Szmul Zygielbojm
Encyclopedia
Szmul Zygielbojm (ˈʂmul zɨˈɡʲɛlbɔjm; ; February 21, 1895 – May 12, 1943) was a Jewish-Polish
socialist
politician, leader of the Bund, and a member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile
. He committed suicide to protest the indifference of the Allied
governments in the face of the Holocaust
.
, Poland
(then under control of the Russian Empire
). His family moved to Krasnystaw
in 1899. Due to poverty, he left school and began working in a factory at the age of 10. Zygielbojm left home for Warsaw
when he was 12, but he returned to Krasnystaw at the beginning of World War I
and moved with his family to Chełm.
, and in 1917 he represented Chełm at the first Bundist convention in Poland. Zygielbojm so impressed the Bund leadership at the convention that he was invited to Warsaw in 1920 to serve as secretary of the Trade Union of Jewish Metal Workers and a member of the Warsaw Committee of the Bund. In 1924 he was elected to the Bund's Central Committee
, a position he held until his death.
By 1930, Zygielbojm was editing the Jewish labor unions' journal, Arbeiter Fragen
("Worker’s Issues"). In 1936, the Central Committee sent him to Łódź to lead the Jewish workers' movement, and in 1938 he was elected to the Łódź city council.
invaded Poland
in September 1939, Zygielbojm returned to Warsaw, where he participated in the defense committee during the siege
and defense of the city. When the Nazis occupied Warsaw, they demanded 12 hostages from the population to prevent further resistance. Stefan Starzyński
, the city's president, proposed that the Jewish labor movement provide a hostage, Ester Ivinska. Zygielbojm volunteered in her place.
On his release, Zygielbojm was made a member of the Jewish Council, or Judenrat
, that the Nazis had created. The Nazis ordered the Judenrat to begin the creation of a ghetto
within Warsaw. Because of Zygielbojm's public opposition to the order, his fellow Bundists feared for his safety and arranged for his escape from Poland. In December 1939, Zygielbojm reached Belgium
. Early in 1940, he spoke before a meeting of the Labour and Socialist International
in Brussels
and described the early stages of the Nazi persecution of Polish Jewry.
When the Nazis invaded Belgium in May 1940, Zygielbojm went to France
and then the United States
, where he spent a year and a half trying to convince Americans of the dire situation facing the Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. In March 1942, he arrived in London
to join the National Council
of the Polish government in exile
, where he was one of two Jewish members (the other was Zionist
Ignacy Schwarzbart
). In London, Zygielbojm continued to speak publicly about the fate of Polish Jews, including a meeting of the British Labour Party and a speech broadcast on BBC Radio
on June 2, 1942.
, who had been serving as a courier between the Polish underground
and the Polish government in exile, was smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto
. One of his guides in the ghetto was Leon Feiner
who, like Zygielbojm, belonged to the Bund. Karski asked Feiner what prominent American and British Jews should do. "Tell the Jewish leaders," Feiner said, "that ... they must find the strength and courage to make sacrifices no other statesmen have ever had to make, sacrifices as painful as the fate of my dying people, and as unique."
In the months following his return from Warsaw, Karski reported to the Polish, British and American governments on the situation in Poland, especially the Warsaw Ghetto and the Bełżec death camp
, which he had visited secretly. (It is now believed that Karski actually had seen the Izbica Lubelska "sorting camp" where Jews were held until they could be sent to Bełżec, and not Bełżec itself.) Newspaper accounts based on Karski's reports were published by The New York Times
on November 25 and November 26 and The Times
of London on December 7.
In December, Karski described the conditions in the ghetto to Zygielbojm. Zygielbojm asked whether Karski had any messages from the Jews in the ghetto. As Karski later wrote, he passed along Feiner's message:
Two weeks later, Zygielbojm spoke again on BBC Radio concerning the fate of the Jews of Poland. "It will actually be a shame to go on living," he said, "if steps are not taken to halt the greatest crime in human history."
governments of the United Kingdom
and the United States met in Bermuda
, ostensibly to discuss the situation of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. By coincidence, that same day the Nazis attempted to liquidate the remaining Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto and were met with unexpected resistance
.
