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Żegota (, full codename: the " Konrad Żegota Committee"Yad Vashem Shoa Resource Center, Zegota) was the Polish Council to Aid Jews with the Government Delegation for Poland (), an underground Polish resistance organization, and part of the Polish Underground State, active 1942–45 in German-occupied Poland.Władysław Bartoszewski: środowisko naturalne korzenie Michal Komar, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski Świat Ksia̜żki, page 238, 210 Żegota was the successor institution to the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews and was established specifically to save Jews. Poland was the only country in German-occupied Europe where such a government-established and -supported underground organization existed.
Estimates of the number of Jews that Żegota provided aid to, and eventually saved, range from several thousands to tens of thousands.
Operatives of Żegota worked in extreme circumstances – under threat of death by the Nazi forces.
Kossak-Szczucka initially wanted Żegota to become an example of a "pure Christian charity", arguing that Jews had their own international charity organizations. Nevertheless, Żegota was run by both Jews and non-Jews from a wide range of political movements. Julian Grobelny, an activist in the prewar Polish Socialist Party, was elected as General Secretary, and Ferdynand Arczyński – a member of the Polish Democratic Party – as treasurer. Adolf Berman and Leon Feiner represented the Jewish National Committee (an umbrella group representing the Zionism parties) and the Marxism General Jewish Labour Bund. Both parties operated independently, channeling funds donated by Jewish organizations abroad to Żegota and other underground operations. Other members included the Polish Socialist Party, the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne) and the Catholic Front for the Rebirth of Poland (Front Odrodzenia Polski) led by Kossak-Szczucka and Witold Bieńkowski, editors of its underground publications. The right-wing National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe) refused to take part in the organization.
The organization headquarters was located in Warsaw at 24 . Żegota was active chiefly in Warsaw, but it also provided money, food, and medicines for prisoners in several forced-labor camps, as well as to refugees in Kraków, Wilno (Vilnius), and Lwów (L'viv). Żegota's activities overlapped to a considerable extent with those of the other major organizations dedicated to helping Jews in Poland – namely the Jewish National Committee, which cared for some 5,600 Jews; and the Bund, which cared for an additional 1,500. Together, the three organizations were able to reach some 8,500 of the 28,000 Jews hiding in Warsaw, and perhaps another 1,000 hiding elsewhere in Poland.
Żegota's children's section in Warsaw, headed by a Polish social worker Irena Sendler, cared for 2,500 Jewish children. Many were placed with foster families, in public orphanages, church orphanages, and convents.
Żegota repeatedly asked the Polish Government-in-Exile and the Government Delegation for Poland to appeal to the Polish people to help the persecuted Jews.
"Żegota" in Kraków Established 75 Years Ago Mateusz Szczepaniak / English translation: Andrew Rajcher, 14 March 2018 POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Richard C. Lukas estimated that 60,000, or about half of the Jews who survived the Holocaust in occupied Poland (such estimates vary), were aided in some shape or form by Żegota. Czesław Łuczak estimates the number of aid recipients at about 30,000. Paul R. Bartrop estimated that Żegota helped to save about 4,000 Jews and provided assistance to about 25,000 in total.
According to Richard C. Lukas, "The number of Poles who perished at the hands of the Germans for aiding Jews" is difficult to establish, with estimates ranging from several thousand to as high as fifty thousand.Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust University Press of Kentucky, 1989; 201 pp.; p. 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation, 1939–1944, University Press of Kentucky, 1986; 300 pp. Paul R. Bartrop estimated that about 20,000 Żegota operatives were killed by the Nazis, and thousands of others were arrested and imprisoned.
Despite these difficulties, throughout the war, the Polish Government-in-Exile continually increased its funding for Żegota: the Polish Government's monthly support was increased from 30,000 Polish zloty to zl 338,000 in May 1944, and to zl 1,000,000 by war's end. The Polish Government's overall financial contribution to Żegota and Jewish organizations came to zl 37,400,000, US$1,000,000, and Swiss franc 200,000 (see financial details below).Aleksander Gella, Zagłada Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej: 1945–1947 (The Demise of the Polish Second Republic: 1945–1947), 1998, p. 129.
