Stanisław Witold Aronson (nom de guerre "Rysiek"; born 6 May 1925) is a

Polish Jew The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

and an Israeli citizen, as well as a former officer of the Polish

Home Army 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) es ...

(AK) with a rank of

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...

. He was also a member of the

Kedyw ''Kedyw'' (, partial acronym of ''Kierownictwo Dywersji'' ("Directorate of Diversion") was a Polish World War II Home Army unit that conducted active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed operations against Nazi German forces and collaborat ...

unit, "Kolegium A", of the Warsaw Region of AK, a participant in the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...

of 1944, and a

of the Israeli Defense Force who took part in the

1947–1949 Palestine war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. It is known in Israel as the War of Independence ( he, מלחמת העצמאות, ''Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut'') and ...

, the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...

and the 1982 Lebanon War.

Biography

Aronson's mother family came from Łódź. After the

German invasion of Poland 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 afte ...

in 1939, they first moved from Łódź to

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 ...

.Patrycja Bukalska, "Ostatnia wojna Stanisława Aronsona" (The Last War of Stanisław Aronson",

Tygodnik Powszechny ''Tygodnik Powszechny'' (, ''The Common Weekly'') is a Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine, published in Kraków, which focuses on social, cultural and political issues. It was established in 1945 under the auspices of Cardinal Adam Stefan Sa ...

, 2004-11-07

/ref> After a few days, they decided to move further east to the

Kresy Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the History of Poland (1918–1939), interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural ...

, where near Równo their relatives owned some land. However, in the meantime the Soviet Union also invaded Poland as part of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Treaty between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and the relatives were arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

and deported eastwards, deep within the Soviet Union. As a result, the family tried to unsuccessfully enter Lithuania, and then into

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. Eventually they wound up in Soviet-occupied

Lwow 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 Ukrain ...

. According to Aronson, in Lwow, the Soviets pressured Poles, Ukrainians and Jews to sign up for the Komsomol but he personally refused. After

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

, the German invasion of the Soviet Union began and German troops entered Lwow. This resulted in a series of pogroms by Ukrainian nationalists and German Einsatzgruppen, and the Germans began transporting Jews out of the city. Despite the fact that the Aronson family had documents that listed them as Poles, they were forced to flee again. In the autumn of 1941 they arrived in the

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 ...

which in their view was a better place than the

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as con ...

to which other Jews from Lwow were sent. During the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto the whole family ended up on Umschlagplatz where they got separated. Stanisław never saw his family again. He himself was put on a transport to Auschwitz but managed to escape while the train was parked in the countryside near Warsaw. He spent the night hiding in a nearby chapel and then made his way to a nearby village. A local farmer gave him shelter, food and transportation to the nearby rail station. Aronson went back to Warsaw, where he made contact with Polish friends that lived on the "Aryan" side.Stanisław Aronson, Patrycja Bukalska, Rysiek z Kedywu. Niezwykłe losy Stanisława Aronsona, Kraków 2009 They organized a hiding place for him and later, false documents in the name of "Ryszard Żurawski" (later Żukowski), which was the origin of his nom-de-guerre “Rysiek”. Soon he was contacted by the Polish

and asked to join the anti-Nazi resistance. He was member of selected

group which, under the command of Józef Rybicki, carried out executions of Nazi collaborators and traitors sentenced by Underground courts.
Interview with "Rysiek" in Archiv of Warsaw Uprising Museum. Accessed 27 July 2022.

Warsaw Uprising and aftermath

He also took part in the

of 1944. His unit fought in the Wola district as part of the elite Radosław Group, in Battalion Zośka. The unit attacked German barracks at the site of Umschlagplatz from where Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, including Stanislaw’s family, had been sent to death camps. His battalion liberated about fifty Jews, mostly from Greece, still present at the site. After the insurgents were pushed out by the Germans into

Warsaw Old Town Warsaw Old Town ( pl, Stare Miasto, italic=yes and colloquially as ''Starówka'') is the oldest part of Warsaw, the capital city of Poland. It is bounded by the ''Wybrzeże Gdańskie'' (Gdańsk Boulevards), along with the bank of the Vistula river, ...

he was wounded and ended up in a field hospital on Długa street, which was under constant bombardment by the Germans. After the fall of the uprising he was sent along with the city's civilians to Durchgangslager 121 Pruszków (temporary

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

for POWs or expellees). Together with a companion he managed to escape from the camp and hid out at the house of a family friend near Krakow. After his wounds healed, he went back to Lodz and rejoined the Home Army, and later the anti-communist resistance organization NIE. After Red Army entered Poland, Aronson was arrested by the communist secret security services, UB, but again escaped. He clandestinely left Poland, first finding his way to the Western Allies Occupation zone in Austria, then to Italy. In Ancona he joined the II Corps of General Wladyslaw Anders, part of the

Polish Armed Forces in the West The Polish Armed Forces in the West () refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II. Polish forces were also raised within Soviet territories; th ...

. He began studying medicine when he was contacted by an uncle who lived in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

who convinced him to emigrate to Palestine. Aronson finished his military service with the Polish corps in 1947 and moved to

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

In Israel

In Jerusalem he resumed the study of medicine, but when the

broke out he joined the nascent Israeli Army. He was demobilized in 1950 with the rank of captain. He took part in later conflicts and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Aronson did not get to visit Poland until 1988. He published his memoirs, and on his initiative a commemorative plaque was added to the site of the former Umschlagplatz commemorating the participation of Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.

Military decorations

* Commander of the Order of Polonia Restituta with Star (2013) * Commander of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on foreigners for outstanding achievement ...

(2007) * Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1997) * Cross of Valour (Poland) – two times * Armia Krajowa Cross * Warsaw Cross of the Uprising * Army Medal for War 1939-45 (Poland) – two times * Gold Polish Army Medal * Decoration of Honor – "Medal of Honor for Merit to the Military Gendarmerie" (2014) * Medal for the 1948 Arab–Israeli War (Israel) * Medal for the

(Israel) * Medal for the 1982 Lebanon War (Israel)

Bibliography

* Stanisław Aronson, Patrycja Bukalska, ''Rysiek z Kedywu. Niezwykłe losy Stanisława Aronsona'', Znak, Kraków 2009

Internet

*[English
A story of Stanisław (Shlomo) Aronson
* olishPatrycja Bukalska
''Ostatnia wojna Stanisława Aronsona''
Polish press article "Tygodnik Powszechny" 2004 * olishPiotr Zychowicz
''Z ziemi polskiej do izraelskiej''
Polish press article - "Rzeczpospolita" 2008 * olishPiotr Zychowicz
''Żyd z Armii Krajowej''
Polish press article -"Rzeczpospolita" 2009 * olish

Interview with "Rysiek" in Archiv of Warsaw Uprising Museum, http://ahm.1944.pl * [Polish
Odznaczenia kombatantów z okazji Dnia Weterana
on internet sites of Polish President - www.prezydent.pl

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aronson, Stanislaw 1925 births Living people Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Jewish partisans Warsaw Ghetto inmates Warsaw Uprising insurgents Holocaust survivors Home Army officers Israeli officers Commanders of the Order of Polonia Restituta Officers of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Recipients of the Cross of Valour (Poland) Recipients of the Armia Krajowa Cross Recipients of the Polish Army Medal