Marek Edelman - Later Life

Later Life

Edelman's hospital upbringing had proven invaluable in the Warsaw Ghetto. After World War II, he studied at Łódź Medical School and became a noted cardiologist who invented an original life-saving operation. In 1948 Edelman actively opposed the incorporation of the Bund into the Polish United Workers' Party (Poland's communist party), which led to the communists disbanding the organization.

In 1976 he became an activist with the Workers' Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników) and later with the Solidarity movement. Edelman publicly denounced racism and promoted human rights.

In 1981, when General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law, Edelman was interned by the government. In 1983 he refused to take part in the official celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising sponsored by Poland's communist government, believing that this "would be an act of cynicism and contempt" in a country "where social life is dominated throughout by humiliation and coercion." Instead, he walked with friends to the street where Mordechai Anielewicz's bunker had been located.

Edelman took part in the Round Table Talks as Solidarity's consultant on health policy and served as a member of the Sejm (parliament) from 1989 to 1993. In 1993, he accompanied a convoy of goods into the city of Sarajevo while that city was under siege.

In post-communist Poland, Edelman was a member of several centrist liberal parties: the Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action, Democratic Union, Freedom Union and Democratic Party – demokraci.pl. He supported the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia as well as the 2003 Iraq war, both of which he saw as instances of American democracy saving countries from fascism again. As an appointed Senator of the Republic, he lent public support to anti-fascist initiatives, and to organisations combatting anti-semitism.

On 17 April 1998 Edelman was awarded Poland's highest decoration, the Order of the White Eagle. He also received the French Legion of Honour.

Edelman strongly condemned European indifference during the Bosnian Genocide:

"Europe has learned nothing from the Holocaust. Nothing has been done to put an end to these murders. What is happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a posthumous victory for Hitler."

He was a lifelong anti-Zionist. In a 1985 interview, he said Zionism was a "lost cause" and he questioned Israel's viability. He remained firmly Polish, refusing to emigrate to Israel. In old age, he spoke in defence of the Palestinian people, as he felt that the Jewish self-defence for which he had fought was in danger of crossing the line into oppression. In August 2002 he wrote an open letter to the Palestinian resistance leaders. Though the letter criticised the suicide bombers, its tone infuriated the Israeli government and press. According to the late British writer and activist Paul Foot, "He wrote in a spirit of solidarity from a fellow resistance fighter, as a former leader of a Jewish uprising not dissimilar in desperation to the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories." He addressed his letter "To all the leaders of Palestinian military, paramilitary and guerilla organizations — To all the soldiers of Palestinian militant groups".

Moshe Arens, former Israeli Defence Minister and Foreign Minister, visited Edelman in Warsaw in 2005 to discuss the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Arens admired Edelman and tried unsuccessfully to gain official Israeli recognition for his heroism. Following Edelman's death, Arens recalled in Haaretz:

“Many of the survivors of the uprising who settled in Israel could not forgive Edelman for his frequent criticism of Israel. When on my return from Warsaw I tried to convince a number of Israeli universities to award Edelman an honorary doctorate in recognition of his role in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, I ran into stubborn opposition led by Holocaust historians in Israel. He had received Poland's highest honor, and at the 65th commemoration of the Warsaw ghetto uprising he was awarded the French Legion of Honor medal. He died not having received the recognition from Israel that he so richly deserved.”