Memorial to Shmuel Zygielbojm, Ulica Zamenhofa
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Shmuel Artur Zygielbojm (1895-12th May 1943) was born near Lublin and became a trade union activist. From the early 1920s he was one of the leaders of the Socialist Bund, and from 1927 to 1933 served as a Warsaw councillor. He was responsible for the formation of voluntary workers' battalions in September 1939. When the Germans occupied Warsaw he volunteered to be one of the twelve notable Jews held in the Pawiak prison as hostages, and later served on the first Judenrat. He then escaped to Belgium and from there to the USA. In 1942 he came to London, where he represented the Polish Jews on the Polish National Council. It was in London that he learned that his wife and two children had been shot near Warsaw. His attempts to get the Allies to act on reports of the genocide in Poland met with little success. Having heard early reports of the final destruction of the Ghetto, and failing yet again to obtain any Allied help, Zygielbojm decided to become one with the ghetto fighters. Around 13th May 1943, Zygielbojm killed himself as a protest against what he saw as Allied inaction. Before he committed suicide, he wrote letters to his friends and the Polish authorities, a portion of one of which can be seen below.
Apart from the memorial in Warsaw there is also a memorial plaque in London, on the corner of Porchester Road and Porchester Square, W2. It was unveiled in May 1996 in a ceremony attended by the Polish ambassador, Zygielbojm's family in America, the Mayor of Westminster and around 200 people, including Holocaust survivors, anti-racist activists, Polish socialists and others. At the unveiling a speech was made by David Rosenberg of the Jewish Socialists' Group and Zygielbojm's last letter was read in Yiddish and English by Esther Brunstein and Julia Bard. The unveiling was followed by a memorial meeting addressed by: Perec Zylberberg (World Co-ordinating Committee of the Bund), Ryszard Stemplowski (Polish Ambassador), Majer Bogdanski (Bundist veteran and JSG member), David Cesarani (historian), and Zygielbojm's daughter-in-law Adele and grandchildren Paul and Arthur. Supporters of the Zygielbojm Memorial Committee gather every year at the plaque.
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The beginning of Shmuel Zygielbojm's obituary in The Jewish Chronicle, 21st May 1943 Courtesy The Jewish Museum, London N3 |
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Here is a portion of one of Zygielbojm's last letters (the text in blue is reproduced on the memorial): "It has become clear from the information that has reached me from Poland that the Germans are now annihilating the remaining Jews of Poland with terrible cruelty. The last act of a tragedy without precedent in history is now being played out behind the walls of the ghetto. Responsibility for the crime of murdering the entire Jewish population of Poland lies first and foremost with the murderers themselves, but indirectly this responsibility lies with all mankind ... I can no longer remain silent and I cannot live when the remnant of the Jewish people in Poland, whom I represent, is being steadily annihilated. My comrades in the Warsaw ghetto fell with weapons in their hands, in the last heroic struggle. I was not fortunate enough to die as they did and together with them. But I belong to them and to their mass graves. By my death I wish to express my vigorous protest against the apathy with which the world regards and resigns itself to the slaughter of the Jewish people." |
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