interwar Poland Flashcards
(106 cards)
1
Q
Versailles treaty and territorial Poland
A
In 1919 the Versailles Treaty redrew the map of Eastern Europe. As a result—after one-and-a-half centuries of a divided existence under the rule of Prussia, tsarist Russia, and the Habsburg Empire—Poland was reunited and declared an independent republic
- bordered by Germany to the west, Czechoslovakia to the south, the Soviet Union to the east, and the Baltic Sea to the north
2
Q
population of Poland
A
30 mill Poles, 1/3 were ethnic minorities
3
Q
where was Jewish population in Poland
A
Jewish population concentrated in urban settings, and in the central areas of the country, more economic activity etc, very little presence in west vs. east
Poland’s Jews, who made up 10 percent of the interwar population and more than a third of Poland’s urban population- 75% of Jews lived in urban settings compared to 25% of Polish people
- Largest population of Jews in 1931 was in Warsaw 352,000, 30.1% of population
4
Q
Jewish political parties
A
political parties – Orthodox Jewish, The Bund, Folkists (pro-government), Zionists – by the end of the interwar period the Bund is dominant of Jewish politics
5
Q
general - instances of anti-Jewish violence
A
Small number of Jews killed during the period, but widespread low-level violence across the country. had initially been quite strong levels of violence but declined under Pilsudski
Specific contexts of anti-Jewish violence in the 30s – boycotts (aim of right wing agitators to take back economic control, would often include violence), students at the front of antisemitism in eastern Europe, almost para-militaristic (informally enforced a ‘ghetto bench’, segregation in classes, cases of university professors speaking out against this but they were also often attacked)
6
Q
Endek
A
refers to a member or supporter of the Endecja, which was a Polish nationalist political movement active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939). The Endeks were proponents of Polish nationalism and were often associated with anti-Semitic and anti-Ukrainian sentiments.
7
Q
numerus clausus
A
one of the few legal restrictions on Jews, number of Jewish university students capped, a large number of them were applying compared to Polish students – other laws included limits on kosher slaughtering etc.
8
Q
the Bund
A
the Bund, founded in 1897, provided political tools for impoverished Eastern European Jewry. The Bund was a socialist, anti-Zionist party that promoted the profound democratization and socialization of means of production, in the tradition of democratic Marxism. It advocated national and cultural autonomy for Eastern European Jews, the establishment of a secular school system, and the support of secular Jewish culture- The party insisted that the future of the Jewish people would best unfold in the same places in the Diaspora in which they had lived for centuries.
Became the strongest Jewish party in the 1930s
9
Q
Marcus on the real issue Jews faced
A
- Marcus said - The real problem, he concludes, was Polish poverty and Jewish over-population: The Jews in Poland were poor because they lived in a poor, underdeveloped country. Discrimination added only marginally to their poverty
10
Q
association of Narutowicz, by
A
- Dec 1922 assassination of president of Poland, Gabriel Narutowicz, by a far right person – the president had been elected in conjunction with the minority parties (including Jews)
11
Q
politcal coup
A
- 1926 coup led by Józef Pilsudski (his wife was Jewish), established the Sanacja –
12
Q
Mendelhson on state of Poland
A
Interwar Poland was a relatively free country, a highly nationalistic country, and an anti-Jewish country.
13
Q
Moss analysis of Poland and Pilsudski
A
o Dictatorship under Pilsudski, but freedom of speech, lack of censorship (only towards communism), compared to other eastern European countries at the time
o Polish nationalism was a significant force during this period, driving efforts to consolidate national identity, promote the Polish language and culture, and defend the country’s sovereignty.
14
Q
Jewish political rights post war
A
the constitutional terms: Jews received equal citizenship and the substantial freedoms of all Polish citizens
Like all its other citizens, Jews were given the right to vote in elections, to organize their own political parties, and to run for office. Poland’s public schools gave young Jews access to modern education unknown to previous generations. The constitution of the Polish Republic also stipulated that ethnic minorities had the right to establish their own press and publishing houses, cultural institutions, and educational systems in their own languages.
15
Q
the state’s discriminatory employment practice
A
The policy of the state was clearly discriminatory. Jews were rarely employed in public transportation, the school system, public administration, or the civil service. In the territories that had been part of the Austro-Hungarian empire prior to their inclusion in the Polish state, 12,312 Jews had been employed as state and municipal officials and more than 6,000 had worked in post, telephone, or telegraph offices. Most of these employees were pensioned off after Poland became independent
16
Q
nationalisation and Jewish unemployment
A
- The nationalization of industries that produced tobacco, salt, matches, and alcohol was another blow to Polish Jews, as these were branches in which Jews were traditionally conspicuous. With the imposition of a state monopoly on these products, some 32,000 Jewish workers and shopkeepers lost their jobs.
