| This article is part of the History of Jews in Poland series |
Main article |
 |
| History of Poland |
|---|
| Chronology |
Until 966 |
| Topics |
Culture |
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. Jan Matejko ( (also known as Jan Mateyko; June 24 1838 Free City of Kraków; - November 1 1893 Kraków) was a Polish painter The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a Millennium. The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a Millennium. Chronology of Jewish Polish history: 960 A Jewish merchant from Spain, Ibrahim Ibn Jaqub (Abraham ben Jakov travels to Poland and writes the first description The German camps in occupied Poland during World War II were built by Nazi Germany during its occupation of Poland (1939-1945 WIKIPEDIAVERIFIABILITY AND WIKIPEDIANO ORIGINAL RESEARCH, WHICH PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut " Who is a Jew? " (Mihu Yehudi? ?מיהו יהודי is a basic question about Jewish identity. This article focuses on the Etymology of the word Jew. Biblical and Middle Eastern origins The Jews in their land The Jewish ethnonym in Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena above all it is the Culture of secular communities of Jewish people but it can also include Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Although Jews and religious leaders share a core of monotheistic principles Judaism has no formal statement of principles of faith such as a Creed or Catechism In Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title See also Old testament, Septuagint, Targum, Peshitta The Tanakh (תַּנַ"ךְ (taˈnax or; also Tenakh or Tenak is term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים "Prophets" is the second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, between the Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים "writings" is the third and final section of the Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible) after Torah and Nevi'im This article is about commandments in Judaism For the Jewish rite of passage see Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah Mitzvah ( Hebrew: מצוה See also Mitzvah See also Biblical law in Christianity The 613 Mitzvot ("commandments" (also " 613 Mitzvos The Talmud ( Hebrew: he תַּלְמוּד is a record of Rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history Halakha ( הלכה; alternative transliterations include Halocho and Halacha) is the collective body of Jewish Religious law For the Gregorian dates of Jewish Holidays see Jewish holidays 2000-2050. Jewish services ( Hebrew: תפלה, tefillah; plural תפלות, tefillos or tefillot; Yinglish: davening Tzedakah ( צדקה) is a Hebrew word commonly translated as charity, though it is based on a root meaning Justice Jewish ethics stands at the intersection of Judaism and the Western philosophical tradition of Ethics. Kabbalah (קַבָּלָה lit "receiving" is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mystical aspect of Judaism. Minhag ( Hebrew: מנהג "custom" pl minhagim) is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. Midrash ( Hebrew: מדרש plural midrashim, lit "to repeat" is a Hebrew term referring to the not exact but comparative ( homiletic See also Judaism by country Jewish ethnic divisions refers to a number of distinct communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim ( Hebrew: אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים, ˌaʃkəˈnazim sing Sephardi Jews ( Hebrew: ספרדי, Standard Səfardi Tiberian Səp̄arədî; plural Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, ( also referred to as Edot HaMizrach (Communities of the East are Jews descended Jewish population refers to the number of Jews in the world Precise figures are difficult to calculate because the definition of " Who is a Jew " remains a Jewish population centers have shifted tremendously over time due to the constant streams of Jewish refugees created by expulsions persecution and officially sanctioned killing This article deals with the practice of Judaism and the living arrangement of Jewish people in the listed countries The History of the Jews in the Land of Israel begins with the ancient Israelites (also known as Hebrews) who settled in the Land of Israel. The history of the Jews in the United States has been influenced by waves of immigration primarily from Europe inspired by the social and economic opportunities of the United Iraqi Jews are Jews born in Iraq or of Iraqi heritage The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c Spanish Jews once constituted one of the largest and most prosperous Jewish communities under Muslim and Christian rule in Spain, before they The history of the Jews in Portugal is directly related to Sephardi history a Jewish ethnic division that represents communities who have originated Jews have lived in Germany, or " Ashkenaz " at least since the early 4th century, through both periods of tolerance and spasms of The Jewish community of Bosnia and Herzegovina has a rich and varied history surviving World War II and the Yugoslav Wars, after having The history of the Jews in the Americas dates back to Christopher Columbus and his first cross- Atlantic voyage on August 3, 1492 The history of the Jews of Argentina harks back to the days of the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition when Jews fleeing persecution settled in what A Brazilian Jew ( Portuguese: Judeu Brasileiro) is a Brazilian person of full partial or predominantly Jew ancestry or a Jew-born person residing in Brazil Jewish immigration to Latin America began with seven sailors