At the start of the
Second World War, Poland had the largest Jewish population in the world (over 3.3 million, some 10% of the general Polish population).[7] The vast majority were murdered under the Nazi "
Final Solution" mass-extermination program in
the Holocaust in Poland during the German occupation; only 369,000 (11%) of Poland's Jews survived the War.
The list below includes persons of Jewish faith or ancestry.
Historical figures
Politicians
Menachem Begin (1913–1992), Israeli prime minister, Nobel Laureate, 1978 (born in Poland)[8]
Naftali Bennett, Israeli prime minister and former software entrepreneur
Jakub Berman (1901–1984), Polish communist, Secretary of PUWP (Polish United Workers' Party), in charge of State Security Services (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, UB), the largest and the most notorious secret police force in the history of the People's Republic of Poland,
Adam Czerniaków (1880–1942), member of Warsaw Municipal Council; Polish Senator; head of the Jewish Council under the Nazi Germans; committed suicide when the Germans requested that the children will be deported
Ludwik Dorn (b. 1954), Polish politician, a speaker of the Sejm[11]
Bronisław Geremek, Polish social historian, politician and former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Shlomo Goren (1917–1994), Chief Rabbi of the Military Rabbinate of the IDF
Berek Joselewicz, commanded the first Jewish military formation in modern history
Marion Kozak, political activist and human rights campaigner (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Independent Jewish Voices), mother of David and Ed Miliband.
L. L. Zamenhof, physician, inventor, and writer; creator of Esperanto
Sovereign Polish Armed Forces
Berek Joselewicz, Polish-Jewish Colonel in the Polish Legions of Napoleon's armies
Bernard Mond, member of the Austrio—Hungarian Army, 1914–1918; Polish soldier and officer, 1918–1939; sent to POW camp by the Germans; finished his career in the rank of
Brigade General and, in command of the
6th Infantry Division (Poland), fought against the Germans in 1939
Poldek Pfefferberg, Polish soldier in 1939 saved from death by his
sergeant major; Holocaust survivor; a man who inspired the book that the film Schindler's List was based on
Baruch Steinberg, Chief Rabbi of the Polish Armed Forces, murdered by the Soviet NKVD
Irena Szewińska, sprinter and long jumper; world records in 100-m, 200-m, and 400-m; three-time Olympic champion, plus four medals (for a total of seven Olympic medals)
Jadwiga Wajs, two world records (discus); Olympic silver and bronze (discus)
Weightlifting
Ben Helfgott, Polish-born, three-time British champion (lightweight), three-time Maccabiah champion; survived
Buchenwald and
Theresienstadt; all but one family member was murdered by the Nazis
^Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution, University of Chicago Press 1992, page 51. Quote: "Poland, at that time, was the most tolerant country in Europe." Also in Britain and the Netherlands by S. Groenveld, Michael J. Wintle; and in The exchange of ideas (Walburg Instituut, 1994).
^Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. (September 2016). "Mixed Metaphors in Muranów: Holocaust Memory and Architectural Meaning at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews". Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust. 30 (3): 258–273.
doi:
10.1080/23256249.2016.1242550.
ISSN2325-6249.
S2CID191753083.
^Crosswhite, James (2013). Deep Rhetoric: Philosophy, Reason, Violence, Justice, Wisdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 48–49.
ISBN978-0226016344.
^Kirshenblatt, Mayer and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. They called me Mayer July: Painted memories of a Jewish childhood in Poland before the Holocaust. University of California Press. Los Angeles:2007.
At the start of the
Second World War, Poland had the largest Jewish population in the world (over 3.3 million, some 10% of the general Polish population).[7] The vast majority were murdered under the Nazi "
Final Solution" mass-extermination program in
the Holocaust in Poland during the German occupation; only 369,000 (11%) of Poland's Jews survived the War.
The list below includes persons of Jewish faith or ancestry.
Historical figures
Politicians
Menachem Begin (1913–1992), Israeli prime minister, Nobel Laureate, 1978 (born in Poland)[8]
Naftali Bennett, Israeli prime minister and former software entrepreneur
Jakub Berman (1901–1984), Polish communist, Secretary of PUWP (Polish United Workers' Party), in charge of State Security Services (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, UB), the largest and the most notorious secret police force in the history of the People's Republic of Poland,
Adam Czerniaków (1880–1942), member of Warsaw Municipal Council; Polish Senator; head of the Jewish Council under the Nazi Germans; committed suicide when the Germans requested that the children will be deported
Ludwik Dorn (b. 1954), Polish politician, a speaker of the Sejm[11]
Bronisław Geremek, Polish social historian, politician and former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Shlomo Goren (1917–1994), Chief Rabbi of the Military Rabbinate of the IDF
Berek Joselewicz, commanded the first Jewish military formation in modern history
Marion Kozak, political activist and human rights campaigner (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Independent Jewish Voices), mother of David and Ed Miliband.
L. L. Zamenhof, physician, inventor, and writer; creator of Esperanto
Sovereign Polish Armed Forces
Berek Joselewicz, Polish-Jewish Colonel in the Polish Legions of Napoleon's armies
Bernard Mond, member of the Austrio—Hungarian Army, 1914–1918; Polish soldier and officer, 1918–1939; sent to POW camp by the Germans; finished his career in the rank of
Brigade General and, in command of the
6th Infantry Division (Poland), fought against the Germans in 1939
Poldek Pfefferberg, Polish soldier in 1939 saved from death by his
sergeant major; Holocaust survivor; a man who inspired the book that the film Schindler's List was based on
Baruch Steinberg, Chief Rabbi of the Polish Armed Forces, murdered by the Soviet NKVD
Irena Szewińska, sprinter and long jumper; world records in 100-m, 200-m, and 400-m; three-time Olympic champion, plus four medals (for a total of seven Olympic medals)
Jadwiga Wajs, two world records (discus); Olympic silver and bronze (discus)
Weightlifting
Ben Helfgott, Polish-born, three-time British champion (lightweight), three-time Maccabiah champion; survived
Buchenwald and
Theresienstadt; all but one family member was murdered by the Nazis
^Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution, University of Chicago Press 1992, page 51. Quote: "Poland, at that time, was the most tolerant country in Europe." Also in Britain and the Netherlands by S. Groenveld, Michael J. Wintle; and in The exchange of ideas (Walburg Instituut, 1994).
^Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. (September 2016). "Mixed Metaphors in Muranów: Holocaust Memory and Architectural Meaning at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews". Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust. 30 (3): 258–273.
doi:
10.1080/23256249.2016.1242550.
ISSN2325-6249.
S2CID191753083.
^Crosswhite, James (2013). Deep Rhetoric: Philosophy, Reason, Violence, Justice, Wisdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 48–49.
ISBN978-0226016344.
^Kirshenblatt, Mayer and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. They called me Mayer July: Painted memories of a Jewish childhood in Poland before the Holocaust. University of California Press. Los Angeles:2007.