Artur Patek

In the autumn of 1940, the British Mandate authorities interned approximately twenty Polish war refugees at the Mazra’a camp in Palestine. In the subsequent months, over a dozen more were detained. The majority of the refugees were interned at the behest of Polish military intelligence, which accused them of collaboration with foreign agencies. The events concerning the detention of the Poles are detailed in the “Kronika Mazryjska” (“Mazra’a Chronicle”) by Czesław Horain. This document is part of the collection at the Archives of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London. The narrative was penned by one of the internees and covers topics such as everyday life in the camp and the situations leading to the arrests of the Poles, and the mood among the inmates. As these issues have not been explored in research thus far, publishing the “Mazra’a Chronicle” is both necessary and recommended.

The presented memorandum, prepared by the Aliyah Department of the European Office of the World Confederation of General Zionists, concerns the activities of the Aliyah Department during the period between April 15 and November 15, 1947. The document comes from the collections of the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem. The report is an important source for research on Aliyah Bet, because it presents the point of view of a party that did not play the key role in this project and criticised the way of organisation of Aliyah Bet by the Mossad le-Aliyah Bet

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Poles in the Holy Land towards the end of 1949

Towards the end of 1949, the number of Poles living in the Holy Land was estimated to be at the level of 115–130 individuals. The majority of them, that is around 80 people, lived in Israel; the remaining ones lived on the Arab side (in Trans-Jordan). Among them, there were those who set up their own families here, as well as a dozen or so clergymen and a small group of post-World War II refugees. An interesting source material which allows one to get an insight into the scale and character of the Polish presence in the Holy Land in the first months after the end of the Arab-Jewish war, is a short but succinct note published in the Monthly Report of the Publishing Company “Reduta” (to be circulated internally) entitled “Sprawy Bliskiego i Środkowego Wschodu” (The Problems of the Near and Middle East). As can be seen from its content, the note had been drawn up by someone who was extremely well acquainted with the contemporary realities of life in Jerusalem. The current publication had been prepared on the basis of a copy of the periodical which was found in the collection of the Polish Library in London.

During the Second World War and in the early post-war years, one of the most important centers of Polish Emigration of Independence was formed in Tel Aviv. In January 1945, 2291 Polish civil refugees resided in the city (with the total of 6718 Poles throughout all of Palestine). Among them, there were numerous representatives of the pre-war elite from the world of science, culture and politics. Poles developed a rich socio-cultural activity. Tel Aviv became home to a number of Polish organizations and schools; in the city, Polish newspapers and books were issued, and the health care system and Polish church ministry was also organized. A kind of national life abroad was success fully created. However, the situation of refugees changed in July 1945, when Great Britain and the United States annulled the recognition of the Polish Government in Exile.
This brought about the gradual liquidation of institutions associated with the government. In 1946, the responsibility for refugees was assumed by the UNRRA. A vast majority of Poles remained loyal to the Polish government in London and decided not to return to their homeland where the Communists took over the government of the state. Soldiers and their family members were evacuated to Great Britain. The IRO took care of others, transporting them to temporary camps in Europe. The Arab-Jewish confl ict wasn’t conducive to a prolonged stay of Poles in Palestine. In 1948, the Polish Emigration of Independence in Tel Aviv gradually disappeared.

Polish soldiers’ graves in Malta

The Malta Naval Cemetery is situated in Kalkara (opposite Valletta across the Grand Harbour). The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is currently responsible for the care of this site. More than 1,000 soldiers (who died during the First and Second World Wars) were buried there including the Polish soldiers who fell in fight for Malta between 1942 and 1943. Six Polish airmen and two sailors were buried in Kalkara cemetery. The airmen were killed during a service flight in a plane crash, on 17th December 1942. The two sailors served on a Polish submarine, ORP “Sokół”.
 

Soplicovo over Yarkon. A G roup Portrait of Polish War Refugees in Tel Aviv (1940−1948)

In 1939–1948, an important center of Polish pro-independence emigration emerged in Tel Aviv. In January 1945 2,291 Polish civilian war refugees resided there (6,718 in all of the Holy Land). Palestine was at the time a Mandatory Territory of the League of Nations, governed by Great Britain.
The refugees created a community which differed from the local one. It had clear distinguishing features – it included a large percentage of ill and lonely persons who required care; it had a high rate of feminization, an atypical social and occupational structure (a high percentage of intelligentsia and freelance professions), and a varied ethnic and religious composition. The refugees included many members of pre-war elites, people of culture and politicians.
The majority of the Poles declared their attachment to national values. However, this was also accompanied by negative phenomena – political divisions and internal feuds. The unlikelihood of returning home in the near future led to frustration. In some people, war experiences weakened ethical and moral standards; some came into conflict with the law.
The lot of the Poles from Tel Aviv showed all problems of pro-independence emigration: (1) an interest in politics pervaded their lives; (2) material concerns caused increasing worry; (3) awareness of having no say in changing the political situation in the homeland.

Funeral Texts as a H istorical Source. A Contribution to the Biography of Aleksy Wdziękoński, the Polish Consul in Jerusalem

Funeral texts (obituaries, posthumous memories) are usually of a standard nature and show the deceased in a positive light. For this reason, they are marginalized as a research source. Wrongly, because they convey specific biographical information, such as the date of death and the age of the deceased, the place and time and the nature of the  funeral ceremonies, and sometimes also the profession, circumstances of death, family name and others. The celebration of the last farewells may be an interesting contribution to the figure of the deceased, and in the case of people who have had their place in history, it also illustrates the state of feelings (patriotic, national, religious) of the local  community. It seems that this additional sense, going beyond the usual rite of burial, focused on the funeral ceremony after the death of Aleksy Wdziękoński, the last consul general of the Second Polish Republic in Jerusalem.

Wdziękoński (1892–1946) ran the institution from June 1943 to January 1946. For the last months he acted in an unofficial capacity, as the United Kingdom withdrew recognition of the Polish Government in Exile. His death echoed in the emigration environments in Palestine, and the last farewell of the consul was attended by about 2,000–2,500  people

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast known as Birobijan in the USSR attracted the interest of the British diplomacy. This is reflected in the correspondence between British missions in the USSR and Israel and the Foreign Office. This analysis covers five documents from 1952–1958 kept in the National Archives in London. The documents pertain to two matters: (1) a discussion about the current status of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (whether rumours of its disappearance were true) and (2) reflections on the actual character of the oblast (to what extent it was Jewish and autonomous). The significance of these documents can be analysed on several levels – from the viewpoint of Birobijan’s history, the nature of British-Soviet relations, and the operating methods of diplomatic services. Reading the documents leads to several questions: why was Great Britain interested in the oblast? How was it perceived in the West? How did the Foreign Office obtain information about it?