The Premiere of the Film “The Death of Zygielbojm”.

I cannot be silent and live when the remnants of the Jewish people in Poland are dying – these were the words of the farewell letter of Szmul Zygielbojm, member of the Bund, Councilor of Warsaw and Łódź, member of the National Council of the Republic of Poland in London. There, on May 12 or 13, 1943, he committed suicide in protest against the inaction of the Allies against the genocide of the Jews. Today, his story is receiving attention and has made it to the big screen.

– The film tells the little-known story of a member of the London National Council in exile during World War II, Szmul Zygielbojm, and his struggle to make the world aware of the extent of the tragedy of Polish Jews under German occupation. Faced with the failure of his efforts, Zygielbojm chose a suicide that would shake the conscience of the West. In his suicide note he wrote: “With my death I wish to express my strongest protest against the passivity with which the world watches and allows the extermination of the Jewish people.” I hope that his story, captured in a film directed by Ryszard Brylski, will reach wide circles of society in Poland and around the world, including schoolchildren. May this episode of the history of the Holocaust in Poland never be forgotten, says Albert Stankowski, director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.