17
Q
Polish republic and Jewish political participation
A
- the Polish republic offered Jews of every persuasion a far freer field for political action than they had enjoyed in Tsarist Russia. Jewish parties of all sorts could come out from the underground and compete in national elections in a Poland where Jews were 10 percent of the population, municipal elections in a Poland where Jews ranged from 30 to 60 percent of the urban population, and elections to state-recognized Jewish communal bodies where it could seem like real power was at stake.
18
Q
when was the political shift for jews post WW1
A
- 1922-1925 the right wing grew - Jewish society was squeezed by state policies that seemed intended to drive Jews out of the middle class.
- a 1926 coup led by the independence hero Józef Piłsudski put in power a regime committed, more or less, to the civic model of Polishness.
19
Q
signs of hope in political coup
A
- There were some signs that this regime, would seek to improve the state’s relationship to Poland’s several large non-Polish populations, including Jews. Among Jews, the 1926 coup fed hopes for a breakthrough to real integration and the drawing of antisemitism’s poison from the body politic… And Polish Jews were assimilating rapidly—many wanted to belong
20
Q
alternative politics to Pilsudski
A
o The opposition to the left of the political spectrum consisted of the Socialists (PPS), the National Workers Party (NPR), and the Populist Party, which represented the poorer peasants. Before seizing power Pilsudski belonged to the Socialist Party, which was ideologically opposed to anti-Semitism. As head of state, Pitsudski broke his ties to the Socialist Party but continued to oppose anti-Jewish measures. While Pitsudski was alive he was able to resist successfully most of the anti-Semitic demands of the National Democrats.
21
Q
underlying conflict post 1926
A
Moss- the rapid waning of the hopes of 1926, as Poland sank into intense ideological conflict and economic crisis beneath a veneer of stability, and Poland’s “Jewish Question,” grew ever more toxic
o During the 1930s, worldwide economic depression, the rise of fascism abroad, and growing anti-Semitism at home made life increasingly onerous for Polish Jews.
Moss- what followed was actually new intensities of illiberal nationalism; with the unexpected flourishing and mass appeal in Poland as across Europe of ideologies that identified “the Jews” as an enemy of the commonwealth or at least a grave burden on it, and in all events a national problem demanding a solution.
22
Q
increase of right wing power in 1930
A
o By 1930 the right had a lot more power- the OWP(camp for greater Poland) had some 250 k members before it was dissolved by the regime in 1933
23
Q
1931 Ended support
A
o From 1931, Endek organizers launched a concerted campaign to inculcate antisemitic ideas and incite anti-Jewish violence among wide circles of ordinary Poles.
24
Q
universities impact on national violence
A
Moss- Between 1929 and 1932, Poland’s universities in Warsaw, Wilno, Lwów, and elsewhere became sites of violent anti-Jewish demonstrations, riots, and attacks. Right-wing students carried this antisemitic energy back to the small towns where some half of Polish Jewry continued to live.
25
early 1930s boycotts
o Over 1932–1933, the Kielce district, for instance, saw a “massive,” well-organized boycott campaign promoted among “city merchants and artisans” and “especially young peasants” through rhetorics of an “existential Jewish threat.”
26
shift after Pilsudski's death
was only in 1935 when Pidlsudski died that antisemitism became vehement and economic and social situation deteriorated. A lot to blame as well for lacking Pidlsudki’s broad base of support
o Moss- fascism and extremist ethnonationalism moved from strength to strength …. from the radical Right into other parts of the social body, moving from the hothouses of Poland’s universities to its high schools, from its cities to towns, from towns to villages.
27
shift in Jewish politics 1930s
Moss- The Polish Jews on whom I focus felt compelled by circumstance and danger to shift the focus of their thought from which identity they wished to choose to what the majority national society around them wanted and where it was bound. They were compelled to rethink their politics less in terms of long-held ideals and more in terms of the fact of vulnerability and relative powerlessness.
28
impact of the depression in Poland
* The Depression worsened, coupled with rapid population growth; by one estimate, in the 1930s, in a population of 30 million, “there were 4.5 million people for whom work needed to be found.”
