The Council for Aid to Jews in Poland was a successor to the Provisional Committee for Aid to Jews, established in September 1942, in which Catholic democratic activists gathered to assist Jews. In December 1942, the provisional committee became a permanent council. Renamed Zegota, it was staffed by representatives of five Polish and two Jewish movements. 
 Zegota provided thousands of Jewish families with financial aid in 1943-1944, but its main contribution was in providing, free of charge, "Aryan" documents to thousands of Jews under its patronage. Zegota also arranged hideouts for Jews, thus exposing its activists to the death penalty. 
 Among the few organizations in occupied Europe that were active in giving aid to Jews, only Zegota was run jointly by Jews and non-Jews from a wide range of political movements, and only it, despite the arrests of some of its members, was able to operate for a considerable length of time and to help Jews in so many different ways.