By the beginning of May, the futility of the Bermuda Conference
had become apparent. Days later, Zygielbojm received word of the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
and the final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. He learned his wife Manya and 16-year-old son Tuvia had been killed there. On May 12, Zygielbojm turned on the gas in his London flat and killed himself as a protest against the indifference and inaction of the Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust
.
In his "suicide letter," addressed to Polish president Władysław Raczkiewicz and prime minister Władysław Sikorski, Zygielbojm stated that while the Nazis were responsible for the murder of the Polish Jews, the Allies also were culpable:
He wished his letter to be known not only by the Polish President and prime minister in exile. He wrote: "I am certain that the President and the Prime Minister will send out these words of mine to all those to whom they are addressed, and that the Polish Government will embark immediately on diplomatic action and explanation of the situation, in order to save the living remnant of the Polish Jews from destruction."
After his death, Zygielbojm's seat in the Polish exile parliament was overtaken by Emanuel Scherer.
. Among those who participated in the memorial's unveiling were members of Zygielbojm's family, the Polish ambassador, and the mayor of Westminster
. Every May, supporters of the Szmul Zygielbojm Memorial Committee gather at the memorial.
]
A granite memorial to Zygielbojm was incorporated in the construction of the building at 5 S. Dubois Street in Muranów
, a housing project
built after the war on the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. The monument, which is visible from Ulica Zamenhofa (formerly known as Ulica Żydowska, "Jewish Street"), is made up of three elements: an image of faceless people, a broken stone or tablet in front of the memorial, and an inscription in Polish and Yiddish. The engraved words are an unfinished sentence excerpted from Zygielbojm's suicide letter: "I cannot stay silent and I cannot live while the remnants of the Polish Jewry are dying...."
Zygielbojm's body was cremated in symbolic protest and unity with the murdered millions of the Holocaust. In 1959, his surviving son located the cremains in a shed in the Jewish cemetery of Golder's Green in London. Because Zygielbojm had been cremated, the religious community would not permit his ashes to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. With the assistance of the American Jewish labor movement, Zygielbojm's cremains were brought to the U.S. In 1961, his cremains were interred in a honored ceremony before a respectful assemblage of 3,000 at the New Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Ridgewood
, New York
, beneath a dignified funerary monument. His grave is located at the far side of the cemetery, opposite the entrance. The six-sided monument of pink-hued stone is about five feet high. It is surmounted by an eternal flame in stone. Three of the sides quote from Zygielbojm's suicide letter in Hebrew, English, and Yiddish: "My comrades in the Warsaw Ghetto fell with arms in their hands in their last heroic battle. It was not given to me to die together with them, but I belong to them and to their mass graves. By my death I wish to express my strongest protest against the passivity with which the world observes and permits the extermination of the Jewish people."
Zygielbojm is the subject of a 2001 Polish documentary film
titled Śmierć Zygelbojma ("The Death of Zygielbojm"). The film, which was directed by Dżamila Ankiewicz, won a special mention at the Kraków Film Festival
.
In 2008, a plaque was added to the building in Chełm where Zygielbojm lived. Marek Edelman
, a fellow Bundist, wrote a letter that was read at the plaque's dedication.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
politician, leader of the Bund, and a member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
. He committed suicide to protest the indifference of the Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
governments in the face of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Early years
Szmul Zygielbojm was born on February 21, 1895 in the village of BorowicaBorowica, Lublin Voivodeship
Borowica is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Łopiennik Górny, within Krasnystaw County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately east of Łopiennik Górny, north of Krasnystaw, and south-east of the regional capital Lublin.-References:...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(then under control of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
). His family moved to Krasnystaw
Krasnystaw
Krasnystaw is a town in eastern Poland with 19,615 inhabitants . Situated in the Lublin Voivodeship , previously in Chelm Voivodeship . It is the capital of Krasnystaw County....
in 1899. Due to poverty, he left school and began working in a factory at the age of 10. Zygielbojm left home for Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
when he was 12, but he returned to Krasnystaw at the beginning of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and moved with his family to Chełm.
