Zegota - Softcover

Irene Tomaszewski; Tecia Werbowski

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1896881157 ISBN 13: 9781896881157

Publisher: Price-Patterson, 1994

Synopsis

This book is the story of the Holocaust in Poland witnessed by a number of Jews and Christians. The London-based Polish Government-in Exile was the first Allied government during World War II to bring to the attention of the free world Hitler's intention to annihilate the Jews of Poland. Its representative, Jan Karski, bearing eye witness accounts of Nazi perpetrated atrocities urged the leaders of the United States and Great Britain to respond to the crisis by aiding the Jews of Poland. Frustrated by the Allied governments' rejection of active intervention, the exiled Polish leaders then set in motion their own effort to save Jewish lives by organizing cooperative elements of the Polish Underground with their civilian counterparts. They formed the "Council for Aid to Jews" which was in fact the only government- sponsored social welfare agency established to rescue Jews in German-occupied Europe. This organization, given the code name "Zegota" provided hiding places and false identity documents for Jewish men, women, and children who were able to escape from Nazi control. Ultimately, thousands of lives were saved.

About this title

About the Author

Irene Tomaszewski was born in a Soviet concentration camp near Archangel in the USSR. Her father, mother and two sisters had been deported from Poland in 1940, following the Soviet invasion of the country in 1939. Released after Germany attacked its former ally in June 1941, the family made its way to Southern Russia where her father joined the Polish Army of General Wladyslav Anders then being organized. This army, the Polish II Corps, eventually linked up with British forces in the Middle East. The family, meantime, was evacuated from Russia with some 55,000 civilians, and was sent to a refugee camp in Tanzania. They were reunited in England in 1948 and immigrated to Canada the following year. A graduate of Concordia University, Irene Tomaszewski has published articles, commentary, and reviews in major Canadian newspapers and magazines. She has also worked on television documentaries, most recently writing the screenplay for Zegota: The Council for Aid to Jews in Occupied Poland 1942-1945. Her most recent book, I am First a Human Being: The Prison Letters of Krystyna Wituska was published by Vehicule Press in 1997.

Edition details

• Publisher: Price-Patterson
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1896881157
• ISBN 13: 9781896881157
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 166