They were among thousands of jews who found persecution. The best books on the aftermath of world war ii five books. The 10 best books about poland during world war ii. We also know that close to 10 percent of jews fled the liquidated ghettos in 1942 and 1943 which would give you a number of about 250,000 jews who tried to survive in hiding. Hagen, and this book on the pogroms that shook poland after world war one demands all his formidable powers of analysis. The pogroms which happened in poland, slovakia and hungary speak for themselves. List of books and articles about pogroms online research. Postworld war ii pogroms included the 1945 tripoli pogrom, the 1946 kielce pogrom and the 1947 aleppo pogrom.
An edited polish version was published in 2008 by znak publishers in krakow as strach. Antijewish violence and pogroms in poland at the end of. This is why israel and poland are fighting about the holocaust. Although the germans abandoned them as a tool of annihilation policy, pogroms did not end with world war ii.
Mobs attacked jews after false rumors spread that jews had abducted a christian child whom they. Perhaps you could describe for us continental europe in the months and years immediately after ve day in may 1945, the date when hostilities officially ended. A correspondent who wishes to remain anonymous has sent us this timeline of jewish persecutions and pogroms as a reminder of the unremitting and pathological antisemitism that has bedeviled mankind from the earliest times up to the present. In 1939 at the start of world war ii, poland was partitioned between nazi germany and the soviet union see molotovribbentrop pact. Aug 31, 2018 pogroms even continued after the war was over, as in kielce, where 42 jewish survivors of the war were beaten, shot and stoned by poles. As the deadliest pogrom against polish jews after the second world war, the incident was a significant point in the postwar history of jews in poland. Contemporary reactions to antisemitic violence in europe 18151950, organised by the wiener library london and the pears institute for the study of antisemitism, 30 may 2014. The ill prepared polish army soon succumbed, surrendering to germanys vastly superior forces on september 27. With such a smoldering trashheap of resentment, only a spark was needed to start an inferno.
After world war i, poland became a democratic independent state with significant minority populations, including ukrainians, jews, belorussians, lithuanians, and ethnic germans. In kielce, poland, local residents launched a pogrom against surviving and returning jews in the city on july 4, 1946. Antijewish violence in poland, 19141920 book, 2018. Mobs attacked jews after false rumors spread that jews had abducted a christian child whom they intended to kill for ritual purposes. Yet despite this unprecedented calamity, jewish holocaust survivors returning to their hometowns in poland after the war were further subjected to terror and bloodshed. On the broadest level, the book not only dispels several enduring assumptions in the secondary literature but also repositions the pogrom within a wider body of scholarship on ethnic violence. President woodrow wilson sent an official commission to investigate the matter. Hagen offers the pogroms first scholarly account, revealing how they. Coming just one year after the end of world war ii, the massacre shocked people around the world. Implications for old and new accusations against poland. See more ideas about jewish history, history and lest we forget. Jewish holocaust survivors returning to their polish hometowns after the war experienced widespread hostility, including murder, at the hands of.
Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. A pogrom occurred in 1946 in kielce, poland, against jewish holocaust survivors who returned to the town, leaving 42 dead. Gross, a princeton professor, has written an astonishing book, an expose of vicious antisemitism, complete with medieval, murderous pogroms raging in poland after the end of world war ii. The krakow pogrom of august 11, 1945, was the first antijewish riot in postwar poland, resulting in the shooting death of one woman, roza berger, who was hiding from the security forces behind closed doors. The pogroms raged against the conscious will of new polands governors whilst christians high and low sometimes sought, even successfully, to block them.
If approximately 1,000 jews per month left poland between july 1945 and june 1946, immediately after the pogrom the numbers spiked dramatically. The most painful and traumatic of these problems is the existence of antisemitism in poland after world war ii. An essay in historical interpretation, is a book by jan t. In the months after the war ended, more than 350 jews were murdered there, and countless others were assaulted. The book is the jews and the poles in world war ii, and this fifth chapter is titled the jews in postwar poland. These pogroms further motivated the already devastated jewish population to seek refuge outside of europe. After the abortive revolution of 1905, pogroms increased in number and violence. I argue that although the backgrounds of the two countries were different, certain factors occasionally resulted in similar pogroms in approximately the same time. Poland had always suffered from the occasional explosion of antijewish resentment. Timeline of jewish persecutions and pogroms darkmoon. By 1967, after years of sustained emigration, this number was further reduced to 25,00030,000 the total polish population in 1967 was 32 million. This thesis compares violent attacks suffered by holocaust survivors in postwar poland and hungary. It took place only a year after the end of the second world war and the holocaust, shocking jews in poland, poles, and the international community. Pogroms were also a feature of the polishsoviet war of 1920, and the clashes between polish and ukrainian nationalists in the borderlands.
