Ładoś Group

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Fragment of a page of the Polish passport from 1941 with the seal of the consulate of the Polish embassy in Bern
Residence of the Polish ambassador in Bern, photo taken in 2014. During the World War it was the seat of the Polish embassy

The Ładoś Group ( French Groupe Ładoś , Polish grupa Ładosia ), also known as the Bern Group or the Bern Six , was a group of Polish diplomats accredited in Switzerland and members of Jewish organizations. During World War II , they illegally issued passports to Latin American countries to save European Jews from the Holocaust .

composition

The group consisted of four diplomats from the Polish embassy in Bern , a representative of the RELICO committee (aid organization for Jewish war victims) created by the World Jewish Congress , and a representative from Agudat Israel . Five out of six members were Polish citizens and half of them were Jewish.

Members

  • Aleksander Ładoś

  • Stefan Ryniewicz

  • Chaim Eiss

  • Abraham silver note

  • Juliusz Cool

  • Konstanty Rokicki

The “Ładoś group” was an informal group. The connections among its members were asymmetrical. Konstanty Rokicki worked directly with Abraham Silberschein and Chaim Eiss on the production of passports. Rokicki made the passports himself or bought them on the black market. Silberschein and Eiss smuggled passports, passport photos and personal data between Bern and the countries in occupied Europe. They also raised much of the funding for the operation. The role of Aleksander Ładoś and Stefan Ryniewicz in Bern was to win the support of the diplomatic corps and to protect the group from the Swiss police. In 1943 the two diplomats intervened in this matter with the Swiss Foreign Minister Marcel Pilet-Golaz and the police chief Heinrich Rothmund. When the war broke out, Juliusz Kühl was a 26-year-old graduate of doctoral studies at the University of Bern . He was the mediator between the Jewish organizations and the Polish legation. He later became deputy head of the consular department at the legation. He was probably also involved in the illegal transport of passport forms.

Historical background

In September 1939 Poland was attacked by Germany and the Soviet Union and divided into two zones of occupation. Almost 36 million inhabitants, including more than 3 million members of the Jewish community, fell under German and Soviet rule. At the same time, the Polish government refused to sign the armistice and crossed the border with Romania on September 17, 1939 , where she was interned. According to the 1935 Constitution, President Ignacy Mościcki appointed Władysław Raczkiewicz as his successor for the time of the war and resigned. A Polish government in exile was formed in Paris and began to rebuild the armed forces. She also took control of all the property of the Polish state abroad, including the network of diplomatic missions. After the German invasion of France , the government moved with Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski to London, from where they continued to fight the Germans. In the continental part of Western Europe, the Polish government-in-exile was represented by the embassies of the Republic of Poland: in Switzerland , Portugal , Spain and Sweden . Other countries either came under German occupation or, under pressure from the Germans, closed the diplomatic missions of Poland.

The Polish embassy in Bern was in the diplomatic quarter on Elfenstrasse. In addition, the building on Thunstrasse, where the consular department of the embassy was located, was rented since 1940. From April 1940, Aleksander Ładoś, former Polish envoy to Latvia (1923–1926) and Consul General in Munich (1927–1931), was the head of the institution. Ładoś left Poland in 1939 on the orders of Władysław Sikorski, and from 1939-1940 he was briefly a member of his government in exile. When he took up the position in Bern, three other diplomats were already working there - the members of the Bern representation - Ryniewicz since 1938 and Kühl and Rokicki since 1939. Rokicki and Ryniewicz knew each other from their previous service in Riga (1934–1936) and were probably close friends. They only met Kühl and Ładoś in Bern. Shortly before the war, Abraham Silberschein came to Geneva. He was a representative of the World Jewish Congress. Chaim Eiss had been in Switzerland since the beginning of the 20th century and owned a shop in Zurich. Silberschein and Eiss didn't know each other before the war.

Issuance of Latin American passports

According to Juliusz Kühl, the idea of ​​producing fake Latin American passports originated around the turn of 1939. The idea was initially not connected with the Holocaust. Dozens of Paraguay documents were to be produced so that influential Jews from the Soviet Union occupied territories could leave the country for Japan. The embassy identified the honorary consul of Paraguay, the notary Bernhard Rudolf Hügli, who was willing to sell blank passports. About 30 such documents were initially purchased. It is not known who filled them in and how they got to the Soviet Union . In late 1939 / early 1940 there were still some neutral countries between Switzerland and the Soviet border, and travel across the borders was formally possible. At first it was believed that the production of the passports had a rather unique character. The best-known example is the production of a passport for Guta Eiszweig, the future wife of Eli Sternbuch, and her mother in November 1941. The Sternbuch family received the document by contacting Juliusz Kühl. It is not known who completed this document. A study by Yad Vashem from 1957 provided evidence that other passports were also produced - especially after the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 . In some cases, passport holders have been exempted from living in ghettos and wearing a Star of David bracelet . The passport production scheme was reverted to in 1942 after the Wannsee Conference , when the mass murder of European Jews began. From that point on, Latin American passports generally protected against deportation to extermination camps , and their owners were sent to internment camps in Germany and France. Initially, the operation was performed in a messy manner, which increased the possibility of detection. This was probably the reason why the Polish embassy in Bern in 1942 included the action by Abraham Silberschein in the operation. In an interview with the police, Silberschein described it as follows.

