Dr. Hermen Liebermen, the Jewish leader of the Polish Socialist Party who became the first Jew to hold a portfolio in the Polish cabinet when he was appointed Minister of Justice last month, died here today of a heart at tack at the age of 71.
Soon after the news of his death reached the members of the Polish Government, Premier Sikorski convoked a speciak meeting of the cabinet to pay tribute to his memory. President Wladislaw Raczkiewicz of Poland announced the posthumous a ward to Lieberman of the White Eagle which is the highest Polish order.
Premier Sikorski in eulogizing Dr. Lieberman at the cabinet meeting emphasized the outstanding patriotic activities which he conducted for the Polish people. “He died admired and loved by both his political friends and adversaries as one of Poland’s best sons,” the Polish Premier said. The Council of Polish Jews in Britain likewise held a memorial session today at which Dr. Lieberman was eulogized as a tireless fighter for Poland and for Jewish rights within a democratic Polish Republic.
WAS PERSECUTED BY MARSHAL PILSUDSKI
Dr. Lieberman had a hectic political career that ran the gamut from impris-onment at the hands of Marshal Pilsudski to a cabinet post in the present Polish government-in-exile. For many years Dr. Lieberman lived in exile. He first achieved public notice when in 1905 he was arrested in Paris on the request of the Russian Government which accused him of complicity in the Polish Revolution of that year. From 1907 until 1918 he represented the Social Democrats in the Austrian Parliement, always remaining active in Polish republican affairs.
In 1922 he was elected to the Polish Censtitutional National Diet. In 1926 when the Pilsudski government veered sharply to the right Lieberman rebelled, was jailed on charges of conspiracy and eventually escaped and fled to exile. Shortly before the present war broke out Lieberman was offered the opportunity of returning to Poland on the condition that he spend a symbolic term of one day in jail. He refused and did not rejoin the Polish government until the government-in-exile was set up in Paris when he became vice-president of the Polish National Council. After the fall of France he removed to London with the Polish government.
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