Language:
German
Year of publication:
1995
Titel der Quelle:
Judaica; Beiträge zum Verstehen des Judentums
Angaben zur Quelle:
51,3 (1995) 178-192
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews History 1800-2000
Abstract:
Traces the history of Polish-Jewish relations in Eastern Poland before and during World War II. Polish hostility toward Jews dated from the war of 1919-20, when Jews were accused of anti-Polish and pro-Bolshevik sentiments, and was reinforced by a perception that Jews formed a large part of the leadership of the Polish Communist Party. Many Jews in Eastern Poland, who suffered from discrimination under the Polish regime, welcomed the Soviet occupation; they were the only ethnic group willing to cooperate with the occupiers. The Soviets deported many Jews - bourgeois, Zionists, Bundists - but put others in positions of power, which earned them the hatred of the populace. In 1943-44, when the First Polish Army was formed from prisoners released from Soviet camps, about a third of these were Jews. Stalin, despite his antisemitism, relied on their loyalty rather than that of the Poles, and prepared them to form the nucleus of the postwar Polish government. Due to the antisemitism of Russian officers, they were asked to change their Jewish names to Polish ones - a circumstance that was later an endless cause for suspicion. Argues that this emotionally-laden past accounts for Polish ambivalence toward the Jews and reluctance to deal with Polish-Jewish history.
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