The Auschwitz Museum acquires the second part of the archive concerning the Ładoś Group
Paweł Sawicki
“We have new photographs of 83 individuals. Some of them are sensational. They show, among others, Rutka Laskier aged 14, diary author from Będzin, called Polish Anne Frank. We can also see Wolf Begin, father of future Prime Minister of Israel as well as the leaders of Jewish Military Union and right-wing Zionists”, said Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz Museum.
The unique collection was acquired from a private owner in Israel thanks to the efforts of the Polish Embassy in Bern and Markus Blechner, an honorary consul in Zurich. Blechner, aged 79, a descendant of Shoah survivors, who also played a crucial role in regaining the first part of the Eiss Archive in 2018, including among others 15 Paraguayan passports forged by Polish diplomats rescuing the Jews.
“First of all I wish to thank consul Blechner for his commitment. I would also like to thank Prime Minister Piotr Gliński for his consent to immediately acquire the collection and Polish diplomats for immediately organizing the operation of bringing these priceless records to the country”, Director Cywiński emphasized. He also added that the analyses confirmed the authenticity of the collection.
The Eiss Archive constitutes one of the most important collections of archival records documenting the activity of Ładoś Group. Led by the then Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Switzerland, the team consisting of several Polish and Jewish members, supervised mass manufacturing of thousands of illegal passports from Paraguay, Honduras, Haiti, and Peru.
The Eiss Archive documents the work of one of the members of the group, Chaim Eiss, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Agudath Yisrael group. Eiss would provide personal data, basing on which the Poles forged Paraguayan passports. He died suddenly in mid-November 1943, and his archive was discovered in the attic of his house in Zurich many years later.
After nearly two years of negotiations, the Auschwitz Museum acquired original documents of the second part of the so-called Eiss Archive. Among them, one can find several dozen photos of Jews, including famous figures that the group led by Polish Ambassador in Bern Aleksander Ładoś attempted to provide with Latin American documents. Analyses confirmed the authenticity of the collection.
Zdjęcia w artykule: www.auschwitz.org