The Polish Provisional Committee to Aid Jews was founded on 27 September 1942 by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz. It was the direct predecessor to Żegota established in December 1942.

“The Council's key role is to help Jews as victims of the extermination by the occupant and help to save them from death. It is to aid Jews with their legalization, granting them premises, providing material allowances or, where appropriate, helping to find employment as a basis of existence, managing funds and their distribution - in other words, conducting work which may directly or indirectly be a form of assistance" - such tasks of Żegota were presented on 29 December 1942 to Government Delegation for Poland.

The organisation provided help to thousands of Jews in and outside the Ghettos. In order to save them from Holocaust Żegota was involved in various activities such as documents forgery, shelter provision or financial and medical support. Many people faced enormous danger while helping.

The activity of "Żegota" ended in 1945. It is estimated that its aid reached about 12, 000 thousand people, helping a large part of them to survive the German occupation.

The President of the Institute of National Remembrance Karol Nawrocki, Ph.D., his Deputy Mateusz Szpytma, Ph.D., and Director of the IPN Branch office in Cracow, Filip Musiał, Ph.D., honored the Committee of Social Help for the Jewish Population at its Cracow plaque. Flowers were also laid on the graves of Zofia Kossak-Szczucka in Górki Wielkie, southern Poland, and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz in Warsaw.