Abraham Polonski (1903 – unknown), also known as Pol or Maurice Ferrer, was a Belarusian electrical engineer in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

who was one of the founders of the French Jewish Resistance movement. By June 1940, the French army had surrendered to Germany. Polonski and others established an underground organization called ''La Main Forte'', meaning "The Strong Hand". By 1942, Polonski and

Labor Movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

activists also established the Armee Juive (AJ), or Jewish Army, which was a commando force composed of the

Zionist youth movement A Zionist youth movement () is an organization formed for Jewish children and adolescents for educational, social, and ideology, ideological development, including a belief in Zionism, Jewish nationalism as represented in the State of Israel. Yout ...

members. During 1943–1944, the Jewish Army helped some hundreds of its members to successfully escape to Spain and then

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. The group fought in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

areas, attacking informers who had collaborated with the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

and helped liberate France in the summer of 1944. They were funded to the sum of tens of millions of francs by the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

and from the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Advert Where and how does this article resemble an WP:SOAP, advert and how should it be improved? See: Wikipedia:Spam (you might trthe Teahouseif you have questions). American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a J ...

. Polonski went on to become a

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

commander of the AJ in France and North Africa.''Guide to unpublished materials of the Holocaust period : Volume 2'' / edited by Jacob Robinson and Yehuda Bauer.

References

Sources

* ''Abraham Polonski and the Jewish resistance in France during the Second World War.'' Yehuda Ben-David, Yaʻel Zaidman, Miśrad ha-bitaḥon, 2002 *Tsilla Hershco, ''Those who Walk in Darkness will See the Light, the Jewish Resistance in France During the Holocaust and the Creation of Israel: 1940-1949'' (Hebrew, 2003, 2018). 1903 births Year of death missing French Resistance members Jews in the French resistance French Zionists Belarusian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France People from Slonim {{World-War-II-stub