MORDECHAI ZYGIELBOI REMEMBER
SON OMNIS MARIAR "NOT EVERYTHING ELSE"
Szmul Mordecaj Zigielboj , Pseudo “Artur” (born 1895, Borowice close Lublin – died 12.05.20143, London) is simply a judaic political and union activist, since 1924 a associate of the Central Committee of the Bund, councillor of Warsaw and Łódź.
Zigielboj came from a mediocre judaic family. Father Joseph (Joske) was a teacher and parent Henie was a seamstress. From 1899, he lived with a large household (he had 12 siblings) in Krasnystaw. He was educated in cheder until he was 10. Then he was sent to the time limit to learn the profession of carpenter. After losing 2 fingers at his hand, he worked as an assistant baker to aid keep the family. In 1907, erstwhile he was only 12, he went to Warsaw alone, where he learned the gauntlet's trade. After the outbreak of planet War I, he returned to his household in 1914. During this time, he became active with Bund in Chełma, where he rapidly became 1 of the more active activists. In 1917, he was sent as a delegate to the first Bundu exit (under German and Austrian occupation) to Lublin. In Chełma he married Gołda, a tailor's profession. The Jews had 2 children: the boy of Joseph Leib (he survived the Holocaust) and the daughter. During this period Zygielboj was making up for the shortcomings in education, he learned Polish, among others.
In 1920 he moved to Warsaw. He was elected secretary of the judaic metallic Unions, as well as a associate of the Warsaw Bund Committee. Zigielboj became 1 of the most popular Bundists and representatives of labour unions, commonly known as Comrade Arthur. He became known as a large talker and worker. In 1924, he was elected a associate of the Central Bund Committee. He was a associate of the judaic Section of the Central Trade Union Commission in Poland. From 1927 he held the position of councillor of the city of Warsaw from the arm of the Bundu. As part of his duties as a councillor, he travelled extensively around the country to get acquainted with the situation of the workers. The impressions and reflections of many trips in which he called for the improvement of the destiny of workers and mediocre people were described in the Bundowska press under the pseudonym “Z. Artur”. He published articles in paper bodies belonging to the Bundu, among others in “Folkscajtung” (jid., Ludowa Newspaper), and the trade unions of judaic workers. Until 1930, he was the editor of "Arbeter Fragn" (jid., Robotic Issues).
As part of his mission to distribute books published in Yiddish in the 1930s, Zigielboj spent a year in the United States.
In 1936, as a consequence of the decision of the Central Bundu Committee, he moved to Łódź, where although he was officially acting as secretary, he actually led the organization committee. In late 1938 he was elected as a councillor to the city council.
After the outbreak of the war, in September 1939, Zygielboj escaped from the German occupier to Warsaw, where he organized judaic troops to defend himself. After the Germans entered, he was arrested as 1 of “the hostages”. For a short time he was a associate of the Warsaw Judenrat (German, judaic Council). As a associate of the Underground Committee, he was 1 of those who started Bundu's conspiracy activities. He tried to establish cooperation with Polish socialists. utilizing the Court of the Warsaw judaic Municipality, he called for opposition against attempts to make a ghetto in Warsaw.
In late January 1940, wanted by the Germans, he left Poland illegally and left for Brussels, where he provided information about German politics towards the Jews. From there, he went to France, where after her surrender, in September 1940 he reached the United States. In fresh York, he worked in the American Bund Representation in Poland. He made his surviving as a gauntlet. During public speeches and in press articles (e.g. in the socialist “The Future/Di Cukunft”) he informed the planet about the situation of Jews in Poland.
In the spring of 1942, as a associate of the Polish National Council for the Bund Zigielboj lived in London, where he represented judaic society and acted for it, alongside Zionist Ignacy Szwarzbart. He tried to convey to the planet (e.g. during public speeches at conferences organised by socialist parties and meetings with the judaic community in England) information received from Poland, including Leon Feiner's Bunder, about the extermination of Polish Jews in German Nazi death camps and about the situation in ghettos. He tried to exert force on the Polish Government in exile to make the issue of helping Polish Jews and making their tragedy public a precedence for the authorities. After a gathering with Jan Karski, the liaison of the Polish Underground State, who provided information on the extermination of Jews and the situation in ghettos, he unsuccessfully appealed for help, among others, with Roosevelt and Churchill.
Zygielbojm's articles were besides printed in the underground Bundu press in the Warsaw Ghetto.
On the news of the defeat of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as part of a protest against the indifference of the planet to Nazi crimes, conscious of its own powerlessness, on the night of 11/12.05.20143 Szmul Zigielboj committed suicide. He left 3 letters: addressed to the Polish president in the exile of Władysław Raczkiewicz and Prime Minister of the Polish government General Władysław Sikorski; to organization companions; to the brother of Fajwl.
His death echoed in the press in many Western countries. His last will, expressed in a letter to the Polish authorities, was thus fulfilled:
With my death I would like to express the strongest protest against the inactivity with which the planet is watching and allowing the demolition of the judaic people. (...) due to the fact that I could not do anything in my lifetime, I might contribute by my death to the breakdown of the indifference of those who have the chance to save, possibly at the last minute, the remaining survivors of Polish Jews”[refr:|Cyt. for: Martyrdom and the demolition of Jews in the writings of Polish literature, the choice and op. I. Maciejewska, Warsaw 1988, p. 323.
After the war, Bund in Poland made efforts to bring the ashes of Szmul Zigielbojma to Warsaw. They were to remainder at the judaic cemetery at Okopowa Street together with the ashes of another comrades. Eventually, however, Bund in America opposed this, explaining that in Poland this organization practically ceased to exist. Zigielbojm's ashes were not brought to fresh York until May 1961. In September of the same year, after the ceremonial ceremony academy at Carnegie Hall, they were laid down at the fresh Mount Carmel judaic cemetery on Long Island.
Memoirs of Mordecai Ziggielbjm.
