Żegota

ZEGOTA saved 50000 Jews from Holocaust 2/3

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• published: 17 Jun 2008
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ZEGOTA-Council for Aid to Jews in Occupied Poland(1939-1945). ZEGOTA (in Polish: ŻEGOTA) was the only government-sponsored (London-based Polish Government-in-Exile) social welfare agency established to rescue Jews in German-occupied EUROPE. It provided hiding places and false identify documents for Jewish men, women, and children who were able to escape from German-Nazi control and ultimately their efforts saved thousands of lives. A special section of ŻEGOTA was organized to get Jewish children out of the German Warsaw Ghetto after locating homes for them. The Jewish children also required false documents and stories to match. If they were old enough, they had to memorize new identities. Żegota rescued about 2,500 Jewish children in the city of Warsaw. IRENA SENDLEROWA (de domo: IRENA KRZYŻANOWSKA)-(also IRENA SENDLER) played a leading role in the rescue and hiding of Jewish children. LIFE IN A JAR. ZEGOTA was the only such organization in occupied Europe during the Holocaust. Would you risk your own life and your family's to save another human being? ZEGOTA (ŻEGOTA) is a story of thousands of those who did. It happened during World War II under the brutal Nazi Germany occupation of Poland. The risk takers were Polish Christians who saved Polish Jews destined for Shoah. They came from all areas of life, educated or not, religious or not, from large cities or small villages, as members of Polish resistance or as unorganized individuals. They all knew the possible price to be paid, nevertheless they acted. 6,066 Polish Christians - more than from any other German Nazi-occupied country - risked, and many lost, their lives to shelter and rescue Jews. Many Poles dared to help Jews who were sentenced to death by the German Nazis. The medals the Righteous Among the Nations awarded by Yad Vashem obtained 22,211 persons, among them 6,066 were Poles. Over 6 million Polish citizens — nearly 22% of Poland's population — died between 1939 and 1945.Over 90% of the death toll came through non-military losses, as most of the civilians were targeted by various deliberate actions by Germans and Soviets. The stories of the rescuers are a shining example of the most selfless sacrifice, surpassing in its heroism that of all the soldiers on the battlefield, whom we commemorate each November. In fact the soldier must fight; he cannot refuse. He is sustained by the entire military organization and his efforts are mostly limited to battles that have a clear beginning and end. He is paid and given the food, supplies and weapons that he needs. Rescuers of Jews in German-occupied Poland were alone, often deprived of their pre-war means of livelihood, expelled from their farms, factories, businesses, offices and even homes, most of them living in dire poverty. All found it virtually impossible to earn a living. They were under no legal obligation to risk their own lives and, even more, those of their families and neighbors. Their help most often lasted days and nights, weeks, months, even years, always in secret, and always risking discovery. To save one person sometimes several dozens of people risked their lives. Who of us would do it today, especially in the above mentioned conditions? The Polish scholar Franciszek Piper, the chief historian of Auschwitz, estimates that 140,000 to 150,000 Poles were brought to that camp between 1940 and 1945, and that 70,000 to 75,000 died there as victims of executions, of cruel medical experiments, and of starvation and disease. Some 100,000 Poles were deported to Majdanek, and tens of thousands of them died there. An estimated 20,000 Poles died at Sachsenhausen, 20,000 at Gross-Rosen, 30,000 at Mauthausen, 17,000 at Neuengamme, 10,000 at Dachau, and 17,000 at Ravensbrueck. In addition, victims in the tens of thousands were executed or died in the thousands of other camps--including special children's camps such as Lodz and its subcamp, Dzierzazn--and in prisons and other places of detention within and outside Poland. ZEGOTA (ŻEGOTA) distributed about 50,000 sets of false identification documents that were provided by secret forgery units of the underground. Righteous Among the Nations: POLAND- 6066 - more than from any other German Nazi-occupied country Total Persons- 22,211