Tadeusz Sarnecki and Ewa Sarnecka papers
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Creator(s)
- Tadeusz Sarnecki
- Ewa R. Sarnecka
Biographical History
Tadeusz Jerzy Sarnecki (1911-1981) was an educator, journalist, and writer born in Łódź to Adam and Wiktoria Sarnecki. Tadeusz and Ewa worked as couriers for the Zamość and Lublin branch of Żegota (Council for Aid to Jews), a Polish underground organization that provided for the social welfare needs of Jews, from 1942 to 1944. Using false names Kazimierz Hutecki and Regina Cybulska, they travelled to selected labor camps in the region, including Piotrków Trybunalski, Radom, and Starachowice, bringing money, documents, food, medicine and letters to the Jews imprisoned there. On several occasions they were also able to smuggle individuals out of the camps. Tadeusz' duties also took him to Lodz, where he linked up with an underground cell of the Polish Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne) and the Łódź unit of the Polish Home Army (AK). Together they arranged for deliveries of money and medicine to Jews in the ghetto. Tadeusz also wrote and published underground newspapers and literary magazines. A poet in his own right, he was asked by Adolf Berman to prepare an anthology of ghetto poetry. The anthology, From the Abyss, included poems by Czesław Miłosz, Mieczysław Jastrun, Jan Kott, and Michał Borwicz. Printed in April 1944, 3,000 copies of the anthology were distributed. Like other underground publications, From the Abyss was microfilmed and sent by Polish courier to London. It was then published in England and the United States. A Hebrew translation was later printed in Palestine.
The family history of Ewa Sarnecka (approximately 1923-1993) is unclear, but she may have been born to Bund organizer Moszko Rodzynek in Biała Podlaska. Tadeusz and Ewa worked as couriers for the Zamość and Lublin branch of Żegota (Council for Aid to Jews), a Polish underground organization that provided for the social welfare needs of Jews, from 1942 to 1944. Using false names Kazimierz Hutecki and Regina Cybulska, they travelled to selected labor camps in the region, including Piotrków Trybunalski, Radom, and Starachowice, bringing money, documents, food, medicine and letters to the Jews imprisoned there. On several occasions they were also able to smuggle individuals out of the camps.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ewa Sarnecka
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Ewa Sarnecka donated the Tadeusz Sarnecki and Ewa Sarnecka papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992.
Scope and Content
The Tadeusz Sarnecki and Ewa Sarnecka papers include false identification and labor papers for Tadeusz Sarnecki and Ewa Sarnecka under the aliases Kazimierz Hutecki and Regina Cybulska and a book of poetry titled Z Otchłani published by Tadeusz Sarnecki under the alias Jan Wajdelota including contributions by Sarnecki, Mieczysław Jastrun, Michał Borwicz, Czesław Miłosz, and Jan Kott.
System of Arrangement
The Tadeusz Sarnecki and Ewa Sarnecka papers are arranged as a single series: I. Tadeusz Sarnecki and Ewa Sarnecka papers, 1942-1944
Corporate Bodies
- Rada Pomocy Żydom "Żegota"
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--Poland.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poetry.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Underground movements--Poland.
- Identification cards--Forgeries--Poland.
- Poland.
Genre
- Document