History of the Jews in 20th-century Poland
Following the establishment of the
The Jewish community in Poland suffered the most in
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Polish independence movement
As soon as the Polish independence movement took hold in 1912 to 1914 with the aim to put forth an armed struggle for sovereign Poland after a century of
Interwar period (1918–1939)
During
During the military conflicts that engulfed Eastern Europe at the time—the
Jewish and Polish culture
The newly independent
The Jewish cultural scene was particularly vibrant and blossomed in pre-World War II Poland.[18] There were many Jewish publications and over 116 periodicals. Yiddish authors, most notably Isaac Bashevis Singer, went on to achieve international acclaim as classic Jewish writers, and in Singer's case, win the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature. Other Jewish authors of the period, like Janusz Korczak, Bruno Schulz, Julian Tuwim, Jan Brzechwa (a favorite poet of Polish children) and Bolesław Leśmian were less well known internationally, but made important contributions to Polish literature. Singer Jan Kiepura was one of the most popular artist of that era and pre-war songs of Jewish composers like Henryk Wars or Jerzy Petersburski are still widely known in Poland today. In 1918 Julian Tuwim co-founded the cabaret, "Picador," and worked as a writer or artistic director with many other cabarets such as "Czarny kot" (Black Cat 1917–1919), "Qui pro Quo" (1919–1932), "Banda" The Gang and "Stara Banda" The Old Gang (1932–1935) and finally "Cyrulik Warszawski" (Barber of Warsaw 1935–1939). Marian Hemar also wrote for some of the mentioned cabarets. Scientist
Economy
An ever-increasing proportion of Jews in
Rising Anti-Semitism
The political situation of Jews in Poland was most amiable under the rule of
The Jewish community in Poland was large and vibrant internally, yet substantially poorer and less integrated than the Jews in most of Western Europe. Towards the end of the 1930s, despite the impending threat to the Polish Republic from Nazi Germany, there was little effort seen in the way of reconciliation between Polish and Jewish societies. Many Polish Christians held that there were far too many Jews in the country. Polish government began actively helping the
World War II and the destruction of Polish Jewry (1939–1945)
Until the outbreak of
Unlike the
The Polish September campaign
The number of Jews in Poland on September 1, 1939, amounted to about 3,474,000 people.
Among one million Polish soldiers fighting the Germans in September 1939, about 10 percent (100,000) were
Already in 1939 several hundreds synagogues were blown up or burned down by the Germans who sometimes forced the Jews to do it themselves. In many cases the Germans turned the remaining synagogues into storage facilities, workshops, places of entertainment, or ad-hoc prisons.
The German-Soviet occupation of Poland
In newly partitioned Poland, according to 1931 census, 61.2% of Polish Jews found themselves under
The Soviet annexation was accompanied by the widespread arrests of Polish government officials, police and military personnel, teachers, priests, judges, border guards, etc., followed by executions and massive deportation to Soviet interior and forced labour camps were many perished as a result of harsh conditions. The largest group of all those arrested or deported were ethnic Poles but Jews accounted for significant percentage of all the prisoners. Jewish refugees from Western Poland who registered for repatriation back to the German zone, wealthy Jewish capitalists, prewar political and social activists were labelled "class enemies" and deported for that reason. Jews caught for illegal border crossings or engaged in illicit trade and other "illegal" activities were also arrested and deported. Several thousand, mostly captured Polish soldiers were executed on the spot, some of them were Jewish. Private property, land, banks, factories, businesses, shops, and large workshops were nationalized. Political activity ceased and political prisoners filled the jails, many of whom were later executed. Zionism was designated as counter-revolutionary and forbidden. All Jewish and Polish newspapers were shut down within a day of the entry of the Soviet forces and anti-religious propaganda was conducted mainly through the new Soviet press which attacked religion in general and the Jewish faith in particular. Although the synagogues and churches were not shut down, they were heavily taxed. Sovietization of the economy affected the entire population. However, the Jewish communities were more vulnerable because of their distinctive social and economic structure. Red Army also brought with them new and different economic norms expressed in low wages, shortages in materials, rising prices, and a declining living standard. The Soviets also implemented a new employment policy that enabled many Jews to find jobs as civil servants in place of former Polish senior officials and leading personalities who were arrested and exiled to remote regions of Russia together with their families. Some Jewish militia participated in deportations of Poles by the Soviet NKVD.[48][49]
Patriotism
There were many Jews who considered themselves both good Poles and good Jews and demonstrated loyalty toward Poland, assisting Poles during brutal Soviet occupation. Among Polish officers killed by the
