Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust

Nazi German poster in German and Polish (Warsaw, 1942) threatening death to any Pole who aided Jews

Under the Nazi German occupation of Poland in World War II, many Polish individuals, organizations and communities attempted to rescue Polish Jews. To date, a total of 6,066 individuals have been officially recognized by Israel as the Polish Righteous among the Nations for their efforts in rescuing their countrymen from the Holocaust.

Numbers

How many people in Poland rescued Jews? Of those that meet Yad Vashem’s criteria—perhaps 100,000. Of those that offered minor forms of help—perhaps two or three times as many. Of those who were passively protective—undoubtedly the majority of the population. — Gunnar S. Paulsson

Poland's total pre-World War II population is estimated at 35,100,000, of which 3.1 million were Jewish. The exact number of Polish Christians who rescued their Jewish countrymen from the Nazi occupation has never been fully determined. Dr. Hans G. Furth, writing in the Journal of Genocide Research, estimated that there might have been as many as 1,200,000 Polish rescuers. Władysław Bartoszewski, a wartime member of Żegota, estimated that "at least several hundred thousand Poles... participated in various ways and forms in the rescue action." Historian Richard C. Lukas estimated that upwards of one million Poles were involved in such rescue efforts, "but some estimates go as high as three million."

Likewise, there is no official number on how many Polish Jews were hidden by their Christian countrymen during wartime. Richard C. Lukas estimated that "the number of Jews sheltered by Poles" at one time might have been "as high as 450,000." However, concealment did not automatically assure complete safety from apprehension by the Nazis, and the number of Jews in hiding who were caught varies in estimates from 40,000 to 200,000.

There were elements among the populace who blackmailed the hiding Jews and/or turned them over to the Nazis. Yet historians have determined that Polish collaboration with the Nazis was not commonplace. However, as Paulsson notes, "a single hooligan or blackmailer could wreak severe damage on Jews in hiding, but it took the silent passivity of a whole crowd to maintain their cover."

Jews in Polish villages

Polish villages that provided shelter from Nazi apprehension offered protection for their Jewish neighbors, and also offered aid for refugees from other villages and escapees from the ghettos. Postwar research has confirmed that communal protection occurred in Głuchów near Łańcut with everyone engaged, as well as in the villages of Główne, Ozorków, Borkowo near Sierpc, Dąbrowica near Ulanów, in Głupianka near Otwock, and Teresin near Chełm.

The forms of protection varied from village to village. In Gołąbki, the farm of Jerzy and Irena Krępeć provided a hiding place for up to 30 Jews; years after the war, the couple's son recalled in an interview with the Montreal Gazette that their actions were "an open secret in the village [where] everyone knew they had to keep quiet" and helped, "if only to provide a meal." Another farm couple, Alfreda and Bolesław Pietraszek provided shelter for Jewish families in Ceranów near Sokołów Podlaski, and their neighbors brought food to those being rescued.

Two decades after the end of the war, a Jewish partisan named Gustaw Alef-Bolkowiak identified the following villages in the Parczew-Ostrów Lubelski area where "almost the entire population" assisted Jews: Rudka, Jedlanka, Makoszka, Tyśmienica, and Bójki. Historians would also document a dozen villagers of Mętów near Głusk outside Lublin also sheltered Polish Jews.

In some documented cases, Polish Jews who were being hidden were circulated between locations in a village. Farmers in Zdziebórz near Wyszków, by turns, sheltered two Jewish men who later joined the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) Polish resistance. The entire village of Mulawicze near Bielsk Podlaski took responsibility for the survival of an orphaned nine-year-old Jewish boy. Different families took turns hiding a Jewish girl at various homes in Wola Przybysławska near Lublin, and around Jabłoń near Parczew where many Polish Jews successfully sought refuge.

Impoverished Polish Jews, unable to offer any money in return, were nonetheless provided with food, clothing, shelter and money by some small communities; historians have confirmed this took place in the villages of Czajków near Staszów as well as several villages near Łowicz, in Korzeniówka near Grójec, near Żyrardów, in Łaskarzew, and across Kielce Voivodship.

