THE EISS ARCHIVE TO BE TRANSFERRED TO THE MUSEUM
The Archive substantiates rescue operations conducted during World War II from Bern by the then Polish ambassador Aleksander Ładoś, his diplomats and co-operating Jewish organizations. During these operations, several thousand illegally-obtained Latin American passports were issued, thereby saving the lives of several hundred people.
"The duty of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage is to protect this part of Polish heritage, which is associated with the centuries-long presence of the Jewish community in Poland. Our duty was to retrieve the Eiss Archive - the irrefutable proof that Poles, the Polish nation and its representatives, were systemically and institutionally involved in rescuing Jews during World War II. The revisited and documented activities of the Polish diplomats in Switzerland at the time, can be an inspiration for historians, writers and film-makers, as well as creators of culture. I thank the Polish ambassador in Switzerland for the determination to recover the documents and to tell this story - one of many dozens, but probably the least known and long-forgotten. Today, we have the opportunity to remind the world about it," said Prof. Piotr Gliński, Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
"The collection includes eight Paraguayan passports forged by Polish diplomats to save Jews, as well as unique and unused photographs of persons applying for such passports. It also consists of an original list with several thousand names of Jews from the ghettos they tried to rescue from the Holocaust, and several documents, including correspondence between Polish diplomats and Jewish organizations. The collection also includes a list of names of children from
After nearly 75 years and a year of negotiations, Poland has recovered the so-called Eiss Archive. The Archive is one of the most extensive collections documenting the rescue activities of Polish diplomacy for Jews under the threat of the Holocaust, according to the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Bern, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in a joint communique.