“I had a meeting in the Polish embassy in Bern with the first secretary Ryniewicz and Mr. Rokicki, who was in charge of the consular department. Both gentlemen have drawn my attention to the fact that certain people in Switzerland are busy providing passports to the Poles who live in the countries occupied by Germany. The passes enable their holders to improve their situation. We were dealing with a real passport black market. The gentlemen from the embassy expressed the wish that I would take responsibility for the matter, which I did on behalf of RELICO. "

Paraguayan passports

The center of the passport operation was initially the RELICO organization and the Polish embassy. Silberschein sent the lists of persons to Consul Rokicki. This registered them and arranged for the passports to be produced. Rokicki then returned the passports or their notarized copies to Silberschein. Enclosed in each case was a letter from the honorary consul Rudolf Hügli to the passport holder, in which he was personally informed about the issue of the pass. In January 1943, Hügli was interrogated by the police. He stated like this:

“I started providing passports in mid-1942. Kuhl came up with the idea of ​​handing the passports over to people who had no identification documents and were stateless. […] Most of the cases were received from the Polish embassy, ​​i. H. edited by Mr. Kühl, [...]. He was the one who paid me. I do not know whether the Polish envoy knew about it. In any case, the first secretary, S. Ryniewicz, knew everything and he filled out the passports and sent them to me for signature and stamping. "

The majority of Paraguayan passports are dated between December 18 and 30, 1942. However, the correspondence between Silberschein and Rokicki, which is in the archives of Yad Vashem, confirms that the passports have been backdated. The vast majority of Paraguayan passports were filled out in the spelling of Consul Rokicki. However, there are also several passports with an inexactly identified originator, which were probably filled out by Kühl or Ryniewicz. Passports were issued for Jewish citizens from Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Hungary as well as for stateless Jews from Germany. The passport numbers in the silver note archive in Yad Vashem suggest that three series of such documents were produced, at least 1056. Often more than one person was entered in a passport - almost two on average. This suggests that the passports were issued to around 2,100 people. Each pass cost between 500 and 2000 Swiss francs . The money went to Rudolf Hügli via Rokicki, Kühl and Ryniewicz. That made him an enormous income during the operation. At the same time, so-called lists were drawn up for several thousand people. They were a confirmation of Paraguayan citizenship without a passport being issued.

Passports of Peru and El Salvador

In 1943, Silberschein contacted the consul of Peru in Geneva, José Barreto, to whom he - as he stated - handed over 10 to 12 thousand francs for 28 passports. The Consul General of Peru was informed about this and he dismissed Barreto. Over this matter there was a dispute between Silberschein and Ryniewicz. Ryniewicz criticized Silberschein for acting on his own initiative without involving the legation. Ryniewicz also tried to defend Barreto before the Peruvian consul general and prompted a similar action by the Polish embassy in Lima. In 1943, Silberschein contacted the Jewish employee of the Consulate General of El Salvador in Geneva, Georges Mandel-Mantello , who, probably with the consent of his boss, Arturo Castellanos , presented Silberschein with the completed passports and the notifications of Peruvian citizenship. The Polish embassy was likely informed of the number of passports issued and of contacts with Mandel-Mantello, but there is no evidence that it was involved in the preparation of any documents. Arturo Castellanos was declared Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2010 .

Passports from Honduras, Haiti and other countries

When obtaining Honduras passports, Silberschein contacted the former honorary consul of Honduras , Anton Bauer, who illegally issued the documents in his office in Bern. Silberschein's letters were addressed to Bauer's daughter Isabella. On May 27, 1943, Rokicki received a request from Silberschein to obtain two Honduran passports.

Results

Abraham Silberschein reported in January 1944 that the operation saved approximately ten thousand people from mass deportation to the German extermination camps. According to his information, these people were in the internment camps Tittmoning , Liebenau and Bölsenberg in Germany and in the Vittel camp in France. In March 1944 the Germans liquidated the Vittel camp and killed 200 to 300 prisoners. Most of the camps listed by Silberschein remained, however. One of the documents found that there were over 1,100 passport holders in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly before the liberation. Silberschein also wrote that he met many of these people on his visit to Poland in 1946. According to the Polish embassy in Bern, over 1050 passports have been issued for at least 2100 people.

reception

The literature on this topic focuses primarily on the activities of the individual members of the group. The group as a whole is less an issue because it acted relatively conspiratorially. There are also no reports from the members of the group that would describe their activities in detail. Aleksander Ładoś announced in his third, unfinished commemorative volume that he would describe the passport operation in more detail. However, this plan was foiled in December 1963 by his death. The diplomats of the “Ładoś Group” were named in a letter of thanks from Agudat Israel dated January 1945. It was the Honorary Consul of Poland in Switzerland, Markus Blechner, and the journalists Zbigniew Parafianowicz and Michał Potocki who described the passport operation in August 2017 and found that all members of the group had their contribution to the operation. The coveted Latin American passports were also the subject of the poem “Passports” written in the Warsaw Ghetto by the Polish-Jewish poet Władysław Szlengel .

