Bernard Konrad Świerczyński

Polish journalist, libertarian and a key figure in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Inspired by the involvement of his father, Konrad Świerczyński aka 'Wicek', in the anarchist movement, he was active during the Nazi occupation, helping Jews to escape from the Warsaw ghetto and organising hideouts for them, including in his own family's house. He also played an important role, liaising between the inside and outside of the ghetto, and organising and directly participating in the smuggling of food, clothing and letters into the Ghetto. During Warsaw Uprising a soldier of Syndicalist Brigade (104 Kompania Związku Syndykalistów Polskich), as was his father. After WWII, he was awarded the title ‘Righteous Among the Nations’. Journalist in the cooperative movement press and member of the Polish Journalists Association. In the Żydowski Instytut Historyczny (ŻIH; Jewish Historical Insitute) in Warsaw, there are many examples of that activity. He placed many of his charges, which escaped from the ghetto, in the apartment of his parents and later in other shelters relatively more secure. Among others, the following benefited from his help: Bronka Frydman, Fryda Hofman, Halina Horowic, Pawel Lew Marek and his wife and mother, Roza Rozenberg, Mr. Szlamowicz and his wife and sister, Dr. Aleksander Wolberg, Dr. Zelikson.

Bernard obtained from his neighbour a room in the loft for the ghetto escapees. After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising he helped to build a bunker where 40 Jews hid. Among them were two Greek Jews from the ca. 400 Jews from Greece, France and Belgium, liberated by the Polish scouting battalion ZOSKA from Gesiowka (a central camp in the Warsaw ghetto) on Aug. 5, 1944. Pawel Lew Marek underlined his noble attitude to the people helped. The latter in his long account written in July 1966 says: "With his lightheartedness, and his disrespect for danger, he kept up the spirit of all of us and never showed to anyone that he is his benefactor. All this lasted for four years, and especially the last two years, in which every minute decided about life and death. In every one of them 'Kondek', as they called him, and his deceased father showed the most beautiful humanitarian attitude, of which the Polish nation may be proud." Fryda Zgodzinski wrote a similarly glowing homage in July 1966. She relates how he brought her to the ghetto letters from her betrothed from a Stalag (POW camp for soldiers). She describes also how he received her, staying himself at a neighbour's, after she jumped from the train transporting Jews to extermination, wounded and half living, and later how many services he rendered with total disinterestedness and with the greatest warm-heartedness. "He was for them a treasure beyond value and the memory of him will remain as the only shining point in those terrible years."

Bernard Konrad Świerczyński died on October 31, 2002 and was buried in the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw. His memoir 'Monument to the unknown smuggler' (Szmugiel na wagę życia, 2015) is available online at: