80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF SZMUL ZYGIELBOJM
Szmul Zygielbojm was a political activist, member of the Central Committee of the Bund – Jewish socialist party. In 1940 he left for Brussels and then – through France – travelled to the United States. In 1942 he was appointed a member of the National Council of the Republic of Poland in London. He tried to attract the attention of key western politicians to the tragedy of Polish Jews in the country occupied by Nazi Germany. After the defeat of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, convinced that his mission had been a failure, he committed suicide. Before dying he wrote farewell letters – to his brother Fajweł, a Bund representative in the United States as well as to emigration authorities of Poland. In the latter he said:
"I cannot remain silent or alive when last representatives of the Jewish people are perishing in Poland, and I am one of them. My comrades in the Warsaw Ghetto died with weapons in their hands, in their last heroic effort. I did not have the chance to perish like them, together with them. But I belong to them, to their mass graves […]. I intend my death to become a sign of my deepest protest against the passivity with which the world is looking at us and allows the eradication of the Jewish people”.
Events commemorating the death of Szmul Zygielbojm took place in Warsaw at Lewartowskiego Street, at the monument by Marek Modarau. Among those who paid homage to the Jewish politician there were: Monika Krawczyk, Director of the Jewish Historical Institute, representatives of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, Elena Lagutin, Head of Public Diplomacy of the Embassy of Israel in Poland, Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, as well as the representatives of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN).
During the commemorative events Monika Krawczyk read the letter by Artur Zigelbaum, Szmul Zygielbojm’s grandson:
"90 percent of Polish Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. I am a descendant of two persons out of those 10 percent who survived.
My grandfather had been a socialist leader representing the Bund party in pre-war Poland. He had formed part of Łódź and Warsaw city councils. Then he was appointed a member of Warsaw Judenrat. He was publicly opposing the establishment of the ghetto in Warsaw, thus exposing himself to the risk of being arrested. Bund leaders tried to get him out of Poland. In January 1940, using falsified documents, he travelled by train through Nazi Germany to the Netherlands, where he was denied the entry. The Germans beat him at the border and ordered to come back. Only thanks to the intervention of his friend, Paul Spaak, the minister of foreign affairs, was he finally able to reach Belgium. He arrived in Brussels. Then, through France and Portugal, he travelled to the United States.
From October until December 1940, he travelled through USA delivering presentations concerning the tragic fate of Jews under German occupation. People would not believe him and would claim that helping the Jews should not distract from the overall effort of the fight with the Germans. Jan Karski, Polish diplomat and emissary of the Polish Underground, whom my grandfather met in December 1942, delivered to him the letter by the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto underground. They ordered my grandfather to undertake every possible action that would convince the Americans and the British to make an attempt to rescue the Jews in German-occupied Poland. My grandfather met with the representatives of British and American governments. They did not want to believe that the situation of the Jews was as tragic as he had described it”.
At the end of commemorative events Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, recited El Male Rachamim, Jewish prayer for the souls of the persons who had died.
The anniversary of the death of Szmul Zygielbojm was commemorated in Warsaw. He was a member of the National Council of Poland in London who at the night of May 11th/12th 1943 committed suicide as a sign of protest against the world’s indifference towards the Shoah.
Warsaw Ghetto Museum