December 15: Code Name: Zegota

Join us for a special book event at Polish Movie Nite!

To complement the screening of Irena Sendler: In The Name Of Their Mothers (information in the blog post below), Polish Movie Nite is happy to present the newly-published book Code Name: Zegota (Rescuing Jews in Occupied Poland, 1942-1945: The Most Dangerous Conspiracy in Wartime Europe) by Irene Tomaszewski and Tecia Werbowski, with a foreword by Norman Davies. It is the first English-language book on the subject, and copies will be available for purchase during the event.

Code Name: Zegota tells the story of the only secret organization in occupied Europe set up for the sole purpose of saving Jews. The book details the danger and complexity behind Zegota rescue attempts, clarifying the relationship of the Germans, who had total control; the Poles, who were relegated to sub-human status and treated as slave labor; and the Jews, designated nonhuman and collectively condemned to death.

Illuminating the moral dilemmas that arose as one life was pitted against another under the lawless apartheid conditions created by the Nazis, Code Name: Zegota explores the critical situation in occupied Poland and the personalities that responded to desperate conditions with a mix of courage and creativity. It profiles the key players and the network behind them and describes the sophisticated organization and its mode of operation. The cast of characters ranges from members of prewar Poland's cultural and political elite to Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, who worked as couriers. As this inspiring book shows, all of these brave souls risked torture, concentration camps, and death—and many paid the price.

Code Name: Zegota
Rescuing Jews in Occupied Poland, 1942-1945: The Most Dangerous Conspiracy in Wartime Europe
by Irene Tomaszewski and Tecia Werbowski
Foreword by Norman Davies
2010
Hardcover, 182 pages
For more information, visit http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?id=51492

8pm Wednesday
December 15, 2010

Polish Club of San Francisco
3040 22nd Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

This event is made possible by Maureen Mroczek Morris, with additional support from Trumer Pils and Krol Vodka. Thanks also go to Mrs. Krystyna Chciuk of the Polish Club for her ongoing support of Polish Movie Nite, and to Susannah Magers and Bre Leigh Peters for their help in the preparation of this event.

Polish Movie Nite is a monthly screening organized for the benefit of the Polish Club. Events are free and open to the public. Donations are welcome.

December 15: In The Name Of Their Mothers

Join us for Movie Nite at the Polish Club!

Polish Movie Nite is happy to present Irena Sendler: In The Name Of Their Mothers (2010), a new documentary by filmmaker Mary Skinner. In the film, 95-year-old Irena Sendler tells the true story of Żegota, a secret network of Polish women who rescued thousands of Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto and hid them until the end of the war. In 1943 the Gestapo captured Sendler, tortured her and sentenced her to death, but she refused to divulge anything about the women or the hidden children. She escaped on the day she was to be executed when the Polish Resistance bribed a German guard. All of the 2,500 children rescued by her conspiracy survived the war and many were re-united with their Jewish families. But for decades, they could not tell their stories. The new Communist regime in Poland silenced former members of the Polish Resistance and most of Sendler's liaisons were persecuted or exiled. Over 65 years later they can finally speak about their wartime work as the once hidden Jewish children return to Warsaw to re-unite with their Polish protectors.

The film will be introduced by local curator Susannah Magers.

Irena Sendler: In the Name of their Mothers
2010
58 minutes
For more information, see www.irenasendlerfilm.com

8pm Wednesday
December 15, 2010

Polish Club of San Francisco
3040 22nd Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

This event is made possible by Maureen Mroczek Morris, with additional support from Trumer Pils and Krol Vodka. Thanks also go to Mrs. Krystyna Chciuk of the Polish Club for her ongoing support of Polish Movie Nite, and to Mary Skinner, Irene Tomaszewski, Susannah Magers, and Bre Leigh Peters for their help in the preparation of this event.

Polish Movie Nite is a monthly screening organized for the benefit of the Polish Club. Events are free and open to the public. Donations are welcome.