Izrael Chaim Wilner
| Izrael Chaim Wilner | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 1916 Warsaw, Russia-occupied Poland |
| Died | May 8, 1943 (aged 26–27) Warsaw, Nazi-occupied Poland |
| Nationality | Polish |
Izrael Chaim Wilner, nom de guerre "Arie" and "Jurek" (born 1916 – May 8, 1943) was a Jewish resistance fighter during World War II, member of the Jewish Fighting Organization's (ŻOB) leadership, a liaison between ŻOB and the Polish Home Army, a poet, and a participant in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Wilner came from a well off family. Before the war he was an active member of the socialist-zionist movement Hashomer Hatzair.
After the Nazi invasion of Poland, Wilner, along with several other Jews, hid among the Dominican nuns in Wilno. There he met Henryk Grabowski (nom de guerre "Słonina", or "Salo" due to the fact that he ran a meat store), a courier for the Polish Home Army (AK). According to Marek Edelman, Jurek Wilner was the mother superior's favorite because he reminded her of her brother who had been taken by Germans for slave labor. While in hiding, they discussed various issues, including religion and Marxism. It was the mother superior who first called him "Jurek". When he left with Grabowski for Warsaw, Wilner left his most prized possession, a notebook of poems and personal observations with her.
In Warsaw, Jurek Wilner was the ŻOB's representative on the "Aryan side", and the main contact between the organization in the Warsaw ghetto and the Polish resistance, particularly through Henryk Woliński, "Wacław". Grabowski himself was unaware of Jurek's role due to the conspiratorial need to keep information compartmentalized in case of arrest and interrogation by the Gestapo. He learned of it only after the war.
"Wacław" and the AK supplied Wilner with weapons and ammunition, with Jurek and Tosia Altman serving as contact persons. It was Jurek's job to smuggle these back into the ghetto (with help from Wolinski). On occasions when there was too much material to carry in one trip Jurek would hide the remainder at the Carmelite nuns' convent on Wolska Street in Warsaw. Grabowski also acquired cyanide for Wilner which the ŻOB fighters wanted to have in case of being captured by the Germans.
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