An urn containing the ashes of the cremated remains of Shmuel Mordecai (Artur) Zygelboim, a leader of the Polish Jewish resistance fighters during World War II–who committed suicide in 1943 as a step to alert the world to the martyrdom of the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto revolt–rest today in the cemetery of the Workmen Circle, in suburban Queens. Three thousand Jews attended a memorial service for Mr. Zygelboim at Carnegie Hall here yesterday, and many followed the funeral procession to the cemetery. Mr. Zygelboim was the Jewish Labor Bund’s representative in the Parliament of Poland’s Government-in-Exile in London, when he received word that the Nazi Army had wiped out the last pockets of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto. He killed himself, leaving letters to leaders of the Polish Government-in-Exile, declaring his death was a pretest against “the inactivity with which the world is looking on and permitting the extermination of the Jewish people.” His remains were cremated in London 18 years ago.
The urn containing the Zygelboim ashes stood at the center of the stage at Carnegie Hall yesterday, as representatives of Jewish labor eulogized his martyrdom. Survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto revolt flanked the urn on stage. Speakers included Adolph Held, chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee; Dr. Emanuel Scherer, of the Jewish Labor Bund; Charles S. Zimmerman, vice-president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union; Israel Breslaw, president of the Workmen’s Circle; and A. Glantz-Leyless, president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
