Memorial Stone of the Council for Helping Jews (Bohaterów Getta Square, from Anielewicz’s Street side)
On August 11th 1942, just after the beginning of the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto, a writer Zofia Kossak-Szczucka published a proclamation entitled “Protest !”. In a leaflet sold-out in conspiratorial conditions, she wrote: “In the Warsaw ghetto, behind a wall cut off from the world, several hundred thousand convicts are waiting to die.(…) Who is silent in the face of murder – becomes partner of the murderer. Who does not condemn – this allows. So we take our voice, Catholics-Poles.” On September 27th 1942, from the initiative of Zofia Kossak and Wanda Krahelska – Filipowicz, the Delegation of the Government of the Republic of Poland to the Country set up a Temporary Committee for Helping Jews. It became the beginning of the “Żegota”. It was established on December 4th 1942, and operated until 1945 as an organ of the government of the Republic of Poland in exile. It was the only one state-run institution to save Jews from extinction in German-occupied Europe. Its members were people of different social and political views. Irena Sendler was a member of the Council. Thanks to her efforts, 2,500 Jewish children secretly escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto and found care, despite of the ban of help hiding Jews under threat of the death penalty, introduced by the Nazis in the fall of 1941. Nearly 4,000 people have received material support, and about 50,000 people false documents. The Council searched for flats and shelters for refugees from the ghettos. “Żegota” was honoured with the Righteous Among the Nations medal awarded by the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute in Jerusalem.
The monument was unveiled on September 27th 1995 by the last surviving member of the Jewish Aid Council – Władysław Bartoszewski for the anniversary of the origin of “Żegota” and at the same time the feast of the Polish Underground State. The obelisk is designed by Hanna Szmalenberg and Mark Moderau and there is an inscription on it in three languages: Polish, Hebrew and English, which reminds the history of the organization.