnie, Paryżu, Londynie. Kopenhadze, Berlinie), gromadząc liczne materiały do dziejów politycznych Polski w połowie XVIII wieku. Badał genezę i znaczenie konfederacji barskiej. Zainicjował prace nad utworzeniem polskiego ośrodka dokumentacyjno-informacyjnego. Przygotował do wydania m.in. Dyaryusze sejmowe z wieku XVIII (1911-1937, 3 tomy), Pamiętniki Stanisława Augusta Poniatowskiego (1915, ze Stanisławem Ptaszyckim), Materiały do dziejów wojny konfederackiej 1768-1774r. (1931), Reforma elekcji czy naprawa Rzeczypospolitej (1949, wybór tekstów politycznych z XVIII wieku). Współpracował z Wielką Encyklopedią Powszechną Ilustrowaną (1902-1914), "Biblioteką Warszawską", "Gazetą Polską", "Kwartalnikiem Historycznym", "Przeglądem Historycznym", "Przeglądem Polskim".
W 1921 zgłosił projekt wydania Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego. Po dziesięciu latach idea doczekała się realizacji i Konopczyński został pierwszym redaktorem naczelnym wydawnictwa (1931), publikując do wybuchu wojny cztery tomy (do początku litery "D"); po przerwie wojennej słownik wznowiono i pod redakcją Konopczyńskiego ukazały się kolejne dwa tomy (do połowy litery "F"). W 1948, wraz z przymusową emeryturą redaktora, nastąpiła kolejna przerwa w wydawaniu; tom VII ukazał się już po śmierci Konopczyńskiego w 1958. W gronie studentów Konopczyńskiego byli przyszli redaktorzy Polskiego Słownika Biograficznego - Kazimierz Lepszy i Emanuel Rostworowski, a także m.in. Józef Feldman.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Israeli Propaganda Machine and How it works? Noam Chomsky.
Israeli Propaganda Machine and How it works? Noam Chomsky.
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (1-8)
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (2-8)
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (3-8)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (4 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (5 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (6 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (7 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (8 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (9 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (10 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (1-8)
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (2-8)
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (3-8)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (4 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (5 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (6 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (7 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (8 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (9 of 10)
Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (10 of 10)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Sendler Irena Mother of the Holocaust Children
Sendler Irena Mother of the Holocaust Children
Poland was the only country in all of Nazi-occupied Europe with death penalty for sheltering Jews. Germans knew how sympathetic Poles were to Polish Jews and in that way they could get rid of them both. Entire families, sometimes whole towns were murdered for sheltering Jews.
Cobalt4you (1 week ago) Marked as spam Reply | Spam What about the fact that - despite the overwhelming and deadly idea of antisemitism in the Third Reich - there were a large number of individuals and organizations (such as Zygota in Poland) that risked (and sometimes lost) their lives in the effort to save Jews? They saved thousands of Jewish children from the Nazi, smuggled them out of the Warsaw Getto and hid with Polish families?
Poland was the only country in all of Nazi-occupied Europe with death penalty for sheltering Jews. Germans knew how sympathetic Poles were to Polish Jews and in that way they could get rid of them both. Entire families, sometimes whole towns were murdered for sheltering Jews.
Cobalt4you (1 week ago) Marked as spam Reply | Spam What about the fact that - despite the overwhelming and deadly idea of antisemitism in the Third Reich - there were a large number of individuals and organizations (such as Zygota in Poland) that risked (and sometimes lost) their lives in the effort to save Jews? They saved thousands of Jewish children from the Nazi, smuggled them out of the Warsaw Getto and hid with Polish families?
Jan Piwnik "Ponury" Nie możemy o Nich zapomnieć!Szczególnie o Tych,co walczyli dalej z czerwonym okupantem.
Jan Piwnik "Ponury" Nie możemy o Nich zapomnieć!Szczególnie o Tych,co walczyli dalej z czerwonym okupantem.
Bardzo dobry film! znakomita muzyka! Mam pytanie czy by ktoś mógłby zrobic film ku pamięci podpułkownika Jana Wojciecha Kiwerskiego ps."Oliwa" dowódcy 27 Wołyńskiej Dywizji AK, wczesniej wydał on rozkaz do "Akcji pod Arsenałem", poległ prawdopodobnie z rąk NKWD w 1944! ja niestety nie potrafię robić filmów takich z czego żałuje
Witam, zdjęcia pochodzą z książki Cezarego Chlebowskiego. Pozdrawiam.
Nie możemy o Nich zapomnieć!Szczególnie o Tych,co walczyli dalej z czerwonym okupantem.
Akurat "Ponury" nie jest moim przodkiem,lecz w mojej rodzinie uchowały sie jakies zdjecia z okupacji właśnie z Nim i przekazy słowne na temat tamtych czasów i tamtej części Polski.Pozdrawiam.Chwała Im!Niech pamięć nie zaginie!
Bardzo dobry!Podoba mi się.Muzyka świetnie dobrana!
Bardzo dobry film! znakomita muzyka! Mam pytanie czy by ktoś mógłby zrobic film ku pamięci podpułkownika Jana Wojciecha Kiwerskiego ps."Oliwa" dowódcy 27 Wołyńskiej Dywizji AK, wczesniej wydał on rozkaz do "Akcji pod Arsenałem", poległ prawdopodobnie z rąk NKWD w 1944! ja niestety nie potrafię robić filmów takich z czego żałuje
Witam, zdjęcia pochodzą z książki Cezarego Chlebowskiego. Pozdrawiam.
Nie możemy o Nich zapomnieć!Szczególnie o Tych,co walczyli dalej z czerwonym okupantem.
Akurat "Ponury" nie jest moim przodkiem,lecz w mojej rodzinie uchowały sie jakies zdjecia z okupacji właśnie z Nim i przekazy słowne na temat tamtych czasów i tamtej części Polski.Pozdrawiam.Chwała Im!Niech pamięć nie zaginie!
Bardzo dobry!Podoba mi się.Muzyka świetnie dobrana!
Monday, March 24, 2008
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
Pilecki i Anders
("Let's Reminisce About Witold Pilecki")
Witold Pilecki was born in Poland in 1901. When the German Army invaded the country in September, 1939, Pilecki joined the Tajna Armia Polska, the Secret Polish Army.
When Pilecki discovered the existence of Auschwitz, he suggested a plan to his senior officers. Pilecki argued he should get himself arrested and sent to the concentration camp. He would then send out reports of what was happening in the camp. Pilecki would also explore the possibility of organizing a mass break-out.
Pilecki's colonel eventually agreed and after securing a false identity as Tomasz Serafinski, he arranged to be arrested in September, 1940. As expected he was sent to Auschwitz where he became prisoner 4,859. His work consisted of building more huts to hold the increased numbers of prisoners.
