Emil Sommerstein (July 6, 1883 in the village of Hleszczawa near Trembowla – May 26, 1957 in Middletown,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, United States) was a Polish-Jewish lawyer, philosopher, activist and politician.

Biography

Sommerstein spent most of his life in

Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

, where in the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

he was director of the Lawyers Office. Between 1922 and 1939, he was a deputy to the Polish Parliament (with a break from 1927 to 1929), where he was a member of several commissions. He also published articles in several Polish and Jewish newspapers and magazines, such as Chwila, Glos Prawa and Gazeta Bankowa. Among others, he founded first organization of Jewish farmers - Lesser Poland's Union of Farmers, and in 1933, he co-created United Antihitlerite Committee in Warsaw. When Lwow was annexed by the Soviet Union in its invasion of Poland, Sommerstein organized the Committee of Helping Jewish Refugees from Germany. Arrested by the NKVD, he was sent to a Gulag prison camp, and later released. After the war, he was released on the condition that he become the Minister for Jewish Affairs in the communist-sponsored Polish Committee of National Liberation provisional government. He used this position to help

Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

partisans flee to the United Kingdom in disguise as

Orthodox Jews Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Jewish theology, Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Torah, Written and Oral Torah, Or ...

.Applebaum, Anne (2012). ''Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956''. New York USA: Doubleday. p. 137. . In 1946 Sommerstein left Poland for USA, where he died.

Sources

References

1883 births 1957 deaths People from Ternopil Oblast People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Jews from Austria-Hungary 19th-century Polish Jews Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1922–1927) Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1930–1935) Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1935–1938) Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1938–1939) Members of the State National Council Polish cooperative organizers Polish deportees to Soviet Union Polish people detained by the NKVD Foreign Gulag detainees Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Recipients of the Gold Cross of Merit (Poland) Politicians from Lviv {{Poland-politician-stub