The results of a fascinating new research by Joanna Beata Michlic (Director of HB1 Project on Families Children and the Holocaust at Brandeis University and until 2008 the Associate Professor of History and Chair of Holocaust and Ethical Values at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania) will be presented by the author at the Spiro Ark. Joanna will tell the fascinating story of the relationships between the rescuers and the rescued in the immediate post war period. This is a social history research project carried out on the very soil where a large proportion of the atrocities have taken place which unfortunately colours all our attitudes to both the Polish people and their country.

It is only recently that scholars in Poland, Israel and the West have simultaneously embarked on a more analytical and sophisticated investigation into the scope and the nature of these rescue activities.

While organizing for the Spiro Institute and the Spiro Ark over 50 tours of Jewish interest we realized to our astonishment, that trips to Austria and Germany rapidly filled up, whereas people were reluctant to visit Poland for more than a day trip to death camps returning without spending the night on Polish soil. When asked for the reason, the following typical replies were given: "The Poles are all anti-Semites", "They let Jews be taken from neighboring houses and turned a blind eye", "They have disclosed to the Nazis hiding places of Jews for financial gain",
"They were delighted that Christ killers received their just deserts." Claud Landsman's Film 'Shoah' enhances these generalizations. Some of you might have heard these derogatory comments about the Poles and perhaps even expressed such sentiments yourselves.

Over 25 years ago we managed to take a group of some 30 participants to Poland. The trip intended to study Jewish History of over a millennium. For centuries Poland was the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. It produced both religious and secular institutions of learning, established well structured communities and enjoyed periods of autonomy and prosperity on the one hand and hardships on the other.

We felt that it was important to learn about the life, creativity and achievements of Poland's Jews. We were also fortunate in having a superb contact in Poland who at our request lined up a number of righteous Polish people with their medals, received from Yad Vashem for risking their lives to rescue Jews.

Each of these people whom we were privileged to meet declared that they did what their hearts dictated to them when their neighbour was in trouble. They looked and acted like totally normal people, with no heroism in their appearances or in the way they presented their amazingly brave stories for which they often lost their own families to German executions.

But some who were rescued preferred to put the past behind them and never contacted or acknowledged their debt to their rescuers. Virtually each story could be made into a film but many of our group when leaving the meeting said to me: "Well, why are you so impressed, they must have done it for money!" Can any sum of money compensate for a possible loss of life of oneself and one's family?

We are brought up on the phrase "ZAKHOR ET ASHER SH'ASSA LEKHA AMALEK" (Remember the evil that Amalek did to you): Are we also taught how to acknowledge the favours bestowed upon us by individuals or groups when the world turns against us?

There is an interesting phenomenon in Jewish attitudes to people of different nations associated with the trauma of the Holocaust. In the Jewish psyche, aided by the fact that some of the most tragic events in our history took part on Polish soil, Poles were therefore all murderers while the Dutch for example many of whom had a terrible record were kind to the Jews. No doubt these misnomers stem from the popularity of Anne Frank's Diary.

It might come as a surprise to the reader that the Polish people represent the largest number of people in occupied Europe who rescued Jews.

Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Memorial Authority has so far issued 6135 medals to Polish people to whom they have granted the title "Righteous Amongst the Nations". This is more than a quarter of the 22,000 such medals issued in total to people who rescued Jews during the war in 44 countries. These numbers of course are based only in cases where enough documentation has been submitted to Yad Vashem for them to be certain that they grant such honour, to people who truly deserve it.

To highlight the numbers of rescuers in each of the 44 countries we cannot but be impressed by the facts that in contrast to Luxemburg 1 rescuer, Austria 87, Norway 45, Slovakia 6...Poland produced 6195. Some serious historians estimate that directly or indirectly hundreds of thousands of Jews were rescued by Poles.

Poland had an anti Nazi resistance movement: ARMIA KRAJOWA which was supported by the Polish Government in exile which operated special units to save Jews.

Zegota for example was the underground name for the Polish Council for saving Jews. They worked at finding safe places for Jews who had to flee for their lives.

Through such voluntary organizations, Jewish children found foster homes, orphanages and monasteries to hide in. Irene Sandler who died only in May 2008 at the age of 98 was a social worker who abhorred the inhumanity of the Nazis to Jews and organized a network of helpers who rescued 2,500 children. (Helen Hyde, the head teacher of Watford Grammar School for Girls has actually commemorated the bravery of Irena Sandler in a wall dedicated to her memory at the entrance to the school).

Irena not only received the prestigious honor of being nominated "Righteous amongst the Nations" but was granted the rare, well deserved award of becoming an Honorary Citizen of Israel.

A special stamp was printed in her memory which shows her photograph and across it just one simple word: 'TODA' (thank you). While rescuing the children she was caught by the Gestapo and tortured. Her response to the shattered bones in her legs was: One can break my legs but never my spirit".

Joanne Michlic says: "I do hope that people will come to share in a powerful informative and emotional experience. "

- Wednesday 24 November 2010, 7:30pm,
Price: £10
Spiro Ark Centre www.spiroark.org
25 - 26 Enford Street, London W1H 1DW Phone: 020 7723 9991