Pilecki soon discovered the brutality of the Schutz Staffeinel (SS) guards. When one man managed to escape on 28th October 1940, all the prisoners were forced to stand at attention on the parade-ground from noon till nine in the evening. Anyone who moved was shot and over 200 prisoners died of exposure. Pilecki was able to send reports back to the Tajna Armia Polska explaining how the Germans were treating their prisoners. This information was then sent to the foreign office in London.
In 1942 Pilecki discovered that new windowless concrete huts were being built with nozzles in their ceilings. Soon afterwards he heard that that prisoners were being herded into these huts and that the nozzles were being used to feed cyanide gas into the building. Afterwards the bodies were taken to the building next door where they were cremated.
Pilecki got this information to the Tajna Armia Polska who passed it onto the British foreign office. This information was then passed on to the governments of other Allied countries. However, most people who saw the reports refused to believe them and dismissed the stories as attempts by the Poles to manipulate the military strategy of the Allies.
In the autumn of 1942, Jozef Cyrankiewicz, a member of the Polish Communist Party, was sent to Auschwitz. Pilecki and Cyrankiewicz worked closely together in organizing a mass breakout. By the end of 1942 they had a group of 500 ready to try and overthrow their guards.
Four of the inmates escaped on their own on 29th December, 1942. One of these men, a dentist called Kuczbara, was caught and interrogated by the Gestapo. Kuczbara was one of the leaders of Pilecki's group and so when he heard the news he realized that it would be only a matter of time before the SS realized that he had been organizing these escape attempts.
Pilecki had already arranged his escape route and after feigning typhus, he escaped from the hospital on 24th April, 1943. After hiding in the local forest, Pilecki reached his unit of the Tajna Armia Polska on 2nd May. He returned to normal duties and fought during the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944. Although captured by the German Army he was eventually released by Allied troops in April, 1945.
After the Second World War Pilecki went to live in Poland.The Polish Secret Police had him executed in 1948. It is believed that this was a result of his anti-communist activities.
Only Ghosts And Echoes -
Posted by Felis in Heroes, History (Sunday February 12, 2006 at 5:03 pm)
I learnt about Witold Pilecki only by accident, when my maternal grandfather dropped his name while talking about his former associate and the then Polish Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz.
- Cyrankiewicz, he said, could have saved Pilecki but of course his own heroic tale could have been ruined.
I started asking my grandfather additional questions and learnt a few things about this man, Witold Pilecki, who according to my grandfather’s patchy story, volunteered to go to Auschwitz to gather intelligence for the Home Army (Polish Military Underground Organization) operating during the German occupation.
It was, I think, 1967 and Witold Pilecki as far as the communist authorities were concerned, officially never existed.
My grandfather knew Jozef Cyrankiewicz because both of them were members of PPS -Polish Socialist Party before WWII (PPS was a social-democratic party). Cyrankiewicz was captured and sent by the Germans to Auschwitz in 1942 but my grandfather was saved from being captured by his new identity supported by false documents. After the war, most of the members of PPS accepted the communists’ offer to join the Soviet bandwagon in exchange for good positions within the new administration and sometimes because they weren’t sure what might happen to them if they refused.
This move gave the communists more legitimacy among Western countries as well as the desperate Polish nation.
Or so they thought.
The communist party members were mostly imported from the Soviet Union.
These people, officially Polish, very often could not speak the language and like the first President Boleslaw Bierut were full time NKVG (Soviet Security) employees (the real Polish communist who ended up in Russia after 1939 were mostly executed by Stalin in the 40’s).
And so PPS and PPR (Polish Worker’s Party) were amalgamated into PZPR (Polish United Worker’s Party).
My grandpa was one of those scoundrels, who joined the new organization and for the rest of his life tried to convince himself that his decision was morally justified. He never really made it to the “top†and that is probably why he felt resentment towards Cyrankiewicz for not assisting his old comrades a little bit harder.This is how I learnt about Witold Pilecki for the first time. My grandfather made bitter comments about Cyrankiewicz’s duplicity.
I digress.
I started searching for some more information about Pilecki and slowly a picture emerged, which as much as it was depressing, gave me the feeling of faith in certain moral values, which I thought were long time dead.
Witold Pilecki was rehabilitated only in 1991 and so as I was searching a few days ago for some extra materials about him, I discovered this Wikipedia entry.
There are more sources available on line but because most of them are in Polish, I decided to quote and to translate some additional and interesting aspects of Pilecki’s life story to pay a tribute to the man, who I think, deserves much more recognition.
It was 1940 the Secret Polish Army received conflicting reports about this “new facility†being built and expanded by the Germans in Auschwitz (Oswiecim in Polish) near Kraków.The commanders of the underground, secret army were also receiving requests from the Polish Government, in exile in London; to investigate and to report about German activities around Auschwitz as the unconfirmed rumors about atrocities taking place there reached the allied forces. Witold Pilecki, a lieutenant in the underground army, was the man who volunteered to Auschwitz.
Witold Pilecki was born in 1901 in Oluniec in Russia, where his family was exiled for taking part in the 1863 uprising against Russian occupation of Poland. In 1910 his family moved back into the remains of their property (Pilecki family were small gentry-landowners) near Wilno (today Vilnius). In 1918, he volunteered for the Polish Army that was being formed at that time, and then fought in the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920.
Witold Pilecki in his cavalry uniform
In 1921 Pilecki took leave from the army to pass his High School Certificate exams (Matura). He attempted studying fine arts at the Stefan Batory University for a while.
Finally, he finishes Military school of Cavalry Reserve in Grudziadz and after being transferred to the Army Reserve as a second lieutenant, he takes over the farm management in his family property in Sukurcze in 1926. He lived and worked in Sukurcze until the outbreak of WWII. These were the happiest years of his life.
Witold Pilecki in before WWII
In 1931 Pilecki married Marianna Ostrowska, a teacher from Masovia. They had two children, a son Andrew and daughter Zofia. In the September campaign of 1939, Pilecki fought as a member of the “Prusy†army group. In November after the collapse of Polish defenses, he helped to found the Secret Polish Army, where he served as the Chief of Staff. In August 1940 Pilecki volunteered to infiltrate Germany’s Auschwitz Concentration Camp at Oswiecim
with the following objectives in mind:
Setting up of a secret organization within the camp to:
Provide extra food and distribute clothing among organization members.
Keep up the morale among fellow inmates and supply them with news from the
outside.
Preparing a task force to take over the camp in the eventuality of the
dropping of arms or of a live force (e.g. paratroops).
Report all of the above to the Secret Army headquarters
On September 19, 1940, with the permission of his commanding officers, he intentionally allowed himself to be captured by the Germans during a round-up in Warsaw’s suburb Zoliborz.
He arrived at Auschwitz at 10 P.M. on September 21, 1940, in the “second†Warsaw transport, under the name Tomasz Serafinski. He was registered as number 4859.