In tiny villages where there was no permanent Nazi military presence, such as Dąbrowa Rzeczycka, Kępa Rzeczycka and Wola Rzeczycka near Stalowa Wola, some Jews were able to openly participate in the lives of their communities. Dr. Olga Lilien, recalling her wartime experience in the 2000 book To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue, was sheltered by a Polish family in a village near Tarnobrzeg, where she survived the war despite the posting of a two hundred deutsche marks reward by the Nazi occupiers for information on Jews in hiding. Chava Grinberg-Brown from Gmina Wiskitki would recall in a postwar interview that some farmers used the threat of violence against a fellow villager that intimated the desire to betray her safety. Polish-born Israeli writer and Holocaust survivor Natan Gross, in his 2001 book Who Are You, Mr. Grymek?, told of a village near Warsaw where a local Nazi collaborator was forced to flee when it became known he reported the location of a hidden Jew.

Jews in Polish cities

In Poland's cities and larger towns, the Nazis created ghettos that were designed to imprison the local Jewish populations. While communal rescue was impossible under these circumstances, many Polish Christians concealed their Jewish neighbors. Historian Gunnar S. Paulsson, in his research on the Jews of Warsaw, documented that Warsaw's Polish residents managed to support and conceal the same percentage of Jews as did residents in other European cities under Nazi occupation.

Organizations dedicated to saving the Jews

Among the organizations created and run by ethnic Poles, dedicated to saving the Polish Jewish community, Żegota - also known as the Council to Aid Jews - is the most prominent. It was unique not only in Poland, but in the entire Nazi-occupied Europe, as there was no other organization dedicated solely for to that goal. Żegota dedicated itself to saving Jewish children. It is estimated that about half of the Jews who survived the war (thus over 50,000) were aided in some shape or form by Żegota.

Besides Żegota, there were other organizations in Poland dedicated to helping the Jews.

Jews and the Church

Roman Catholic Church in Poland has provided many Jews with food and shelter. In particular, convents of catholic nuns in Poland played a major role in the effort to rescue and shelter Polish Jews. Those efforts were supported by local Polish bishops and the Vatican itself. In the villages of Ożarów, Ignaców, Szymanów, and Grodzisko near Leżajsk, the Jewish children were cared for by Roman Catholic convents as well as the surrounding communities. In these villages, Christian parents did not remove their children from schools where Jewish children were in attendance.

Historians have determined that in some villages, Jewish families survived the Holocaust by living under assumed identities as Christians -- with the full consent of their village neighbors and protectors. This has been confirmed in the villages of Bielsko (Upper Silesia), in Dziurków near Radom, in Olsztyn Village near Częstochowa, in Korzeniówka near Grójec, in Łaskarzew, Sobolew, and Wilga triangle, and in several villages near Łowicz.

Jews and the Polish government

Amidst a good deal of tension between the Polish Jewish community and the Polish government in exile, funds, arms and supplies to Żegota, Jewish resistance (like ŻOB) were supplied, and the Western allies were kept informed about the Holocaust (however the early reports were often met with disbelief and disregarded).

Punishment for aiding the Jews

Public execution of Michał Kruk and several other people in Przemyśl on 6 September 1943, executed for the assistance they had rendered to the Jews. Altogether, in the town and its closest environs 415 Jews (including 60 children) were saved, in return for which the Germans killed 568 people of Polish nationality.

On November 10, 1941, the death penalty was expanded by Hans Frank, governor of the occupied Poland, to apply to Poles who helped Jews "in any way: by taking them in for the night, giving them a lift in a vehicle of any kind" or "feed[ing] runaway Jews or sell[ing] them foodstuffs." The law was made public by posters distributed in all major cities. Nazi death squads carried out the mass executions of entire villages that were discovered to be aiding Jews on a communal level.

The residents of the village of Markowa, near Łańcut, where many families concealed their Jewish neighbors, were executed by the Nazis. In the villages of Białka near Parczew and Sterdyń near Sokołów Podlaski 150 villagers were massacred for sheltering Jews. In November 1942, the Ukrainian SS squad executed 20 villagers from Berecz in Wołyń Voivodeship for giving aid to Jewish escapees from the ghetto in Povorsk.

Entire communities that helped shelter Jews were killed in the now-extinct village of Huta Werchobuska near Złoczów, in Zahorze near Łachwa, and in Huta Pieniacka near Brody. The same fate met the villagers of Stara Huta near Szumsk.