arriving in Christopher Columbus 's crew Jewish Cubans, Cuban Jews, or Cubans of Jewish heritage, have lived on the island of Cuba for centuries Jews have been present in El Salvador since the early 19th Century. Jews have lived in Mexico since the times of the Inquisition. Jewish Nicaraguans or Nicaraguan Jews (Judío Nicaragüense are Nicaraguans of Jewish Ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Nicaragua The History of the Jews in Venezuela dates to the middle of the 17th century when records suggest that groups of Marranos (Spanish and Portuguese descendants of baptized The Jewish community in France presently numbers around 600000 according to the World Jewish Congress and 500000 according to the Appel Unifié Juif de France and is The first written records of Jewish settlement in England date from the time of the Norman Conquest, mentioning Jews who arrived with William the Conqueror Canada has the world's fourth-largest Jewish population According to the Canada 2001 Census, there are an estimated 351000 Jews currently living in Canada The history of the Jews in Australia began with the transportation of a number of Jewish Convicts aboard the First Fleet in 1788 when History of the Jews in Hungary concerns the Jews of Hungary and of Hungarian origins Indian Jews are a religious minority of India. Judaism was one of the first non- Dharmic religions to arrive in India in recorded history Jews {ref|name|§}} have lived in the geographic area of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) for more than 2400 years There have been organized Jewish communities in Greece for more than two thousand years Since Biblical times the Jewish people have had close ties with Africa beginning with Abraham 's sojourns in Egypt, and later the Israelite captivity under The beginnings of Jewish history in Iran date back to late biblical times Jews and Judaism in China' have had a long history Jewish settlers are documented in China as early as the 7th or 8th century CE, but may The history of Jews in the territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia began in Roman times when Jews first arrived in the region in the The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory By type List of Jewish historians List of Jewish scientists and philosophers List of Jewish nobility Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith people who practice crypto-Judaism are referred to as "crypto-Jews" Rabbi (pronunciation, although in English usually) in Judaism, means a religious ‘teacher’ or more literally ‘my great one’ when addressing any master Orthodox Judaism is the formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized Conservative Judaism (also known as Masorti Judaism in Israel and Europe) is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently subjected to vandalism and the insertion of personal opinions Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of the late Mordecai Kaplan (1881 – 1983 Karaite Judaism or Karaism (ˈkærəˌaɪt ˈkærəˌɪzəm) is a Jewish movement NOTE The word sect should not be used without defining it first and Humanistic Judaism is a movement within Judaism that emphasizes Jewish culture and history—rather than belief in God—as the sources of Jewish identity Jewish Renewal is a recent movement in Judaism which endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with mystical, Hasidic, Musical and Alternative Judaism or Agnostic Judaism refers to a variety of groups whose members while identifying as Jews in some fashion nevertheless do not practice Rabbinical The Jewish languages are a set of Languages that developed in various Jewish communities around the world more notably in Europe, West Asia, and Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High Judæo-Persian dialects are a subgroup of Persian dialects spoken by the Jews of Iran Judæo-Aramaic is a collective term used to describe several Hebrew -influenced Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic Languages History The Judæo-Arabic languages are a collection of Arabic dialects spoken by Jews living or formerly living in the Arab world; the term also refers to Jewish history is the History of the Jewish people, faith, and culture. This is a timeline of the development of Judaism and the Jewish people. Jewish leadership has evolved over time Since the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE there has been no single body that has a leadership The history of Ancient Israel and Judah is known to us from classical sources including Judaism 's Tanakh or Hebrew Bible (known Etymology The Hebrew name given in Scripture for the building is Beit HaMikdash or "The Holy House" and only the Temple in Jerusalem is referred to by this name The Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile, is the name typically given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, he-Latn Yerushaláyim; Arabic: ar القُدس, ar-Latn al-Quds) is the See also Religious significance of Jerusalem Since the 10th century BCE Jerusalem in Judaism has been the holiest city, focus and spiritual centre of This is a partial timeline of major events in the History of Jerusalem:; 1800 BCE: The Jebusites build the wall Jebus ( Jerusalem The Hasmoneans (/hæzməˡniən/ חשמונאים Hashmonaiym, Audio were the ruling dynasty of the Hasmonean Kingdom ( 140 &ndash 37 BCE The Sanhedrin (סנהדרין συνέδριον ''synedrion'', "sitting together" hence " assembly " or "council" was an assembly Schisms among the Jews are cultural as well as religious They have happened as a product of historical accident