In the Face of the Holocaust
Part I. Rescuers
In the Face of the Holocaust
Part I. Rescuers
1. Present to the students the audio-visual materials from the USC Shoah Foundation
Institute collection: testimony number 1—In the Face of the Holocaust. Rescuers (parts
1–2: fragments of testimony given by Sister Maria Górska and Michał Głowiński)
and using this as a base, start a discussion:
• When did the actions to save Jewish children begin?
• What was this based upon and who led the effort?
• Name some of the individuals and institutions that took part.
• What, in your opinion, led Catholic nuns to save Jewish children? What were the
motives for their actions?
• How did witnessing the Holocaust affect ordinary people? Why did those who
expressed anti-Semitic sentiments before the Second World War take part in saving
Jews? What changed in their attitude towards Jews during the war? Are feelings of
sympathy needed to help people whose lives are in danger?
• Explain why Michał Głowiński considers the decision by Sister Stanisława to
include the Jewish children staying in the monastery in Turkowice in the religious
practices to be extraordinary. What do you think was her motive?
2. Divide the class into two groups, hand out the source texts to the students (a
different text for each group); then ask them to read these and think about their
answers to the questions that are provided below. Next, lead a discussion based on
these questions.
Group 1
Activity with supplement 1
Source: A letter from the Interim Presidium of the Council for Aid to Jews (RPŻ) to
the Plenipotentiary of Poland’s Government Office on the objectives, structure, and
desiderata of the RPŻ, dated: December 29, 1942.
Questions for discussion:
• What were the goals set before the Council for Aid to Jews?
• What type of assistance did the RPŻ propose for the Jewish population?
• How were the activities of the RPŻ funded at the time?
• What did they want to achieve, turning to the Government Plenipotentiary
(Delegate) of Poland, with a request in issuing a “proclamation to the people”?
What was the proclamation to include? What phenomenon was pointed out in the
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In the Face of the Holocaust
In the Face of the Holocaust
Part I. Rescuers
Part I. Rescuers
second part of the request to the Plenipotentiary? What was its reach to be within
Polish society? Could it have affected the activities of the RPŻ? If so, how?
Group 2
Activity with supplement 2
Source: Testimony of Irena Sendler (code name: Jolanta) about the rescue of Jewish
children
Questions for discussion:
• What motivated Irena Sendler to rescue Jewish children while risking her own
live and those of her loved ones?
• With what types of individuals did Irena Sendler associate with? Try to categorize
and name the value system that these individuals espoused. How did these people
profess this?
• Evaluate the risks of activities undertaken by Irena Sendler and her colleagues.
What, according to her, was the greatest threat to its activities?
• As a class, discuss the issue of providing assistance to Jewish people while Poland
was under occupation, and taking into account the decisions of the rescuers. Was
it easy to make such a decision? What could have been the source of the greatest
difficulty in deciding whether to provide help? Who or what did they fear the
most?
• What can we call the attitude and actions of Irena Sendler today? How would
you like to honor her for her work? Students may write a letter to the Association
of Children of the Holocaust in Warsaw, in which they may share their reflections
on the achievements of Mrs. Sendler. The letter can be sent to: The Board of the
Association of Children of the Holocaust in Poland, pl. Grzybowski 12/14/16, 00104 Warszawa, Poland.
• Consider what feelings Mina, her mother, and their host may have had at that
time.
(This problem can also be considered while working in groups: students trying to
call these feelings, writing them on colored pieces of paper that will be assigned to
three people—the host, Mina, and her mother. Then challenge the results of their
work, such as placing the cards on a board or on sheets of paper. This will allow the
students to build an emotional image of the rescuer and the person being rescued.)
• What do you think about the behavior of the host of Mina and her mother?
• To what were the people providing assistance to Jews exposed?
• What does it mean to you: to risk your own life and/or property, to help others?
• Are there things in your life that you could give up, if you could to help other
people?
• An exercise for middle school students: After several years, Mina wants to find
the individual, who rescued her and her mother. Try to write an advertisement
that she would place in the newspaper. An alternative to writing the newspaper ad
can be writing “journal entries” of Mina’s mother, dealing with the events spoken
about by her daughter. For this activity, the students should base their work on the
video testimony as well as take into account the attitudes and feelings of all people
involved in these events
4. Using an overhead projector, present the students with the visual materials
(supplements 10‒13). Then, on this basis, discuss the issue of rescuing Jews.
Take into account the different approaches people had in providing help while
considering the differences in punishments for aiding Jews in occupied Western
and Eastern Europe.
Activity with supplement 10
• Irena Sendler, speaking about rescuers, said “they did it with humanitarian
motives.” How do you understand humanitarianism today? Can you give some
examples of humanitarian activities?