29
1930s effect on antisemitism
* With time religious and economic anti-Semitism found an ally in political anti-Semitism. And eventually this political anti-Semitism assumed a prominent umbrella-like position, dominating and directing anti-Jewish moves into all other areas.
30
How did National Democrats rile up an idea of Jewish threat
* The opposition National Democratic Party and the various semifascist parties affiliated with it (or splintered from it) succeeded in influencing a large segment of the population. With the resurrection of an old slogan, ˙ydokomuna z (the Jewish Communist conspiracy), and the introduction of a new one, folksfront (an antisemitic use of the Yiddish term for “popular front,” the would-be alliance between the Communists, the Polish Socialist Party and the Bund), they attempted to create an atmosphere of impending Jewish threat to the existence of the Polish state.
31
camp for national unity
o Eventually, in 1937, Pitsudski's successors set up the Camp of National Unity (OZON), which became the chief base of the semidictatorial regime, rallying the nation around the army, nationalism, and Catholicism. They elected to try to solve the country's problems by openly supporting anti-Semitism in social, cultural, economic, and political areas.
32
Boycotts of Jews - gov policy
camp of national unity - In the economic sphere these restrictions led to a variety of concrete actions, one of them aimed at taking over Jewish market stalls. Another prevented Jews from holding civil service jobs. Jews were also barred from employment in the state-owned monopolies, such as the liquor and tobacco industries. In addition, the government introduced examinations for artisans especially designed to fail
33
national democrats and boycotts
o The National Democrats were also in favor of boycotting Jewish businesses, Anti-Semitic youths stood in front of Jewish stores preventing customers from entering. Window breaking and beatings accompanied such measures.
o propaganda leaflets, placards, and posters. All such printed material condemned Jewish businesses: "Fellow countrymen, we are being murdered by Jews and yet we keep supporting them. We give them money to fight us. This is a shame and a disgrace.
34
impact of Jewish boycotts
o A survey of ten small towns that experienced business boycotts documents the tangible losses. In the years 1932-1937 these towns had experienced a 28 percent drop in Jewish businesses.
35
example of scale of university antisemitism
o the scale of antisemitism at universities can be exemplified, for instance, by the fact that the academic pilgrimage to Jasna Góra on May 24, 1936, which openly declared its antisemitic agenda, and took place alongside attacks on Jewish stalls, physical assaults on Jewish individuals and the destruction of Jewish property, was attended by two-fifths of all students in Poland, according to historical source
36
antisemitism in universities
o An aggressive nationalism and antisemitism also blossomed at the universities, where agitation for a numerus clausus later grew into demands for a numerus nullus.
several university faculties, “ghetto benches” were forcibly introduced into the classrooms so that Jewish students would be segregated from the others.
.
37
impact of the Polish left on antisemitism
o Although the Polish Left, as well as the liberal and democratic segments of the Polish intelligentsia, consistently opposed antisemitism, they represented a distinct minority. In addition, their opposition to antisemitism was not founded on approval of a separate Jewish cultural identity, but rather on their conviction regarding the possibility and desirability of full Jewish assimilation.
37
decline in Jewish university attendance
o During the period 1937-1938 some universities had to suspend classes solely because of the violence committed against the Jews. Between 1925 and 1939 the proportion of Jewish students at Polish universities dropped from 21.5 to 8.2 percent
38
Nazi madagascar plan in Poland
o The Poles showed great interest in the Nazi Madagascar plan, aimed at removing all Jews to the island off the coast of Africa. The government's desire to be rid of the Jews and the seriousness with which it was pursued was shown in a 1938 Polish mission to Madagascar.
39
political disunity in general in Poland
1925 there were 92 different registered political parties. 1918-25 there were 14 different governments
40
women's political rights in second polish republic
* Women were given both active and passive suffrage for the Legislative Parliament by decree of the head of state on 28 November 1918, while separate legal acts regulated the issue for local governments. Equal voting rights thus became fact, later confirmed by the (1921) March Constitution, which made all citizens equal in the eyes of the law.
41
Jewish v Polish education
* Jewish parents had to choose whether to send their children to Polish primary schools, which were free, or to Jewish schools, where, it was argued, Jewish children could develop self-assurance in an atmosphere free of anti-Semitism. Sixty percent of Jewish children attended Polish public schools, and about 180,000 children were attending Jewish schools by the mid-1930s. Many of those who went to Polish public schools also went to Jewish after-school lesson.