Several hundred Poles were summarily massacred with their priest, Fr. Adam Sztark, in Słonim on December 18, 1942, for sheltering Jews in a church. In Huta Stara near Buczacz, Polish Christians and the Jewish countrymen they protected were herded into a church by the Nazis and burned alive on March 4, 1944.

Individual testimonies

In the postwar years, Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust recalled their experiences with the nation's villages in interviews and autobiographies. Emanuel Ringelblum, who chronicled the deportation of Jews from the town of Zbąszyń and later documented Jewish life in the Warsaw Ghetto wrote that in Głowno, Jews "who went out to a village in search of food usually returned with a bag of potatoes". Eva Safszycka who escaped from the ghetto in Siedlce said: "I met with so much kindness from the Poles, so many were decent and helpful that it is unbelievable..."

Leon Kahn, who traveled with his father around Powiłańce near Lida, would recall: "At each house, we knocked and explained our plight. Only a few turned us down.... Very soon our wagon was filled with butter and eggs and flour and fresh vegetables, and my father and I wept at their kindness...." Zygmunt Srul Warszawer, who who survived by hiding around the areas of the village of Wielki Las, frequently requested assistance from farmers. Asked in interview if he had ever been refused, Warszawer indicated that though some farmers feared to allow him into their homes or barns, when it came to food, no one turned him down; "In twenty-six months, not once."

Luba Wrobel Goldberg, a Holocaust survivor, recalled in her autobiography that Lendowo in Brańsk "became a refuge for a lot of wandering Jews, they called this village the Garden of Eden."

Partial list of communities

Below is the partial list of Polish communities engaged in collective rescuing of Jews during the Holocaust, as described in literature mentioned below. Spelling of some of the names of settlements and counties has been revised in accordance with the currently available geodata. Occasionally, the below links lead to disambiguation pages listing villages known by the same name in the same geographical area of prewar and postwar Poland.

For list of settlements and their gminas in alphabetical order, please use table-sort buttons.