Poland faces up to the horror of its own role in the holocaust. Then, in 1945, there was a wave of antijewish pogroms in poland, sparked by rumors that jews had committed ritual murder. Jan 03, 2008 one of the really valuable contributions gross makes on this topic in his book, fear is to argue that the post war pogroms were a product of polish experiences during the nazi occupation. An essay in historical interpretation writing in book by gross, jan t. Stories such as these were rife in poland after the war. Onefifth of the polish population perished during world war ii. More than 200,000 jews were killed, directly or indirectly, by poles in world war ii, says historian jan grabowski, who studied the brutal persecution of the victims. The author presents an impressive set of wwiera newspaper accounts e.
Antijewish violence and pogroms in poland at the end of the second world war. Jun 30, 2018 buy antijewish violence in poland, 19141920 by william w. Pogroms were a shameful reality of polands history up until the end of world war ii. Apr 22, 2020 in 1948, an estimated 88,000 jews remained, after jews who fled to the soviet union during the war were repatriated, and after many left as a result of pogroms. While the pogrom was not an isolated instance of antijewish violence in postwar poland, the kielce massacre convinced many polish jews that they had no future in poland after the holocaust and spurred them to flee the country. Antijewish violence in poland, 19141920 ebook, 2018. Jul 23, 2006 polish jews, having escaped the fate of 90 percent of their community, returned to their homeland after world war ii to be vilified, terrorized and, in some 1,500 instances, murdered. Hitlers army invaded poland on september 1, 1939, the start of the second world war. A few days after the rioting in rzeszow, a rumor that christian children were killed in an act of ritual murder was spread in przemysl. The best books on the aftermath of world war ii recommended by keith lowe. The antijewish violence in poland from 1944 to 1946 refers to a series of violent incidents in poland that immediately followed the end of world war ii in europe. In spring 1945, not long after his liberation from.
In recent years polish historians have shown a growing interest in. Antisemitism in poland after auschwitz kindle edition by gross, jan. It seems clear, zipperstein says, that no fewer than one hundred thousand jews were murdered in these offhandedly brutal horrors, and at. Reviews no one writes with greater eloquence on east central europes often confounding past than william w. And that to understand the postwar pogroms and the expulsion of jews from poland after the war one has to understand polish involvement in the shoah. The author explores how a town of about 3,600 people, half jewish and half christian, can go from living together in peace with neighbors to a murderous, killing frenzy during the war to more or less shrugging it off after the war. During the polishsoviet war, polish soldiers executed 35 jews suspected of being bolsheviks. Most recent contributions of polish historiography. Poland in world war 2 52 books meet your next favorite book. And that to understand the postwar pogroms and the expulsion of jews from poland after the war one has to understand polish involvement in the shoah, and their resistance to coming to terms with it. Its very convenient to think of wars as having neat beginnings and endings but thats rarely the case, especially world war ii. The postholocaust pogrom that poland is still fighting over after world war ii, jewish refugees found they could never return to their native landa sentiment that some echo today.
None of the defendants had a higher education and three were illiterate. The poles who hunted jews and turned them over to the nazis. Polish nationalists say antisemitism has been used to shame poland, but historians and jewish leaders say theyre trying to censor the truth about the holocaust. The ill prepared polish army soon succumbed, surrendering to. Poles were clearly willing to participate in an act of antijewish violence. Polish jews, having escaped the fate of 90 percent of their community, returned to their homeland after world war ii to be vilified, terrorized and. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. On the other hand, the recent public debates over polish crimes on jews in jedwabne or kielce pogroms michlic, 2006, as well as postholocaust wave of hate against the survivors gross, 2006. Pogroms were a shameful reality of poland s history up until the end of world war ii. Pogroms even continued after the war was over, as in kielce, where 42 jewish survivors of the war were beaten, shot and stoned by poles. That did not mean that antisemitism did not impact the lives of polish jews, but jews were part of poland, and polish culture was, in part, jewish.
Jewish life in poland before the holocaust facing history and. In the decade up to 1955 poland somehow acquired jewish overlords not only in government and the communist party but in the secret police, in the administration of justice, in the machinery of political indoctrination, and so on. For three days in 1919, during the ukraine civil war, cossacks in proskurov murdered 1,500 jews. The most notorious attacks were carried out by poles in lwow from 22 to 24 november 1918, and in pinsk on 5 april 1919. Gross point, i think, is that one can not understand this postwar persecution as an eternal expression of polish antisemitism.
