Szmul Zygielbojm was a Jewish-Polish socialist leader of the Jewish Labor Movement, the Bund, and a member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile during WWII. May, 1942, a horrifying report reached Zygielbojm from the Warsaw Bund. The report detailed the Nazi Final Solution efforts. It specifically provided details of Atkionen, extermination camps, the nature and detail of the slaughter of Jews. The report stated bluntly that some 700,000 Jews had been murdered. Zygielbojm worked to bring the human disaster to Allied and public attention. A few months later definitive proof of the Holocaust was brought to the Polish government in Exile, the U.S.,the British government and Allies about the Holocaust by Jan Karski. Zygielbojm redoubled his efforts to try and rouse public lethargy to respond to the murder of European Jewry. He was only successful in rousing words of shock, sympathy and threats of later justice to the Nazi perpetrators but no tangible actions.
With the fall off the Warsaw Ghetto to attacking German infantry and the death of his wife and son in the Ghetto, Zygielbojm did the only thing he could do to shock public awareness. He committed suicide. His death note read: "The responsibility for the crime of the murder of the whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out, but indirectly it falls also upon the whole of humanity, on the peoples of the Allied nations and on their governments, who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. By looking on passively upon this murder of defenseless millions tortured children, women and men they have become partners to the responsibility."
His death made international news for a short period. The world quickly forgot the Cassandra of the Holocaust. In 1961, his cremains were reburied in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery on Long Island.
With the fall off the Warsaw Ghetto to attacking German infantry and the death of his wife and son in the Ghetto, Zygielbojm did the only thing he could do to shock public awareness. He committed suicide. His death note read: "The responsibility for the crime of the murder of the whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out, but indirectly it falls also upon the whole of humanity, on the peoples of the Allied nations and on their governments, who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. By looking on passively upon this murder of defenseless millions tortured children, women and men they have become partners to the responsibility."
His death made international news for a short period. The world quickly forgot the Cassandra of the Holocaust. In 1961, his cremains were reburied in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery on Long Island.
Szmul Zygielbojm was a Jewish-Polish socialist leader of the Jewish Labor Movement, the Bund, and a member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile during WWII. May, 1942, a horrifying report reached Zygielbojm from the Warsaw Bund. The report detailed the Nazi Final Solution efforts. It specifically provided details of Atkionen, extermination camps, the nature and detail of the slaughter of Jews. The report stated bluntly that some 700,000 Jews had been murdered. Zygielbojm worked to bring the human disaster to Allied and public attention. A few months later definitive proof of the Holocaust was brought to the Polish government in Exile, the U.S.,the British government and Allies about the Holocaust by Jan Karski. Zygielbojm redoubled his efforts to try and rouse public lethargy to respond to the murder of European Jewry. He was only successful in rousing words of shock, sympathy and threats of later justice to the Nazi perpetrators but no tangible actions.
With the fall off the Warsaw Ghetto to attacking German infantry and the death of his wife and son in the Ghetto, Zygielbojm did the only thing he could do to shock public awareness. He committed suicide. His death note read: "The responsibility for the crime of the murder of the whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out, but indirectly it falls also upon the whole of humanity, on the peoples of the Allied nations and on their governments, who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. By looking on passively upon this murder of defenseless millions tortured children, women and men they have become partners to the responsibility."
His death made international news for a short period. The world quickly forgot the Cassandra of the Holocaust. In 1961, his cremains were reburied in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery on Long Island.
With the fall off the Warsaw Ghetto to attacking German infantry and the death of his wife and son in the Ghetto, Zygielbojm did the only thing he could do to shock public awareness. He committed suicide. His death note read: "The responsibility for the crime of the murder of the whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out, but indirectly it falls also upon the whole of humanity, on the peoples of the Allied nations and on their governments, who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. By looking on passively upon this murder of defenseless millions tortured children, women and men they have become partners to the responsibility."
His death made international news for a short period. The world quickly forgot the Cassandra of the Holocaust. In 1961, his cremains were reburied in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery on Long Island.
Bio by: Jerry klinger
Inscription
"My comrades in the Warsaw Ghetto fell with arms in their hands in their last heroic battle. It was not given to me to die together with them, but I belong to them and to their mass graves. By my death I wish to express my strongest protest against the passivity with which the world observes and permits the extermination of the Jewish people."
Gravesite Details
Burial Society: Workmens Circle #3