Â
Oswiecim - Pilecki’s mug shot
Â
Fragment of Pilecki’s diary (1) translated from Polish:
They made us run straight ahead towards the thicker concentration of lights. Further towards the destination (the SS troopers) ordered one of us to run to the pole on the side of the road and immediately a series from a submachine gun was sent after him.
Dead.
Ten other inmates were pulled out at random from the marching column and shot with pistols while still running to demonstrate to us the idea of “collective reprisal†if an escape was attempted by any one of us (in this case it was all arranged by the SS troopers).
They pulled all eleven corpses by ropes attached to just one leg. Dogs baited the blood soaked bodies.
All of it was done with laughter and jeering.
We were closing to the gate, an opening in the line of fences made of wire.
There was a sign at the top: “Arbeit macht frei†(Through Work To Freedom).
Only later we could fully appreciate its real meaning.
Pilecki survived his first days in Auschwitz and later established the first cell of his secret organization.
Fragment of Pilecki’s diary (2) translated from Polish:
From the darkness, from above the camp’s kitchen, Seidler the butcher spoke to us: †Do not even dream that any one of you will get out of here alive.
Your daily food ratio is intended to keep you alive for 6 weeks; whoever lives longer it’s because he steals and those who steal will be placed in SK, where nobody lives for too long.â€
Wladyslaw Baworowski - the camp’s interpreter translated it to us into Polish.
SK (Straf-Kompanie - Penal Company).
This unit was designated for all Jews, Catholic priests and those Poles whose “offencesâ€
were proven. Ernst Krankemann, the Block Commander, had a duty of finishing off as many prisoners of the unit as he possibly could to make room for new, daily “arrivalsâ€.
This duty suited Krankemann’s character very well.
If someone accidentally moved just little bit too much from the row of prisoners, Krankemann stabbed him with his knife, which he always carried in his right sleeve.
If someone, afraid of making this mistake, positioned himself slightly too far behind, he would be stabbed by the butcher in the kidney.
The sight of a falling human being, kicking his legs and moaning aggravated Krankemann.
He would jump straight away on the victim’s rib cage, kicked his kidneys and genitals, and finished him off as quickly as possible.
In ‘The Polish Underground Movement in Auschwitz’ Garlinski says:.
Pilecki’s secret organization, which he called the ‘Union of Military Organization’, was composed of cells of five prisoners who were unknown to one another with one man designated to be their commander.
These cells were to be found mainly in the camp hospital and camp work allocation office.
Once the first cells were established, contact with Warsaw became essential.
It so happened that at the time, by exceptionally fortuitous circumstances, a prisoner was released from the camp who was able to take Pilecki’s first report. Later reports were smuggled out by civilian workers employed in the camp. Another means was through prisoners who had decided to escape.
From the very start Pilecki’s principal aim was to take over Auschwitz concentration camp and free all the prisoners. He envisaged achieving this by having Home Army detachments attacking from the outside while cadre members of his Union of Military Organization, numbering around a thousand prisoners, would start a revolt from within. All his reports primarily concerned this matter. However, the Home Army High Command was less optimistic and did not believe such an operation to be viable while the Eastern Front was still far away.
In his diary Pilecki didn’t give the SS troopers much credit, and was certain that his organization could have taken control of the camp.
He waited for orders from the headquarters but at the same time the Germans started arresting members of Pilecki’s secret organization and he knew his time was up.
He also believed that if he could present “his case†in person some action would be taken.
Pilecki therefore felt it necessary to present his plans personally. This meant that he would have to escape from the camp, which he succeeded in doing with two other prisoners on 27th April 1943. Before the breakout Pilecki passed on his position within the camp organization to fellow inmate Henryk Bartoszewicz. However, neither his subsequent report nor the fact that he presented it in person altered the high command’s decision.
Fearing the reprisals on the entire Polish population was one of the reasons why such action was not allowed by the high command in London.
Another one was that there was no way to hide or to move such enormous number of people anywhere and with the Eastern Front still far away the whole project was considered unrealistic.
Witold Pilecki escaped from Auschwitz on the Easter Monday 1943, he also survived the Warsaw Uprising an the German POW camp in Germany.
He returned to Poland after the war and started organizing resistance
against the communists.
When he learnt that the Allies would not help to liberate Poland from the Soviets he started demobilizing the military underground organization.
It was then, that the communists arrested him.
Â
Pilecki - communist jail mug shots
Â
He was interrogated and tortured for many months. His finger nails were pulled out and his collarbones broken and he could hardly walk.
He never “talkedâ€.
After his process, which was a simple farce, he was sentenced to death by a firing squad.
There was no firing squad though.
The executioners dragged him the basement of the Security Headquarters building, into the boiler room.
He was gagged and could not walk.
They shot him with a single slug into the back of his head. He was buried somewhere on the rubbish tip next to the Powazki Cemetery.
His body was never found.
A real hero - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
Pilecki i Anders
("Let's Reminisce About Witold Pilecki")
Witold Pilecki was born in Poland in 1901. When the German Army invaded the country in September, 1939, Pilecki joined the Tajna Armia Polska, the Secret Polish Army.
When Pilecki discovered the existence of Auschwitz, he suggested a plan to his senior officers. Pilecki argued he should get himself arrested and sent to the concentration camp. He would then send out reports of what was happening in the camp. Pilecki would also explore the possibility of organizing a mass break-out.
Pilecki's colonel eventually agreed and after securing a false identity as Tomasz Serafinski, he arranged to be arrested in September, 1940. As expected he was sent to Auschwitz where he became prisoner 4,859. His work consisted of building more huts to hold the increased numbers of prisoners.
Pilecki soon discovered the brutality of the Schutz Staffeinel (SS) guards. When one man managed to escape on 28th October 1940, all the prisoners were forced to stand at attention on the parade-ground from noon till nine in the evening. Anyone who moved was shot and over 200 prisoners died of exposure. Pilecki was able to send reports back to the Tajna Armia Polska explaining how the Germans were treating their prisoners. This information was then sent to the foreign office in London.
In 1942 Pilecki discovered that new windowless concrete huts were being built with nozzles in their ceilings. Soon afterwards he heard that that prisoners were being herded into these huts and that the nozzles were being used to feed cyanide gas into the building. Afterwards the bodies were taken to the building next door where they were cremated.
Pilecki got this information to the Tajna Armia Polska who passed it onto the British foreign office. This information was then passed on to the governments of other Allied countries. However, most people who saw the reports refused to believe them and dismissed the stories as attempts by the Poles to manipulate the military strategy of the Allies.
In the autumn of 1942, Jozef Cyrankiewicz, a member of the Polish Communist Party, was sent to Auschwitz. Pilecki and Cyrankiewicz worked closely together in organizing a mass breakout. By the end of 1942 they had a group of 500 ready to try and overthrow their guards.
