Aleksander Hafftka

Aleksander Zygmunt Hafftka (November 24, 1892 – June 2, 1964) was Polish Jewish historian and statesman.[1]

He was also co-publisher and editor of the Polish-Jewish Encyclopedia (Encyklopedia Żydów Polskich), and the author of Anti-Semitism in the German Republic.[2]

Hafftka was born in Częstochowa to a family of a wealthy Jew Tuwia Hafftka, who owned of a porcelain factory.[1][3]

In 1919 he took a position in the Civil Administration of the Eastern Lands, Wilno District soon becoming in charge of information about Jewish affairs.[1]

During the Polish-Bolshevik War Hafftka was conscripted and served aide-de-camp to general Lucjan Żeligowski and his advisor in national affairs. When the latter staged a pretense coup and established the Republic of Central Lithuania Hafftka joined its state apparatus while remaining advisor to Żeligowski.[1]

In the government of Józef Piłsudski Aleksander Hafftka has become the highest-ranking Jewish statesman.[4] During 1927 - 1937, he was head of the Jewish Division in the Nationalities Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland. He was fired from the position amid the accusations in taking bribes from the Society in Defense of Ritual Slaughter. Although he was soon exonerated and on the contrary, won a defamation process, he was never restored in any governmental position. This it thought to be related not only with the rise of anti-Semitism in post-Pilsudski Poland, but also with the radical change in the state politics in national affairs.[1] Later he joined a group that assisted resettling Jewish German refugees in Poland.[4]

After the German invasion of Poland Hafftka's family managed to escape from Warsaw to Wilno. In about a year they managed to secure transit visas with the help of Japanese consul to Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara and eventually settlen in New York.[4]

Publications
  • Ustawodawstwo Polski odrodzonej w stosunku do żydowskiej mniejszości narodowej
  • Żydzi w Polsce odrodzonej. Działalność społeczna, gospodarcza, oświatowa i kulturalna (Vols. 1 and 2, co-author)
  • Żydowskie ugrupowania polityczne w Polsce
  • Żydowskie stronnictwa polityczne w Polsce Odrodzonej
  • Der Antisemitismus in der deutschen Republik (under pen name Fritz Marburg, Vienna, 1931)

References
  1. Stephan Stach, "Żyd Polski Odrodzonej: studium przypadku Aleksandra Hafftki, urzędnika ministerialnego i żydowskiego działacza społecznego w II RP (The Jew of Reborn Poland - The Case of Aleksander Hafftka, Interior Ministry Official and Jewish Civic Activist in the 2nd Republic of Poland)", Kwartalnik Historii Żydów / Jewish History Quarterly , issue 258, 2016, pp.381-405
  2. "Alexander Hafftka, Jewish Historian and Sociologist, Dead; Was 72", Jewish Telegraph Agency, June 5, 1964
  3. Jidischer sozialer leksikon, Warsze, 1939, 819-821 (as cited by Stach)
  4. Hafftka and Jonisch families photographs, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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