Szmul Zygielbojm, sometimes spelled Zygelbojm or Zigelboim, (Yiddish and Hebrew: שמואל זיגלבוים) (February 21, 1895 – May 12, 1943) was a Jewish-Polish socialist politician, leader of the Bund, and a member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile. He committed suicide to protest the indifference of the Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust.
Szmul Zygielbojm was born on February 21, 1895 in the village of Borowica, Pola...
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Szmul Zygielbojm, sometimes spelled Zygelbojm or Zigelboim, (Yiddish and Hebrew: שמואל זיגלבוים) (February 21, 1895 – May 12, 1943) was a Jewish-Polish socialist politician, leader of the Bund, and a member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile. He committed suicide to protest the indifference of the Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust.
Szmul Zygielbojm was born on February 21, 1895 in the village of Borowica, Poland (then under control of the Russian Empire). His family moved to Krasnystaw in 1899. Due to poverty, he left school and began working in a factory at the age of 10. Zygielbojm left home for Warsaw when he was 12, but he returned to Krasnystaw at the beginning of World War I and moved with his family to Chełm.
In his 20s, Zygielbojm became involved in the Jewish labor movement, and in 1917 he represented Chełm at the first Bundist convention in Poland. Zygielbojm so impressed the Bund leadership at the convention that he was invited to Warsaw...
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