Korbonski Stefan

Korbonski, Stefan During the occupation, Stefan Korbonski, a jurist and politician, and leader of the PPR was head of the Civil Struggle Directorate. As part of his duties, Korbonski sent reports about events in occupied Poland, including the liquidation of ghettos, to the Polish Government-In-Exile in London. On September I7, I942, the Civil Struggle Directorate published a leaflet stating: "In addition to the terrible tragedy that has befallen the Polish Population and the many losses it has suffered at the enemy’s hands, a systematic and horrifying massacre of the Jews has been taking place in our land over the past year – a massacre the likes of which has never been recorded in the annals of mankind. All the atrocities we have learned about in history pale in comparison.... The number of people who have been butchered exceeds a million and is growing from day to day while we look on helplessly. In the name of the Polish people, the Civil Struggle Directorate protests this crime that is being perpetrated against the Jews. All political and public organizations support this protest. As with the Polish victims, the physical responsibility for this crime will be placed on the hangmen and their collaborators. In March 1943, Korbonski published another manifesto explicitly condemning Nazi collaborators and informers as "traitors” and calling for the death penalty against them. It was this manifesto that led the underground courts to sentence Nazi collaborators and informers to death. On June 12, 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Stefan Korbonski as Righteous Among the Nations. File 1415