geography and Theology. The word Pharisees ( lat. pharisæ|us, - i) comes from the Hebrew פרושים perushim from פרוש parush, meaning "separated" This article discusses the traditional views of the two religions and may not be applicable all adherents of each The historical interaction of Judaism and Islam started in the 7th century CE with the origin and spread of Islam in the Arabian peninsula. The Jewish diaspora ( Hebrew: Tefutzah, "scattered" or Galut גלות "exile" Yiddish: tfutses) the presence The History of Jews in the Middle Ages (approximately 500 CE to 1750 CE can be divided into two categories Also not to be confused with Subbotniks or Sabbatarians. Note Most Sabbateans during and after Sabbatai Zevi were Jews Hasidic Judaism (also Chasidic, etc from the Hebrew: he '''''חסידות''''', Chassidus, meaning "piety" from the Hebrew Haskalah ( Hebrew: השכלה "enlightenment" "education" from sekhel " Intellect " "mind") the Jewish Enlightenment Jewish question Jewish emancipation was the abolition of discriminatory laws as applied especially to Jews in Europe in the nineteenth century the recognition of Jews The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as Aliyah ( refers to Jewish Immigration to the Land of Israel (and since its establishment in 1948 the State of Israel) For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. The State of Israel (מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael) was established in 1948 after nearly two thousand For other uses see Israel (disambiguation The Land of Israel ( Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל Eretz Yisrael) is Note This article is about the movement See Orthodox outreach, Reform outreach, and Conservative outreach for more information about the rabbis See also Antisemitism, History of antisemitism, New antisemitism The persecution of Jews has occurred many times in Jewish history. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility The history of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group goes back many centuries Jewish political movements refer to the organized efforts of Jews to build their own political parties or otherwise represent their interest in politics outside of History of Zionism|Timeline of Zionism|World Zionist Organization|Zionist political violence Zionism is an international political movement that originally supported the Labor Zionism ( Labour Zionism, ציונות סוציאליסטית tsionut sotsialistit) can be described as the major stream of the Left wing of the Revisionist Zionism is a nationalist faction within the Zionist movement Religious Zionism, or the Religious Zionist Movement (a branch of which is also called Mizrachi) is an ideology that combines Zionism and religious The General Zionists (ציונים כלליים Tzionim Klalim) were centrists within the Zionist movement and a political party in Israel World Agudath Israel (The World Jewish Union usually known as the Aguda, was established in the early twentieth century as the political arm of Ashkenazi Torah Judaism Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to improve the religious legal and social status of women within Judaism and to open up new opportunities for religious experience Politics of Israel takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic Republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Israel is Highly developed agricultural people have lived in the area that is now Poland for the last 7500 years the Slavic people have settled in this territory for over 1500 years and the Dates and most important events in Polish history from prehistoric times up to the present day The prehistory of Poland, or the history of Poland until 966 AD covers the period from the appearance of humans on the lands of today's Poland to the establishment of the In the first centuries of its existence the Polish nation was led by a series of strong rulers who converted the Poles to Christendom, created a strong Central European The Jagiellon Era 1385&ndash1569 was dominated by the union of Poland with Lithuania under the Jagiellon Dynasty, founded by the Lithuanian grand duke See also Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth The Nihil novi act adopted by the Polish Diet in 1505 transferred all Legislative power Partitions Summary Although the majority of the Szlachta was reconciled to the end of the Commonwealth in 1795 the possibility of See also Second Polish Republic The History of interwar Poland starts with the recreation of independent Poland in 1918 and ends with the occupation of The history of Poland from 1939 to 1945 encompasses the German invasion of Poland through to the end of World War II The history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 spans the period of Soviet Communist dominance over the People's Republic of Poland following World In the 1970s and 1980s tension grew between the people of Poland and its Communist government as with the rest of the Eastern bloc as the influence of the Soviet The Culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1000 year history. Historical demography of Poland shows that in the past Poland's Demography was much more diverse then at present Poland is considered to currently have one of the fastest growing economies in Central European nations with an annual growth rate of over 6 The politics of Poland take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic Republic, whereby the Prime Minister Poland, or at least its nucleus was ruled at various times either by książęta (Dukes(ca Head of State ( Naczelnik Państwa, 1918-1922 Marshal