Henryk Iwański
{{Short description|Polish resistance fighter}}
{{Polish Underground State sidebar}}
{{refimprove|date=September 2011}}
{{Righteous Among the Nations}}
Henryk Iwański (1902–1978), nom de guerre Bystry, was a member of the Polish resistance during World War II. He is known for leading one of the most daring actions of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) in support of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, however later research cast doubts on the veracity of his claims.{{cite book|author=Joshua D. Zimmerman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4dsCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA218|title=The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939–1945|date=5 June 2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-01426-8|pages=218}} For his assistance to the Polish Jews Iwański was bestowed the title of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in 1964.[http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4034632 Henryk Iwański] – his activity to save Jews' lives during the Holocaust, at Yad Vashem website
Life
Before the Second World War Henryk had reached the rank of captain in the Polish Army. Soon after Nazi Germany invaded Poland and began the Holocaust, Henryk was instrumental in the founding of the Żydowski Związek Wojskowy (Jewish Military Union).{{cite web|url=http://zaprasza.net/a_y.php?mid=9721& |title=Artykul-Polskie Niezalezne Media |publisher=Zaprasza.net |access-date=2011-09-27}} Together with the rest of his family he dedicated himself to support the Jews, working through the Polish resistance (Armia Krajowa). Iwański was one of the AK members dealing with the Jews, providing them with arms, ammunition, and instructional materials smuggled through the sewers or in carts that brought lime and cement into the ghetto.
"…heavy casualties were sustained by the ZZW, losing many of its leading fighters. Apfelbaum and Rodal were mortally wounded in fighting that raged on April 27 and 28. Iwanski's brother, Edvard, fell in Muranowska Square, his son, Roman was mortally wounded, and Iwanski himself was wounded during those days."Moshe Arens, "The Changing Face of Memory—Who defended the Warsaw Ghetto?" {{cite web |url=http://www.freeman.org/m_online/may03/arens.htm |title=Who Defended the Warsaw Ghetto? (Moshe Arens) May, 2003 |access-date=2006-05-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526200526/http://www.freeman.org/m_online/may03/arens.htm |archive-date=2006-05-26 }}
Zbigniew, another son of Henryk fought on Karmelicka Street and died on May 3, 1943, escorting a group of Jews out of the ghetto. After being wounded, Iwański was brought from the ghetto, escorted by a group of Polish and Jewish fighters, among them Ber Mark, who later wrote a book about the Uprising. Nonetheless, Iwański returned to the ghetto at least once more, bringing another set of ammunition and supplies.[http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/english/Saviors/POLONIA/iv.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060911081919/http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/english/Saviors/POLONIA/iv.htm|date=September 11, 2006}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/eehistory/H200Readings/Topic4-R3.html |title=Korbonski – Jews Under Occupation |publisher=Ucis.pitt.edu |access-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927072018/http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/eehistory/H200Readings/Topic4-R3.html |archive-date=2011-09-27 }}{{cite book|author=Nechama Tec|title=When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kg0L3L0kImUC&pg=PA124|access-date=27 September 2011|date=22 October 1987|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505194-0|page=124}} This was one of several actions of the Polish resistance providing assistance to the Jews in the ghetto.
Image:Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw 05.JPG in Warsaw]]
In 1963, for his actions Iwański was awarded the Silver Cross of Virtuti Militari, one of Poland's highest military decorations for valor.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}} Soon later, in 1964, with his wife Wiktoria he was decorated with the medal of Righteous Among the Nations.{{Cite web|title=Iwański Henryk & Iwańska Wiktoria|url=https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?search=Henryk%20Iwa%C5%84ski&searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4034632&ind=0|access-date=2020-10-26|website=The Righteous Among The Nations Database. Yad Vashem}}
Controversy
Recent questions concerning inconsistencies regarding the nature and extent of Iwanski's support for the Jewish underground have been raised. Examinations of Israeli and Polish archives have brought allegations that Iwanski exaggerated his war time activities, had made anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli radio and television broadcasts, and as an informant of Polish secret police had spied on Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal as an informant against the Jewish Historical Institute .Dariusz Libionka and Laurence Weinbaum. [http://jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=5&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=610&PID=860&IID=1014&TTL=Deconstructing_Memory_and_History:_The_Jewish_Military_Union_(ZZW)_and_the_Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising Deconstructing Memory and History: The Jewish Military Union (ZZW) and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213182838/http://jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=5&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=610&PID=860&IID=1014&TTL=Deconstructing_Memory_and_History:_The_Jewish_Military_Union_(ZZW)_and_the_Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising |date=2012-02-13 }} Jewish Political Studies Review 18:1–2 (Spring 2006).Yitzhak Zuckerman. [https://archive.org/details/surplusofmemory00yitz/page/411 A Surplus of Memory: Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.] University of California Press, 1993, pp. 410–12; 415.
The Polish-Israeli authors of a 2011 book on the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW), Dariusz Libionka and Laurence Weinbaum, suggest that Iwański's story of heroism in the ghetto revolt is a fabrication and that he did not even have any male children. They point out that Iwański succeeded in convincing visiting journalists from abroad, most notably Chaja Lazar and Dan Kurzman, of the veracity of his story which is one of the reasons it gained credence and tremendous popularity.Dariusz Libionka & Laurence Weinbaum – Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze Wokół Żydowskiego Związku Wojskowego (Warsaw: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów, 2011){{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/a-legendary-commander-1.223769|title=A Legendary Commander|date=22 June 2007|newspaper=Haaretz}}
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See also
Notes
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References
- [http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/ The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110927072018/http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/eehistory/H200Readings/Topic4-R3.html The Polish Underground State: A Guide to the Underground, 1939–1945" Stefan Korbonski, pages 120–139]
Further reading
- See the list in [https://books.google.com/books?id=6o1njEqaKbsC&dq=Henryk+Iwanski&pg=PA352 The Bravest Battle: The Twenty-Eight Days of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Google Print, p.352]
{{Holocaust Poland}}
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