American Representation of the Jewish Labor Bund in Poland

At the outbreak of World War II, on September 1, 1939, three emissaries of the Jewish Labor Bund in Poland were in the United States: Emanuel Nowogrodsky, Secretary General of the Bund Central Committee; Jacob Pat, representative of TSYSHO; and Benjamin Tabachinski, an emissary of the Medem Sanatorium. There arose an immediate need to establish contact with the Bund Central Committee, then in Wilno (Vilna), Poland, and subsequently with the emerging Bund underground organization under Nazi occupation. This led to the formation of the American Representation of the Bund, under Emanuel Nowogrodsky.

Later, after the establishment of the Polish Parliament in Exile in London and the appointment to it of a Bund representative, Szmul (Artur) of [Shmuel Arthur] Zygelbojm, permanent clandestine communication channels were established between the Representation and the Underground. Still later, towards the end of World War II, the Bund Coordinating Committee was formed to maintain contact with and loosely direct the activities of the various Bund groups in Western Europe, Israel, Australia, Latin America, and the United States.