Józef Klemens Piłsudski ( 14 November 1918 - Polish Army ( Polish: Wojsko Polskie) is the name applied to the military forces of Poland. Below is a list of military conflicts in which Polish armed forces participated or took place on Polish territory History In the period following the emergence of Poland in the 10th century the Polish nation was led by a series of strong rulers of the Piast dynasty, who The territorial changes of Poland after World War II were very extensive A millennium (pl millennia) is a period of Time equal to one thousand Years (from Latin la mille, thousand and la annum [1] Poland was home to the largest Jewish population in Europe and served as the center for Jewish culture, ranging from a long period of religious tolerance and prosperity among the country's Jewish population, to its nearly complete genocidal destruction by Nazi Germany in the twentieth century during the German occupation of Poland and the Holocaust. Religious toleration is the condition of accepting or permitting others' religious beliefs and practices which disagree with one's own PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction in whole or in part of an ethnic racial religious or national group Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers This article deals with the occupation of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War (1939–1945 The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as
From the founding of the Kingdom of Poland in the eleventh century through the early years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth created in 1569, Poland was one of the most tolerant countries in Europe. The Kingdom of Poland ( pol Królestwo Polskie, lat Regnum Poloniae, ukr The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, officially the Commonwealth of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania also known as the Most Serene Republic Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland [2] Known as paradisus Iudaeorum (Latin for Jewish paradise) it became home to one of the world's largest and most vibrant Jewish communities. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. With the weakening of the Commonwealth and growing religious strife (due to the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation), Poland’s traditional tolerance[3] began to wane from the seventeenth century onward. The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time The Counter-Reformation (also Catholic Reformation denotes the period of Catholic revival from the pontificate of Pope Pius IV in 1560 to the close of the [4] For centuries Poland was unique shelter for persecuted and expelled European Jewish communities. Polin, as the Jews called the place in Yiddish, a place which meant in Hebrew 'Here shalt thou lodge' in the exile from the Land of Israel. This is an article about a name For a person see Raymond Polin. In 1568 Polish King Sigismund II Augustus issued privilege de non tolerandis christianis for Jewish inhabitant of Kazimierz. For other nobles of the same name please see Sigismund. Sigismund II Augustus I (Zygmunt II August See also Casimir Kazimierz ( Latin: Casimiria; Yiddish Kuzmir) is a historical district of Kraków ( It was an extraordinary prohibition for Christians to enter Jewish town. After the partitions of Poland in 1795 and the destruction of Poland as a sovereign state, Polish Jews were subject to the laws of the partitioning powers, primarily the increasingly anti-Semitic Russian Empire,[5] but also Austro-Hungary and Prussian/German Empire. The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Sovereignty is the exclusive Right to control a Government, a country, a people or oneself Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya The Kingdom of Prussia (Königreich Preußen was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918 and from 1871 was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification Still, as Poland regained independence in the twentieth century, immediately prior to World War II, it was the center of the European Jewish world with a vibrant Jewish community of over three million, one of the largest in the world, though anti-Semitism, both political and from the general population, common throughout contemporary Europe, was a growing problem. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including [6]
Over 90% of the Polish Jewry, about three million, were killed during the Holocaust (also called Shoah in Hebrew) in German Nazi-occupied Poland, along with approximately three million of non-Jewish Poles. The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as The history of Poland from 1939 to 1945 encompasses the German invasion of Poland through to the end of World War II (see:Holocaust victims and death toll) The Nazi occupation of Poland resulted in the death of one-fifth of the Polish population. The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as German Nazism and the acts of the Nazi German state profoundly affected many countries communities and peoples before during and after World War II. There was no collaborationist government in Poland[1], and relatively little collaboration by individual Poles with the Nazis, including the Holocaust. [7][8] The attitude of non-Jewish Poles ranged from extreme cases of participation in massacres such as the Jedwabne pogrom and similar pogroms in 22 other Polish towns,[9] through cases of blackmail[10] (szmalcownik) of Jews hiding from German persecution (condemned by the Polish Underground State[11] and punished by