Michal Weichert

Michal Weichert was born in Podhajce, eastern Galicia, Poland, 1890. He attended Polish schools, earned a degree in law at the University of Vienna, and also attended the Theater Arts Academy in Berlin. Upon his return to Poland, he established the Young Yiddish Theater in Warsaw. He served as a Yiddish theater critic and was a prominent figure in the cultural life of the Jews of Poland during the 1920s and 1930s. At the same time, he also served as a legal advisor for charitable institutions and Jewish cultural organizations in Poland, and eventually he became a contact person with the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) delegation.

Following the German occupation and the establishment of the Jewish Social Self-Help Organization (ZSS) in May 1940, Weichert was appointed chairman of the ZSS organization. In this capacity, he was active for two years on behalf of the distribution of the money and relief goods that were supplied by the JDC to Jewish welfare institutions throughout the Generalgouvernement. The ZSS established hundreds of branches and local representatives in order to provide welfare services to needy people. The ZSS organization administered widespread activities in orphanages, hospitals, public kitchens, and other places. In addition, the welfare institutions in the ghettos that distributed funds, food, clothing and medicine sent by philanthropic organizations in the United States, were active by means of the ZSS organization.

The German occupation authorities in Poland sought to eliminate the ZSS organization in July 1942; its activities, however, were renewed in October 1942 under a new name: Juedische Unterstuezungstelle fuer das Generalgouvernement (JUS - Jewish Aid Office in the Generalgouvernement).

The framework for the welfare of the Jews was transferred to the SS and the police, December 1942. The JUS office in Krakow resumed its work, 13 March 1943, and its activities included aid to the labor camp inmates in the Generalgouvernement area. In July 1944, before Weichert's anticipated deportation to Plaszow camp, he liquidated the welfare office with the cooperation of the Central Committee for Aid in Poland (RGO), which was a branch of the Polish Government in Exile. Weichert went underground using a false identity until the liberation, January 1945.

After the war, Weichert was arrested on suspicion of collaboration with the Germans in the context of his position as the chairman of the JUS, and he was put on trial in a special criminal Court of Law of the State of Poland. The verdict by the Court of Law declared Weichert innocent of all the charges in the indictment, January 1946,

The Central Jewish Committee in Poland did not agree with this verdict, due to significant disagreements regarding the legitimacy of representing the Jews vis a vis the Nazi occupiers. The Central Jewish Committee demanded that Weichert stand trial again, before a public Jewish Beit Din [Court of Law]. The court issued its ruling, 28 December 1949, stating that during his term as JUS chairman, Weichert was guilty of collaboration with the German occupation authorities.

Weichert made aliya to Israel, 1958 and died, 1968.

Jewish self-help organizations in Poland