Julian Grobelny

Julian Grobelny (February 16, 1893 – December 5, 1944) was an activist in the Polish Socialist Party (Polish acronym: PPS) beginning in 1915, and the President of Żegota (Council for Aid to Jews) from its inception in 1942.

Born in Brzeziny, Grobelny took part in the Silesian Uprisings and worked as an activist among the workers of Łódź before Second World War. As soon as the Nazis entered the city however, the Grobelnys found themselves listed as enemies of the Third Reich and went into hiding. Despite suffering from tuberculosis, Grobelny – together with his wife Halina (born 1900) – was personally involved in the rescue of a large number of Polish Jews during the German occupation of Poland. The couple was famous for their preoccupation with saving particularly Jewish children from the Holocaust by entering the Warsaw Ghetto and walking out with them as their own. They harbored over a dozen Jewish PPS activists in their home, and worked in close co-operation with Irena Sendler, head of the children’s section of Zegota. Julian (pseudonym "Trojan") and Halina turned their modest house in Cegłów near Mińsk Mazowiecki into a temporary shelter for Jews until they could be moved into a more permanent place. They offered protection to whoever needed it most, especially those who fled from the Ghetto in Warsaw. The Grobelnys devoted most of their time and energy to rescue work, but also helped Jewish adults by supplying them with “Aryan” papers, money and medicines.

The arrest

In March 1944, the Gestapo arrested Grobelny without knowing about his clandestine work. He survived, thanks to help from physician friends, Dr. Z. Franio, Dr. M. Ropek, Dr. J. Majkowski and Dr. J. Rutkiewicz who were aiding him in prison. Soon after the war ended, Grobelny became mayor of Mińsk Mazowiecki in central Poland (not far from Warsaw), but died there of tuberculosis a year later, on December 4, 1946. He is buried at a cemetery in Mińsk Mazowiecki. The names of Julian and Halina Grobelny figure prominently in books about humanitarian aid to the Jews of Warsaw and elsewhere during the occupation. On March 8, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Halina and Julian Grobelny as Righteous Among the Nations.