Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a former Auschwitz prisoner and member of Poland’s underground World War II resistance who helped save Jews and later served twice as the country’s foreign minister, died on April 24 in Warsaw. He was 93.
A Polish Catholic, Bartoszewski, was born in 1922 in Warsaw. The son of a bank clerk, he grew up next to Warsaw’s Jewish district and had many Jewish friends.
When he was still just a teenager he fought in the defense of Warsaw against the Germans, who invaded the country in September 1939. Caught in a street roundup in Warsaw in 1940, he was sent to Auschwitz, which was first used by the Nazi Germans for Polish resistance fighters. He was released in April 1941 thanks to the efforts of the Polish Red Cross, for which he had worked before his arrest.
Back in Warsaw, he wrote a detailed report from his time at the camp, the first known written eyewitness account from Auschwitz. He also reported on Auschwitz to Poland’s clandestine resistance Home Army, commanded from London by Poland’s government-in-exile, and joined the resistance, the underground Home Army.
He also joined a resistance unit devoted to saving Jews, known as Zegota. For his efforts to help Jews he was honored by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1965. He was also made an honorary citizen of Israel.
After the war Bartoszewski became a target of the new communist regime, which considered all Home Army independence fighters a threat because they opposed Soviet-backed communist rule. He was imprisoned for nearly seven years before a court ruled in 1955 that he had been unfairly arrested.
Bartoszewski began his diplomatic career at the age of 68 as Poland’s ambassador to Austria before serving as foreign minister in 1995 and again from 2000 to 2001.
“He was an iconic figure in Poland and a true friend of Israel. It is a great loss of a man of many achievements and a close friend,” said Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said.
Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told The Jewish Press that Bartoszewski “dedicated his life to saying what was true and not what was popular. More than that, he acted upon his beliefs. During World War II he saved Jews, under Soviet occupation he fought the communists, and since 1989 he was a leading moral voice on democracy and reconciliation. And he always stressed his friendship for Jews and Israel. On April 19, less than a week before his passing, he spoke at the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. His last words were ‘Shalom for Israel.’ ”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, ” Wladyslaw Bartoszewski will remain forever in our hearts as one of the Righteous Among the Nations who risked his life to rescue Jews from the Nazis. In my meetings with him, I was deeply impressed by his humanity and erudition. His light will continue to shine.”
Israel Hayom via JNS, Jewish Press staff