Marek Edelman

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Marek Edelman (b. December 31, 1922) is a Jewish-Polish political and social activist, cardiologist, and the last living leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Born in 1922 in Homel (now Belarus), he soon moved with his parents to Warsaw. In 1942, as a youth leader in the Bund, Edelman was among the founders of the underground Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Fighting Organization). In the Warsaw ghetto uprising of April-May 1943, Edelman became one of its leaders following the death of ZOB commander Mordechai Anielewicz. Edelman survived the uprising's suppression and the ghetto's liquidation, and managed to escape aided by underground activists of the Armia Ludowa (People's Army). He joined the Polish underground Armia Krajowa (Home Army), and in the summer of 1944 participated in the Warsaw Uprising.

After the Second World War, Edelman studied at the Medical University in Łódź. In 1976 he became an activist with the Komitet Obrony Robotników (Workers' Defense Committee) and later of the Solidarity movement. During the period of martial law in 1981, he was interned. He took part in the Round Table Talks and served as a member of the Sejm (Polish parliament) from 1989 until 1993.

On April 17, 1998, Marek Edelman was awarded with Poland's highest decoration, the Order of the White Eagle.

In Hanna Krall's book "Zdążyć przed Panem Bogiem" ("Be There Before God") Edelman retells in detail the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

[edit] References

Marek Edelman, Resisting the Holocaust: Fighting Back in the Warsaw Ghetto, Ocean Press, 2004, ISBN 1-876175-52-4.
Hanna Krall, Shielding the Flame, Henry Holt & Co., 1986, ISBN 0-03-006002-8.