Four of the inmates escaped on their own on 29th December, 1942. One of these men, a dentist called Kuczbara, was caught and interrogated by the Gestapo. Kuczbara was one of the leaders of Pilecki's group and so when he heard the news he realized that it would be only a matter of time before the SS realized that he had been organizing these escape attempts.
Pilecki had already arranged his escape route and after feigning typhus, he escaped from the hospital on 24th April, 1943. After hiding in the local forest, Pilecki reached his unit of the Tajna Armia Polska on 2nd May. He returned to normal duties and fought during the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944. Although captured by the German Army he was eventually released by Allied troops in April, 1945.
After the Second World War Pilecki went to live in Poland.The Polish Secret Police had him executed in 1948. It is believed that this was a result of his anti-communist activities.
Only Ghosts And Echoes -
Posted by Felis in Heroes, History (Sunday February 12, 2006 at 5:03 pm)
I learnt about Witold Pilecki only by accident, when my maternal grandfather dropped his name while talking about his former associate and the then Polish Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz.
- Cyrankiewicz, he said, could have saved Pilecki but of course his own heroic tale could have been ruined.
I started asking my grandfather additional questions and learnt a few things about this man, Witold Pilecki, who according to my grandfather’s patchy story, volunteered to go to Auschwitz to gather intelligence for the Home Army (Polish Military Underground Organization) operating during the German occupation.
It was, I think, 1967 and Witold Pilecki as far as the communist authorities were concerned, officially never existed.
My grandfather knew Jozef Cyrankiewicz because both of them were members of PPS -Polish Socialist Party before WWII (PPS was a social-democratic party). Cyrankiewicz was captured and sent by the Germans to Auschwitz in 1942 but my grandfather was saved from being captured by his new identity supported by false documents. After the war, most of the members of PPS accepted the communists’ offer to join the Soviet bandwagon in exchange for good positions within the new administration and sometimes because they weren’t sure what might happen to them if they refused.
This move gave the communists more legitimacy among Western countries as well as the desperate Polish nation.
Or so they thought.
The communist party members were mostly imported from the Soviet Union.
These people, officially Polish, very often could not speak the language and like the first President Boleslaw Bierut were full time NKVG (Soviet Security) employees (the real Polish communist who ended up in Russia after 1939 were mostly executed by Stalin in the 40’s).
And so PPS and PPR (Polish Worker’s Party) were amalgamated into PZPR (Polish United Worker’s Party).
My grandpa was one of those scoundrels, who joined the new organization and for the rest of his life tried to convince himself that his decision was morally justified. He never really made it to the “top†and that is probably why he felt resentment towards Cyrankiewicz for not assisting his old comrades a little bit harder.This is how I learnt about Witold Pilecki for the first time. My grandfather made bitter comments about Cyrankiewicz’s duplicity.
I digress.
I started searching for some more information about Pilecki and slowly a picture emerged, which as much as it was depressing, gave me the feeling of faith in certain moral values, which I thought were long time dead.
Witold Pilecki was rehabilitated only in 1991 and so as I was searching a few days ago for some extra materials about him, I discovered this Wikipedia entry.
There are more sources available on line but because most of them are in Polish, I decided to quote and to translate some additional and interesting aspects of Pilecki’s life story to pay a tribute to the man, who I think, deserves much more recognition.
It was 1940 the Secret Polish Army received conflicting reports about this “new facility†being built and expanded by the Germans in Auschwitz (Oswiecim in Polish) near Kraków.The commanders of the underground, secret army were also receiving requests from the Polish Government, in exile in London; to investigate and to report about German activities around Auschwitz as the unconfirmed rumors about atrocities taking place there reached the allied forces. Witold Pilecki, a lieutenant in the underground army, was the man who volunteered to Auschwitz.
Witold Pilecki was born in 1901 in Oluniec in Russia, where his family was exiled for taking part in the 1863 uprising against Russian occupation of Poland. In 1910 his family moved back into the remains of their property (Pilecki family were small gentry-landowners) near Wilno (today Vilnius). In 1918, he volunteered for the Polish Army that was being formed at that time, and then fought in the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920.
Witold Pilecki in his cavalry uniform
In 1921 Pilecki took leave from the army to pass his High School Certificate exams (Matura). He attempted studying fine arts at the Stefan Batory University for a while.
Finally, he finishes Military school of Cavalry Reserve in Grudziadz and after being transferred to the Army Reserve as a second lieutenant, he takes over the farm management in his family property in Sukurcze in 1926. He lived and worked in Sukurcze until the outbreak of WWII. These were the happiest years of his life.
Witold Pilecki in before WWII
In 1931 Pilecki married Marianna Ostrowska, a teacher from Masovia. They had two children, a son Andrew and daughter Zofia. In the September campaign of 1939, Pilecki fought as a member of the “Prusy†army group. In November after the collapse of Polish defenses, he helped to found the Secret Polish Army, where he served as the Chief of Staff. In August 1940 Pilecki volunteered to infiltrate Germany’s Auschwitz Concentration Camp at Oswiecim
with the following objectives in mind:
Setting up of a secret organization within the camp to:
Provide extra food and distribute clothing among organization members.
Keep up the morale among fellow inmates and supply them with news from the
outside.
Preparing a task force to take over the camp in the eventuality of the
dropping of arms or of a live force (e.g. paratroops).
Report all of the above to the Secret Army headquarters
On September 19, 1940, with the permission of his commanding officers, he intentionally allowed himself to be captured by the Germans during a round-up in Warsaw’s suburb Zoliborz.
He arrived at Auschwitz at 10 P.M. on September 21, 1940, in the “second†Warsaw transport, under the name Tomasz Serafinski. He was registered as number 4859.
Â
Oswiecim - Pilecki’s mug shot
Â
Fragment of Pilecki’s diary (1) translated from Polish:
They made us run straight ahead towards the thicker concentration of lights. Further towards the destination (the SS troopers) ordered one of us to run to the pole on the side of the road and immediately a series from a submachine gun was sent after him.
Dead.
Ten other inmates were pulled out at random from the marching column and shot with pistols while still running to demonstrate to us the idea of “collective reprisal†if an escape was attempted by any one of us (in this case it was all arranged by the SS troopers).
They pulled all eleven corpses by ropes attached to just one leg. Dogs baited the blood soaked bodies.
All of it was done with laughter and jeering.
We were closing to the gate, an opening in the line of fences made of wire.
There was a sign at the top: “Arbeit macht frei†(Through Work To Freedom).
Only later we could fully appreciate its real meaning.
Pilecki survived his first days in Auschwitz and later established the first cell of his secret organization.
