30 Notable Peacemakers in Poland

Click here for peace monuments in Poland.
Click here for return to worldwide list of notable peacemakers (& for meaning of symbols).

1836-1902 - Jan Bloch - Banker. Wrote "La Guerre Future" in 1898. Opened world's first peace museum in Lucerne (Switzerland) in 1902.

1810-1892 - Ernestine Louise Polowsky Rose - Feminist, freethinker & atheist. Intellectual force behind women's rights movement.

1859-1917 - Ludwik Lazarus Zamenhof - Creator of Esperanto, the most successful constructed language designed for international communication.

1871-1919 - Rosa Luxemburg - Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist & revolutionary socialist. #6

1875-1943 - Bernhard Lichtenberg - Priest & theologian. Died in transit to Dachau. Awarded the title righteous among the Nations. Beatified June 23, 1996.

1878-1942 - Janusz Korczak - Doctor & educator. Acccompanied Jewish orphans to Treblinka where he was murdered. Monument at Yad Vashem.

1882-1972 - Rose Schneiderman - Labor union leader, socialist & feminist. Coined phrase "Bread and Roses." Friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. On 2007 mural in Augusta, ME.

1900-1959 - Raphael Lemkin - Lawyer. Proposed defending peace through criminal law. Coined the word genocide in 1944.

1904-1942 - Lidia Zamenhof - Youngest daughter of Ludwig (qv). Promoted Esperanto, Homaranismo & Bahá'í Faith. Taught in USA. Murdered at Treblinka.
1904-2012 - Atonio Dobrowolski - Teacher. Taught defiance of Nazi occupation. Oldest known survivor of Auschwitz death camp.

1907-1972 - Abraham Joshua Heschel - Rabbi & widely read Jewish conservative theologian. Marched with MLK in Selma in 1965.

1908-1993 - Tadeusz Pankiewicz - Rescued Jews in Krakow. One of 6,125 Polish "Righteous Among the Nations."
1908-2000 - Julia Pirotte - Photojournalist known for work with French Resistance. Covered 1948 World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace in Wroclaw. Click here.
1908-2005 - Joseph Rotblat - Manhattan Project scientist. SecGen of Pugwash Confs 1957-1973. See video. 1992 P 1995

1910-2008 - Irena Sendler - Smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

1911-1987 - Nathan Rapoport - Sculptor. Fled to USSR when Nazis invaded. Immigrated to USA in 1950. Major works in Warsaw Ghetto & at Yad Vashem near Jerusalem.
1911-2004 - Czeslaw Milosz - Writer & translator. Wrote The World. Wrote The Captive Mind in 1953. Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980.

1914-2006 - Louis B. Sohn - Law Professor. Wrote "World PeaceThrough World Law" in 1958 with Greenville Clark.

1919-1943 - Mordechai Abniewicz - Instrumental in the first act of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Subject of monuments in Israel & Poland.

1920-2005 - Pope John Paul II - See monument commemorating his Appeal for Peace in Hiroshima (Japan).

1923-2012 - Jozef Goldblat - Diplomat. Preeminent authority on law of arms control & disarmament. On staff of Stockholm Intl Peace Research Inst (SIPRI).
1923-Alive - Henry Morgentaler - Physician. Prominent pro-choice advocate who has fought numerous legal battles for that cause. 1975 w/Betty Friedan
1923-Alive - Shimon Peres. Israel PM 3x. Supported Oslo Accords. 1994 with Yasser Arafat & Yitzhak Rabin

1924-Alive? - Mary Berg - American citizen, Holocaust survivor & author. Witnessed Warsaw Ghetto & published book about it in 1944. Later refused interviews & disapeared.
1924-Alive - Gerda Weissmann Klein - Author, humanitarian, historian & inspirational speaker. Holocaust survivor. Academy Award. Pres Medal of Freedom 2011.

1933-2007 - Andrzej Werner - Journalist, trade specialist & social activist. Founder of Jean de Bloch Foundation in Warsaw.

1937-Alive - Marian Marzynski - Documentary filmaker. Survived Warsaw Ghetto. Presented "Never Forget to Lie" on public television in 2013.

1938-2013 - Aleksander Gudzowaty - Businessman. Gave $4 million for Tolerance Park & Monument on Haas Promenade, Jerusalem, to promote peace & tolerance.

1943-Alive - Lech Walesa - Trade-union & HR activist. Co-founded Solidarity. Pres of Poland 1990–95. 1983 1989 1999

c1945-Alive - Harry E. Blythe III - Philanthropist. Donated statues of Ignacy Jan Paderewski to Univ of So California, Polish Embassy & Jagiellonion Univ in Krakow (Poland).