death), indifference to the plight of the Jews or unwillingness to help due to fear for ones own life, to active assistance (Zegota) in evading and resisting the Germans such as Irena Sendler, who saved about 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. This is a list of events named "massacre". The term suggests Mass murder and its usage may be controversial The Jedwabne Pogrom (or Jedwabne massacre) (jɛdˈvabnɛ was a massacre of Jewish people living in and near the town of Jedwabne in Szmalcownik (ʂmal 'ʦɔv ɲik is a Pejorative Polish Slang word used during World War II that denoted a person Blackmailing Polish Underground State (Polskie Państwo Podziemne also known as Polish Secret State) refers to all underground resistance organizations in Poland during " Żegota " ( also known as the " Konrad Żegota Committee," was a codename for the Council to Aid Jews ( Rada Pomocy Żydom) an underground Irena Sendler (in Polish also Irena Sendlerowa; de domo Krzyżanowska; February 15, 1910 – May 12, 2008 The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish Ghettos located in the territory of General Government during World War II, established by [12] Those non-Jews who worked at great risk to their personal safety to save Jews became known as the Righteous Among the Nations (or sometimes Righteous Gentiles) of whom 6,066 are Poles, [13] the highest number of any other nation. Righteous among the Nations (חסידי אומות העולם Chassidey Umot HaOlam) which may at times refer to the B'nei Noah or Noahides as well is a term used Polish Righteous came from all classes and their success demonstrates that there would have been far more survivors if readiness to help had been more widespread among Polish Christian population. Poland however, along with territories of today's Belarus and Ukraine included in the General Government, was the only occupied country in Europe in which anyone caught aiding a Jew was automatically subject to the death penalty,[14][15] along with all family members of the same residence and often neighbors as well. Belarus ( Belarusian Беларусь / Biełaruś is a Landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. The General Government (Generalgouvernement refers to a part of the territories of Poland (and Ostrava Czechoslovakia under German Military occupation [2]
Many Holocaust survivors have rather negative attitudes toward the Poles based on their experiences. There are many famous Holocaust survivors who survived the Nazi Genocides in Europe and went on to achievements of great fame and notability Most claim that vast majority of Christian Poles were passive witness, sometimes even glad that the Jews were being removed and did nothing to aid their neighbours. It is hard to know how many Christian Poles, who were also victims of German barbarity[3], had sympathy for their Jewish neighbours but were paralyzed into inaction by fear.
In the postwar period, many of the approximately 200,000 survivors chose to emigrate from the communist People's Republic of Poland to the nascent State of Israel, United States and South America, their departure hastened by the destruction of most Jewish institutions, post-war pogroms, and the hostility of the communist party to both religion and to private enterprise. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based The People's Republic of Poland or Polish People's Republic ( Polish: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL Russian For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A pogrom is a form of Riot directed against a particular group whether ethnic religious or other and characterized by destruction of their Homes Businesses Most of the remaining Jews left Poland in the late 1960s as the result of the Soviet state-sponsored anti-Semitic anti-Zionist campaign. The Polish 1968 political crisis (also known in Polish as 'March 1968' or 'March events' Marzec 1968 or wydarzenia marcowe) describes the major Student and intellectual After the fall of the communist regime in Poland in 1989, the situation of Polish Jews became normalized and Jews who were Polish citizens before World War II were allowed to get new Polish citizenship. Religious institutions were revived, largely through the activities of Jewish foundations from the United States including the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. The contemporary Polish Jewish community is generally estimated to have approximately 8,000 to 12,000 members, though the actual number of Jews, including those who are not actively connected to Judaism or Jewish culture, may be several times larger.
Contents
|
Early history to Golden Age: 966–1572
- For more details on this topic, see History of the Jews in Poland (966-1572). The History of Jews in the Middle Ages (approximately 500 CE to 1750 CE can be divided into two categories
Early history: 966–1385
