In 1940, Warsaw lawyers did not agree to exclude their Jewish colleagues from their profession. The Germans arrested 76 members of the Warsaw attorney bar. That list included the son of the President of the Republic of Poland, Stanisław Wojciechowski’s – Edmund.
In January 1940, the occupation authorities, namely Dr Gollert in charge of the Justice Department, appointed Eduard von Wendorff to supervise the Warsaw attorney bar. He decided to exclude 1,131 Jewish lawyers from the profession. However, he also wanted to gain the support of Polish lawyers for his actions against their Jewish colleagues.
The former, pre-war authorities of the Warsaw bar were headed by Leon Nowodworski. Former civilian commissioner at the Main Command of the Service for Poland’s Victory and later a Director of the Department of Justice at the Government Delegation for Poland. Before the war, he was a member of the Supreme Council of the National Party. A man that could be called “Endek”, derived from the ND – national democratic party.
Of the 15 former members of the Supreme Attorney Council and Warsaw bar, 14, including Attorney Nowodworski, voted against the exclusion of Jewish lawyers. The Germans were shocked. Mostly because most of these 14 lawyers were National Democrats and considered themselves Polish nationalists. The Germans prepared for reprisals against the members of the bar.
“Nowodworski and other lawyers are in prison because of Jews. They were summoned and asked what was their stance towards the Aryan Article. They replied that during the war this issue was irrelevant.” – Emanuel Ringelblum recalled in his archive of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Polish lawyers were also excluded from the profession because of Jewish family members or for giving work to Jewish trainees in a law firm. One of the former ONR (National Radical Party) members recalled that he deliberately accepted a Jewish trainee to lose his profession with honour. The Germans then offered to reinstate them as attorneys. Nobody decided on the offer.
July 2, 1940. The Germans arrest 76 lawyers opposing anti-Jewish repression. Among them is Edmund Wojciechowski, son of the President of the Republic of Poland, Stanisław Wojciechowski. The Germans will visit his father, offering him to sign a pro-German declaration in exchange for saving his son.
The President’s daughter-in-law recalled that after the Germans’ visit, she found him „quiet, silent, with a straight face when he refused to sign the declaration they demanded.” In the spring of 1941, President Wojciechowski received a parcel from Auschwitz. It was a box with his son’s ashes.
Lawyers created underground structures whose activities included material assistance to Jews. Interestingly, many of them included National-Democratic parties. The president of the Secret Supreme Bar Council was Bolesław Bielawski, a former senator of National Democracy. The vice-president of the secret bar was Leon Nowodworski.
“Among the arrested lawyers was Jerzy Czarkowski (…), a well-known ONR (national-radical) politician. During the conversation with Dr. Gollert (…) a paradoxical situation happened in which the ONR leader defended the Jews in a discussion with the Nazis,” recalled Władysław Bartoszewski.
It is important to remember that Polish lawyers are also on a list of some 7,000 Poles recognised the Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Institute.
„Mindful of the good of the Polish State and the dignity of the bar profession, I solemnly promise that I will perform my duties as a lawyer by the law and equity (…) and in my conduct, I will be guided by the principles of honour and honesty” – from the text of the pre-war lawyers’ oath.
Author: Józef Kasprowicz
Photos: Wikipedia, public domain