In 1948, an estimated 88,000 jews remained, after jews who fled to the soviet union during the war were repatriated, and after many left as a result of pogroms. Pressure for government action reached the point where u. William w hagen widespread antijewish pogroms accompanied the rebirth of polish statehood out of world war i and polishsoviet war. After the second world war, gross writes, pogroms occurred in the eastern regions of the country and in the district of krakow, while fifteen hundred were killed while trying to get back their properties 29 jan t. Feb 11, 2017 one can start by saying that about 35,000 polish jews survived the war in poland excluding those who fled into the soviet union and returned after the war. The postholocaust pogrom that poland is still fighting over. Antisemitism in poland after auschwitz religionwiki. Various accounts had written of as many as 30,000 jews killed by poles. After world war ii, jewish refugees found they could never return to their native landa sentiment that some echo today.
Notorious pogroms of world war ii included the 1941 farhud in iraq, the july 1941 iasi pogrom in romania in which over,200 jews were killed as well as the jedwabne pogrom in germanoccupied poland. In his chapter the unwelcoming of jewish survivors, gross describes how returning polish jews were subjected to a wave of violence and hostility, with up to. Hagen, and this book on the pogroms that shook poland after world war one. This thesis compares violent attacks suffered by holocaust survivors in post war poland and hungary. After the war, in 1949 and 1950, 22 suspects from the town and vicinity were put on trial in poland, accused of collaborating with the germans during the pogrom. Nowadays, the poles do pogroms meme portrays poles as some kind of primitive, hypercatholic people who have nothing better to do than harm the jews.
Klier treats the pogroms not so much as a discrete moment, with clear origins and outcomes, but as a messy historical process. Here are the 10 most essential books focusing on various aspects of the war in poland, organized by something like chronology. The deadliest peacetime pogrom in twentiethcentury europe took place in the polish town of kielce on july 4, 1946. Antijewish violence in poland, 19141920 by william w. An astonishing and heartbreaking study of the polish holocaust survivors who returned home only to face continued violence and antisemitism at the hands of. Explanations and consequences delivered at a workshop on pogroms. At least 340 polish jews, including women and children, were murdered, some 300 of whom were locked inside a barn that was set on fire. It has been recognized as a catalyst for the flight from poland of most remaining polish jews who had survived the holocaust.
Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading fear. Antijewish violence and pogroms in poland at the end of the. No one writes with greater eloquence on east central europes often confounding past than william w. The building at 7 planty street in kielce, poland, site of a little known postworld war ii pogrom that claimed the lives of 42 jews. Tensions between polish jews and nonjewish poles intensified after the soviet union, which. The best books on the aftermath of world war ii five. In spring 1945, not long after his liberation from auschwitz, primo levi, traveling across southern.
Antisemitism affected the way jews were treated almost everywhere after the war, but feelings against jews were especially strong in poland. Gross, published by random house and princeton university press in 2006. Known to few people in postcommunist poland prior to the 2001 publication of a book about it, the jedwabne massacre was one of about 20 anti. Unless this pathological condition is stamped out at once, with all negative criticisms of israel and jews. Neighbors is a relatively short book about a small town of in poland before, during, and after wwii. Their leader, ivan samosenko, was executed for war crimes. On september 17, following the agreement of the molotovribbentrop treaty, the soviet army invaded poland from the east.
Jan 28, 2000 neighbors is a relatively short book about a small town of in poland before, during, and after wwii. Poland faces up to the horror of its own role in the holocaust sylvie kauffmann. Polands little holocaust after the holocaust baltimore sun. A series of pogroms and discriminatory laws were signs of growing antisemitism, while. However, increasing polish nationalism made poland a hostile place for many jews.
The book begins with a clear history of the age of pogroms, starting in the 1880s after the assassination of tsar alexander ii, and reaching a climax during the civil war after the russian revolution. One shortcoming of this book is that author heddesheimer fails to mention the alleged 1918era pogroms in poland. With the success of the bolshevik revolution, pogroms ceased in the soviet union. The persistence of antisemitism facing history and ourselves. Antisemitism in poland after the sixday war, 19671969. Soon after his birth in 1918, his family went through pogroms, which he describes as follows. According to polands institute of national remembrance ipn investigation, on 10 july 1941 polish men from nearby villages began arriving in jedwabne with the intention of participating in the premeditated murder of the jewish inhabitants of the town.