Marek Edelman died he was 90. [1][A 1] Edelman was a Polish-Jewish political and social activist as well as cardiologist. During World War II, he was one of the founders of the Jewish Combat Organization. He took part in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and became its leader following the death of Mordechaj Anielewicz. He also took part in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. When he died on the 2nd of October 2009 he was the last surviving leader of the Ghetto Uprising.[2][3]
After the war he remained in Poland and became a noted cardiologist. From the 1970s he collaborated with the Workers' Defence Committee and other political groups opposing Poland's Communist regime. As a member of Solidarity, he took part in the Polish Round Table Talks of 1989. Following the peaceful transformations of 1989, he was a member of various centrist parties. He also authored books documenting the history of wartime resistance against the German Nazi occupation.
(1919 or 1922 – October 2, 2009)
Details of Marek Edelman's birth are not known for certain; sources give two possible dates of birth, either 1919 in Homel (now Belarus), or in 1922 in Warsaw.[A 1][citation needed] His mother, Cecylia Edelman (died 1934), was an activist member of the General Jewish Labour Bund, a Jewish socialist workers party. His father, Natan Feliks (died 1924), was a trudoviks activist.[citation needed] As a child, Marek Edelman was a member of S.K.I.F. (Sotsyalistishe Kinder Farband), the Jewish Labour Bund's youth group for children.[citation needed] In 1939 he joined and became a leader in the Tsukunft ("Future"), the Bund's youth organization for older children.[4] Later he ascended to the leadership of the Bund itself.[5][unreliable source?]
In 1939, after the German invasion of Poland Edelman found himself confined - along with the other Jews of Warsaw - to the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1942, as a Bund youth leader Edelman was a founder of the underground Jewish Combat Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa). In the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April–May 1943, led by Mordechai Anielewicz, Edelman was one of the three sub-commanders and then became leader after the death of Anielewicz. Edelman survived the suppression of the uprising and the Ghetto's liquidation.[6] In mid-1944, he participated in the Warsaw Uprising, where Polish forces rose up against the Germans before being forced to surrender after 63 days of fighting.[7]
After the Second World War Edelman studied at Łódź Medical School and became a physician.[6] In 1976 he became an activist with the Workers' Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników) and later with the Solidarity movement. He publicly denounced racism and promoted human rights.[6] In 1981, when the leader of Poland, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, declared martial law in Poland, he was interned by the government.[7] In 1983 he refused to take part in the official celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising sponsored by Poland's Communist government,[8] believing that "would be an act of cynicism and contempt" in a country "where social life is dominated throughout by humiliation and coercion."[7] Instead, he walked with friends to the street where Mordechai Anielewicz's bunker had been located.[8] He took part in the Round Table Talks as Solidarity's consultant on health policy[7] and served as a member of the Sejm (parliament) from 1989 to 1993.[dubious ] In 1993, he accompanied a convoy of goods into the city of Sarajevo while that city was under siege.[9]
Edelman was never a Zionist; he was a member of the anti-Zionist socialist[10][11] Bund and remained firmly Polish, refusing to migrate to Israel.[10]
In old age, he continued to speak up for the Palestinian as he felt that the Jewish self-defence for which he had fought was in danger of crossing the line into oppression.[5] In August 2002 Edelman wrote a letter to Palestinians resistance leaders. Though the letter criticized the suicide bombers, its tone infuriated the Israeli government and press. According to The Guardian, "He wrote [the letter] in a spirit of solidarity from a fellow resistance fighter, as a former leader of a Jewish uprising not dissimilar in desperation to the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories."[12] He addressed his letter to "To all the leaders of Palestinian military, paramilitary and guerilla organizations - To all the soldiers of Palestinian militant groups".[13] This set up a howl of rage in the Israeli press, especially that Edelman had consciously used the terms that described the structures of the resistance movement in Warsaw.[14]
On 17 April 1998 [15] Edelman was awarded Poland's highest decoration, the Order of the White Eagle.[1] He also received the French Legion of Honour.[2]
Marek Edelman was married to Alina Margolis-Edelman (1922-2008). They had two children Aleksander and Anna.[2][10] When his wife and children emigrated from Poland to France in the wake of antisemitic actions by the Communist Polish authorities in 1968, Edelman decided to stay in Łódź. He published his memoirs, which have been translated into six languages.[10] Each April he laid flowers in Warsaw for those he had served with in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.[2]
Edelman died, aged 90, on 2 October 2009.[2][3][6] Władysław Bartoszewski, a former Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, led the tributes to Edelman, saying: "He reached a good age. He left as a contented man even if he was always aware of the tragedy he went through".[3][6] He denied that the activist was "irreplaceable" before acknowledging that "there are few people like Marek Edelman".[3][6] Catholic bishop Tadeusz Pieronek said: "I respect him mostly for the fact that he stayed in this land, which made him fight so hard for his Jewish and Polish identity. He became a real witness, he gave a real testimony with his life".[16] Former head of Israel's parliament and former Israeli ambassador to Poland Shevah Weiss said: "I'd like to offer my condolences to Marek Edelman's family, to the Polish nation and to the Jewish nation. He was a hero to all of us".[3] Ian Kelly, an official spokesperson for the United States expressed sympathies and confirmed the United States "stands with Poland as it mourns the loss of a great man".[17]
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