The wartime continuation of the
Collaboration
While most Poles of all ethnicities had anti-Soviet and anti-communist sentiments, a portion of the Jewish population, along with ethnic Belarusians, Ukrainians and communist Poles had initially welcomed Soviet forces.[51][52][53] The general feeling amongst Polish Jews was a sense of relief in having escaped the dangers of falling under Nazi rule, as well as from the overt policies of discrimination against Jews which existed in the Polish state, including discrimination in education, employment and commerce, as well as antisemitic violence that in some cases reached pogrom levels.[54][55] The Polish poet and former communist Aleksander Wat has stated that Jews were more inclined to cooperate with the Soviets[56][57] Norman Davies noted that among the informers and collaborators, the percentage of Jews was striking, and they prepared lists of Polish "class enemies",[56] while other historians have indicated that the level of Jewish collaboration could well have been less than that of ethnic Poles.[58] Holocaust scholar Martin Dean has written that "few local Jews obtained positions of power under Soviet rule."[59]
The issue of Jewish collaboration with the Soviet occupation remains controversial. A large group of scholars note that while not pro-communist, many Jews saw the Soviets as the lesser threat compared to the Nazis. They stress that stories of Jews welcoming the Soviets on the streets are largely impressionistic and not reliable indicators of the level of Jewish support for the Soviets. Additionally, it has been noted that ethnic Poles were as prominent as Jews were in filling civil and police positions in the occupation administration, and that Jews, both civilians and in the Polish military, suffered equally at the hands of the Soviet occupiers.[60] Whatever initial enthusiasm for the Soviet occupation Jews might have felt was soon dissipated upon feeling the impact of the suppression of Jewish societal modes of life by the occupiers.[61] The tensions between ethnic Poles and Jews as a result of this period has, according to some historians, taken a toll on relations between Poles and Jews throughout the war, creating until this day, an impasse to Polish-Jewish rapprochement.[62]
Following
Only a small percentage of the Jewish community had been members of the
The Holocaust in German-occupied Poland
By the end of 1941 all Jews in German-occupied Poland were ghettoized. Except the children, they had to wear an identifying badge with a blue Star of David. Many Jews in what was then eastern Poland also fell victim to mobile Nazi
The Germans
The Warsaw Ghetto
The
Deportations to death camps
On July 22, 1942, the mass deportation of the Warsaw Ghetto inhabitants began; during the next fifty-two days (until September 12, 1942) about 300,000 people were transported by train to the
The fate of the Warsaw Ghetto was similar to that of the other ghettos in which Jews were concentrated. With the decision of
The
Polish Jews in the Soviet Union
Thousands of Polish Jews migrated, were deported or later evacuated to Central or Eastern Soviet Union and many of them survived the Holocaust. Some of them died however because of hard conditions, Soviet repressions or in result of
Communist rule: 1945–1989
Between 40,000 and 100,000 Polish Jews survived the Holocaust in Poland by hiding or by joining the Polish or Soviet partisan units. Another 50,000–170,000 were repatriated from the Soviet Union and 20,000–40,000 from Germany and other countries. At its postwar peak, there were 180,000–240,000 Jews in Poland settled mostly in Warsaw, Łódź, Kraków, Wrocław and Lower Silesia, e.g. Bielawa. Dzierżoniów.
Soon after the end of the Second World War, Jews began to exit Poland thanks to the repatriation agreement with the USSR. Poland was the only
Postwar Poland was a chaotic country in which pro-Soviet communists and patriotic nationalists fought each other. Hundreds of Jews were murdered in
A second wave of Jewish emigration (50,000) took place during the liberalization of the Communist regime between 1957 and 1959. Then there was the third major wave of emigration, which one might call an expulsion of Jews, in 1968–1969. Thereafter almost all Jews who decided to stay in Poland "stopped" being Jewish.
The Bund took part in the post-war
The Stalinist period
For those Polish Jews who remained, the rebuilding of Jewish life in Poland was carried out between October 1944 and 1950 by the Central Committee of Polish Jews (Centralny Komitet Żydów Polskich, CKŻP) which provided legal, educational, social care, cultural, and propaganda services. A countrywide Jewish Religious Community, led by
A number of Polish Jews participated in the establishment of the anti-revisionist socialist government in the
Some Jewish cultural institutions were established including the
From 1967 to 1989
In 1967, following the
In March 1968 student-led demonstrations in Warsaw (
There were several outcomes of the damaged Poland's reputation abroad, particularly in the U.S. Many Polish intellectuals were disgusted at the promotion of official anti-Semitism, and opposed the campaign. Some of the people who emigrated to the West thereafter, founded organizations which encouraged anticommunist opposition inside Poland.