42
static nature of Jewish communism and Bund
* The Communists and the General Jewish Labor Bund in Poland (the Bund): Both insisted that class struggle was the only legitimate Jewish politics, cross- class Jewish cooperation was unthinkable, and plans for organized emigration were communal betrayal. In Astour’s view, holding to these orthodoxies meant telling Poland’s Jews to “wait with our hands in our pockets until the social revolution comes, and then everything will be fine.”
43
Bund - what was the best way to end anti-semitism
* The Jewish socialist Bund insisted that “spreading class consciousness, aiding the growth of the socialist movement that will destroy the whole capitalist order” was “the best and only way to bring an end to anti-Semitism and pogroms.”
44
Jewish immigration to Palestine
* 70,000 Polish Jews of all class, cultural, and ideological backgrounds left for Palestine in the four years after 1932 when British reopened its Palestine mandate (though still sharply limited)
* by 1939, 200,000 individuals had registered formal inquiries about emigration to Palestine with the Jewish Agency’s office in Warsaw
45
YIVO as a political movement
* Founded in Vilna in 1925, YIVO pioneered the modern scholarly study of East European Jewish life from
* YIVO was an ardently secular institution. It not only functioned in Yiddish, the traditional vernacular of East European Jews, but considered the cultivation of Yiddish language and culture to be central to its mission. Moreover, while organized as a professional research institute, YIVO had a strong populist agenda and sought ways to engage and to serve the general Jewish community. And, unlike many other Jewish cultural institutions, which placed their hopes on the future of Jewry else- where, YIVO was committed to legitimating and sustaining Jewish life in Eastern Europe. In this regard, YIVO epitomized the diaspora nationalist ideology of doikeyt (Yiddish for "hereness"),
46
the 4 different Jewish political strategies
* Overall, there were four basic strategies: those of the Bundists (and autonomists); the Zionists; the Orthodox; and the Communists. The first three promoted practical political tactics that were explored throughout the interwar period by the relevant political parties. None, however, was able to produce any significant improvement in the worsening Jewish situation.
The Communist movement, which for the great majority of the period was illegal, placed its fundamental hope in revolutionary change that would eventually benefit everyone, including the Jews. Although quite active on the “Jewish street,” where it competed particularly with the Zionists and the Bundists, the Communist movement, like the others, had very little practical impact in the sense of improving the lot of Polish Jewry.
47
SOcial and cultural activity of Jewish interwar Poland
More than 200 daily Jewish papers and periodicals existed in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Polish; on any given day, some 790,000 copies came off the presses. There was an impressive network of Jewish schools, some of them affiliated with the various political movements.
48
Bund - formal political presence
The Bund- Throughout the entire interwar period, the party maintained a sizeable representation in municipal councils, as well as Jewish kehillas (organized communities); however, none of its representatives were ever elected to the Polish Parliament. The membership of the party itself in the interwar period constituted about ten thousand people, which is a number comparable to the size of its youth movement.
49
changing nature of gender relations
relations between the sexes were changing. Young people now grew up alongside one another, sometimes even attending coeducational schools and interacting socially. Friendly relationships between boys and girls were, for this generation of mothers, a sign of a new era
Jacobs suggests that the predominant vision of women as mothers, running the household, and having no time for political engagement
50
Zionism and the ideal woman
Mickutė has noted, Zionism promoted a new type of Jewish woman. She was to be healthy both in body and spirit, and her fundamental role was to bear children and raise them according to Zionist national tradition She was also supposed to be prepared to sacrifice herself for her nation.
o Polish female Zionist activists of the 1920s were mainly active in spheres to which men had not usurped the sole right, that is, above all social care and schooling—domains that seemed to be extensions of women's traditional roles
51
the Bund and women
* The Bundist movement in interwar Poland worked to attract women by various means: creating libraries, organizing courses, excursions, concerts, and lectures, but also creating day cares and supporting equal pay for women. However, as Jack Jacobs has shown, the dedicated Bundist women's organization ), was not very successful, attracting fewer new female members than before the war. Its failure to draw new members from among the older generation may have stemmed from the then predominant vision of women as mothers, running the household, and having no time for political engagement. Nonetheless, the YAF persisted in targeting this segment of the Jewish population.
52
Yiddish pamphlet encouraging female engagement with the Bund
* A Yiddish pamphlet published in 1928, entitled My Sisters! A Word to the Jewish Working Woman, written by YAF leader Dina Blond, urged women: “It is not only you who live such a hard life, and your fate is not your fault. Try for a minute to leave the four walls of your tiny apartment and look around at what is going on in the world.