Fragment of Pilecki’s diary (2) translated from Polish:
From the darkness, from above the camp’s kitchen, Seidler the butcher spoke to us: †Do not even dream that any one of you will get out of here alive.
Your daily food ratio is intended to keep you alive for 6 weeks; whoever lives longer it’s because he steals and those who steal will be placed in SK, where nobody lives for too long.â€
Wladyslaw Baworowski - the camp’s interpreter translated it to us into Polish.
SK (Straf-Kompanie - Penal Company).
This unit was designated for all Jews, Catholic priests and those Poles whose “offencesâ€
were proven. Ernst Krankemann, the Block Commander, had a duty of finishing off as many prisoners of the unit as he possibly could to make room for new, daily “arrivalsâ€.
This duty suited Krankemann’s character very well.
If someone accidentally moved just little bit too much from the row of prisoners, Krankemann stabbed him with his knife, which he always carried in his right sleeve.
If someone, afraid of making this mistake, positioned himself slightly too far behind, he would be stabbed by the butcher in the kidney.
The sight of a falling human being, kicking his legs and moaning aggravated Krankemann.
He would jump straight away on the victim’s rib cage, kicked his kidneys and genitals, and finished him off as quickly as possible.
In ‘The Polish Underground Movement in Auschwitz’ Garlinski says:.
Pilecki’s secret organization, which he called the ‘Union of Military Organization’, was composed of cells of five prisoners who were unknown to one another with one man designated to be their commander.
These cells were to be found mainly in the camp hospital and camp work allocation office.
Once the first cells were established, contact with Warsaw became essential.
It so happened that at the time, by exceptionally fortuitous circumstances, a prisoner was released from the camp who was able to take Pilecki’s first report. Later reports were smuggled out by civilian workers employed in the camp. Another means was through prisoners who had decided to escape.
From the very start Pilecki’s principal aim was to take over Auschwitz concentration camp and free all the prisoners. He envisaged achieving this by having Home Army detachments attacking from the outside while cadre members of his Union of Military Organization, numbering around a thousand prisoners, would start a revolt from within. All his reports primarily concerned this matter. However, the Home Army High Command was less optimistic and did not believe such an operation to be viable while the Eastern Front was still far away.
In his diary Pilecki didn’t give the SS troopers much credit, and was certain that his organization could have taken control of the camp.
He waited for orders from the headquarters but at the same time the Germans started arresting members of Pilecki’s secret organization and he knew his time was up.
He also believed that if he could present “his case†in person some action would be taken.
Pilecki therefore felt it necessary to present his plans personally. This meant that he would have to escape from the camp, which he succeeded in doing with two other prisoners on 27th April 1943. Before the breakout Pilecki passed on his position within the camp organization to fellow inmate Henryk Bartoszewicz. However, neither his subsequent report nor the fact that he presented it in person altered the high command’s decision.
Fearing the reprisals on the entire Polish population was one of the reasons why such action was not allowed by the high command in London.
Another one was that there was no way to hide or to move such enormous number of people anywhere and with the Eastern Front still far away the whole project was considered unrealistic.
Witold Pilecki escaped from Auschwitz on the Easter Monday 1943, he also survived the Warsaw Uprising an the German POW camp in Germany.
He returned to Poland after the war and started organizing resistance
against the communists.
When he learnt that the Allies would not help to liberate Poland from the Soviets he started demobilizing the military underground organization.
It was then, that the communists arrested him.
Â
Pilecki - communist jail mug shots
Â
He was interrogated and tortured for many months. His finger nails were pulled out and his collarbones broken and he could hardly walk.
He never “talkedâ€.
After his process, which was a simple farce, he was sentenced to death by a firing squad.
There was no firing squad though.
The executioners dragged him the basement of the Security Headquarters building, into the boiler room.
He was gagged and could not walk.
They shot him with a single slug into the back of his head. He was buried somewhere on the rubbish tip next to the Powazki Cemetery.
His body was never found.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Zamordowano bochatera Polski Gen. August Emil Fieldorf Nil
Zamordowano bochatera Polski Gen. August Emil Fieldorf Nil
Friday, February 29, 2008
Real hero of Poland - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
Real hero of Poland - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz
Witold Pilecki (May 13, 1901 – May 25, 1948; pronounced [ˈvitɔld piˈletski]; codenames Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafiński, Druh, Witold) was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska) Polish resistance group and a member of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa).
During World War II, he became the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp. While there, he organized the resistance movement in the camp, and as early as 1940, informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz atrocities. He escaped in 1943 and took part in the Warsaw Uprising (August–October 1944). Pilecki was executed in 1948 by the communists.
Contents[hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Pilecki's early life
1.2 World War II breaks out
1.3 The Auschwitz campaign: 945 days
1.4 Back outside Auschwitz: the Warsaw Uprising.
1.5 Soviet take over of Poland
2 Summary of Pilecki's Polish Army career
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
//
[edit] Biography
[edit] Pilecki's early life
Witold Pilecki was born May 13, 1901, in Olonets on the shores of Lake Ladoga in Karelia, Russia, where his family had been forcibly resettled by Tsarist Russian authorities after the suppression of Poland's January Uprising of 1863–1864. His grandfather, Józef Pilecki, had spent seven years in exile in Siberia for his part in the uprising. In 1910, Pilecki moved with his family to Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), where he completed Commercial School and joined the secret ZHP Scouts organization. In 1916, he moved to Orel, Russia, where he founded a local ZHP group.[1]
During World War I, in 1918, Pilecki joined Polish self-defense units in the Wilno area, and, under General Władysław Wejtka, helped collect weapons and disarm retreating, demoralized German troops in what became the prelude to the Vilna offensive. He subsequently took part in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1920. Serving under Major Jerzy Dąbrowski, he commanded a ZHP Scout section. When his sector of the front was overrun by the Bolsheviks, his unit for a time conducted partisan warfare behind enemy lines. Pilecki later joined the regular Polish Army and fought in the Polish retreat from Kiev as part of a cavalry unit defending Grodno (in present-day Belarus). On August 5, 1920, he joined the 211th Uhlan Regiment and fought in the crucial Battle of Warsaw and at Rudniki Forest (Puszcza Rudnicka) and took part in the liberation of Wilno. He was twice awarded the Krzyż Walecznych (Cross of Valor) for gallantry.[1]
After the Polish-Soviet War ended in 1921 with the Peace of Riga, Pilecki passed his high-school graduation exams (matura) in Wilno and in 1926, was demobilized with the rank of cavalry ensign. In the interbellum, he worked on his family's farm in the village of Sukurcze.[1] On April 7, 1931, he married Maria Pilecka (1906 – February 6, 2002), née Ostrowska. They had two children, born in Wilno: Andrzej (January 16, 1932) and Zofia (March 14, 1933).
