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Szmul Zygielbojm

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Szmul Zygielbojm born February 21, 1895 in Borowice

He was a political activist, active in trade unions to improve the situation of workers and a councillor of the cities of Warsaw and Łódź. In the autumn of 1939, he actively opposed the symbolization imposed by the German occupier. He argued that consenting to wear a badge in the form of a yellow Star of David as a means of identification would mean consenting to all the occupier’s next steps in the future. He was placed on the list of people to be arrested, but managed to escape Warsaw. As a member of the Polish National Council in London, he tirelessly developed intelligence to inform the West about the genocidal policy of the German occupier. As a result of the powerlessness and lack of reaction of the world to the Holocaust, Szmul Zygielbojm committed suicide in May 1943 in London. In his last letter, he wrote: “I cannot remain silent and I cannot live when the remnants of the Jewish people in Poland, to whom I belong, perish. “