Józef Lewartowski ( yi, יוסף לעווארטאווסקי, birth name: Aron Finkelstein yi, ןאהרן פינקעלשטיי May 1895 Bielsk Podlaski - 25 August 1942

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

) was a Polish communist politician of Jewish origin, revolutionary, member of the KPP and PPR one of the first organizers of the Jewish resistance in

Nazi occupied Poland Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

, co-founder of the Anti-Fascist Bloc.

Biography

Tablica upamiętniająca Józefa Lewartowskiego

Józef Lewartowski was born in 1895 into a family of poor Torah-observant Jews. His parents were Moishe and Chava Lewartowski. He joined the

Poale Zion Poale Zion (also spelled Poalei Tziyon or Poaley Syjon, meaning "Workers of Zion") was a movement of Marxist–Zionist Jewish workers founded in various cities of Poland, Europe and the Russian Empire in about the turn of the 20th century after ...

in 1918. In 1920 Lewartowski was member of the

Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee ( pl, Tymczasowy Komitet Rewolucyjny Polski, Polrewkom; russian: Польревком) (July–August 1920) was a revolutionary committee created under the patronage of Soviet Russia with the goal to e ...

. He was co-founder of

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland a ...

and member of the Central Jewish Bureau. On 9 April 1926 he was arrested and sentenced by the Polish court to 3 years in prison. Lewartowski was member and leader of ''Prison's Commune'' - organization of left-wing

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s in Second Polish Republic. He escaped from prison in December 1926 and fled to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. In 1932 Lewartowski returned to Poland. In 1933 he was one of the organizers of labor strike in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

and Białystok. In 1934 he was re-arrested and sentenced to 12 years of prison. In prison he met Alfred Lampe,

Paweł Finder Paweł Finder (; born as ''Pinkus Finder''; pseudonyms: ''Paul Finder'', ''Paul Reynot''; 19 September 1904 – 26 July 1944) was a Polish Communist leader and First Secretary of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) from 1943 to 1944.Dia–pozytywPa ...

and

Bolesław Bierut Bolesław Bierut (; 18 April 1892 – 12 March 1956) was a Polish communist activist and politician, leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1947 until 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 to 1947, President of Po ...

. Lewartowski was released from the prison on 1 September 1939 and took part in Defense of Warsaw during the

September Campaign The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

. Since 1941 he lived in

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

. He joined the

Polish Workers' Party The Polish Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Partia Robotnicza, PPR) was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and merged with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 194 ...

and in March 1942 he founded of the Anti-Fascist Bloc. Józef Lewartowski died 25 August 1942, shot by

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

. He has been awarded the

Order of the Cross of Grunwald The Order of the Cross of Grunwald (') was a military decoration created in Poland in November 1943 by the High Command of Gwardia Ludowa, a World War II Polish resistance movement organised by the Polish Workers Party. On 20 February 1944 it w ...

.Aleksander Mazur: Order Krzyża Grunwaldu 1943-1985. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1988, s. 89.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewartowski, Jozef 1895 births 1942 deaths Communist Party of Poland politicians Jewish Polish politicians Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust Jewish socialists Warsaw Ghetto inmates People who died in the Warsaw Ghetto Polish resistance members of World War II Polish revolutionaries Polish Workers' Party politicians Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 3rd class

Biography

See also

References