Photograph: Two men (most probably Jews) and Mrs. Suchanowa from Grybów
near Nowy Sącz, who was denounced for having sold food to Jews. Show the
photograph without a caption, and then ask students to analyze it.
Questions for discussion:
3. Present students with audio-visual material from the collection of USC Shoah
Foundation Institute:
• In your own words, describe what you see in the photograph.
testimony 1—In the Face of the Holocaust. Rescuers (part 3: fragment of testimony by
Mina Fuks) and on its basis, discuss the following questions:
• Consider the reason for and moment that the photograph was taken. Who may
have taken it?
• What were the attitudes that Jewish people came across on the Aryan side?
• In what words does Mina Fuks describe the host who provided them shelter?
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• Who are these people? What are they doing?
• How would you describe the atmosphere prevailing within the photograph?
• Imagine that you are a person in the middle of the photograph. Talk about your
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In the Face of the Holocaust
In the Face of the Holocaust
Part I. Rescuers
Part I. Rescuers
feelings.
can read the literature that is listed in the bibliography.
• Describe the situation from the perspective of one of the men near the woman.
Talk about your feelings.
Then, with the students, discuss the following questions:
• Think about what the eventual fate of these people may have been.
• Give this picture a title (caption).
• How did the occupational forces punish people for helping Jewish families in Poland, compared
to that in the Netherlands?
• What were the differences in the systems of occupying Poland, as compared to that of other
countries in Europe? Consider how this could have had an impact on the attitudes of ordinary
people.
Activity with supplement 11
Photograph: Notice from the German occupation authorities, reminding the Polish
population about the death penalty for helping Jews in the General Government,
from September 1942.
• How can you describe the attitude of those who were exposing themselves to reprisals, or even
risking their own lives to help the Jews?
• Do you know of any other examples of rescuing people during the war?
Note: Remind students that October 15, 1941, Governor General Hans Frank, ordered that
German occupation authorities impose the death penalty for Jews leaving the ghetto and
also for Poles who provided them with assistance.
• Do you know of any other examples of heroic behavior?
Questions for discussion:
• Why is it that people take part in defending persecuted individuals?
• Who is the notice addressed towards?
•What kind of persecutions can we face today in the modern world? Who is being persecuted?
What are the causes of this persecution?
• What does it warn against?
• What kind of penalties were there for Jews who left the ghetto and the non-Jews
who provided them with help?
• Note the date of the document and consider how this relates to what is written
within it. Also, why was it at this time that the German authorities had to remind
the population of the previously imposed regulations? When were these penalties
established?
Activity with supplement 12
Photograph on the left: Otto Frank, Anne’s father, along with his colleagues (Miep
Gies, Johannes, Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Bep Voskuijl), who provided assistance to
him and his family while they hid in the annex of the house on the Prinsengracht
in Amsterdam. For helping Jews they were arrested. Of the four arrested, the men
were imprisoned in concentration camps; but the women were released.
Photograph on the right: Józef and Wiktoria Ulm from Markowa near Łańcut. In
March 1944, the Ulms, together with their six children (the youngest was 1.5 years)
were shot by the Germans in their home for hiding there two Jewish families: the
Szalls and Goldmans.
Ask students to look at the pictures. Ask if they know who the people in the
photograph are. If students do not know, then briefly introduce the history of the
fate of the Ulm family as well as that of the Franks. Particularly interested students
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• Do you recall a situation from your school or circle of friends, when someone you know, stood in
defense of another person?
• Create a joint proclamation, which will appeal for cessation of persecution in the world or in the
immediate vicinity. (The teacher should use examples that have been identified by students.)
Activity with supplement 13
Photocopy of the Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations medal and diploma awarded to those
who rescued Jews. Using an overhead projector, present the picture of the medal and diploma,
and explain their meaning and reason for their creation. Talk about to whom and for what these
are granted. Emphasize that those honored with the medal are those who selflessly rescued Jews
or provided them with help during the Second World War. Note the inscription from the Talmud,
which appears on it: “He who saves one life, saves the entire world.” Then ask students to discuss
meaning of this sentence.
Activity with supplement 21
Chart: Righteous Among the Nations according to their country of origin (data from January 1,
2007).
Ask the students to analyze the data shown in the table.
Questions for the analysis:
• Name the countries from which the most and the least individuals honored with the medal from
Yad Vashem come from. Think about the reasons for this?
• Consider how the rescue of Jewish individuals was affected by the characteristics of the Jewish
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Supplement 1
A letter from the Interim Presidium of the Council for Aid to Jews (RPŻ) to the Plenipotentiary
of Poland’s Government Office on the objectives, structure, and desiderata of “Żegota,”
dated: December 29, 1942
In the Face of the Holocaust
Part I. Rescuers
To The Plenipotentiary of the Government in the Homeland,
[…]
community that lived in a given area, such as: its population, having contacts,
linguistic knowledge, and physical appearance?
a.
