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The article is an attempt to analyze two unpublished reports on the circumstances of the death of Witold Hulanicki (Former Polish Consul-General in Jerusalem) and Stefan Arnold (Polish journalist) in Jerusalem in February 1948. The documents come from the collections of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London and the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw.

In the years 1940-1948 Palestine was an important centre of the Polish “independence” emigration. In 1945 approximately seven thousand war refugees were staying there. When, towards the end of 1947, a civil war broke out in Palestine, the Poles’ situation became more complicated. There were suspicions that they were involved in the Arab-Jewish conflict and supported one side or the other. This article is an attempt to present how these events unfolded and to identify their roots. The author discusses the following factors: (1) the character of the settlement patterns of the Polish community, which concentrated both in Jewish (Tel-Aviv) and Arab (East Jerusalem, Jaffa) centres; (2) the atmosphere of suspicion, characteristic of every war; (3) the agitation carried out by agents of the Warsaw government, which claimed that the Polish expatriate community was ‘fascist’; (4) the presence of criminal elements among the émigrés. The analysis is based on archival materials from the collections of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London, the Polish Library POSK in London, and the Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw. The author also used newspapers published in Palestine and in centres of Polish emigration.

In the years 1940–1948 Palestine was an important center for Polish refugees of war. In 1945, about seven thousand Poles stayed there. When civil war broke out at the end of 1947 the position of refugees became more complicated. There were suspicions that the Poles were involved in the Arab-Jewish conflict. The emergence of this situation was influenced by several factors: (1) the distribu­tion of the Polish population in both Jewish (Tel Aviv, West Jerusalem) and Arabic (Eastern Jerusalem, Jaffa) centers; (2) the atmosphere of suspicion typ­ical for any war; (3) Agents of the Warsaw authorities who claimed that Pol­ish emigration was “fascist;” (4) the presence of people with criminal records and coming from the margins of society among the refugees. The exiled were plagued by a lack of money. It is possible that individual Poles did engage in the conflict in the hope of earning a little money. The situation was com­plicated by the fact that the Polish authorities in exile lost the recognition of political powers in July 1945 and the refugees (most of whom supported the government in London) found themselves at the mercy of Great Britain, and then the UNRRA and IRO. For the Poles it was tragic that their fate was not already decided by their compatriots. This article is based on archive materi­als from the collections of the The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London, the Polish Library POSK in London and the Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw. Also the press issued in Palestine and centers of Polish emigration was used., W latach 1940–1948 Palestyna była ważnym ośrodkiem polskiego uchodźstwa wojennego. W 1945 roku przebywało tam około siedmiu tysięcy Polaków. Gdy pod koniec 1947 roku wybuchła wojna domowa, położenie uchodźców skompli­kowało się. Pojawiły się podejrzenia, że Polacy angażują się w konflikt arabsko­-żydowski. Na wytworzenie się tej sytuacji wpłynęło kilka czynników: (1) roz­mieszczenie ludności polskiej zarówno w ośrodkach żydowskich (Tel Awiw, zachodnia Jerozolima), jak i arabskich (wschodnia Jerozolima, Jafa); (2) właś­ciwa każdej wojnie atmosfera podejrzliwości; (3) działalność agentów władz war­szawskich, którzy twierdzili, że emigracja polska jest „faszystowska”; (4) obec­ność wśród wygnańców osób karanych i z marginesu społecznego. Ponieważ problemem uchodźców był brak pieniędzy, możliwe, że ten i ów Polak licząc na zdobycie dodatkowego grosza na własną rękę, mieszał się w konflikt. Sytuację komplikowało to, że władze RP na obczyźnie straciły w lipcu 1945 roku uznanie mocarstw i uchodźcy (którzy w większości popierali rząd w Londynie) znaleźli się na łasce najpierw Wielkiej Brytanii, a następnie UNRRA i IRO. Dla Polaków było dramatem, że o ich losach nie decydowali już rodacy. Artykuł powstał na podstawie materiałów archiwalnych ze zbiorów Instytutu Polskiego i Muzeum im. gen. Sikorskiego w Londynie, Biblioteki Polskiej POSK w Londynie oraz Archiwum Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej w Warszawie. Wykorzystano również prasę wydawaną w Palestynie i ośrodkach polskiej emigracji.

The article concerns the Polish Righteous Among the Nations buried in the Catholic cemetery in Jaffa district of Tel Aviv. The cemetery is the final resting place for four Righteous: Emilia Towarnicka-Gerson (1921-1961), Regina Kapłan (1907-1985), Aniela Krzysztonek (1884-1978) and Henryk Rolirad (1909-1984). Three graves are located on a separate Polish plot, and one in other part. The majority of Polish Righteous arrived in Israel with their Jewish spouses. They settled down in the 1950s and 1960s. Their biographies illustrate complicated Polish-Jewish experiences.

The Malta Naval Cemetery is situated in Kalkara (opposite Valletta across the Grand Harbour). The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is currently responsible for the care of this site. More than 1,000 soldiers (who died during the First and Second World Wars) were buried there including the Polish soldiers who fell in fight for Malta between 1942 and 1943. Six Polish airmen and two sailors were buried in Kalkara cemetery. The airmen were killed during a service flight in a plane crash, on 17th December 1942. The two sailors served on a Polish submarine, ORP “Sokół”.

The document concerning the circumstances of the deaths of a former consulgeneral of the Second Polish Republic in Jerusalem, Witold Hulanicki, and a journalist, Stefan Arnold, which is herein presented, is kept in the archives of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London. Both of these men were Polish war refugees and stayed temporarily in Palestine, the British Mandate territory. They were killed by Jewish extremists from Lehi on 26 February 1948. The content of the document indicates that they were killed because they were influential anti-communists, and as such posed a threat to Soviet interests in the Middle East. The question of whether Lehi had been inspired by Moscow or perhaps infiltrated by Kremlin agents remains unanswered.

Towards the end of 1949, the number of Poles living in the Holy Land was estimated to be at the level of 115-130 individuals. The majority of them, that is around 80 people, lived in Israel; the remaining ones lived on the Arab side (in Trans-Jordan). Among them, there were those who set up their own families here, as well as a dozen or so clergymen and a small group of post-World War II refugees. An interesting source material which allows one to get an insight into the scale and character of the Polish presence in the Holy Land in the fi rst months after the end of the Arab-Jewish war, is a short but succinct note published in the Monthly Report of the Publishing Company “Reduta” (to be circulated internally) entitled “Sprawy Bliskiego i Środkowego Wschodu” (The Problems of the Near and Middle East). As can be seen from its content, the note had been drawn up by someone who was extremely well acquainted with the contemporary realities of life in Jerusalem. The current publication had been prepared on the basis of a copy of the periodical which was found in the collection of the Polish Library in London.

The article is devoted to Czechs buried in the Polish quarter of the Catholic cemetery in Jerusalem, located on the southern slope of Mount Zion. The author identified three of the 86 graves to be the burial places of Czechs.