Hotel Polski Affair

Hotel Polski Affair

The Hotel Polski (English: Polish Hotel) n Warsaw, Poland opened in 1808.

Before that it was used as a Private House by Banker Fryderyk Kabrit.

In September 1939 the Germans invaded Poland and occupied Warsaw.

In November 1940 the Germans set-up the enclosed Warsaw Ghetto where they forced 460,000 Jewish Men, Women and Children to live in filthy and crowded conditions were they died from Starvation, Diseases and being shot by the Germans.

At the end of 1942 the Germans announced that Jews in the City that held Citizenship of a Neutral Country not at War with Germany would be allowed to leave both the Warsaw Ghetto and German-Occupied Europe.

This was after the Mass Deportation and Murder of 265,000 Jewish Men, Women and Children from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka Death Camp by the Germans from July-September 1942.

The remaining Jews inside the Warsaw Ghetto as well as those who were hiding on the Non-Jewish Side of Warsaw raced to find Birth Certificates or Passports from Neutral Countries: Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Argentina (until March 1945), Venezuela (until February 1945) and Uruguay (until February 1945.)

The Ładosia Group (also called the Berne Group) were Polish Diplomats-In-Exile as well as Jewish Organizations in Switzerland that created Forged Birth Certificates and Passports from Latin American Countries and smuggled them into German-Occupied Poland in the hope to save as many People (Jewish and Non-Jewish) as they could.

They started doing this in 1939 and continued throughout the War.

Two Jewish Collaborators, Lolek Skosowski and Adam Żuravin, who worked with the Gestapo used Foreign Passports (both Real Ones whose Owners were already killed by the Germans or Forgeries) and sold them to Jews inside and outside the Warsaw Ghetto.

A Passport would sell for around 300 Polish Zlotys or $81 US Dollars ($1,887 US Dollars in 2026.)

The Germans then knew which ones were Fake and tried to lure the Owners of those Passports to provide more money or having them get their Relatives and Friends who were also in Hiding to come.

2,500 Jewish Men, Women and Children registered as Foreign Citizens of Neutral Countries.

After waiting at the Hotel Polski for several weeks and having their Papers, Passports and Stories Checked by the Germans 1,900 People were allowed to leave German-Occupied Poland and sent to either the Vittel Internment Camp in German-Occupied France or to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany (where they were held in a Special Area for Neutral Jews.)

After weeks in either Bergen-Belsen or Vittel several Hundred of the Jewish Men, Women and Children (with Fake Passports) were sent to the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland and gassed upon arrival,

On July 13, 1943 400 Jewish Men, Women and Children whose Papers were Forgeries or who couldn’t prove their Citizenships were shot by the Germans at the Pawiak Prison in Warsaw.

The Germans made an unknown Amount of Money from the Hotel Polski Affair as well as finding Jews that were Hidden and murdering them.

In 1944 the Hotel Polski was burned down by the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising.

The Hotel Polski was rebuilt after the War and during Communist Poland it was the Main Board of the Metalworkers' Trade Union.

Today it has Apartments, Stores and Restaurants.

Jewish Collaborator, Lolek Skosowski, was killed on November 1, 1943 by a Polish Home Army Agent.

Only 300 of the 2,500 Jewish Men, Women and Children we were held at the Hotel Polski survived the War.

A Book called “The Case of the Hotel Polski” was made in English in 1982.