Among those involved in helping Jews during World War II were diplomats and employees of Polish missions in various European countries. This group included, among others, Polish diplomats associated with the Polish Legation in Bern.
| Aleksander Ładoś (1)
"The Final Solution"
The fate of the Jewish population gradually deteriorated after the outbreak of World War II. The following months brought new humiliating legal regulations, restrictions on personal and property freedoms. Over time, they were alienated from the society in which they had previously lived through markings and confinement to segregated parts of cities. Some Jews had been seeking escape routes, for example, to the Soviet Union, since the autumn of 1939. Others waited for developments, hoping that the war would soon end and the old order would return. From the summer of 1941, after the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, the Germans began the mass murder of Jews. In the following months, the plan for the so-called Final Solution of the Jewish Question was brutally implemented. During the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the logistics of this plan were established. From December 1941, Jews were murdered in mobile gas chambers at the Kulmhof extermination camp in Chełmno on the Ner River. In the spring of 1942, as part of Operation Reinhardt, the aim of which was to exterminate Jews from the General Government and Bezirk Białystok, the Germans established three death camps: Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka. From the summer of 1942, Jews were transported primarily from the liquidated ghettos in the General Government. Jews from the Third Reich and other countries of occupied Europe were later deported to these centers. At the same time, mass deportations of Jews to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp located within the Third Reich also began.
Jews fleeing the Holocaust sought refuge for themselves and their loved ones outside the ghettos, on the so-called Aryan side. The population's reactions to the fleeing Jews varied, from passivity, through active assistance, to handing those in hiding over to the Germans and even murdering them. Some of the hiding Jews attempted to reach other countries beyond the control of Nazi Germany.
Employees of the Polish Legation
Individuals, representatives of various political groups, organizations, and denominations, as well as some diplomats, came to the aid of Jews seeking salvation. Both immediately before and during World War II, they supported efforts to obtain documents enabling emigration to neutral countries or beyond Europe's borders. Some also offered persecuted Jews shelter in buildings belonging to diplomatic missions, which enjoyed international immunity.
This group included four diplomats associated with the Polish diplomatic mission in Bern, in Switzerland, which was neutral during World War II. They contributed to the creation of an aid network historiographically known as the Bern Group, after the city that served as the center of these efforts. Employees of the Polish Legation involved in aiding Jews are also known as the Ładoś Group, after the head of the mission, who directed these efforts. However, this term no longer encompasses the circle of individuals who collaborated with the Legation in Bern, as they were not directly subordinate to Ładoś. Aleksander Ładoś (1891-1963) was born in Lviv and spent his early years there. He studied history at the Jan Kazimierz University there. After the outbreak of World War I, he moved to Lausanne to continue his studies. After returning to independent Poland in 1919, he began working in the diplomatic service: at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at foreign missions, including those in Riga and Munich. In 1931, after Józef Beck took over as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was dismissed from service. From then on, he engaged in journalistic activities, among other things. After the outbreak of World War II, in October 1939, Ładoś found himself in Paris. He joined the Polish government-in-exile, led by Władysław Sikorski, as a minister without portfolio. In 1940, Ładoś was appointed head of the Polish diplomatic mission in Bern. Over time, he authorized his embassy staff to engage in the acquisition of blank forms and the distribution of forged passports and visas to Jews seeking refuge. Ładoś also negotiated with the Polish government-in-exile regarding the transfer of money and other forms of assistance to Poles interned in Switzerland.
Ładoś's deputy was Stefan Ryniewicz (1903-1988), born in Ternopil. He was educated in Lviv. In the 30s, he began working in diplomacy. His first posting was at the Polish Legation in Bern, where he initially served as a clerk and then as head of the consular department. He then worked in the office of Minister Józef Beck. From 1935 to 38, he served as consul in Riga. Just before the outbreak of World War II, he returned to the Polish Legation in Bern. Ryniewicz's duties included filling out passport forms purchased from the Honorary Consul of Paraguay, Rudolf Hügli. After the Germans discovered the network in 1943 and arrested several members, Ryniewicz successfully intervened on their behalf with the head of the Swiss police.
Another Polish Legation employee involved in the relief effort was Juliusz Kühl (1913-1985), born in Sanok to an Orthodox Jewish family. He studied economics at the University of Bern. In 1939, he defended his doctoral thesis on Polish-Swiss trade relations, which caught the attention of the Polish Legation staff. He was soon hired as deputy head of the Legation's Consular Section. However, the Swiss authorities did not recognize his diplomatic status. Along with other employees of the Legation, he engaged in the production of false passports for Jewish refugees. Juliusz Kühl's role was crucial, as he collaborated with local religious communities and Jewish aid organizations. He was responsible for the transport of purchased passports, as well as for the transfer of funds and the coordination of document smuggling. Kühl remained in constant contact with representatives of various Jewish organizations. They provided some of the financial resources, as well as lists of Jews in need of help. Despite being arrested by Swiss police and threatened with deportation, Kühl continued his activities.