[edit] World War II breaks out
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, on August 26, 1939, Pilecki was mobilized and joined the 19th Polish Infantry Division of Army Prusy as a cavalry-platoon commander. His unit took part in heavy fighting in the Invasion of Poland against the advancing Germans and was partially destroyed. Pilecki's platoon withdrew southeast toward Lwów (now L'viv, in Ukraine) and the Romanian bridgehead and was incorporated into the recently formed 41st Infantry Division. During the September Campaign, Pilecki and his men destroyed seven German tanks and shot down two aircraft. On September 17, after the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Pilecki's division was disbanded and he returned to Warsaw with his commander, Major Jan Włodarkiewicz.[1]
On November 9, 1939, the two men founded the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska, TAP), one of the first underground organizations in Poland. Pilecki became its organizational commander and expanded TAP to cover not only Warsaw but Siedlce, Radom, Lublin and other major cities of central Poland. By 1940, TAP had approximately 8,000 men (more than half of them armed), some 20 machine guns and several anti-tank rifles. Later, the organization was incorporated into the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and became the core of the Wachlarz unit.[1]
[edit] The Auschwitz campaign: 945 days
Street roundup in northern Warsaw's Żoliborz district, 1941
In 1940, Pilecki presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp at Oświęcim (the Polish name of the locality), gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance. Until then, little had been known about the Germans' running of the camp, and it was thought to be an internment camp or large prison rather than a death camp. His superiors approved the plan and provided him a false identity card in the name of "Tomasz Serafiński." On September 19, 1940, he deliberately went out during a Warsaw street roundup (łapanka), and was caught by the Germans along with some 2,000 innocent civilians (among them, Władysław Bartoszewski). After two days of torture in Wehrmacht barracks, the survivors were sent to Auschwitz. Pilecki was tattooed on his forearm with the number 4859.[1]
Auschwitz concentration camp photos of Pilecki.
At Auschwitz, while working in various kommandos and surviving pneumonia, Pilecki organized an underground Union of Military Organizations (Związek Organizacji Wojskowych, ZOW). ZOW's tasks were to improve inmate morale, provide news from outside, distribute extra food and clothing to members, set up intelligence networks, and train detachments to take over the camp in the event of a relief attack by the Home Army, arms airdrops, or an airborne landing by the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, based in Britain.[1]
By 1941, ZOW had grown substantially. Members included the famous Polish sculptor Xawery Dunikowski and ski champion Bronisław Czech, and worked in the camp's SS administration office (Mrs. Rachwalowa, Capt. Rodziewicz, Mr. Olszowka, Mr. Jakubski, Mr. Miciukiewicz), the storage magazines (Mr. Czardybun) and the Sonderkommando, which burned human corpses (Mr. Szloma Dragon and Mr. Henryk Mendelbaum). The organization had its own underground court and supply lines to the outside. Thanks to civilians living nearby, the organization regularly received medical supplies.[1]
ZOW provided the Polish underground with priceless information on the camp. Many smaller underground organizations at Auschwitz eventually merged with ZOW. In the autumn of 1941, Colonel Jan Karcz was transferred to the newly-created Birkenau death camp, where he proceeded to organize ZOW structures. By spring of 1942, the organization had over 1,000 members, including women and people of other nationalities, at most of the sub-camps. The inmates constructed a radio receiver and hid it in the camp hospital.[1]
From October 1940, ZOW sent reports to Warsaw, and beginning March 1941, Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance to the British government in London. These reports were a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Pilecki hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or troops into the camp, or the Home Army would organize an assault on it from outside. By 1943, however, he realized that no such plans existed. Meanwhile the Gestapo redoubled its efforts to ferret out ZOW members, succeeding in killing many of them. Pilecki decided to break out of the camp, with the hope of personally convincing Home Army leaders that a rescue attempt was a valid option. When he was assigned to a night shift at a camp bakery outside the fence, he and two comrades overpowered a guard, cut the phone line and escaped on the night of April 26–April 27, 1943, taking along documents stolen from the Germans. In the event of capture, they were prepared to swallow cyanide. After several days, with the help of local civilians, they contacted Home Army units. Pilecki submitted another detailed report on conditions at Auschwitz.[1]
[edit] Back outside Auschwitz: the Warsaw Uprising.
On August 25, 1943, Pilecki reached Warsaw and joined the Home Army's intelligence department. The Home Army, after losing several operatives in reconnoitering the vicinity of the camp, including the Cichociemny commando Stefan Jasieński, decided that it lacked sufficient strength to capture the camp without Allied help. Pilecki's detailed report (Raport Witolda—"Witold's Report") was sent to London. The British authorities refused the Home Army air support for an operation to help the inmates escape. An air raid was considered too risky, and Home Army reports on Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz were deemed to be gross exaggerations (Pilecki wrote: "During the first 3 years, at Auschwitz there perished 2 million people; in the next 2 years—3 million"). The Home Army in turn decided that it didn't have enough force to storm the camp by itself.[1]
Pilecki was soon promoted to cavalry captain (rotmistrz) and joined a secret anti-communist organization, NIE ("NO or NIEpodleglosc - independence"), formed as a secret organization within the Home Army with the goal of preparing resistance against a possible Soviet occupation.[1]
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944, Pilecki volunteered for the Kedyw's Chrobry II group. At first, he fought in the northern city center without revealing his actual rank, as a simple private. Later, he disclosed his true identity and accepted command of the 2nd Company, fighting in the Towarowa and Pańska Streets area. His forces held a fortified area called the "Great Bastion of Warsaw". It was one of the most outlying partisan redoubts and caused considerable difficulties for German supply lines. The bastion held for two weeks in the face of constant attacks by German infantry and armor. On the capitulation of the uprising, Pilecki hid some weapons in a private apartment and went into captivity. He spent the rest of the war in German prisoner-of-war camps at Łambinowice and Murnau.[1]
[edit] Soviet take over of Poland
After July 11, 1945, Pilecki joined the 2nd Polish Corps. He received orders to clandestinely transport a large sum of money to Soviet-occupied Poland, but the operation was called off. In September 1945, he was ordered by General Władysław Anders to return to Poland and gather intelligence to be sent to the Polish Government in Exile.[1]
He went back and proceeded to organize his intelligence network, while also writing a monograph on Auschwitz. In the spring of 1946, however, the Polish Government in Exile decided that the postwar political situation afforded no hope of Poland's liberation and ordered all partisans still in the forests either to return to their normal civilian lives or to escape to the West. Pilecki declined to leave, but proceeded to dismantle the partisan forces in eastern Poland. In April 1947, he began collecting evidence on Soviet atrocities and on the prosecution of Poles (mostly members of the Home Army and the 2nd Polish Corps) and their executions or imprisonment in Soviet gulags.[1]
Photos of Pilecki from Warsaw's Mokotow prison (1947).