The solution suggested by Blond was to organize, and join the Bund
It seems that this message was much more attractive to the younger generation
53
Bund ratio of women to men
* In the Bund the ratio of women to men in the party was lower than in the youth organization, at just over 26.6 percent in 1930
54
changing view of young women and marriage
* the autobiography of a young, 22-year-old woman from Międzyrzec is particularly interesting. She concludes her life story with thoughts of leaving for a larger city, where she could become independent, work in a factory, and only take a husband when she felt the need. Her words about her future spouse echo the life decisions of Esther Riskind and Bela Szapiro
55
Tsukunft =(youth organisation) and women
* Generational gap- Women encountered more obstacles to joining Tsukunft than men. As one author wrote: “My father liked to come and look for me at the meeting room. Luckily, he never found me. I generally hid under the bench in the back administration room. Father even warned me that if he found me at the venue he might hit me.”79 Her mother, in turn, “didn't understand her,” and “would have preferred she devote herself to housework and stop thinking.
56
women from Tsukunft to the Bund
* The faith in the Bund among the young women who joined Tsukunft and stayed on as activists is undeniable. Their activism in the movement often defined who they were both as women and as public figures. Yet the (male) leadership of the movement seemed not to value enough the popularity of Tsukunft's progressive ideas among women. They promoted rebellious role models but did not offer an adequate platform to stress women's issues or give women a place in the leadership.
57
Tsukunft- how it appealed to young ppl.
* Young Tsukunft members often felt empowered and radicalized on joining the organization. Tsukunft offered them entertainment, organizing summer camps, discussions, excursions, sports, and cultural activities, but also provided a new vision of a world in which everyone could be equal and there would be no shortage of opportunities or material goods
58
reason for success of communism among Jews- changing occupation structure
o Whereas Jews constituted only 9.1 percent of those employed in crafts and industry in 1921, they accounted for close to 20 percent of this category a decade later. By 1931, Jews were more active in manufacturing (42.2 percent) than in trade (36.6 percent),
o Jews were largely absent from the ranks of the traditional working class, in the sense of working in large industrial plants: more than 80 percent of the Jews active in industry worked in small shops, and 44 percent of them were self-employed craftsmen.-
est. that 700k of 2 mill jews were working class
59
reason for success of communism among Jews- poverty
* Jews were also poverty stricken - By 1931, the unemployment figure for Jewish breadwinners stood at 29.2 percent, in contrast to 21.1 percent among the non-Jewish population. According to the Polish Ministry of the Interior, there were 223,000 unemployed Jewish workers in 1931; two years later, the number had risen to 325,000
* Among those employed, many worked only three days a week or even less— on the average, Jewish workers were employed between 16 and 22 weeks annually.-
60
Popularity of polish communist party
o During the years 1930– 1934, for example, the membership of the KPP rose more than threefold, against a backdrop of economic crisis and increased unemployment
int he 1920s KPP membership was between 2.5k-6k
. the communist movement as a whole, including youth movements peaked at 33,700 in 1936 (+ about 6k prisoners not counted)
61
Jewish membership of non-Jewish communist party
* Jews did constitute an important segment of the Communist movement. According to both Polish sources and Western estimates, the proportion of Jews in the KPP was never lower than 22 percent countrywide, reaching a peak of 35 percent (in 1930). After Jewish membership actually went up in the large cities; in Warsaw, for example, Jewish membership rose from 44 percent in 1930
62
explanation for Jews involvement in communism
* Antisemitism does much to explain the appeal of Communism to many Polish Jews. More than any Polish political party, the Communist movement vigorously opposed antisemitism.
* Promising to build a society free from both national and class oppression, it held great potential for attracting radicalized, angry, and disappointed young Jews. The injustices of a capitalist society were easier to perceive in the urban setting, and those living there were also much more exposed to radical ideologies
63
communism as not that prominent among Jews
* Communist ideals were supported by no more than approximately 5 percent of all Jewish voters. Thus, a more accurate formulation is that, whereas Jews did play a very important role in the Polish Communist movement of the time, the Jewish population at large was far from sympathetic to Communism
64
destruction of the KPP
* 1938, when Stalin, acting through the Comintern, ordered the dissolution of the KPP. This extraordinary chapter in the annals of the Great Purge meant that almost all the Polish Communists who found themselves in the Soviet Union were either shot or sent to concentration camps. The same fate met not only the entire leadership of the KPP but even minor functionaries who fell into Soviet custody. The exact number of victims is unknown; estimates run from “several hundred” to “some five thousand
65
Communists towards other Jewish parties
* The Communist calls for unity against antisemitism and fascism, coupled with polemics against “Jewish nationalism” and “Jewish separatism” (aimed against the Zionist parties and the Bund)- programme of cultural autonomy was an attempt to separate the Jewish and Polish working masses.
