User:Foxv23/Operacja Most (Eng. Operation Bridge)

This article concerns a transfer operation of Jews from USSR and Russia to Israel in the years 1990-1992. See Also: Operation Most III from the year 1944.

This article is a loose translation of the Polish Wikipedia article "Operacja Most" and will thus include untranslated sources from the original.

Bridge - A codename for an operation of transfer of over 40 thousand Jews from The USSR and Russia to Israel in the years 1990-1992.

The Israeli-Arabian war of 1967 (also called The Six-Day War) has caused Poland, among with other socialist states (besides Romania) to break any relations with Israel. Although to provide the minimum consular services, the interests of Israel were entrusted to the Netherlands' embassy in Warsaw. Its duties were not limited to helping individuals emigrating from USSR, who were heading to Vienna, with transit through Poland.

Only on 4th of May 1987, after an improvement of relations, a representative office of Israel was opened in Warsaw - Interest Section. The primary reason, for which Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry was striving to again form diplomatic relations with Poland, was assuring a new transit point for the Soviet Jews leaving the USSR. In Poland at the time, the number of Jews was not too many. At the wave of Gorbachev's thaw in the USSR (Perestroika), from the second half of 1980's, the authorities have issued travel permits to tens of thousands of Soviet Jews. The previous transit point in Vienna was too small to accommodate such a mass traffic. Additionally, after a series of threats from the side of Arabic organisations, Hungary chose to resign from their participation in the action.

After the forming of The Government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki Poland gave their permission for a mass action. On the 26th of March 1990, during a meeting with the representatives of The American Jewish Congress, Tadeusz Mazowiecki made a declaration, that Poland will not refrain from helping Jews emigrating from the USSR and will provide them with transit. As a result of this decision cooperation has been initiated with, so far hostile to each other, special forces : Departament 1 MSW (Department of 1st Ministry of Internal Affairs), Israeli Mossad and The CIA. A delegation of Israel's Internal Affairs Ministry has also arrived in Poland. The fundamental issue was providing safe transport of Jews as a part of a joint operation, codename - Most (Eng. Bridge). Involved in the organisation of operation Most were a number of officers, who later on formed the GROM unit, amongst them Sławomir Petelicki, although the information that it was the first operation of the unit is false.

The operation was covered by Jerzy Dziewulski (Nowadays a Polish politician, Police officer and an anti-terrorist), and a part of the operation was founded by the Art-B company.

As a result of successful cooperation the operation went without any disturbances.