Frank Blaichman

Frank Blaichman (11 December 1922 – 27 December 2018), also known as Ephraim Blaichman, occasionally spelled Frank Bleichman, and in Polish Franek or Franciszek Blajchman, was a Polish-Jewish leader of a communist armed organization during World War II and a Holocaust survivor. In post-war communist Poland, Blaichman was the head of the Prison and Camps Department at the Security Office in Kielce.

Blaichman’s portrayal of his activities in communist resistance and security have been questioned and have given rise to several controversies in Poland. His grandmother owned a grocery store and his father was a grain merchant. He was 16 years old at the time of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. He later learned that the Jews of Kamionka had not been relocated to the Lubartów Ghetto but rather were deported on trains to an unknown destination.

Over time, Blaichman's unit increased in size.

After the war, Blaichman married Cesia Pomeranc, who had also lived in the Parczew area, and six years later they settled in the United States; In August 2010, a Polish translation, Wolę zginąć walcząc. Wspomnienia z II wojny światowej, was released in Poland. The book has been described as controversial in Poland, where it has led to a number of controversies.

He died in Manhattan on 27 December 2018, aged 96.

Controversy Following the publication of his memoir in Poland, some parts of his account, particularly related to his and his unit interactions with the Home Army, have proven to be controversial. Stanisław Aronson, a former Polish-Jewish officer of the AK, called the charges made in the book against the Home Army "absurd", a view which has been endorsed by historians Jan Żaryn and .

In 2019 the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, praised Blaichman in his speech in Poland as an exemplary "Polish survivor who settled in the USA and achieved an American dream", which was described by Polish press as a political blunder, given Blaichman's controversial association with the communist security apparatus.