Sprache:
Englisch
Erscheinungsjahr:
2012
Titel der Quelle:
Yad Vashem Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
41,1 (2013) 23-61
Schlagwort(e):
Pogroms
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Antisemitism History 1945-
;
Jews
Kurzfassung:
Explains the Kielce pogrom of 1946 as an interplay between its main participants: the Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (Security Office), the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia, police), the Army, and the mob. Analyzes the pogrom in accordance with the structure of Victor Turner's description of "social drama". According to Turner's theory, social drama consists of four phases, all of which were present in Kielce in July 1946: breach of normative behavior, which took place when the Kielce MO accepted the story of an "abducted child" as a matter for investigation, and let it be known in the city; crisis and cleavage, which came about when the mob divided the participants into two "communities": "Jews", including Polish defenders of Jews, and "Christians"; redress, an abortive attempt by the UP to stop the pogrom; and reintegration, in this case - the joining of MO and the Army, and, passively, of the UB with the mob. The Kielce pogrom took place on the background of the painful introduction of communist rule in Poland. Its social drama is evidence of several facts: that the ruling party (whose agency was UB) shared the antisemitism of the mob; that the Poles accepted all the main principles of communism, except for "internationalism"; and that the ruling communists, unable to re-educate all the people, remained hostages to public opinion and, for the sake of a "reintegration" - in fact, in order to preseve power in their hands - condoned popular antisemitism.
Anmerkung:
In English and Hebrew.
,
Appeared in Polish as "Pogrom kielecki jako dramat społeczny" in her collected articles "Okrzyki pogromowe" (2012) 157-176.
URL:
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