Poland. It is no coincidence that Polish Legation could not exist in conquered or occupied countries, but in Switzerland - a neutral country, although surrounded by the Third Reich or its allies - was the one that could most fully attempt to organise aid, money, documents and information" - we read in the introduction.
'As my work shows, the activities of the Polish Legation in Bern in between 1939 and 1945 were carried out in various areas, in various political and social fields, as far as the situation allowed. We must remember that the activities of Polish diplomats were constantly under German observation. The Germans often lodged protests with the Swiss Government, forcing it to intervene and to call on Aleksander Ładoś, to make an explanation,' added Dr. Drywa.
After the war, Ambassador Aleksander Ładoś, having tried for several years to settle down near Paris, returned to Poland in 1960, seriously and terminally ill. He left behind unfinished memoirs in which he was unable to describe the passport action in depth before his death. Consul Konstanty Rokicki, who fabricated nearly half of all Bernese documents, lived in poverty after the war and died utterly forgotten in Lucerne in 1958.
After the war, Juliusz Kühl resided in Canada where he developed his own business, and towards the end of his days, he moved to Florida. Stefan Ryniewicz emigrated to Argentina after the war, where he was active in the Polish community in Buenos Aires until his death in March 1988. Abraham Silberschein was arrested by the Swiss police in 1943 for his passport activities and released after the intervention of Polish diplomats. He died in Geneva a few years after the war. Chaim Eiss died of a heart attack in November 1943 and was laid to rest at the Orthodox Jewish cemetery near Zurich.
The latter activist left behind an extensive archive, two large parts of which were acquired by the Auschwitz Museum in 2018 and 2020. These include, among other things, original Paraguayan passports forged by Consul Konstantin Rokicki and correspondence between Eiss and Polish diplomats. The archive also includes passport photos of those who were rescued, including those who survived the Holocaust and those they failed to rescue. The collection contains, among other things, a previously unknown photograph of Rutka Laskier, “Polish Anna Frank”, a 14-year-old diarist from the Będzin Ghetto, murdered in 1943 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
Extensive research has led to Yad Vashem awarding the title of Righteous Among the Nations to Consul Konstanty Rokicki in Jerusalem in April 2019, and to the commendation of Aleksander Ładosi and Stefan Ryniewicz, mistakenly referred to as “consuls”. However, the decision was opposed by more than 30 people rescued by the Ładoś group and the Rokicki family, which refused to accept the medal.
The incident has led to the reopening of proceedings in the Ładoś and Ryniewicz case. The issue relating to the award of the titles of Righteous Among the Nations to both diplomats is currently in progress, and a prominent Israeli Holocaust historian, Mordecai Paldiel, himself a refugee child in Switzerland under the care of the Polish institution, is actively involved in this process.
The book “Polish Legation in Bern. The unspoken history” was published by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in collaboration with the Auschwitz Museum.
The publication is available in Polish in PDF format.