Żegota
Third anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Żegota members, Warsaw, April 1946. Seated, from right: Piotr Gajewski, Ferdynand Marek Arczyński, Władysław Bartoszewski, Adolf Berman, Tadeusz Rek. | |
| Predecessor | Provisional Committee to Aid Jews |
|---|---|
| Formation | December 1942 |
| Founder | Henryk Woliński, |
| Type | Underground organization |
| Purpose | Help and distribution of relief funds to Polish Jews in World War II |
| Headquarters | Warsaw |
| Location | |
Region | German occupied Poland |
Key people | Henryk Woliński, Julian Grobelny, Ferdynand Arczyński, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz, Adolf Berman, Leon Feiner, Władysław Bartoszewski |
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Żegota (pronounced [ʐɛˈɡɔta] ⓘ, full codename: the "Konrad Żegota Committee") was the Polish Council to Aid Jews with the Government Delegation for Poland (Polish: Rada Pomocy Żydom przy Delegaturze Rządu RP na Kraj), an underground Polish resistance organization, and part of the Polish Underground State, active 1942–45 in German-occupied Poland. Żegota was the successor institution to the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews and was established specifically to save Jews. Poland was the only country in German-occupied Europe where such a government-established and -supported underground organization existed.
Estimates of the number of Jews that Żegota provided aid to, and eventually saved, range from several thousands to tens of thousands.
Operatives of Żegota worked in extreme circumstances – under threat of death by the Nazi forces.