Chciałbym mieć paszport Urugwaju,
alas, jaki to jest piękny kraj, alas,
jak przyjemnie być poddanym
kraju, co zwie się: Urugwaj [...]

chciałbym mieć paszport Paragwaju,
złoty i wolny to jest kraj,
alas, jak przyjemnie być poddanym
kraju, co two się: Paragwaj. [...]

I want Uruguay's passport,
Oh, what a beautiful country,
How pleasant is it to be a citizen of a country
called Uruguay. […]

I would like to have the passport of Paraguay,
this country is golden and free,
How pleasant is it to be a citizen of a country
called Paraguay. [...]
The special exhibition “Passports, Profiteers, Police” in the Jewish Museum of Switzerland , Basel

A special exhibition in the Jewish Museum of Switzerland , “Passports, Profiteurs, Police”, shows the history of the network of helpers in 2019/2020 using documents from the Swiss Federal Archives , Bern .

literature

  • Gutta Sternbuch, David Kranzler: Gutta: Memories of a Vanished World. A Bais Yaakov Teacher's Poignant Account of the War Years with a Historical Overview. Jerusalem / New York 2005, ISBN 978-1-58330-779-3 .
  • Nathan Eck: The Rescue of Jews with the Aid of Passports and Citizenship Papers of Latin American States. Yad Vashem Studies . 1, 1957p.
  • H. Goodman: Agudath World Organization H. Goodman to M. Salmon. The Sikorski Institute, London 1945.
  • Agnieszka Haska. “Proszę Pana Ministra o energiczną interwencję” (I ask the Minister to intervene vigorously). Aleksander Ładoś (1891–1963) i ratowanie Żydów przez Poselstwo RP w Bernie. Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały . 11, pp. 299-309, 2015, ISSN 1895-247X.

swell

  • Archives fédérales suisses Berne, C 16/2032 - interrogation protocol of F. Hirsch and A. Silberschein, September 1, 1943, dossier Silberschein
  • Archives fédérales suisses Berne, B.23.22.Parag-OV - Note in the matter of Rudolf Hügli, b. June 13, 1872, Hügli dossier August 4, 1943
  • Aleksander Ładoś: Niepublikowane pamiętniki (Unpublished Diaries). Wojskowe Biuro Badań Historycznych, seria: IX.1.2.20.

Web links

Commons : Ładoś Group  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Poles helped buy Jews out
  2. ↑ a b c Szwajcaria - Karczewski: oddajemy cześć tym, którzy tworzyli łańcuch dobrych serc
  3. ↑ a b c d Jędrzej Uszyński: Ambasador Ładoś i jego dyplomaci - niezwykła akcja ratowania Żydów z Holocaustu. Ambasada RP w Bernie, 2017
  4. ↑ a b c Michał Potocki, Zbigniew Parafianowicz: Polak na polecenie rządu ratował Żydów od Holokaustu. Świat się o tym nie dowiedział. Gazeta Prawna, 2017
  5. ^ Poles helped buy Jews out.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Petar Petrović: Ambasador Polski w Szwajcarii: Polacy pomagali przy wykupie Żydów z rąk nazistów. Alianci byli temu przeciwni. Rozmowa z ambasadorem Polski w Szwajcarii dr Jakubem Kumochem. Polskie Radio, 2018
  7. ↑ a b c d Agnieszka Haska. “Proszę Pana Ministra o energiczną interwencję”. Aleksander Ładoś (1891–1963) i ratowanie Żydów przez Poselstwo RP w Bernie. “Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały ”. 11, p. 299-309, 2015, ISSN 1895-247X
  8. ^ Gutta Sternbuch, David Kranzler: Gutta: Memories of a Vanished World. A Bais Yaakov Teacher's Poignant Account of the War Years with a Historical Overview. Jerusalem-New York: 2005. ISBN 978-1-58330-779-3
  9. ↑ Archives fédérales suisses Berne, C 16/2032 - F. Hirsch and A. Silberschein, September 1, 1943, dossier Silberschein
  10. ↑ Archives fédérales suisses Berne, B.23.22.Parag-OV - Note in the matter of Rudolf Hügli, geb. 13 June 1872, dossier Hügli 4th VIII.1943
  11. ^ Gutta Sternbuch, David Kranzler: Gutta: Memories of a Vanished World. A Bais Yaakov Teacher's Poignant Account of the War Years with a Historical Overview. Jerusalem-New York: 2005. ISBN 978-1-58330-779-3
  12. ^ Władysław Szlengel - Poems. zchor.org
  13. ↑ Jewish Museum shows a hidden piece of Swiss history. Retrieved on July 9, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
  14. ^ Jewish Museum reveals war secret . In: Basler Zeitung . ISSN  1420-3006 ( bazonline.ch [accessed July 9, 2020]).
  15. ^ Passports, profiteers, police - Jewish Museum of Switzerland (DE). Retrieved July 9, 2020 .