Memoria [EN] No. 36 (09/2020) | Page 6

"Poles - Jews - Swiss", Paul Stauffer, who briefly touched upon a number of issues related to the activities of the Polish Legation in Bern between 1939-1945. In Poland, she primarily examined the collection of the Polish Legation in Bern between 1939-1945, located in the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw, as well as the materials found in the Military Office of Historical Research in Warsaw.

The so-called Ladoś group was an informal form of cooperation between Polish diplomats from the Polish Legation in Bern and representatives of Jewish organisations for the rescue of European Jews. Under the leadership of Ambassador Aleksander Łados, the group provided forged South American passports, among others Paraguay, Peru, Haiti and Honduras, to protect their holders from being transported to death camps in German-occupied Poland. According to various estimates, a total of 8,000 to 10,000 such documents were issued. Jakub Kumoch and other authors of the recently published “Ładoś’s List” in Polish and English estimate the number of survivors to be between 2 and 3 thousand.

The group consisted of four diplomats from the Polish Legation: Aleksander Ładoś, Konstanty Rokicki, Stefan Ryniewicz and Juliusz Kühl, as well as two representatives of Swiss Jewish communities from Poland: a member of the RELICO Committee (Committee to Aid Jewish War Victims) set up by the World Jewish Congress, Abraham Silberschein, and a representative of Agudat Israel Chaim Eiss.

“Diplomats deserve a particular mention among those rescuing the most vulnerable - European Jews. They were able to issue passports, visas, documents that often helped to avoid deportation to death camps or permitted access to less dangerous zones. Some of the well-known names are Henryk Sławik, Chiune Sugihara or Raoul Wallenberg. Until recently, however, only a few researchers of the history of diplomacy have mentioned the measures taken by Polish diplomats in Switzerland - notably Aleksander Ładoś, Konstanty Rokicki, Juliusz Kühl and Stefan Ryniewicz," - Piotr M. A. Cywiński wrote.

“In the light of recently published documents, the Polish Legation (nowadays: the embassy) in Bern appears to be a kind of missionary post, to which the Polish government in exile specifically entrusted with the task of supporting Polish citizens at risk in various countries of occupied Europe - the vast majority of them Jews. In the longer term, attempts were also made to rescue Jews who were in hiding or ghettos in German-occupied 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.