Leon Feiner (nom-de-guerre "Mikołaj" (Michael), "Berezowski"; 1885 – February 22, 1945) was a Polish lawyer and activist. He was an activist of the

General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland The General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland (, ) was a History of the Jews in Poland, Jewish socialist party in Poland which promoted the political, cultural and social autonomy of Jewish workers, sought to combat antisemitism and was generally oppos ...

and between November 1944 and January 1945 the director (''prezes'') and vice-chairman of the Council to Aid Jews " Żegota".

Biography

Feiner was born in 1885 in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. After the outbreak of World War II with the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, the Soviet Union also invaded on September 17, as part of the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

between

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

and

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Feiner was caught in the Soviet part of occupied Poland, was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

and spent several months in a Soviet prison in

Lida Lida is a city in Grodno Region, western Belarus, located west of Minsk. It serves as the administrative center of Lida District. As of 2025, it has a population of 103,262. Etymology The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuanian name ''Ly ...

, near

Wilno Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

.Bernard Goldstein, "Five years in the Warsaw Ghetto: (The stars bear witness)", AK Press, 2005, pg. 84

/ref> Despite the fact that before the war on several occasions he had defended

Polish Communists Communism in Poland can trace its origins to the late 19th century: the Marxist First Proletariat party was founded in 1882. Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (''Socjaldemokracja Króle ...

in court as an attorney, and that he had belonged to a

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

organization (the

), the Soviets authorities charged him with being a "fascist" and a "counter revolutionary" After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union Feiner managed to escape after the Soviets fled Lida in 1941, and made his way to Nazi-occupied

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. During the

Nazi occupation of Poland Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...

Feiner, even though he lived in the "Aryan" side of Warsaw under the assumed name "Berezowski", was one of the central personalities of the Jewish underground in the city. He was the author of most of the communiques of the Bund from Poland to the Western allies, in which he described Nazi terror and brutality.Emmanuel Ringelblum, Joseph Kermish, Shmuel Krakowski, "Polish-Jewish Relations During the Second World War", Northwestern University Press, 1992, pg. 115

/ref> Feiner also served as a guide for the Polish courier

Jan Karski Jan Karski (born Jan Kozielewski, 24 June 1914 – 13 July 2000) was a Polish soldier, Polish resistance movement in World War II, resistance-fighter, and diplomat during World War II. He is known for having acted as a courier in 1940–1943 to ...

inside the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

(they both crossed into the ghetto through the Warsaw sewers). Karski asked Feiner what prominent American and British Jews should do. "Tell the Jewish leaders," Feiner said, "that ... they must find the strength and courage to make sacrifices no other statesmen have ever had to make, sacrifices as painful as the fate of my dying people, and as unique."Jan Karski,
Story of a Secret State
'' pp. 42-50. Karski also took Feiner's report to the Polish-Jewish political leaders Szmul Zygielbojm and

Ignacy Schwarzbart Ignacy Izaak Schwarzbart (13 November 1888 in Chrzanów – 26 April 1961 in New York City) was a prominent Polish Zionist, and one of Jewish representatives on the Polish National Council of the Polish Government-in-Exile during the Second World ...

, who were serving on the Polish National Council of the

Polish Government-in-Exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent Occupation ...

in London. The report described the deportation and murder of Jews in Poland, including a detailed report on

Chełmno extermination camp Chełmno, or Kulmhof, was the first of Nazi Germany's extermination camps and was situated north of Łódź, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, Germany annexed ...

, and gave the estimated number dead, as of May 1942, at 700,000 (the actual number was already much higher). Feiner's instructions to Zygielbojm were to cease mere protests and organize retaliatory bombing, leafleting and execution of Germans captured by the Allies, in response to the Nazi

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

.Samantha Power, "A problem from hell: America and the age of genocide", HarperCollins, 2003, pg. 33

/ref> The description of the condition of Jews in German-occupied Poland and Feiner's instructions threw Zygielbojm into depression since he knew that the Allies would be unwilling to help (Zygielbojm eventually committed suicide as a protest against the indifference of the Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust).Melvyn Conroy
Szmul Mordekhai "Artur" Zygielbojm
''The Terrible Choice: Some Contemporary Jewish Responses to the Holocaust.'' After the

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...

and the liquidation of the ghetto by the Germans, Feiner tried desperately to help those who were sent to slave labor camps. Leon Feiner survived the Nazi occupation, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

, and was rescued in Lublin in January 1945. However, due to terminal illness (throat cancer)"Survivors and Others Mentioned in This Documentary: Where Are They now?", Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies

/ref> he died in Lublin soon afterward, on February 22. Even while in the hospital he maintained relationships with his friends and fellow political activists and participated in discussions of the future of the Bund in Poland. He is buried in the main row of the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery in

(quarter 12).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feiner, Leon 1885 births 1945 deaths Bundists Jewish Polish politicians Jewish socialists Polish socialists 20th-century Polish lawyers Deaths from throat cancer Żegota members Deaths from cancer in Poland