Adolf Henryk Silberschein

Adolf Henryk Silberschein, also known as Abraham Silberschein (born March 30, 1882, in Lwów, Austria-Hungary, today Ukraine, died December 30, 1951, in Geneva, Switzerland) was a Polish-Jewish lawyer, activist of the World Jewish Congress, Zionist, member of the Polish Sejm (1922–1927). During the Holocaust he was a member of the Ładoś Group also called the Bernese Group, an informal cooperation of Jewish organizations and Polish diplomats who fabricated and smuggled illegal Latin American passports to occupied Poland, saving their holders and their families from immediate deportation to German Nazi death camps.

Early life and political career Silberschein was born in Lwów as the son of Jakub Silberschein, a dentist and his wife Anna née Polturak. He did his university studies in Lwów and Vienna, obtaining a PhD in law and in philosophy. After coming back, he opened a law practice in Lwów at Trybunalska Street (today Shevs'ka, ukr. Шевська). During the Interwar period, he was active in Zionist organizations, and part of the board of the short-lived Hitachdut Zionist Labor Party (Mifleget haAvoda haTzionit Hitachdut, 1925–1938). Dr. Silberschein left for Geneva on August 9, 1939, three weeks before the German invasion of Poland.

The bearers of the passports were interned by the Germans as citizens of neutral countries, and not deported to the death camps as most of the Polish Jewish population. "I must say that the difference in treatment was enormous, and that one could even say that often, in that way, the person concerned escaped death", The head of the Legation, Aleksander Ładoś and his deputy Stefan Ryniewicz would secure the diplomatic coverage of the action and intervened with the police. ., the MFA of Switzerland. and the Legation of the US1. Silberschein also testified to have obtained a number of passports from the consulates of Peru, Honduras and Haiti. After the arrest of Silberschein, counsel Stefan Ryniewicz successfully intervened in his defense with police chief Heinrich Rothmund. – mostly Polish and Dutch Jews who survived as holders of Paraguay's passports after Paraguay – pressured by Poland and the Holy See recognized the validity of the latter.

In the case of Silberschein, this number should also include some of the survivors thanks to other passports, mostly Honduran ones. The role of the Legation of Poland in producing and obtaining the latter is unclear.

After the war Silberschein remained in Geneva, where he married Fanny Schulthess-Hirsch, the Director of the International Committee for the Placement of Intellectual Refugees. He died on December 30, 1951, in Geneva and is buried in the local Jewish cemetery.