The first Jews arrived in the territory of modern Poland in the tenth century. In the first centuries of its existence the Polish nation was led by a series of strong rulers who converted the Poles to Christendom, created a strong Central European Travelling along the trade routes leading eastwards to Kiev and Bukhara, the Jewish merchants (known as Radhanites) also crossed the areas of Silesia. Kiev, also known as Kyiv ( Ukrainian:, Kyiv, ˈkɪjiw Russian:, Kiyev; see also Cities' alternative names) is the Bukhara (Buxoro Бухоро بُخارا Бухара also spelled as Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak ("lucky The Radhanites (also Radanites, Hebrew sing רדהני Radhani, pl Etymology One theory claims that the name Silesia is derived from the Silingi, who were most likely a Vandalic (East Germanic people One of them, a diplomat and merchant from the Moorish town of Tortosa in Spanish Al-Andalus, known under his Arabic name of Ibrahim ibn Jakub, was the first chronicler to mention the Polish state under the rule of prince Mieszko I. The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim (and earlier non-Muslim people of Berber and Arab descent Tortosa ( Latin: Dertusa or Dertosa, Arabic: طرطوشة Ṭurṭūšah) is the capital of the comarca Al-Andalus (الأندلس was the Arabic name given to those parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims or Abraham ben Jacob, better known under his Arabic name of Ibrahim ibn Yaqub (or Ibrahim ibn Yaqub al-Tartushi) was a 10th century Sephardi Jew, a traveller Life In 965 Mieszko married Dobrawa (Dobrava Dubrawka daughter of Boleslav I, Duke of Bohemia. The first actual mention of Jews in Polish chronicles occurs in the eleventh century. It appears that Jews were then living in Gniezno, at that time the capital of the Polish kingdom of the Piast dynasty. Gniezno (Gnesen is a Town in central-western Poland, some 50 km east of Poznań, inhabited by about 73000 people In the first centuries of its existence the Polish nation was led by a series of strong rulers who converted the Poles to Christendom, created a strong Central European Piast dynasty is the name used since the 17th century for Polish Royal Dynasty that ruled Poland from its beginnings as Duchy ruled by Mieszko The first permanent Jewish community is mentioned in 1085 by a Jewish scholar Jehuda ha-Kohen in the city of Przemyśl (nevertheless it was Ruthenian town in this time). Przemyśl (Перемишль Peremyshl, Prömsel פּשעמישל- Pshemishl) is a city in south-eastern Poland with 67847 inhabitants (2005 Red Ruthenia ( Червона Русь, Chervona Rus, Polish: Ruś Czerwona, Latin: Ruthenia Rubra or Russia
The first extensive Jewish emigration from Western Europe to Poland occurred at the time of the First Crusade in 1098. Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II with the dual goals of conquering the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land and freeing Under Boleslaus III (1102–1139), the Jews, encouraged by the tolerant régime of this ruler, settled throughout Poland, including over the border into Lithuanian territory as far as Kiev. Bolesław III Wrymouth ( Bolesław III Krzywousty) 1085 – 1138) was Duke of Poland from Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika is a Country in Eastern often referred to as Northern Europe or in the Kiev, also known as Kyiv ( Ukrainian:, Kyiv, ˈkɪjiw Russian:, Kiyev; see also Cities' alternative names) is the At the same time Poland saw immigration of Khazars, a Turkic tribe that had converted to Judaism. "Kazar" redirects here for the Marvel Comics character see Ka-Zar; for the village in Azerbaijan see Xəzər. The Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern central and western Eurasia who speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Boleslaus III on his part recognised the utility of the Jews in the development of the commercial interests of his country. Commerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer The Jews came to form the backbone of the Polish economy and the coins minted by Mieszko III even bear Hebraic markings. Mieszko III the Old ( Polish: Mieszko III Stary; 1121? – March 13, 1202) of the Piast Dynasty, was Duke of Greater The Hebrew alphabet (אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. Jews enjoyed undisturbed peace and prosperity in the many principalities into which the country was then divided; they formed the middle class in a country where the general population consisted of landlords (developing into szlachta, the unique Polish nobility) and peasants, and they were instrumental in promoting the commercial interests of the land. Landlord is the owner of a House, Apartment, Condominium, or Real estate which is rented or Leased to an individual or business Szlachta ( refers to the noble class in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (since 1569 semi-federal semi-confederal
The tolerant situation was gradually altered by the Roman Catholic Church on the one hand, and by the neighbouring German states on the other. There were, however, among the reigning princes some determined protectors of the Jewish inhabitants, who considered the presence of the latter most desirable insofar as the economic development of the country was concerned. Prominent among such rulers was Boleslaus the Pious of Kalisz, Prince of Great Poland. Boleslaw the Pious (born between 1221-1227 died 14 April 1279) was a Duke of Greater Poland (provinces of Poznań, Kalisz Kalisz is a City in central Poland with 109800 inhabitants (1995 Greater Poland or Great Poland, Polish Wielkopolska (Großpolen Latin: Polonia Maior) is a historical region of west-central Poland With the consent of the class representatives and higher officials, in 1264 he issued a General Charter of Jewish Liberties, the Statute of Kalisz, which granted all Jews the freedom of worship, trade and travel. The General Charter of Jewish Liberties known as the Statute of Kalisz was issued by the Duke of Greater Poland Boleslaus the Pious on September 8 The General Charter of Jewish Liberties known as the Statute of Kalisz was issued by the Duke of Greater Poland Boleslaus the Pious on September 8 During the next hundred years, the Church pushed for the persecution of the Jews while the rulers of Poland usually protected them.