Another employee of the Legation, Konstanty Rokicki (1899-1958), born in Warsaw, also provided assistance. Well-educated and fluent in several languages, he served in the army as a second lieutenant of the cavalry and participated in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, during which he was decorated for valor. From 1931, he worked in Polish diplomacy, including at the Polish Consulate in Minsk, the Polish Consulate in Riga, and the Polish Legation in Cairo. From 1939, he served as the Polish Vice-Consul in Bern. Konstanty Rokicki undertook, among other tasks, filling out passport forms, which were then smuggled out of Switzerland to Jews in need.
The Polish Legation in Bern worked with representatives of Jewish organizations: Chaim Eiss of the Agudat Israel party in Zurich and Abraham Silberschein, a pre-war member of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic and a wartime representative of the RELICO Committee for Aid to Jewish War Victims in Geneva. Their colleagues, who maintained contact with Dutch Jews, included Recha and Yitzhak Sternbuch, residing in Montreux, Switzerland.
| A fake Paraguayan passport issued by the Ładoś group in 1942 for the Goldzweig family (2)
Paid forms
Diplomats from the Bern Group provided assistance primarily to Polish Jews, as well as Dutch and German ones. Their activities began in 1941 with informal cooperation with representatives of Jewish organizations in Switzerland. Polish diplomats obtained blank Latin American passport forms, which they then completed and forwarded to Jewish organizations for distribution. The documents—passports and citizenship certificates—were most often purchased in cooperation with diplomatic representatives from Paraguay, Honduras, Haiti, and Peru. For diplomats from these countries, this provided an additional source of income. Jews who received these documents, as citizens of Latin American countries, often avoided deportation to extermination camps. They were sent to transit camps in France or Germany (including Vittel and Bergen-Belsen), where they were expected to await exchange for interned German soldiers. Documents prepared by Polish diplomats also reached Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. However, sending them to occupied Poland was a time-consuming process requiring the involvement of many people. Due to the Great Action of deporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp in the summer of 1942, some of the passports prepared by employees of the Polish Legation in Bern never reached their intended recipients. Some were intercepted by the Germans and, in 1943, after the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, sold by the Gestapo and collaborating Jewish informants to Jews hiding on the so-called Aryan side.
In the second half of 1943, the Germans asked South American governments to confirm the authenticity of their passports. In most cases, such confirmation was not obtained, or the response was significantly delayed. To expedite this process, Polish diplomats decided to influence Latin American governments through the Vatican. They established contact with the Apostolic Nunciature in Bern, which they successfully secured, thus increasing the number of confirmed passports. This was crucial, because Polish Jews whose documents were negatively verified in 1944 were deported to extermination camps, primarily Auschwitz, where, unfortunately, the vast majority perished.
Diplomats from the Polish Legation in Bern not only assisted in obtaining passports but also offered material support to Jews living or interned in Switzerland. They also assisted Polish Jews, refugees in Shanghai, as well as in Hungary, Romania, Greece, Italy, and France. The Bern Legation's radio station also partially relayed information about the situation in occupied Poland, including the fate of the Jewish community.
Historians' research into the activities of the Polish Legation in Bern staff has only been undertaken in depth in recent years. To date, the names of approximately 800 Jews from the Ładoś List have been identified, including those who survived the war thanks to passports received from Polish diplomats, and approximately 900 who perished despite possessing them. However, given that the aid operation is estimated to have reached 8-10 people, the total number of survivors must be considered significantly higher. However, the difficulty in determining the exact number of Jews saved thanks to the assistance of Polish diplomats in Bern is compounded by the fact that most survivors – due to the principles of clandestine operations – did not know where they had obtained their aid. Documents received from diplomats were often one of many steps on the path to survival from the Holocaust, and their possession did not guarantee that this would happen. Many circumstances and factors beyond the diplomats' control influenced the Jews' chances of survival.
Dr. Martyna Grądzka-Rejak
Historian, Jewish studies scholar, and educator, she holds a PhD in humanities. A graduate of the Institute of History at the Pedagogical University of Krakow and the Department of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She heads the research department of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.
Photo 1, from the collection of the National Digital Archives.
Photo 2, from the collection of the Polish Embassy in Bern.