On May 8, 1947, he was arrested by the Polish security service (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa). Prior to trial, he was repeatedly tortured but revealed no sensitive information and sought to protect other prisoners. On March 3, 1948, a staged trial took place. Testimony against him was presented by a future Polish prime minister, Józef Cyrankiewicz, himself an Auschwitz survivor. Pilecki was accused of illegal crossing of the borders, use of forged documents, not enlisting with the military, carrying illegal arms, espionage for general Władysław Anders (head of the military of the Polish Government in Exile) and preparing an assassination on several officials from the Ministry of Public Security of Poland. Pilecki denied the assassination charges, as well as espionage (although he admitted to passing information to the II Polish Corps of whom he considered himself an officer and thus claimed that he was not breaking any laws); he pleaded guilty to the other charges. On May 15, with three of his comrades, he was sentenced to death. Ten days later, on May 25, 1948, he was executed at Warsaw's Mokotow Prison on ulica Rakowiecka (Rakowiecka Street).[1]
Pilecki's conviction was part of a prosecution of Home Army members and others connected with the Polish Government in Exile in London. In 2003, the prosecutor and several others involved in the trial were charged with complicity in Pilecki's murder. Cyrankiewicz escaped similar proceedings, having died.[1]
After Poland regained its independence, Witold Pilecki and all others sentenced in the staged trial were rehabilitated on October 1, 1990. In 1995, he received posthumously the Order of Polonia Restituta.
His place of burial has never been found. He is thought to have been buried in a rubbish dump near Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.
Until 1989, information on his exploits and fate was suppressed by the Polish communist regime.[1]
[edit] Summary of Pilecki's Polish Army career
Ensign (podporucznik) from 1925
First Lieutenant (porucznik) from November 11, 1941 (promoted while at Auschwitz)
Captain (cavalry rotmistrz) from November 11, 1943.
[edit] See also
Scouting Portal
This article is partof the series:Polish Secret State
History of Poland
Jan Karski
List of noteworthy individuals in the Warsaw Uprising
Polish contribution to World War II
Rudolf Vrba
Western betrayal
Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego (Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, ZHP)
Witold Pilecki (May 13, 1901 – May 25, 1948; pronounced [ˈvitɔld piˈletski]; codenames Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafiński, Druh, Witold) was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska) Polish resistance group and a member of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa).
During World War II, he became the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp. While there, he organized the resistance movement in the camp, and as early as 1940, informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz atrocities. He escaped in 1943 and took part in the Warsaw Uprising (August–October 1944). Pilecki was executed in 1948 by the communists.
Contents[hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Pilecki's early life
1.2 World War II breaks out
1.3 The Auschwitz campaign: 945 days
1.4 Back outside Auschwitz: the Warsaw Uprising.
1.5 Soviet take over of Poland
2 Summary of Pilecki's Polish Army career
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
//
[edit] Biography
[edit] Pilecki's early life
Witold Pilecki was born May 13, 1901, in Olonets on the shores of Lake Ladoga in Karelia, Russia, where his family had been forcibly resettled by Tsarist Russian authorities after the suppression of Poland's January Uprising of 1863–1864. His grandfather, Józef Pilecki, had spent seven years in exile in Siberia for his part in the uprising. In 1910, Pilecki moved with his family to Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), where he completed Commercial School and joined the secret ZHP Scouts organization. In 1916, he moved to Orel, Russia, where he founded a local ZHP group.[1]
During World War I, in 1918, Pilecki joined Polish self-defense units in the Wilno area, and, under General Władysław Wejtka, helped collect weapons and disarm retreating, demoralized German troops in what became the prelude to the Vilna offensive. He subsequently took part in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1920. Serving under Major Jerzy Dąbrowski, he commanded a ZHP Scout section. When his sector of the front was overrun by the Bolsheviks, his unit for a time conducted partisan warfare behind enemy lines. Pilecki later joined the regular Polish Army and fought in the Polish retreat from Kiev as part of a cavalry unit defending Grodno (in present-day Belarus). On August 5, 1920, he joined the 211th Uhlan Regiment and fought in the crucial Battle of Warsaw and at Rudniki Forest (Puszcza Rudnicka) and took part in the liberation of Wilno. He was twice awarded the Krzyż Walecznych (Cross of Valor) for gallantry.[1]
After the Polish-Soviet War ended in 1921 with the Peace of Riga, Pilecki passed his high-school graduation exams (matura) in Wilno and in 1926, was demobilized with the rank of cavalry ensign. In the interbellum, he worked on his family's farm in the village of Sukurcze.[1] On April 7, 1931, he married Maria Pilecka (1906 – February 6, 2002), née Ostrowska. They had two children, born in Wilno: Andrzej (January 16, 1932) and Zofia (March 14, 1933).
[edit] World War II breaks out
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, on August 26, 1939, Pilecki was mobilized and joined the 19th Polish Infantry Division of Army Prusy as a cavalry-platoon commander. His unit took part in heavy fighting in the Invasion of Poland against the advancing Germans and was partially destroyed. Pilecki's platoon withdrew southeast toward Lwów (now L'viv, in Ukraine) and the Romanian bridgehead and was incorporated into the recently formed 41st Infantry Division. During the September Campaign, Pilecki and his men destroyed seven German tanks and shot down two aircraft. On September 17, after the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Pilecki's division was disbanded and he returned to Warsaw with his commander, Major Jan Włodarkiewicz.[1]
On November 9, 1939, the two men founded the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska, TAP), one of the first underground organizations in Poland. Pilecki became its organizational commander and expanded TAP to cover not only Warsaw but Siedlce, Radom, Lublin and other major cities of central Poland. By 1940, TAP had approximately 8,000 men (more than half of them armed), some 20 machine guns and several anti-tank rifles. Later, the organization was incorporated into the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and became the core of the Wachlarz unit.[1]
[edit] The Auschwitz campaign: 945 days
Street roundup in northern Warsaw's Żoliborz district, 1941
In 1940, Pilecki presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp at Oświęcim (the Polish name of the locality), gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance. Until then, little had been known about the Germans' running of the camp, and it was thought to be an internment camp or large prison rather than a death camp. His superiors approved the plan and provided him a false identity card in the name of "Tomasz Serafiński." On September 19, 1940, he deliberately went out during a Warsaw street roundup (łapanka), and was caught by the Germans along with some 2,000 innocent civilians (among them, Władysław Bartoszewski). After two days of torture in Wehrmacht barracks, the survivors were sent to Auschwitz. Pilecki was tattooed on his forearm with the number 4859.[1]
Auschwitz concentration camp photos of Pilecki.
