Metadata: Bequest of Jerzy Lewiński
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma
- Postal address:
- Archiwum, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma, ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- (+48 22) 827 92 21
- Email:
- secretary@jhi.pl
- Reference number:
- 312/S/366
- Title:
- Bequest of Jerzy Lewiński
- Title (official language):
- Spuścizna Jerzego Lewińskiego
- Creator/accumulator:
- Lewiński, Jerzy
- Date(s):
- 1911/2006
- Language:
- Polish
- German
- English
- Extent:
- 29 archival units (0.2 linear metre)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes, among others, personal documents (school and student reports, a false identity card), professional materials and materials concerning other spheres of Jerzy Lewiński's activity, including sports.
Ref. nos. 1-4: Materials from the trial of Hans Biebow, report, indictment, judgment and its justification, opinions, trial transcripts, newspaper clippings, photocopies of German documents.
Ref. nos. 5-7. Publication: Proces Hansa Biebowa [The Hans Biebow Trial] - typescript of the publication, materials relating to the issue; draft of the introduction to The Hans Biebow Trial by Waszczyński.
Ref. no. 8. Personal documents: secondary school-leaving certificate, personnel records of a court trainee at the District Court in Łódź.
Ref. 9 no. Personal documents: CVs, excerpts of vital records, copies.
Ref. no. 10. Personal documents: Passes, ID cards and others.
Ref. no. 11. Personal documents: false identity card issued in the name of Stanisław Manowiecki, and other similar items from the occupation period.
Ref. no. 12. Personal documents: matters of the funeral and the inheritance of Jadwiga Lewińska.
Ref. no. 13. Personal documents: housing matters.
Ref. no. 14. Personal documents: professional matters.
Ref. no. 15. Documents of the Polish Socialist Party Court against J. Lewiński.
Ref. no. 16. Materials from hearings against Lewiński - Social Court at CKŻP, Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland (correspondence, biography attached), 1948, 1949, 1963-1964, 1972.
Ref. no. 17. Correspondence with the Director of the World Jewish Congress, N Robinson.
Ref. no. 18. Bulletin of the Central Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation, T. XXXV, 1993.
Ref. no. 19. Newspaper Życie Warszawy of 19 April 1984.
Ref. nos. 20-21. Materials of the Foundation of the Jewish Cemetery "Gęsia"; (leaflets, press clippings, photos, articles of association, protocols, files regarding the grave at ul. Gibalskiego).
Ref. no. 22. Name list of policemen from the Warsaw Ghetto with their service number, ordered by number, the transfer document; a copy from the list submitted to the Jewish Historical Institute Archive - photocopy; the typescript of the document was included in the collection of the Judenrat in Warsaw, ref. no. 221/15.
Ref. no 23. Materials on the Jewish Order Force - Lewiński's commentary on the list of policemen, 1966.
Ref. no. 24. Materials regarding Janusz Korczak; newspaper clippings (Fołks Sztyme, Słowo Żydowskie/Dos yidishe Vort and others).
Ref. no. 25. Report on sports activities of the CWKS Legia club in the third quarter of 1978.
Ref. no. 26. Polish Tennis Association (reports, work schedule, organisational materials and others).
Ref. no. 27. Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jewish population in the Wartheland - materials and articles, draft version.
Ref. no. 28. Miscellaneous - press clippings, manuscripts of prepared articles.
Ref. no. 29. Various correspondence.
- Archival history:
- Jerzy Lewiński's bequest was given to the Jewish Historical Institute archive by Jan Jagielski on 4 January 2008.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Jerzy Lewiński was born on 26 February 1911 in Turek. After the death of his father (around 1925?), the family moved to Łódź, where Jerzy started education in a gymnasium. In 1929, he began law studies at the University of Warsaw, where he graduated in 1933 with a master's degree in law. From 1934 to 1939 he completed a court and attorney apprenticeship in Łódź. At that time, he also graduated from the School of Infantry Reserve Officers in Częstochowa. In 1936-1939, he was the president of the Łódź branch of the Association of Court and Attorney Trainees. In September 1939, as a reserve officer, he took part in the defence of Warsaw. In the autumn of 1939, he escaped from Łódź to Warsaw where, after the creation of the ghetto, he started working in the Jewish Ghetto Police. He left the force in September 1942. From March 1943, he hid in Warsaw and its vicinity under the name of Stanisław Manowiecki.
After the war, he was appointed by the Minister of Justice as the prosecutor for the Nazi crime trials. He took part in many trials, also as acting as a witness for crimes in the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1946 he was the main prosecutor in the trial of Hans Biebow.
In 1948, he was accused of collaborating during the occupation by the PPS Party Court and the Social Court at the Central Committee of Jews in Poland. He was acquitted in both cases. As a result of the accusations, he moved from Łódź to Warsaw, where he became associated with the film community; he worked, among others, at Polish Film and headed the Cinematography Office. In 1960, he returned to active work as an attorney, which he continued for the next 25 years until his retirement.
He was also a passionate and active in sports. For 45 years he was the president of the CWKS Legia Tennis Section and also belonged to the board of the Polish Tennis Association. He was also one of the founders of the Gęsia Foundation for the Jewish Cemetery. He died in 2006.
- Access points: locations:
- Warsaw
- Access points: persons/families:
- Biebow, Hans
- Korczak, Janusz
- Lewińska, Jadwiga
- Lewiński, Jerzy
- Robinson, N
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged thematically.
- Finding aids:
- A digital inventory is in progress.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Agnieszka Reszka; The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute; June 2020