* The attitude of Jewish Communists to the Jewish political parties was intensely negative— probably much more so than that of the non-Jewish Communists- “For a Kowalski [a common Polish surname], it was a question of carrying out the policy of the party. For us, it was different; many of my own childhood friends were Zionists or Bundists, and it was a question of a struggle for the unity of the working class against nationalist diversion. One felt personally responsible.”
66
Jewish identity in the communist party
often Jews from assimilated and middle or uppermiddle class families, tended to complete the process of polonization within the movement; still others, whom one might call the “universalists,” believed passionately that the Communist line would eventually result in “a single humanity,”
* for many because of communist internationalists - . As one of them put it: “A Pole could be a Pole and a Communist, but a Jew could only be a Communist
67
Jews not as ideologues
* Moss trains his eye on the hopelessness many Jews grew to feel and the non-political nature of their hopelessness
* Moss says that political imaginations did not necessarily indicate political convictions, rather political choices followed practical considerations
* Moss- politics as a space in which ordinary Jews participated as despairing citizens not ideologues
68
why Jews felt separate from party politics
* Many jews were not taken in by party politics – inadequate to the reality of their economic and societal condition. Many offered exit from Poland, not a realistic path to a better Polish future
69
Jews lack of political agency
* Moss sess lack of political agency (not lack of political will)- does not mean Jews were passive citizens in broader political processes, or as a precursor to the holocaust – he argues Jews pondered and thought critically about their situation but as a minority group fundamentally they were stymied (progress as halted)
70
parents v children
* As scholars of the period have already demonstrated, the diverse society of Polish Jewry was considerably transformed by the sudden impact of multiple modernizing forces—political reforms, religious innovation, linguistic adaptation, social and economic restratification—in the years immediately following World War I. The generations of Polish Jews who came of age in the interwar years were, consequently, quite different from their parents
71
movement between Jewish political parties
nuanced stratification of their political mobilisation - . Some autobiographies report members of one political movement secretly attending meetings of another and then switching allegiances; they describe young men and women serially or even simultaneously belonging to rival political organizations due to their conviction, doubts etc.
72
growth of Jewish literary interest among children
o YIVO as an example of literary interest of children/ young – the initiation of modern secular literature gave rise to the autobiographical impulse among European Jews – no Jewish biographical literature prior to this. Peretz describes the library as their beys-medresh. It served young rebels with secular equivalent of traditional Jewish study house
73
young Jewish notion of inevitability of holocaust
* An introduction to awakening lives- Even some of the most ardent Zionists among them, committed in principle to the belief that there was no future for Polish Jewry, were nonetheless unmistakably hopeful about their own futures. Indeed, the extent of the hopefulness of these accounts may be their most unsettling characteristic.
74
political movements and education of youth
In the YIVO autobiographies the library similarly emerges as a cultural institution of central importance. Many of the local headquarters of the various political youth movements made it a high priority to establish their own libraries of books in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Polish. Noting that few young Jews could afford to buy books of their own,
* it is clear from many of the YIVO autobiographies that the initial appeal of youth movements was often not so much ideological as it was motivated by a hunger for culture, especially for literature
Bund- Heller shows, despite the intentions and ideals of the main activists, young people often signed up not to change the world but to take advantage of the educational and cultural programs on offer, and to feel accepted among their peers
75
Jews in communist youth movement
* In the Communist Union of Polish Youth, Jews actually constituted a majority of the membership (51 percent)
76
Tsukunft's wartime legacy
o In 1945, Władka Meed, recalling the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (she had remained on the “Aryan” side and helped pass weapons into the ghetto), posed a rhetorical question in a letter to one of Tsukunft's prewar leaders- "Did you teach us to do otherwise? you were the cause of our pride, and our actions."
77
women role models in the Bund
* despite the scarcity of high-ranking female leaders both in the Bund and Tsukunft, the movement's choice of heroes and real-life examples shaped the new generation of women. It offered an alternative narrative promoting the strong, socialist Jewish woman.