Between the wars
In his 20s, Zygielbojm became involved in the Jewish labor movementLabour movement
The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...
, and in 1917 he represented Chełm at the first Bundist convention in Poland. Zygielbojm so impressed the Bund leadership at the convention that he was invited to Warsaw in 1920 to serve as secretary of the Trade Union of Jewish Metal Workers and a member of the Warsaw Committee of the Bund. In 1924 he was elected to the Bund's Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
, a position he held until his death.
By 1930, Zygielbojm was editing the Jewish labor unions' journal, Arbeiter Fragen
Arbeiter Fragen
Arbeiter Fragen was a monthly journal of the Jewish Bundist trade unions active in Poland in the 1920s and 1930s. It was published in Yiddish language, with some articles printed in Polish and Latinized Yiddish...
("Worker’s Issues"). In 1936, the Central Committee sent him to Łódź to lead the Jewish workers' movement, and in 1938 he was elected to the Łódź city council.
Nazi occupation of Poland
After GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invaded Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
in September 1939, Zygielbojm returned to Warsaw, where he participated in the defense committee during the siege
Siege of Warsaw (1939)
The 1939 Battle of Warsaw was fought between the Polish Warsaw Army garrisoned and entrenched in the capital of Poland and the German Army...
and defense of the city. When the Nazis occupied Warsaw, they demanded 12 hostages from the population to prevent further resistance. Stefan Starzyński
Stefan Starzynski
Stefan Starzyński was a Polish politician, economist, writer and statesman, President of Warsaw before and during the Siege of Warsaw in 1939.-Soldier:Starzyński was born on August 19, 1893 in Warsaw...
, the city's president, proposed that the Jewish labor movement provide a hostage, Ester Ivinska. Zygielbojm volunteered in her place.
On his release, Zygielbojm was made a member of the Jewish Council, or Judenrat
Judenrat
Judenräte were administrative bodies during the Second World War that the Germans required Jews to form in the German occupied territory of Poland, and later in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union It is the overall term for the enforcement bodies established by the Nazi occupiers to...
, that the Nazis had created. The Nazis ordered the Judenrat to begin the creation of a ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
within Warsaw. Because of Zygielbojm's public opposition to the order, his fellow Bundists feared for his safety and arranged for his escape from Poland. In December 1939, Zygielbojm reached Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. Early in 1940, he spoke before a meeting of the Labour and Socialist International
Labour and Socialist International
The Labour and Socialist International was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The LSI was a forerunner of the present-day Socialist International....
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and described the early stages of the Nazi persecution of Polish Jewry.
When the Nazis invaded Belgium in May 1940, Zygielbojm went to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and then the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he spent a year and a half trying to convince Americans of the dire situation facing the Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. In March 1942, he arrived in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to join the National Council
National Council of Poland
National Council of Poland was a consulting and expert body of the Polish government in exile and Polish president. The first council was formed in December 1939 and was disbanded in July 1941 in protest to the signing of the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement. It was reactivated in February 1942, but...
of the Polish government in exile
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
, where he was one of two Jewish members (the other was Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
Ignacy Schwarzbart
Ignacy Schwarzbart
Ignacy Schwarzbart was a prominent Polish Zionist, and one of two Jewish representatives on the Polish National Council of the Polish Government-in-Exile during the Second World War, along with Szmul Zygielbojm....
). In London, Zygielbojm continued to speak publicly about the fate of Polish Jews, including a meeting of the British Labour Party and a speech broadcast on BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
on June 2, 1942.
Jan Karski and the Warsaw Ghetto
In the middle of 1942, Jan KarskiJan Karski
Jan Karski was a Polish World War II resistance movement fighter and later scholar at Georgetown University. In 1942 and 1943 Karski reported to the Polish government in exile and the Western Allies on the situation in German-occupied Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and...