("Żegota Was Established in Kraków 75 Years Ago").Stefan Korboński, Polacy, Żydzi i Holocaust (The Poles, the Jews, and the Holocaust), 1999, p. 58. According to Marcin Urynowicz, the percentage of the funds allocated by the Polish Government-in-Exile to help Jews, including through Żegota, was based on their percentage in Poland's prewar general population.Marcin Urynowicz, “Zorganizowana i indywidualna pomoc Polaków dla ludności żydowskiej eksterminowanej przez okupanta niemieckiego w okresie drugiej wojny światowej” ("Poles' Organized and Individual Help to the Jewish Population Being Exterminated by the Occupying Germans during World War II"), in Andrzej Żbikowski, ed., Polacy i Żydzi pod okupacją niemiecką 1939–1945 (Poles and Jews under the German Occupation, 1939–1945), Warsaw, IPN, 2006, p. 225–26.
Antony Polonsky writes that "Zegota's successes—it was able to forge false documents for some 50,000 persons—suggest that, had it been given a higher priority by the Delegatura and the government in London, it could have done much more." Polonsky quotes Władysław Bartoszewski as saying that the organization was considered a "stepchild" of the underground; and Emanuel Ringelblum, who wrote that "a Council for Aid to the Jews was formed, consisting of people of good will, but its activity was limited by lack of funds and lack of help from the government." A similar description is given by historian Martin Winstone, who writes that Żegota fought an uphill battle for funding and received more support from Jewish organizations than from the Polish Government-in-Exile. He also notes that the Polish right-wing parties completely refused to support it. Shmuel Krakowski described the funding as "modest", and writes that the Polish government could have allocated more to funding the organization. He writes that "the was indeed very little considering not only the needs of the council and the immensity of the Jewish tragedy but also the resources at the Polish underground's disposal... they could have been much more generous in allocating resources needed to save human lives."
Joseph Kermish describes the relationship between Żegota and the Government Delegation for Poland as strained, with frequent disagreements about funding and the extent of the humanitarian crisis Żegota was trying to address.
It has been estimated that the cost of saving one Jewish life was around 6,000–15,000 Polish zloties.
| +Funds allocated by the Government Delegation for PolandWaldemar Grabowski, "Rada Pomocy Żydom »Żegota« w strukturach Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego" ("Żegota within the Structures of the Polish Underground State"), Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance), no. 11 (120), November 2010, IPNAleksander Gella, Zagłada Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej: 1945–1947 (The Demise of the Polish Second Republic: 1945–1947), 1998, p. 129 | ||||
| Żegota | May 1943 – Feb. 1944 | 6,250,000 zł | total | |
| Jan. 1943 – May 1944 | 11,250,000 zł | total | According to Witold Bieńkowski | |
| Before May 1944 | 30,000 zł | monthly | ||
| After May 1944 | 338,000 zł | monthly | ||
| Nov. 1944 – Dec. 1944 | 14,000,00 zł | total | Allotted to help 1,500–1,800 Jews hiding on Warsaw's left bank | |
| Nov. 1944 – Dec. 1944 | $32,000 | n/a | ||
| March 1945 – April 1945 | $65,000 | n/a | ||
| By Sept. 1945 | 1,000,000 zł | monthly | ||
| 1939–1945 | $250,000 | total | Sum of all funds allocated to Żegota expressed in USD | |
| All Jewish organizations | 1939–1945 | 37,400,000 zł
$1,000,000
200,000 CHF | total | Combined total, including the funds allocated to Żegota |
| All organizations | 1939–1945 | $35,000,000 DM 20,000,000 | total | Based on partial data – actual figure probably higher |
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