Hidden Jews of Poland: Featured Articles

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In an unusual kind of pre-High Holy Days study seminar, 22 young Polish Catholics spent three weeks in Israel learning about their Jewish roots. They rank among the estimated tens of thousands of "hidden Jews" across Eastern Europe - people whose families hid their Jewish identity and in some cases subsequently forgot the fact they had Jewish lineage. In many cases their families began concealing their Judaism to avoid persecution by the Nazis and the Communists. Some "hidden Jews" were handed by their parents to non-Jewish individuals or institutions during the Holocaust and grew up not knowing they were born Jewish.

Group members, most of whom were raised Catholic, taking part in specially designed educational seminar in Jerusalem held entirely in Polish A group of 22 young Poles who recently discovered their Jewish roots arrived in Israel on Sunday for a special three-week educational seminar organized by...

Jerusalem - A group of 22 young Poles who recently discovered their Jewish roots arrived in Israel yesterday, August 15, 2010, for a special three-week educational seminar organized by Shavei Israel. The participants, most of whom were raised Catholic and are now in their 20’s, came from an array of cities throughout Poland, primarily Krakow, Katowice, Warsaw, Tychy, Gdansk and Cieszyn. For some of the participants, this marks their first time visiting Israel.

  After Holocaust destroyed Polish Jewry, many Jews in Poland still hide or unaware of identity. Some now rediscovering roots, make trip to Israel. A group of 22 young Poles, the descendents of Jewish families who lived in Poland during the Holocaust, came to Israel in August for...

No longer hidden – Polish-born Daniela Malec reclaims her Jewish roots in Israel Daniela Malec didn’t find out she was a Jew until she was a teenager. Her experience is not atypical for the “Hidden” Jews of Poland, whose parents or grandparents survived the Holocaust – and then sought to pass themselves off as Catholics to escape further persecution. “I thought everyone in Poland was Catholic,” the now 32-year-old Daniela says. “When I first found out I was Jewish, it was a shock. But I also found the news very exciting. I felt like I had a very rich sea to swim in and I wanted to find out more.” That “more” has led to a remarkable journey for Daniela – from a pre-teen in Poland with no Jewish knowledge and little way to research it (“we didn’t have Google back then”), to a leadership role in the Jewish community of Krakow, to her eventual immigration to Israel, where she now lives in Tel Aviv working as a consultant for an international organization, as a Polish translator, and as a Jewish genealogical consultant.   Daniela’s family grew up in Belarus and were fortunate to escape the war in the far eastern part of Russia, safe from the Nazis. When they returned, they chose to settle in Warsaw. Daniela’s mother married a Catholic man and set up a home that was essentially “not religious,” Daniela explains. “I knew we were different but I didn’t know how.”
The official beginning of World War II was September 1, 1939. On that day German soldiers invaded Gdansk after bombarding the city with a military warship. As part of the Polish Government's official series of events marking seven decades since the start of World War II, Poland's Jewish community and the Jerusalem-based "Shavei Israel" organization held a special ceremony yesterday in the Gdansk synagogue to commemorate the outbreak of the war, which paved the way for the Holocaust.  
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