Meeting to remember the anti-fascist martyr Szmul Zygielbojm and the Warsaw ghetto uprising
As Britain marks VE Day on May 8th, the 60th anniversary, we wikll be holding our annual meeting to remember the anti-fascist martyr Szmul Zygielbojm and the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Zygielbojm, an active trades unionist and socialist in pre-war Poland, was sent to London during the war, to represent the Jewish workers’ Bund in the Polish parliament in exile, and to bring to world attention what was happening to his people in Poland. In May 1943, feeling that his efforts to alert the allies were meeting only indifference, Zygielbojm committed suicide in protest. The Warsaw ghetto fighters were making their heroic stand alone against overwhelming odds. Zygielbojm left a note saying that as his comrades were dying arms in hand in Warsaw, he would die in London, hoping that by his death he would gain some of the notice for their plight he had failed to win in life. In 1996 the JSG and Bundist survivors succeeded in getting a plaque put up to commemorate Szmul ‘Artur’ Zygielbojm, near where he took his life. We meet annually near to the plaque. This year our regular venue is closed for refurbishment but if we have sufficient cars we will transport people to the plaque for a short ceremony at the end of the meeting. Please bring readings/songs related to these events. All welcome. A Jewish Socialists’ Group meeting: JSG, BM3725, LONDON WC1N 3XX |