During the late 1970s some Jewish activists were engaged in the anticommunist opposition groups. Most prominent among them,
See also
References
- ^ a b Yehuda Bauer, A History of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee 1929–1939. End note 20: 44–29, memo 1/30/39 (30th January 1939), The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1974
- ISBN 0-19-509390-9.
- ^ a b The Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust by Martin Gilbert, pp. 21. Relevant page viewable via Google book search
- ^ Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust University Press of Kentucky 1989 - 201 pages. Pages 5, 13, 111; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944, University Press of Kentucky 1986 - 300 pages.
- ^ Michael C. Steinlauf. "Poland.". In: David S. Wyman, Charles H. Rosenzveig. The World Reacts to the Holocaust. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
- ^ "Death tolls in the Holocaust, from the US Holocaust Museum". Archived from the original on 2012-12-08. Retrieved 2018-09-08.
- ^ Laura Jockusch, Tamar Lewinsky, Paradise Lost? Postwar Memory of Polish Jewish Survival in the Soviet Union, full text downloaded from Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 24, Number 3, Winter 2010.
- ^ ISBN 0-8156-2969-9
- ^ a b Aleksiun, Natalia. "Beriḥah". YIVO.
Suggested reading: Arieh J. Kochavi, "Britain and the Jewish Exodus...," Polin 7 (1992): pp. 161–175
- ^ a b Zygmunt Zygmuntowicz, "Żydzi Bojownicy o Niepodleglość Polski", as excerpted at Forum Żydów Polskich from his book published 1939 in Lwów."Forum Żydów Polskich". Archived from the original on 2010-09-23. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
- ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
- ISBN 0-300-09569-4.
Jews had been generally sympathetic to the Lithuanian claim, believing that a large multinational Lithuania with Vilne as its capital would be more likely to respect their rights. Their reward in 1919 had been the first pogroms in modern Vilna.
- ^ a b Extermination of the Polish Jews in the Years 1939–1945 Archived 2007-08-25 at the Wayback Machine, Source: German Crimes in Poland. Volume 1. Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. Warsaw, 1946
- ^ Street photo, prewar Warsaw, Poland Film and Photo Archive, Yad Vashem
- ^ Miła Street, Warsaw, prewar Poland Film and Photo Archive, Yad Vashem
- ^ Students at a Jewish School, Warsaw, prewar Poland Archived 2008-05-30 at the Wayback Machine Film and Photo Archive, Yad Vashem
- ^ The Bund Council in August 1937, Warsaw, Poland Archived 2009-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Film and Photo Archive, Yad Vashem
- ^ Tadeusz Piotrowski, Poland's holocaust: ethnic strife, collaboration with occupying forces. McFarland, p. 51.
- ISSN 1521-6039
- ^ a b Relevant articles at www.JewishMuseum.org.pl[permanent dead link]
- ^ Ilya Prizel, National identity and foreign policy Published by Cambridge University Press. Page 65.
- ^ Sharman Kadish, Bolsheviks and British Jews: The Anglo-Jewish Community, Britain, and the Russian Revolution. Published by Routledge, p. 87 [1]
- ^ Zvi Y. Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present. p. 70. [2]
- ^ Joseph Marcus, Social and political history of the Jews in Poland, 1919–1939 (ibidem) page 34
- ^ Yehuda Bauer: A History of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee 1929–1939. Ibidem. Chapter 1. A Time of Crisis: 1929–1932
- ^ T. Ron Jasinski-Herbert, Confrontation among neighbors Archived 2009-11-14 at the Wayback Machine, Conference at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington
- ^ "Trudności i osiągnięcia gospodarcze i kulturalne Polski okresu międzywojennego. 2). Odbudowa gospodarki". Serwis prawno-historyczny © 2006–2009. Archived from the original on January 9, 2010. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
- ^ Joseph Marcus, Social and political history of the Jews in Poland, 1919–1939 (ibidem) page 41
- ^ Joseph Marcus , Social and political history of the Jews in Poland, 1919–1939, (ibidem) page 47
- ^
- ^ Feigue Cieplinski, Poles and Jews: The Quest For Self-Determination 1919–1934, Binghamton Journal of History, Fall 2002. Retrieved June 2, 2006.
- ^ The history of David-Gorodok village, section IV (tripod.com)
- ISBN 90-279-3239-5. Page 20.
- ^ Lost Jewish Worlds - Grodno 2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
- ^ a b Celia Stopnicka Heller, On the Edge Of Destruction: Jews of Poland Between the Two World Wars. Wayne State University Press, 1993.
- ^ Edward D. Wynot, Jr., 'A Necessary Cruelty': The Emergence of Official Anti-Semitism in Poland, 1936–39. American Historical Review, no. 4, October 19711035-1058.
