Polish Diplomat Recognized for Saving Hundreds of Jews in WWII

The Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem has announced that Konstanty Rokicki will be honored as Righteous Among the Nations for his work during World War II.

Rokicki was part of the so-called “Bern group” which issued hundreds of fake documents to Jews in order to save them from the Holocaust. The Polish ambassador to Switzerland Aleksander Ładoś, his deputy Stefan Ryniewicz, diplomat Juliusz Kuehl, and consul Rokicki all worked to produce the fake documents.

The Jewish rescue committee RELICO in Geneva (founded by Abraham Silberschein) and Rabbi Chaim Eissem from Zurich worked with the group to provide names and information and to smuggle the documents to Jews living in Nazi ghettos.

The Jewish groups paid for the documents. Kuehl took the money to the Paraguayan embassy and bribed officials for blank passports. He provided those to Rokicki who filled them out with information provided by the Jewish groups. The passports were then taken back to the Paraguayan embassy to be notarized.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/polish-diplomat-saving-hundreds.html