Members of Tsukunft (Tsukunftists) studied the lives of female revolutionaries. - the purpose of teaching about the socialist struggle was to create an emotional bond between the Tsukunftists and the organization. In young women these emotions were most easily stoked by learning about heroines from the past
* Their willingness to die for the cause was of particular note and a reason for their respect as women
78
Luxemburg and the Bund
* The most famous woman whom young Tsukunftists were taught to look up to and emulate was Rosa Luxemburg, whose In Memory of the Proletarian Party was mandatory reading for every member of the movement. Although during her lifetime she opposed the Bund's “nationalist” policy, after her murder the movement praised her as a Jewish heroine whose life was worth emulating. The very first Tsukunft circles that emerged in interwar Poland bore Luxemburg's name
79
presence of women role models in all parts of Tsukunft
* The tradition of women's activism and their pioneering spirit was promoted not least through the slogans and iconography of the Tsukunft. Their ideals were to be re-created by young members in their own lives. Women activists and rebels were visible in the symbolic sphere (though certainly not as prominently as male heroes). Local circles bore their names, and their pictures and biographies appeared in the movement's press
80
two differing views about inevitability of holocaust
* Celia Heller's On the Edge of Destruction- the years 1919- 39 were a rehearsal for the Holocaust period. The Poles pushed the Jews to the 'edge of destruction', and the Nazis (with Polish help) destroyed them
* Youth were hopeful
81
Jewish v Polish poverty
* Marcus tells us, the Jews in Poland were not poverty-stricken, and even in the late 1930s the Jewish middle and lower middle classes were holding their own, with the majority of Jews being more comfortable than most Poles
82
polish boycotts as ineffective
Marcus - * Polish efforts to strike at the Jews' economic wellbeing through such means as the Sunday rest law, etatism, numerus clausus, boycotts and so on, were ineffective.
83
Jews to blame for suffering
* Professor Tomaszewski also thinks that the Jews have tended to paint far too lurid a picture of their grievances, and he suggests that some of these grievances were more or less self-inflicted since many Jews did not, for understandable reasons, favour an independent Polish state.
84
Jewish violence as not that serious
* Prof even said The pogrom in Lwow in 1918 was not such a serious affair, and the Polish state successfully resisted Endek pressure further to oppress the Jewish population. Even in the late 1930s Poland tried to ameliorate the condition of Polish Jews residing in Germany.' But far cry from on the edge of destruction
85
peasants as antisemites
* Bartoszewski- it is completely wrong to believe that the Polish peasant was an antisemite, a modern term. Indeed, the author tells us that 'I do not find much use for anti-semitism as an analytical concept because it is unworkable and confusing?' True, the peasants did think of the Jews as Christ killers and as users of Christian blood for baking their matzos
86
antisemitism as Polish positivism
* Bartoszewski- there are grave difficulties in defining such terms as fascism, totalitarianism and assimilation. One man's anti-semite is another man's nationalist, just as one man's pogrom is another man's social revolution. Was the Sunday rest law a piece of anti- semitic legislation or, as the Polish left believed, a progressive law greatly benefiting the working class
87
Poland as not that bad
* In 1937 the General Zionist Hartglas reminded his readers that Russia, and not Poland, was the scene of the most terrible pogroms of the pre-war years
* I have little doubt that most Jews were in fact better off than most peasants. And it should be admitted, too, that Polish Jewry after 1933 was in a happier situation than German Jewry, and perhaps, even, Romanian Jewry
88
Poland unleashed positive jewish political forces
* Polish freedom, which allowed the Jews in the 1920s and 1930s to participate in politics, open schools, and write as they please.
* Jews could organize vocational training in anticipation of aliya to Palestine. Polish freedom, allied with Polish antisemitism and Jewish modernization, made possible the emergence and popularization of the new Jewish politics, which, among other things, helped to build the state of Israel.
89
Mendelhson - interwar Poland as good v bad for Jews
* Interwar Poland was bad for the Jews, in the sense that it excluded them from first-class membership in the state.
* Interwar Poland was good for the Jews because, among other things, it provided an environment in which forces were unleashed in the Jewish world which many Jews regarded then, and today, as extremely positive.
90
immediate violence post WW1
* With birth of new state- Nov 1918-Jan 1919 there were 100 violent incidents against Jews
91
the role of external events on Jewish oppression
Mendelhson - External events, which cannot be blamed on the Polish state or on Polish society, had a tremendous impact upon the condition of Polish Jews —the great depression, for example, and the rise of Hitler in Germany.
