In 1941, a group of Polish diplomats – located in the Swiss capital Bern – composed of Aleksander Ładoś, Stefan Ryniewicz, Konstanty Rokicki, Abraham Silberschein, Chaim Eiss and Juliusz Kuhl launched what is commonly known as the passport action in cooperation with Jewish communities. This initiative aimed at saving many Jews from extermination by Germans.

What is today known as the Ładoś Group issued false passports and citizenship certificates for hundreds of European Jews to save their lives. 

In the context of the Polish Heritage Days, British historian Roger Moorhouse gave an insight to the new book he is currently writing on that topic.

During a lecture he gave at the JW3 Jewish cultural centre in London, Roger Moorhouse emphasised, among other things, that even though the Germans were aware that the thousands of issued passports were false, they allowed the operation to take place for some two years.

https://twitter.com/PolishEmbassyUK/status/1527622611861225472?s=20&t=p9XemNH_uNwifqKkXMJtJA

As he noted, the ideology of „cleansing Europe of the Jews” was lost to rationalism, as the Germans treated these Jews as „commodities” that could be exchanged for their own prisoners of war. 

He also explained that the reason why the vast majority of passports or citizenship certificates were issued on behalf of Paraguay was that the country’s honorary consul was selected by the Ładoś Group as the most vulnerable to bribery. It is estimated that the members of the Ładoś Group issued at least 8 thousand false passports or citizenship certificates.

Moorhouse’s lecture took place as part of the sixth edition of the Polish Heritage Days in Great Britain, its co-organisers were the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in London and the Pilecki Institute.

Images: Twitter: @PolishEmbassyUK

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen

From the editor: The next lecture „Ładoś Group– Passports to Paraguay ” by Roger Moorhouse will take place on Monday, May 23rd at Kensington Library. More info here.