A Polish diplomat in Switzerland who helped Jews escape Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II by issuing bogus Latin American passports was honored with a graveside ceremony on Tuesday.
The ceremony took place at the Friedental cemetery in Lucerne, Switzerland, where Konstanty Rokicki was buried in 1958 in a simple grave after dying in poverty. A new gravestone was installed that describes his role in saving Jews.
In a sign of the importance the Polish government lent to the commemoration of the actions of Poles who saved the lives of Jews during the Holocaust, the country's President Andrzej Duda attended the unveiling ceremony at Konstanty Rokicki's grave.
Also in attendance were Israeli Ambassador to Switzerland Jacob Keidar, Dutch Ambassador to Switzerland Anne Luwema, Polish Ambassador to Switzerland Jakub Kumoch, Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and relatives of Rokicki, as well as dozens of Holocaust survivors and their descendants.
Some relatives of those saved displayed the documents issued by Rokicki.
Rokicki's actions were a "brighter star in that night of black despair," Duda told the dozens of attendees.
In his remarks at the ceremony, Duda said the Polish Embassy in Bern had carried out an amazing rescue operation when it falsified the passports and transferred them to Jews in Poland who were about to be deported to extermination camps from the ghettos. Duda said the Polish diplomats had engaged in illegal activity and as a result, had put their lives at risk.
He said the officials could not have succeeded in their efforts without the help of Jewish organizations and individuals who got them the names and money to pay for the passports as well as transfer the documents to the occupied territories. According to Duda, this action represented Poland as it is – a mosaic state of many communities.
Rokicki was vice-consul at Poland's consulate in Bern, and along with other Polish diplomats and Jewish activists Abraham Silberschein and Chaim Eiss, belonged to the so-called Bern Group that acted to get Jews out of Poland and the Netherlands.
During 1942-43, he bought and otherwise obtained blank passports from countries including Paraguay, Honduras and Haiti, and filled them in with names and photographs of Dutch and Polish Jews, secretly delivered from Poland and the Netherlands. The first batch of passports was confiscated by the Nazis, but a second batch was sent directly by a family in Switzerland and managed to evade detection.
Rokicki remained in Switzerland after the war, refusing to what was then communist Poland.
A group of Jewish activists worked with the Polish Embassy in Switzerland and local authorities to locate Rokicki's grave.
Historians believe that 330 people were known to have been saved thanks to such passports. The fate of another 430 has not been determined, while a further 387 were killed despite having the false documents.
A number of Holocaust survivors have called on the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum to recognize members of the Bern Group as Righteous Among the Nations.
Keidar also believes the group should be recognized for its actions.
"As a member of the second generation to the Holocaust, it is particularly moving to see the survivors and their families here. Duda's speech was a beautiful speech the certainly gave the people who saves Jews the fitting, appropriate recognition. We need to thank the people who, in difficult times, did all they could to save other and we need to learn from them," he said.
The ceremony was part of President Andrzej Duda's state visit to Switzerland.