- ^ William W. Hagen. Before the "Final Solution": Toward a Comparative Analysis of Political Antisemitism in Interwar Germany and Poland. Journal of Modern History July, 1996: 1–31.
- ^ (in Polish) Referat na temat: „Województwo wołyńskie w okresie międzywojennym. Gospodarka i społeczeństwo.”
- ^ Photo tour: Kopanie rowów przeciwczołgowych przez Polaków i Żydów, 1939. Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Archiwum Państwowego Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau
- ^ Poland, 1939, The Jewish Soldier Aharon Gafner in a Polish Army Uniform, Film and Photo Archive, Yad Vashem
- ^ Benjamin Meirtchak, JEWISH MILITARY CASUALTIES IN THE POLISH ARMIES IN WORLD WAR II, The Association of Jewish War Veterans of Polish Armies in Israel, Tel Aviv
- ^ Jewish Historical Institute
- ^ Jews in the Polish Army, Yad Vashem
- ^ a b Shmuel Krakowski, "The Fate of Jewish Prisoners of War in the September 1939 Campaign" (PDF). (160 KB) Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies, 35 pages,
- ^ Joshua B. Zimmerman. Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Rutgers University Press, 2003.
- ^ David Cesarani, Sarah Kavanaugh, Holocaust Published by Routledge. Page 64.
- ISBN 0-85045-417-4.
- ^ a b c Poland's Holocaust by Tadeusz Piotrowski. Published by McFarland.
- ^ Washington DC, June 8, 2002.
- ^ Casamassima cemetery
- ^ Joshua D. Zimmerman. Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Rutgers University Press, 2003.
- ^ The Death of Chaimke Yizkor Book Project, JewishGen: The Home of Jewish Genealogy
- ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
- ^ Joshua D. Zimmerman. Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Rutgers University Press, 2003.
- ^ Joanna B. Michlic. Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present. University of Nebraska Press, 2006.
- ^ ISBN 9780786403714.
- ISBN 9780786403714.
- ^ Marek Jan Chodakiewicz. Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939–1947. Lexington Books, 2004.
- ^ Martin Dean. Collaboration in the Holocaust: Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine, 1941–44. Macmillan, 1999.
- Indiana University Press, 2007.
- ^ Jonathan Frankel. The Fate of the European Jews, 1939–1945: Continuity Or Contingency? Oxford University Press, 1998.
- ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
- ^ Summary of IPN's final findings on Jedwabne Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine (English)
- ^ Joanna Michlic. The Soviet Occupation of Poland, 1939–41, and the Stereotype of the Anti-Polish and Pro-Soviet Jew. Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, and Society. Spring/Summer 2007, Vol. 13, No. 3:135–176.
- ^ Krzysztof Szwagrzyk. Żydzi w kierownictwie UB. Stereotyp czy rzeczywistość? (Jews in the authorities of the Polish Secret Security. Stereotype or Reality?), Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance. (11/2005), pp. 37–42
- ^
- ^
- ^ Shoah. PolishJews.org - The Polish Jews Home Page.
- ^ מידע נוסף על הפריט Archived 2008-10-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Grange ghetto home page". Archived from the original on 2005-10-27. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- ^ מידע נוסף על הפריט
- ^ מידע נוסף על הפריט
- ^ Note of December 10, 1942, addressed by the Polish Government to the Governments of the united nations concerning the mass extermination of Jews Archived May 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 0-8156-2969-9
- ISBN 1-56639-955-6.
This gigantic effort, known by the Hebrew code word Brichah(flight), accelerated powerfully after the Kielce pogrom in July 1946
- ISBN 0-8078-2620-0.
Britain exerted pressure on the governments of Poland.
- ^ Gross, Jan T. (21 May 2012). "The Treblinka Gold Rush". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ Yitzhak Arad. ""Operation Reinhard": Extermintation Camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka" (PDF 145 KB). Source: Yad Vashem Studies XVI, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1984 pp. 205-239. Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies. pp. 26/30. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
- ^ David Engel, Patterns Of Anti-Jewish Violence. PDF file: 198.1 KB. Yadvashem.org.
- ^ מידע נוסף על הפריט
- ^ מידע נוסף על הפריט Archived 2008-05-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Andrzej Friszke, "The March 1968 Protest Movement in Light of Ministry of Interior Reports to the Party Leadership," Intermarium, Volume 1, Number 1, 1997; translated from Polish by Dawid Walendowski. Original published in Więź (March 1994).
Further reading
- Dyboski, Roman (September 1923). "Poland and the Problem of National Minorities". Journal of the British Institute of International Affairs. 2 (5): 179–200. JSTOR 3014543.