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The Council
for Aid to Jews in Poland was a successor to the Provisional
Committee for Aid to Jews, established in September 1942, in which
Catholic democratic activists gathered to assist Jews. In December
1942, the provisional committee became a permanent council. Renamed
Zegota, it was staffed by representatives of five Polish and two
Jewish movements.
Zegota
provided thousands of Jewish families with financial aid in
1943-1944, but its main contribution was in providing, free of
charge, "Aryan" documents to thousands of Jews under its
patronage. Zegota also arranged hideouts for Jews, thus exposing its
activists to the death penalty.
Among the
few organizations in occupied Europe that were active in giving aid
to Jews, only Zegota was run jointly by Jews and non-Jews from a
wide range of political movements, and only it, despite the arrests
of some of its members, was able to operate for a considerable
length of time and to help Jews in so many different ways. |