Settlement	Area	Settlement	Area	Settlement	Area
Białka	Parczew	Sterdyń	Sokołów	Bolimów	Skierniewice
Główne	Sierpc	Ozorków	Sierpc	Borkowo	Sierpc
Dąbrowica	Ulanów	Głupianka	Otwock	Osiny	Łuków
Wola Przybysławska	Lublin	Jabłoń	Parczew	Kańczuga	Przeworsk
Czajków	Staszów	Zdziebórz	Wyszków	Parczew	Ostrów
Rudka	Lublin	Jedlanka	Łuków	Makoszka	Dębowa Kłoda
Tyśmienica	Gmina Parczew	Bójki	Ostrów	Niedźwiada	Opole
Mętów	Głusk	Gołąbki	Lublin	Króle Duże	Ostrów
Dąbrowa Rzeczycka	Stalowa Wola	Kępa Rzeczycka	Stalowa Wola	Wola Rzeczycka	Stalowa Wola
Rzeczyca Okrągła	Stalowa Wola	Głuchów	Łańcut	Mulawicze	Bielsk
Drzewica	Opoczno	Ceranów	Sokołów	Poniatowa	Lublin
Bielsko	Upper Silesia	Dziurków	Radom	Olsztyn Village	Częstochowa
Korzeniówka	Grójec	Łaskarzew	Garwolin	Sobolew	Garwolin
Wilga	Łowicz	Siedlce	Masovia	Wielki Las	Pisz
Lendowo	Brańsk	Teresin	Chełm	Powiłańce	Lida
Kajetanówka	Lublin	Ożarów	Kielce	Ignaców	Lublin
Szymanów	Masovia	Grodzisko	Leżajsk	Białka	Parczew
Sterdyń	Sokołów	Okopy	Kisorycze	Rokitno	Wołyń
Tarnopol	Tarnopol V.	Berecz †	Wołyń	Huta Werchoducka †	Złoczów
Zahorze †	Łachwa	Dubeczno	Lublin	Kozaki	.
Stara Kubra	Radziłów	Bełżec	Tomaszów	Sobibór	Włodawa
Treblinka	Małkinia	Serock	Warsaw	Sikórz	Płock
Urzędów	Lublin	Milanówek	Warsaw	Mielec	Rzeszów
Goszcza	Miechów	Gawłuszowice	Mielec	Chrząstów	Mielec
Majdan Nepryski	Bełżec	Głowaczowa	Dębica	Grodzisk	Warsaw
Wołomin	Warsaw	Zabłudów	Białystok	Nowosady	Brańsk
Baranki	Białystok	Araje	Białystok	Zawyki	Białystok
Niedźwiada	Opole Lubelskie	Runów	Grójec	Gorzyce	Dąbrowa
Przydonica	Nowy Sącz	Ubiad	Nowy Sącz	Klimkówka	Nowy Sącz
Jelna	Gródek	Słowikowa	Nowy Sącz	Librantowa	Chełmiec
Piszczac	Biała Podlaska	Kolonia Dworska	Piszczac	Rożki	Krasnystaw
Zamość	Lublin	Radzymin	Wołomin	Otwock	Warsaw
Miedzeszyn	Warsaw	Praga	Warsaw	Żoliborz	Warsaw
Obórki	Brodnica	Woronówka †	Ludwipol	Kościejów	Bełżec
Kulików	Bełżec	Bar	Gródek	Zawołocze †	Ludwipol
Bereźne	Kostopol	Korzec	Wołyń	Stara Huta	Szumsk
Kosów	Kołomyja	Międzyrzec	Równe	Niżniów	Czortków
Ułaszkowce	Czortków	Hanaczów	Lwów	Ostra Mogiła †	Skałat
Konińsk †	Sarny	Borowskie Budki	Kisorycze	Świnarzyn	Dominopol
Bereźne	Kostopol	Janówka	Tarnopol	Wólka Kotowska	Łuck
Huta Stepańska	Wołyń	Przebraże	Wołyń	Zdołbunów	Bereźne
Huta Brodzka †	Lwów	Adamy †	Lwów	Netreba †	Wołyń
Karaczun †	Kostopol	Złoczów	Rakowiec	Pańska Dolina	Wołyń
Kurdybań	Wołyń	Bortnica †	Wołyń	Zameczek	Wilno
Żeniówka	Wołyń	Wsielub	Nowogródek	Mieżańce	Raduń
Dźwinogród	Buczacz	Huta Stara †	Buczacz	Hołosko Wielkie	Lwów
Berecz †	Wołyń	Matejkany	Wilno	Białozoryszki †	Wilno
Potok Górny	Tomaszów	Bybło	Rohatyn county	Jazłowiec	Buczacz
Dołha	Tarnopol	Słonim	Nowogródek	Hucisko Oleskie	Tarnopol
Settlement	Area	Settlement	Area	Settlement	Area

Further reading

• Malgorzata Melchior, The Holocaust Survivors who passed as non-Jews – in Nazi occupied Poland and France. The comparison of the Survivors’ experience1, Warsaw University
• Gunnar S. Paulsson, “The Demography of Jews in Hiding in Warsaw, 1943–1945,” Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, volume 13 (2000), at pages 78–103.
• Gunnar S. Paulsson, “Evading the Holocaust: The Unexplored Continent of Holocaust Historiography,” in John K. Roth and Elisabeth Maxwell, eds., Remembering for the Future: The Holocaust, p. 257, in an Age of Genocide (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave, 2001), volume 1, pp.302–318.
• Gunnar S. Paulsson, “Ringelblum Revisited: Polish-Jewish Relations in Occupied Warsaw, 1940–1945,” in Joshua D. Zimmerman, ed., Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath (New Brunswick, New Jersey and London: Rutgers University Press, 2003), pp.173–92.
• Gunnar S. Paulsson, Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940–1945 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002). Monograph.
• John T. Pawlikowski, Polish Catholics and the Jews during the Holocaust, in , Google Print, p. 107-123 in Joshua D. Zimmerman, Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath, Rutgers University Press, 2003, ISBN 0813531586
• Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). "Assistance to Jews". Poland's Holocaust. McFarland & Company. pp. p.112-128. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |chapterurl= and |coauthors= (help)
• Nechama Tec, When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland, Oxford University Press US, 1987, ISBN 0195051947, Google Print
• Irene Tomaszewski, Tecia Werbowski, Zegota: The Rescue of Jews in Wartime Poland, Price-Patterson, 1994, ISBN 0969577168