PASSPORTS FOR LIFE: A discussion on the Ładoś Group

Talk and Panel Discussion with Monika Maniewska, Pilecki Institute researcher and member of the International Committee of the Ładoś Group and Roger Moorhouse, Historian

80 years ago, in 1941, in Bern, Switzerland, Polish diplomats in cooperation with Jewish circles launched the so-called “passport initiative” to save Jews from the Holocaust. Aleksander Ładoś, Konstanty Rokicki, Abraham Silberschein, Chaim Eiss, Stefan Ryniewicz, and Juliusz Kühl, also known as Ładoś Group, issued fake passports for neutral Latin American countries to Jewish people facing the death camps. .

The Pilecki Institute, in cooperation with its partners in Poland and abroad, has for several years conducted research and archival queries on the activities of Ładoś Group. This has resulted, among other things, in the publication in 2019 of the scientific study Ładoś List, with the names of more than three thousand people for whom passports were issued. The efforts of the researchers not only confirmed the course of action of the passport operation but also proved that we are dealing with one of the largest rescue operations carried out by diplomats during the Holocaust.

Thanks to the publication of Ładoś List, the rescue operation of Polish diplomats in Switzerland has become the subject of international discussion, involving Holocaust survivors and their descendants, families of the diplomats engaged in the operation, as well as scholars, journalists, and cultural figures.

Families of survivors from all over the world, who discover the fate of their loved ones for the first time, come to the Pilecki Institute and share their stories, photos, and documents. That allows the research to continue and the list to be constantly updated with new names.

Join Monika Maniewska and Roger Moorhouse to discuss the continuing importance and resonance of the Ładoś List.

All welcome

6.30pm: Exhibition reception

7pm: Talk and discussion

8pm: Meet the contributors

Host or Publisher Lambeth Libraries