Pole who helped save Jews donates items to museum

Former FM is among the few freed from Auschwitz, after which he gave Jews fake documents and helped hide them

By AP 10 October 2013, 1:54 pm

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Aerial view of the new Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in Warsaw (photo credit: courtesy)

WARSAW, Poland — A former Polish foreign minister who helped save Jews from the Holocaust on Wednesday donated World War II documents and distinctions he received from Israel to a Jewish history museum opening in Warsaw.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews said 91-year-old Wladyslaw Bartoszewski donated items including: fake wartime documents of Dr. Leon Feiner, a Jewish resistance leader; a ring made in the Lodz Ghetto in 1942; wartime media reports about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising; his own medal honoring him as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, a title given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust; and an Israeli honorary citizenship document.

Like many other non-Jewish Poles, Bartoszewski himself was imprisoned at the German Nazi death camp of Auschwitz — from 1940-41. He was among the very few freed, and later co-founded the clandestine Zegota organization, which gave Jews fake documents and placed them with Polish families.

After communism fell, he served twice as Poland’s foreign minister — in 1995 and 2000-2001.

The multi-media core exhibition at the museum is to open next year and will document the thousand-year-long history of Jewish life and culture in Poland. The building is already open to the visitors, serving as a cultural and educational center offering temporary exhibits, films, lectures and other activities.