Abraham Polonski

For the American film director, see Abraham Polonsky.

Abraham Polonski (aka "Pol" or "Maurice Ferrer") was born in Russia in 1913. He was one of the founders of the French Jewish Resistance movement, having previously worked as an electrical engineer in Toulouse.

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".[1]

By 1942 Polonski and Labor Movement Zionist activists also established the Armee Juive (AJ), or Jewish Army, which was a commando force composed of the Zionist youth movement members.[2] During 1943–1944, the Jewish Army helped some hundreds of its members to successfully escape to Spain and then Palestine. The group fought in Toulouse, Nice, Lyon, and Paris areas, attacking informers who had collaborated with the Gestapo 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 and from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

He went on to become a Haganah commander of the AJ in France and North Africa.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Jews in France during World War II By Renée Poznanski, Nathan Bracher, 2001
  2. ↑ France: the dark years, 1940-1944 By Julian Jackson
  3. ↑ Guide to unpublished materials of the Holocaust period : Volume 2 / edited by Jacob Robinson and Yehuda Bauer.


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