With the goal to provide organized help to Jews, as victims of the murderous actions of extermination by the occupier, the Council to Aid Jews is founded.
b.
The name of the Council shall be: The Council for Aid to Jews through the Plenipotentiary of
the Government in the Homeland.
c.
[…]
d.
The breadth of the Council’s activities: The duty of the Council is to provide help to Jews, who
are victims of the extermination policies of the occupiers, and this help is directed at saving them
from death, providing them legal rights and living quarters, giving them material assistance, also
when necessary to find them paid work for their existential needs, to gather funds and to distribute
them, i.e. any activity, which can directly or indirectly enter the realm of providing assistance. […]
VIII. Finances. Due to the enormous scale of the financial needs, the basis of the funds should be:
a.
The budget, shall be allocated through the Government in London,
b.
A further source—and this one, supplementary—would be a collective fund, gathered within
the Country and abroad for this goal.
The collective action in the Country will also have moral significance, and could also
contribute greatly to the relief operation of the other sections—such as the provision of shelters to
the victims, etc.
[...]
The Council has decided to request the following items: Turn to the Plenipotentiary of the Government
with the request that he provide:
1. An appeal to the population. This appeal would be directed to all without distinction of religion
and nationality citizens of the Country and include among others:
a. Information that the objective of helping the victims of the unprecedented physical extermination
of the Jewish population was the reason for the founding of The Council for Aid to Jews through the
Plenipotentiary of the Government, and
b. A direct appeal to the population to help in fulfilling the objectives and tasks of the Council as
well as in providing help to the victims by granting them the respective hospitality, shelter, material
and moral support, paid employment, etc.; as well as an appeal for the collection of funds for the
Council and to fight against criminal elements, who are blackmailing the victims.
2. A special proclamation to fight against blackmail, a proclamation, in which, you, the
Plenipotentiary of the Government extend the scope of your powers (in bringing to justice and
severely punishing all of those who work along with the occupier in detriment to the Polish State
and its citizens) also on all those, who commit acts of extortion against the Jews, or who in anyway
collaborate with the occupier.
Combating this phenomenon is necessary, given the seriousness of its character and due
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to the fact that fighting this will contribute to greater effectiveness in providing aid, and finally
because of the need to halt the moral disorganization in society. [...]
Source: Ten jest z ojczyzny mojej. Polacy z pomocą Żydom 1939–1945, edited by Władysław Bartoszewski and Zofia Lewinówna, third edition, Warsaw 2007, pp. 690–692.
Supplement 2
Testimony of Irena Sendler (“Jolanta”) on the subject of saving Jewish children
The motives that made me take up these actions? A deciding factor was most probably the
atmosphere within my family home. My father saw himself as one of the first Polish Socialists. He
was a doctor. We lived in Otwock. His patients were mainly poverty stricken Jewish individuals. I
grew up among these people. Their customs as well as the poverty of Jewish homes was something
not foreign to me.
When the Germans took Warsaw in 1939, I had a wide circle of Jewish friends and acquaintances,
who found themselves in a horrid situation—without the means to live. At the time, I was working
in the Department of Social Work in the city of Warsaw. We had a kitchen that cooked dinners for
orphans, the old, and the poor. We provided financial and material assistance.
I decided to take advantage of my position and provide help to Jews. … In ten places I was able to
convince at least one trusted person with whom I worked in cooperation. We were forced to create
hundreds of false documents, forge signatures. Jewish names could not be listed among those who
were taking advantage of our help. No less than 90% of the almost 3,000 already signed up, found
themselves behind the walls of the Ghetto on the first day.…
In 1942, when the mass deportations began, when it was clear that all the inhabitants of the Ghetto
are sentenced to death, a new idea was born—to extract as many Jews from behind the walls of the
Ghetto as possible, but above all, Jewish children. Our financial resources were dwindling more and
more, thus we would have not been able to continue these activities had it not been for the fact that
at that time the Council for Aid to Jews was founded. …
Joining “Żegota” gave our activities a more organized character. It is worth mentioning here, that
none of us were working in the name of any kind of organization, even though many of us belonged
to different political groups. Our action of helping Jews was born independently, during the first
days of the occupation as a reaction to the given situation. The individuals who took part in this
were doing this due to their humanitarian convictions; it was a human reaction, which commanded
us not to remain passive in the face of the greatest barbarism against our Jewish fellow citizens. …
At that time, we already had the addresses of homes within Warsaw, where Jews who had been
smuggled out of the Ghetto, especially Jewish children, could hide for the time until we were able to
forge “Aryan” documents for them and decide their further fate. We called these homes “emergency
rooms,” and we had several in Warsaw as well as two on the way to Otwock. … It was at that time
[during the deportations in the summer of 1942—Ed.], that the need arose to smuggle as many
people as possible to the “Aryan side.” When it came to adults, we took advantage of the fact that
every day, there were groups of Jews led out to do various work outside the Ghetto walls. We bribed
the guards, who counted these groups on their way through the gates. It was more difficult to do
this with children. … We mainly smuggled the children through the tunnels under the courthouse
[by Leszno Street—Ed.] as well as the ones leading to the tram depot in Muranów. The children
were placed in homes especially dedicated for the purpose of hiding them… where they were able
to receive first aid and were prepared to live in these new circumstances. … They were, then, put
under the care of people, who did not flinch at the massive danger, but were filled with the most
positive form of humanitarianism, and gave them shelter. …
However, it must be remembered that in the entirety of the work done by the underground,
providing help to Jews was the most difficult and the most dangerous. At each step, in each public
place, there were thousands of regulations posted, warning of the fact that by hiding a Jew, one
would face the death penalty. Often, the occupiers murdered entire families for this “crime.” There
were also renegades, the “szmalcowniks,” who sought to gain financially in this “business.”
