Person    | Male  Born 21/2/1895  Died 11/5/1943

Szmul Zygielbojm

Categories: Tragedy

Countries: Poland

Politician. Born in Borowica, Poland. He became involved in the Jewish labour movement (Bundism), and in 1917, represented Chełm at the first Bundist convention in Poland. He was invited to serve as secretary of the Trade Union of Jewish Metal Workers and in 1924, was elected to the Bund's Central Committee.

Imprisoned after the German occupation of Poland, he was smuggled out of the country and travelled to Belgium and the United States. He arrived in London in 1942, joining the National Council of the Polish Government in exile, and spoke on British radio about the fate of the Jews in Poland. When he heard of the deaths of his wife and son in the Warsaw ghetto, he committed suicide as a protest against the indifference and inaction of the allied governments in the face of the Holocaust. He killed himself at his West London flat, using poison or gas, depending on source.

The New Yorker of January 2025 has an article dedicated to Zygielbojm and the difficulties of having his memorial erected.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Szmul Zygielbojm

Commemorated ati

Szmul Zygielbojm

Jewish workers' bund leader. Representative to the Polish parliament-in-exil...

Read More

Other Subjects

Dr Clive Richards

Dr Clive Richards

Retired GP killed by a lorry while cycling, at 9.40am on a Monday.  The driver stopped but was not arrested.  Dr Richards lived in Whetstone, had worked as a GP at the Hornsey Rise Health Centre ...

Person, Cyclist, Tragedy

1 memorial
Fm. Daniel Michael O'Donovan

Fm. Daniel Michael O'Donovan

Attending a ‘Person Shut in Lift’ at Moelwyn Hughes Court, he fell from the flat roof while making his way to the lift motor room. Aged 25. O'Donovan was brought up in Harrow and was an avid sport...

Person, Emergency Services, Tragedy

1 memorial
Kennington Park air-raid

Kennington Park air-raid

Following the outbreak of WW2, there was a variety of designs for shelters designed to protect the populace from air-raids. For those who didn't have Anderson or Morrison shelters or access to Lond...

Event, Tragedy

1 memorial
Peter Dobson Allen

Peter Dobson Allen

Peter Dobson Allen was born on 4 January 1931, the son of Fred Allen (1902-1957) and Ethel Allen née Dobson (1903-1990). His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1931 in the Dewsbury registra...

Person, Industry, Politics & Administration, Tragedy

1 memorial
Arthur Edis Dean, C.B.E., M.A., MLitt.

Arthur Edis Dean, C.B.E., M.A., MLitt.

Arthur Edis Dean was the 3rd Warden of Goldsmiths' College 1927-50. He played a major part in the reconstruction of the college after it was bombed in WW2. While it was previously known as Goldsmi...

Person, Armed Forces, Education, Tragedy

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Edward Maufe

Edward Maufe

Architect. Born in Yorkshire as Edward Brantwood Muff into a family which, in 1903, moved to live in Philip Webb's Red House where Maufe lived for 7 years and later acknowledged the influence. 1909...

Person, Architecture

5 memorials