Organized by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Poland
Passports for Life
The Exhibition is dedicated to the “Bernese Group” consisting of Polish diplomats
and Jewish activists who during World War II saved several hundreds of European Jews from the Holocaust.
Introduction
The Eiss Archive documents one of the biggest Holocaust rescue operations conducted from the Swiss territory. The Archive has recently returned to Poland to be housed permanently in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
The members of the “Bernese Group” were:
Aleksander Ładoś (1891-1963), Polish Envoy in Bern in the years 1940-1945,
Abraham Silberschein (1881-1951), advocate, Zionist activist, pre-war deputy to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, founder of the rescue committee RELICO,
Konstanty Rokicki (1899-1958), Polish consul in Bern in 1939-1945,
Stefan Ryniewicz (1903-1987), counselor of the Polish Legation in the years 1938-1945, Aleksander Ładoś’ deputy,
Juliusz Kühl (1913-1985), attaché of the Polish Legation, expert on contacts with Jewish diaspora in Switzerland,
Chaim Yisroel Eiss (1876-1943), a merchant born in Ustrzyki, leading figure of Agudat Israel residing in Zurich.