In 1334, Casimir III the Great (1303–1370) amplified and expanded Bolesław's old charter with the Wiślicki Statute. Casimir III the Great (Kazimierz Wielki April 30 1310 – November 5 1370 last King of Poland from the Piast dynasty (1333–1370 was the son of King Władysław Wislicki Statute (Statuty wiślickie entails a collection of laws for Little Poland announced by king Casimir III of Poland during the 1347 congress in Casimir was especially friendly to the Jews, and his reign is regarded as an era of great prosperity for Polish Jewry, and was surnamed by his contemporaries "King of the serfs and Jews. " Nevertheless, while for the greater part of Casimir’s reign the Jews of Poland enjoyed tranquillity, toward its close they were subjected to persecution on account of the Black Death. The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the deadliest Pandemics in human history widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia In 1347 the first blood libel accusation against Jews in Poland recorded, and in 1367 the first pogrom, in Poznań. Blood libels against Jews are false accusations that Jews use Human blood in certain aspects of their Religious rituals and holidays Although Poznań Lublin Voivodeship This article is about the city in Poland [16] Later the massacres occurred at Kalisz, Kraków, Głogów, and other Polish cities along the German frontier, and it is estimated that 10,000 Jews were killed. Kalisz is a City in central Poland with 109800 inhabitants (1995 Kraków, in English also spelled Krakow or Cracow (ˈkrækaʊ M-W: krăk'ou krāk'ō is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland Głogów (Hlohov (rare Glogau rarely Groß-Glogau) is a Town in southwestern Poland. Compared with the pitiless destruction of their co-religionists in Western Europe, however, the Polish Jews did not fare badly; and the Jewish masses of Germany fled to the more hospitable lands of Poland. Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe '
The early Jagiellon era: 1385–1505
As a result of the marriage of Wladislaus II to Jadwiga, daughter of Louis I of Hungary, Lithuania was united with the kingdom of Poland. The Jagiellon Era 1385&ndash1569 was dominated by the union of Poland with Lithuania under the Jagiellon Dynasty, founded by the Lithuanian grand duke Wladislaus II of Poland refers to different monarchs of Poland Władysław II the Exile (1105-1159 High Duke of Poland Jogaila (1351?-1434 Jadwiga of Anjou (1373/4 – July 17 1399 was King of Poland from 1384 to her death Louis I the Great (I (Nagy Lajos Ludwik Węgierski Serbian: Lajoš I/Лајош I Croatian: Ludovik I Czech: Ludvík I The term Polish–Lithuanian Union sometimes called as United Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania refers to a series of acts and alliances between the Kingdom of Poland Although, in 1388, rights were extended to Lithuanian Jews as well, it was under the rule of Wladislaus II and those of his successors that the first extensive persecutions of the Jews in Poland commenced, and the king did not act to stop these events. Lithuanian Jews (known in Yiddish and Yeshivish as Litvish (adjective or Litvaks (noun are Ashkenazi Jews with roots in the There were a number of blood libels and riots against the Jews, and official persecution gradually increased, especially as the clergy pushed for less tolerance. Blood libels are sensationalized allegations that a person or group engages in Human sacrifice, often accompanied by the claim that the Blood of victims is used in Hysteria caused by Black Death led to additional fourteenth-century outbreaks of violence against the Jews. Traders and artisans fearing Jewish rivalry supported the harassment. I
The decline in the status of the Jews was briefly checked by Casimir IV the Jagiellonian (1447–1492), but to increase his power he soon issued the Statute of Nieszawa. Casimir IV Jagiellon (Kazimierz IV Jagiellończyk; Kazimieras Jogailaitis Kazimir Jahajłavič 30 November 1427 &ndash Casimir IV Jagiellon (Kazimierz IV Jagiellończyk; Kazimieras Jogailaitis Kazimir Jahajłavič 30 November 1427 &ndash [17] Among other things it abolished the ancient privileges of the Jews "as contrary to divine right and the law of the land. " The policy of the government toward the Jews of Poland was not more tolerant under Casimir's sons and successors, John I Olbracht (1492–1501) and Alexander the Jagiellonian (1501–1506), who expelled the Jews from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1495. Casimir IV Jagiellon (Kazimierz IV Jagiellończyk; Kazimieras Jogailaitis Kazimir Jahajłavič 30 November 1427 &ndash For other monarchs with similar names please see John of Poland. Alexander Jagiellon ( Lithuanian: Aleksandras Jogailaitis; Polish: Aleksander Jagiellończyk; 5 August 1461 – 19 August The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė old literary Lithuanian Didi Kunigiste Letuvos, Ruthenian: Wialikaje Kniastwa Litowskaje
Center of the Jewish world: 1505–72