Source: Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
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Supplement 10
Supplement 11
An announcement from the German occupational forces, reminding that Jews leaving the Ghetto, as
well as non-Jews who shelter or help them, will be punished with death.
Source: Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw
Two men (most probably Jews) and Mrs. Suchanowa, who was condemned for the fact that she was
selling goods to Jews (most likely food). This photograph was taken in Grybów, near Nowy Sącz, on
the main square in front of the church. The sign around her neck states: “It is because I sold goods
to Jews.”
Source: Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw
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Supplement 12
Supplement 13
[On the left] Otto Frank, father of Anne (in the middle), together with colleagues (from the left:
Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler i Bep Voskuijl), who helped him as well as his family
while they were hiding in the house at Prinsengracht Street in Amsterdam. They were arrested for
helping Jews in hiding. Out of the four, the men were sent to concentration camps and the women
were released.
Source: Website of the Anne Frank House – www.annefrank.org, ©AFF Basel CH/AFS Amsterdam NL.
[On the right] Józef and Wiktoria Ulm from the villiage of Markowa near Łańcut. In March of 1944,
all (the entire family, together with the young children) were executed, shot inside their own home
by the Germans for hiding two Jewish families: the Szalls and Goldmans.
Source: Private collection, sincere thanks to Mateusz Szpytma.
The medal and diploma presented by Yad Vashem to the Righteous Among the Nations for helping
Jews, while not seeking nor receiving financial or other material gain, during the Nazi occupation.
Source: Private collection,courtesy of Joanna Sobolewska-Pyz.
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Supplement 21
Righteous Among the Nations according to their country of origin
(Data from January 1, 2007)
Country
Poland
Netherland
USSR
France
Belgium
Lithuania
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
Germany
Italy
Greece
Jugoslavia
Latvia
Austria
Romania
Norway
Denmark
Estonia
Luxemburg
Entire population Jewish population JewishVictims of Righteous Among
before World War before World War the Holocaust**
the Nations***
II*
II**
35,100,000
3,400,000
2,900,000
6,004
4,767
8,600,000
140,000
102,000
Ukraine – 2,185
Belarus – 576
175,500,000
3,020,000
1,200,000
Russia – 126
2,740
41,900,000
350,000
78,000
1,443
8,300,000
65,700
28,900
693
2,500,000
220,000
212,000
685
10,100,000
825,000
575,000
Czech – 118
Slovakia – 465
14,000,000
208,000
150,000
443
68,000,000
566,000
141,000
417
42,700,000
44,500
7,680
271
6,900,000
77,400
67,000
Serbia – 124
15,200,000
78,000
65,000
Croatia – 108
103
2,000,000
91,000
71,000
85
6,800,000
185,000
50,000
53
19,400,000
609,000
287,000
41
2,900,000
1,700
762
21
3,800,000
9,000
116
3
1,100,000
4,000
2,000
1
300,000
3,500
1,950
Sources:
*„Mały Rocznik Statystyczny 1939”, Warsaw 1939, Tabela 9. Powierzchnia, ludność i gęstość zaludnienia świata w końcu
1936 r., p. 16.
** Pamięć. Historia Żydów polskich przed, w czasie i po Zagładzie, edited by Feliks Tych, Fundacja Shalom,
Warsaw 2005, p. 157.
*** Yad Vashem, Righteous Among the Nations – per Country & Ethnic Origin – January 1, 2007, www1.yadvashem.org/
righteous/temp_righteous/temp_index_recently_honored.html.
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