92
misleading to blame people or conditions for antisemitism of the state
* it is surely misleading to assume that the condition of Polish Jewry and the backwardness of the Polish state rendered inevitable the state's policies and society's attitudes towards the Jewish minority. Pre-World War I Hungary was also a backward country with a poor Jewish population, but its leaders, instead of urging Jews to emigrate and supporting boycotts of their stores, preached the integration of the Jewish community into Magyardom and welcomed the Jews as modernizers of the Hungarian economy.
* Germany's wealth, and the wealth of its Jewish community, did not prevent the German people from taking an extreme antisemitic stance from 1933 onwards.
93
Nazism in Poland in 1933
* 1933 there began a spate of violent attacks against Jews in “the provincial cities and towns of the Białystok, Kielce, and Łódź districts.” The electoral campaign of the spring of 1933 saw mainstream Endek politicians like Sejm member (and priest) Adam Błaszczyk celebrating Nazi policies as a model for how Poland should deal with its Jews
94
antisemitism in the church
* the rector of Lublin’s Catholic University from 1925 to 1933, who taught both priests and laymen that “Jews bound by the Talmud were united together to plot against and destroy other nations.” …. “the charge of a Masonic-Jewish conspiracy was a staple” in the church- affiliated press, which reached hundreds of thousands of readers at many levels of sophistication.
95
scale of violence against Jews in 4 years before ww2
* According to official sources, there were 21 pogroms and 348 individual acts of violence in 1936 in the Bialystok region alone; according to Jewish sources, 79 Jews were killed and approximately 500 wounded across the country between October 1935 and April 1936.
96
Yiddish and young people
Cala - 37 Jews. Only four individuals, from assimilated families, admitted to not knowing Yiddish, and three from Orthodox families to being illiterate in that language. Only six memoirs could be said to be in bad Polish, full of grammatical mistakes and Yiddish turns of phrase.
97
orthodox Jews and non-Jewish interaction
Cala - autobiographies written by Orthodox Jews…. any contacts they had with non-Jews held so little importance for them that they did not even think them worthy of mention.
o One orthodox jew Julia turned down attendance at her rich Catholic friend’s wedding “what could I do there, the only Jewess among a bunch of Catholics and such oafs”
98
Orthodox Jews looking down on non-Jews
Goy - term used for member of lower social class
Cala - people performing 'menial tasks were goyim, I ranked them very low. What do they know, these goyim? A goy knows nothing, a goy does not think, the only thing he knows how to do is beat up Jews.... My world was divided into Jews and goyim."
99
Jews and non-Jews- economic focus of interactions
Cala - one memoir: I wondered what these two nations (Jews and peasants) had in common to make them live side by side in near harmony. I reached the conclusion that from the point of view of the peasants the Jews were created solely so that the peasants could sell grain to them and so that they, in turn, could sell it to big dealers, and also so that they could make undercoats and boots, supply them with some of the basic food products
100
youth interaction between Jews
Cala - o Friendships among pupils occurred, so frequently that one might venture to quote the well known saying that 'every Jew had his Pole. One jew writes “My best friend was a Catholic, whom I knew from school”.
but another memoir "I got through the sixth form without any problems. It was only then that the relationship with our Catholic peers began to deteriorate.” Echoes of university animosity
101
Cala on faith in Poland
o despite the painful experience of antisemitism, the writers of these memoirs retained consider- able faith in Poland as a country. The intensity of this trust followed the patterns of political ideas. Orthodox Jews trusted Polish institutions completely, even though the influence of attitudes which were menacing to Jews could be clearly observed within them
102
divisions amongst Poles
o The social distance which separated the Polish upper classes from the peasants, and which verged on contempt, was more pronounced in the eastern borderlands and took on ethnic overtones in these areas. The borderland peasants were called 'Russkis', i.e. Ukrainians or Belarussians; the Poles were 'the lords and master
103
Language and identity
* One autobiography, written in 1934 by a twenty-year-old young man from a small town m central Galicia, begins with the very question of language choice: As I sit down to write my autobiography, I don't actually know which language to use: Yiddish, Hebrew, or even Polis
* 1931 census- 79% of Jews said their native language was Yiddish. Only 12% said polish was first language
104
Jewish levels of assimilations
* Less than 10% of Polish Jews considered assimilated according to Tec
divide between young and old?
105
Pilsudski - multi ethnic Poland
Piłsudski believed in a multi-ethnic Poland—"a home of nations" including indigenous ethnic and religious minorities