At Auschwitz, while working in various kommandos and surviving pneumonia, Pilecki organized an underground Union of Military Organizations (Związek Organizacji Wojskowych, ZOW). ZOW's tasks were to improve inmate morale, provide news from outside, distribute extra food and clothing to members, set up intelligence networks, and train detachments to take over the camp in the event of a relief attack by the Home Army, arms airdrops, or an airborne landing by the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, based in Britain.[1]
By 1941, ZOW had grown substantially. Members included the famous Polish sculptor Xawery Dunikowski and ski champion Bronisław Czech, and worked in the camp's SS administration office (Mrs. Rachwalowa, Capt. Rodziewicz, Mr. Olszowka, Mr. Jakubski, Mr. Miciukiewicz), the storage magazines (Mr. Czardybun) and the Sonderkommando, which burned human corpses (Mr. Szloma Dragon and Mr. Henryk Mendelbaum). The organization had its own underground court and supply lines to the outside. Thanks to civilians living nearby, the organization regularly received medical supplies.[1]
ZOW provided the Polish underground with priceless information on the camp. Many smaller underground organizations at Auschwitz eventually merged with ZOW. In the autumn of 1941, Colonel Jan Karcz was transferred to the newly-created Birkenau death camp, where he proceeded to organize ZOW structures. By spring of 1942, the organization had over 1,000 members, including women and people of other nationalities, at most of the sub-camps. The inmates constructed a radio receiver and hid it in the camp hospital.[1]
From October 1940, ZOW sent reports to Warsaw, and beginning March 1941, Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance to the British government in London. These reports were a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Pilecki hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or troops into the camp, or the Home Army would organize an assault on it from outside. By 1943, however, he realized that no such plans existed. Meanwhile the Gestapo redoubled its efforts to ferret out ZOW members, succeeding in killing many of them. Pilecki decided to break out of the camp, with the hope of personally convincing Home Army leaders that a rescue attempt was a valid option. When he was assigned to a night shift at a camp bakery outside the fence, he and two comrades overpowered a guard, cut the phone line and escaped on the night of April 26–April 27, 1943, taking along documents stolen from the Germans. In the event of capture, they were prepared to swallow cyanide. After several days, with the help of local civilians, they contacted Home Army units. Pilecki submitted another detailed report on conditions at Auschwitz.[1]
[edit] Back outside Auschwitz: the Warsaw Uprising.
On August 25, 1943, Pilecki reached Warsaw and joined the Home Army's intelligence department. The Home Army, after losing several operatives in reconnoitering the vicinity of the camp, including the Cichociemny commando Stefan Jasieński, decided that it lacked sufficient strength to capture the camp without Allied help. Pilecki's detailed report (Raport Witolda—"Witold's Report") was sent to London. The British authorities refused the Home Army air support for an operation to help the inmates escape. An air raid was considered too risky, and Home Army reports on Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz were deemed to be gross exaggerations (Pilecki wrote: "During the first 3 years, at Auschwitz there perished 2 million people; in the next 2 years—3 million"). The Home Army in turn decided that it didn't have enough force to storm the camp by itself.[1]
Pilecki was soon promoted to cavalry captain (rotmistrz) and joined a secret anti-communist organization, NIE ("NO or NIEpodleglosc - independence"), formed as a secret organization within the Home Army with the goal of preparing resistance against a possible Soviet occupation.[1]
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944, Pilecki volunteered for the Kedyw's Chrobry II group. At first, he fought in the northern city center without revealing his actual rank, as a simple private. Later, he disclosed his true identity and accepted command of the 2nd Company, fighting in the Towarowa and Pańska Streets area. His forces held a fortified area called the "Great Bastion of Warsaw". It was one of the most outlying partisan redoubts and caused considerable difficulties for German supply lines. The bastion held for two weeks in the face of constant attacks by German infantry and armor. On the capitulation of the uprising, Pilecki hid some weapons in a private apartment and went into captivity. He spent the rest of the war in German prisoner-of-war camps at Łambinowice and Murnau.[1]
[edit] Soviet take over of Poland
After July 11, 1945, Pilecki joined the 2nd Polish Corps. He received orders to clandestinely transport a large sum of money to Soviet-occupied Poland, but the operation was called off. In September 1945, he was ordered by General Władysław Anders to return to Poland and gather intelligence to be sent to the Polish Government in Exile.[1]
He went back and proceeded to organize his intelligence network, while also writing a monograph on Auschwitz. In the spring of 1946, however, the Polish Government in Exile decided that the postwar political situation afforded no hope of Poland's liberation and ordered all partisans still in the forests either to return to their normal civilian lives or to escape to the West. Pilecki declined to leave, but proceeded to dismantle the partisan forces in eastern Poland. In April 1947, he began collecting evidence on Soviet atrocities and on the prosecution of Poles (mostly members of the Home Army and the 2nd Polish Corps) and their executions or imprisonment in Soviet gulags.[1]
Photos of Pilecki from Warsaw's Mokotow prison (1947).
On May 8, 1947, he was arrested by the Polish security service (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa). Prior to trial, he was repeatedly tortured but revealed no sensitive information and sought to protect other prisoners. On March 3, 1948, a staged trial took place. Testimony against him was presented by a future Polish prime minister, Józef Cyrankiewicz, himself an Auschwitz survivor. Pilecki was accused of illegal crossing of the borders, use of forged documents, not enlisting with the military, carrying illegal arms, espionage for general Władysław Anders (head of the military of the Polish Government in Exile) and preparing an assassination on several officials from the Ministry of Public Security of Poland. Pilecki denied the assassination charges, as well as espionage (although he admitted to passing information to the II Polish Corps of whom he considered himself an officer and thus claimed that he was not breaking any laws); he pleaded guilty to the other charges. On May 15, with three of his comrades, he was sentenced to death. Ten days later, on May 25, 1948, he was executed at Warsaw's Mokotow Prison on ulica Rakowiecka (Rakowiecka Street).[1]
Pilecki's conviction was part of a prosecution of Home Army members and others connected with the Polish Government in Exile in London. In 2003, the prosecutor and several others involved in the trial were charged with complicity in Pilecki's murder. Cyrankiewicz escaped similar proceedings, having died.[1]
After Poland regained its independence, Witold Pilecki and all others sentenced in the staged trial were rehabilitated on October 1, 1990. In 1995, he received posthumously the Order of Polonia Restituta.
His place of burial has never been found. He is thought to have been buried in a rubbish dump near Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.
Until 1989, information on his exploits and fate was suppressed by the Polish communist regime.[1]
[edit] Summary of Pilecki's Polish Army career
Ensign (podporucznik) from 1925
First Lieutenant (porucznik) from November 11, 1941 (promoted while at Auschwitz)
Captain (cavalry rotmistrz) from November 11, 1943.
[edit] See also
Scouting Portal
This article is partof the series:Polish Secret State
History of Poland
Jan Karski
List of noteworthy individuals in the Warsaw Uprising
Polish contribution to World War II
Rudolf Vrba
Western betrayal
Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego (Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, ZHP)
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