, who had been serving as a courier between the Polish underground
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
and the Polish government in exile, was smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
. One of his guides in the ghetto was Leon Feiner
Leon Feiner
Leon Feiner was a Polish-Jewish lawyer, an activist of the General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland and between November 1944 and January 1945 the director and vice-chairman of the Council to Aid Jews "Żegota".-Biography:After the outbreak of World War II with the Nazi...
who, like Zygielbojm, belonged to the Bund. Karski asked Feiner what prominent American and British Jews should do. "Tell the Jewish leaders," Feiner said, "that ... they must find the strength and courage to make sacrifices no other statesmen have ever had to make, sacrifices as painful as the fate of my dying people, and as unique."
In the months following his return from Warsaw, Karski reported to the Polish, British and American governments on the situation in Poland, especially the Warsaw Ghetto and the Bełżec death camp
Belzec extermination camp
Belzec, Polish spelling Bełżec , was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust...
, which he had visited secretly. (It is now believed that Karski actually had seen the Izbica Lubelska "sorting camp" where Jews were held until they could be sent to Bełżec, and not Bełżec itself.) Newspaper accounts based on Karski's reports were published by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
on November 25 and November 26 and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of London on December 7.
In December, Karski described the conditions in the ghetto to Zygielbojm. Zygielbojm asked whether Karski had any messages from the Jews in the ghetto. As Karski later wrote, he passed along Feiner's message:
This is what they want from their leaders in the free countries of the world, this is what they told me to say: "Let them go to all the important English and American offices and agencies. Tell them not to leave until they obtain guarantees that a way has been decided upon to save the Jews. Let them accept no food or drink, let them die a slow death while the world is looking on. Let them die. This may shake the conscience of the world."
Two weeks later, Zygielbojm spoke again on BBC Radio concerning the fate of the Jews of Poland. "It will actually be a shame to go on living," he said, "if steps are not taken to halt the greatest crime in human history."
The Allies' inaction and Zygielbojm's suicide protest
On April 19, 1943, the AlliedAllies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
governments of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the United States met in Bermuda
Bermuda Conference
The Bermuda Conference was an international conference between the United Kingdom and the United States held on April 19, 1943 at Hamilton, Bermuda, Bermuda Triangle. Discussions included the question of Jewish refugees who had been liberated by Allied forces and those who still remained...
, ostensibly to discuss the situation of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. By coincidence, that same day the Nazis attempted to liquidate the remaining Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto and were met with unexpected resistance
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
.
By the beginning of May, the futility of the Bermuda Conference
Bermuda Conference
The Bermuda Conference was an international conference between the United Kingdom and the United States held on April 19, 1943 at Hamilton, Bermuda, Bermuda Triangle. Discussions included the question of Jewish refugees who had been liberated by Allied forces and those who still remained...
had become apparent. Days later, Zygielbojm received word of the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
and the final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. He learned his wife Manya and 16-year-old son Tuvia had been killed there. On May 12, Zygielbojm turned on the gas in his London flat and killed himself as a protest against the indifference and inaction of the Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
In his "suicide letter," addressed to Polish president Władysław Raczkiewicz and prime minister Władysław Sikorski, Zygielbojm stated that while the Nazis were responsible for the murder of the Polish Jews, the Allies also were culpable:
The responsibility for the crime of the murder of the whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out, but indirectly it falls also upon the whole of humanity, on the peoples of the Allied nations and on their governments, who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. By looking on passively upon this murder of defenseless millions tortured children, women and men they have become partners to the responsibility.
I am obliged to state that although the Polish Government contributed largely to the arousing of public opinion in the world, it still did not do enough. It did not do anything that was not routine, that might have been appropriate to the dimensions of the tragedy taking place in Poland....
I cannot continue to live and to be silent while the remnants of Polish Jewry, whose representative I am, are being murdered. My comrades in the Warsaw ghetto fell with arms in their hands in the last heroic battle. I was not permitted to fall like them, together with them, but I belong with them, to their mass grave.
By my death, I wish to give expression to my most profound protest against the inaction in which the world watches and permits the destruction of the Jewish people.
He wished his letter to be known not only by the Polish President and prime minister in exile. He wrote: "I am certain that the President and the Prime Minister will send out these words of mine to all those to whom they are addressed, and that the Polish Government will embark immediately on diplomatic action and explanation of the situation, in order to save the living remnant of the Polish Jews from destruction."
