Screening of „Passports to Paraguay” and meeting with Mr Uri Strauss – Jewish Culture Festival in Copenhagen
31.05.2021
Within the Jewish Culture Festival in Copenhagen, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Copenhagen on 30 May 2021 organized the screening of the documentary „Passports to Paraguay” by Robert Kaczmarek and a meeting with Mr. Uri Strauss, saved from Holocaust thanks to a forged passport issued by the Polish diplomats in cooperation with the Jewish community.
The event devoted to the cooperation of Polish diplomats from the legation in Switzerland and activists of Jewish organizations during World War II was opened by chargé d'affaires a.i. Mateusz Mońko.
The movie produced by the Institute of National Remembrance tells the story how forged passports helped save thousands of Jews from the Holocaust. During the World War II, Polish diplomats in Switzerland cooperated with the Jewish community to carry out the passport campaign. They issued false passports and citizenship certificates of Latin American countries to Jews threatened with extermination. These documents allowed their bearers to be interned and then exchanged for German prisoners of war. It gave them a chance to avoid transport to death camps. The group was called “Ładoś Group”, after the name the Polish Envoy in Bern in the years 1940–1945, Aleksander Ładoś.
After the screening, Mr Uri Strauss, a Jewish photographer born in Amsterdam, told the story of his family during the World War II and how they obtained the Paraguayan passport. The audience had the opportunity to view his original Paraguayan document. The conversation was moderated by was Ms Martyna Wojtkowska from the Pilecki Institute.
