On a mission against all odds: Samuel Zygelbojm in London (April 1942-May 1943)

Based on archival materials (letters, reports), surveys the rescue activities and the suicide (on 12 May 1943) of Szmul Zygielbojm, the Bund representative to the Polish National Council in London. Discusses the dissension between Zygielbojm and other Jewish bodies active in London (e.g. Ignacy Schwarzbart) on the background of the alarming reports he received from Leon Feiner on the annihilation of Polish Jews. Emphasizes Zygielbojm's campaign to mobilize British public opinion and his pressure on the Polish government-in-exile to take practical steps. Notes the crisis of confidence between Zygielbojm and the Polish National Council, provoked especially by its passivity towards antisemitic attacks in the Polish right-wing press even during the deportation of the Jews and the unwillingness of the Polish underground to aid in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. He committed suicide in the hope that his act would break the world's apathy to the destruction of Polish Jewry.