After his death, Zygielbojm's seat in the Polish exile parliament was overtaken by Emanuel Scherer.
Remembering Zygielbojm
In May 1996, a plaque in memory of Zygielbojm was dedicated on the corner of Porchester Road and Porchester Square in London, near Zygielbojm's home. The creation of the memorial had been a joint project of the Bund and the Jewish Socialists' GroupJewish Socialists' Group
The Jewish Socialists' Group is a Jewish socialist collective in Britain, formed in the 1970s.-History:The Jewish Socialists' Group is a Jewish socialist collective in Britain, that was founded in Manchester/Liverpool in 1974-1977 as lobby group campaigning against the fascist National Front and...
. Among those who participated in the memorial's unveiling were members of Zygielbojm's family, the Polish ambassador, and the mayor of Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
. Every May, supporters of the Szmul Zygielbojm Memorial Committee gather at the memorial.
A granite memorial to Zygielbojm was incorporated in the construction of the building at 5 S. Dubois Street in Muranów
Muranów
Muranów is a neighborhood consisting mainly of housing estates in the districts of Śródmieście and Wola in Warsaw founded in the 17th century. The name derived from the palace belonging to Józef Bellotti, a Venetian architect...
, a housing project
Public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
built after the war on the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. The monument, which is visible from Ulica Zamenhofa (formerly known as Ulica Żydowska, "Jewish Street"), is made up of three elements: an image of faceless people, a broken stone or tablet in front of the memorial, and an inscription in Polish and Yiddish. The engraved words are an unfinished sentence excerpted from Zygielbojm's suicide letter: "I cannot stay silent and I cannot live while the remnants of the Polish Jewry are dying...."
Ridgewood, Queens
Ridgewood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It borders the neighborhoods of Maspeth, Middle Village and Glendale, as well as the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. Historically, the neighborhood straddled the Queens-Brooklyn boundary. The neighborhood is part of Queens...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, beneath a dignified funerary monument. His grave is located at the far side of the cemetery, opposite the entrance. The six-sided monument of pink-hued stone is about five feet high. It is surmounted by an eternal flame in stone. Three of the sides quote from Zygielbojm's suicide letter in Hebrew, English, and Yiddish: "My comrades in the Warsaw Ghetto fell with arms in their hands in their last heroic battle. It was not given to me to die together with them, but I belong to them and to their mass graves. By my death I wish to express my strongest protest against the passivity with which the world observes and permits the extermination of the Jewish people."
Zygielbojm is the subject of a 2001 Polish documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
titled Śmierć Zygelbojma ("The Death of Zygielbojm"). The film, which was directed by Dżamila Ankiewicz, won a special mention at the Kraków Film Festival
Kraków Film Festival
The Kraków Film Festival is one of Europe's oldest events dedicated to documentary, animation and other short film forms. It has been organised year after year since 1961....
.
In 2008, a plaque was added to the building in Chełm where Zygielbojm lived. Marek Edelman
Marek Edelman
Marek Edelman was a Jewish-Polish political and social activist and cardiologist.Before World War II, he was a General Jewish Labour Bund activist. During the war he co-founded the Jewish Combat Organization. He took part in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, becoming its leader after the death of...
, a fellow Bundist, wrote a letter that was read at the plaque's dedication.
External links
- The Last Letter From Szmul Zygielbojm, The Bund Representative With The Polish National Council In Exile, May 11, 1943
- Suicide telegram sent to Emanuel Nowogrodski, now at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York
- Ruwin Zigelboim, Al Kiddush HaShem [In the sanctification of God's name
, Dedicated to the Illustrious Memory of my brother, Shmuel Mordekhai (Arthur) Zigelboim], Commemoration Book Chelm (Translation of Yisker-bukh Chelm, published in Yiddish in Johannesburg, 1954), pp. 295-302. - Photograph of the Warsaw memorial wall, daytime
- Photograph of the Warsaw memorial wall at night
- Photograph of the tablet in front of the Warsaw memorial wall
- Photograph of London memorial plaque
- Photograph of the dedication of the London memorial plaque
- Photograph of Zygielbojms gravestone at the Mt Carmel Cemetery, Queens, NY