Alexander reversed his position in 1503, just as the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, as well as from Austria, Bohemia and Germany, thus stimulating the Jewish emigration to much more tolerant Poland. The Spanish Inquisition started and was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile to maintain Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Bohemia (Čechy; Bohemia Czechy is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Indeed, with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Poland became the recognized haven for exiles from western Europe; and the resulting accession to the ranks of Polish Jewry made it the cultural and spiritual center of the Jewish people. Spanish Jews once constituted one of the largest and most prosperous Jewish communities under Muslim and Christian rule in Spain, before they
The most prosperous period for Polish Jews began following this new influx of Jews with the reign of Zygmunt I (1506–1548), who protected the Jews in his realm. Sigismund I the Old (Zygmunt I Stary Žygimantas II Senasis 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) of the Jagiellon dynasty reigned as His son, Zygmunt II August (1548–1572), mainly followed in the tolerant policy of his father and also granted autonomy to the Jews in the matter of communal administration and laid the foundation for the power of the Kahal, or autonomous Jewish community. For other nobles of the same name please see Sigismund. Sigismund II Augustus I (Zygmunt II August Kahal ( Hebrew: כחל is a Moshav in the Galilee near Highway 85 in northern Israel. This period led to the creation of a proverb about Poland being a "heaven for the Jews". By the mid-16th century, eighty percent of the world’s Jews lived in Poland. Jewish religious life thrived in many Polish communities. In 1503, the Polish monarchy appointed Rabbi Jacob Polak, the official Rabbi of Poland, marking the emergence of the Chief Rabbinate. By 1551, Jews were given permission to choose their own Chief Rabbi. The Chief Rabbinate held power over law and finance, appointing judges and other officials. Some power was shared with local councils. The Polish government permitted the Rabbinate to grow in power, to use it for tax collection purposes. Only thirty percent of the money raised by the Rabbinate served Jewish causes, the rest went to the Crown for protection. In this period Poland-Lithuania became the main center for Ashkenazi Jewry and its yeshivot achieved fame from the early 1500s.
One the great talmudic scholars of the 1500s was Moses ben Israel Isserles (1525-1572). Moses Isserles is commonly known as "the Rema" ( Hebrew: רמ"א He founded a religious academy in Cracow. Beyond Talmudic study, he was also familiar with many of the Greek philosophers and was one of the forerunners of the Jewish enlightenment.
Additionally, some Polish words may reveal that the exiled Jews coming from Spain brought with them onions (and possibly more then-exotic plants or foods), as onions are called "Cebula" in Polish ("Cebolla" in Spanish).
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: 1572–1795
- For more details on this topic, see History of the Jews in Poland (1572-1795). See also Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth The Nihil novi act adopted by the Polish Diet in 1505 transferred all Legislative power
The Warsaw Confederation
Following the childless death of Zygmunt II, the last king of the Jagiellon dynasty, Polish and Lithuanian nobles (szlachta) gathered at Warsaw in 1573 and signed a document of limited toleration in which representatives of all the major religions pledged each other mutual support and tolerance. The Warsaw Confederation ( January 28, 1573) an important development in the History of Poland and Lithuania, is considered the formal beginning For other nobles of the same name please see Sigismund. Sigismund II Augustus I (Zygmunt II August The Jagiellons (Jogailaičiai Jagiellonowie were a royal Dynasty originating from Lithuanian House of Gediminas dynasty that reigned in Central European Szlachta ( refers to the noble class in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (since 1569 semi-federal semi-confederal Warsaw (Warszawa; also known by other names) is the Capital and Largest city of Poland. The edict did not include the Polish Brethren, an anti-Trinitarian that would later become known as Socinians, who formed roots for the modern Unitarian church in the US.
Increasing isolation: The traditional view and recent scholarly challenges
The simplistic earlier narrative of Jewish life in Poland emphasized the rise of anti-Jewish sentiments (sometimes anachronistically labelled "anti-Semitic") by focusing on the rise of anti-Jewish libels (host desecration and ritual murder accusations). That narrative tended to highlight persecution, and Jewish isolation and autonomy. Yet, recent scholarly works (Fram, Hundert, Rosman, Teller, and Teter) have shown that Jews were not isolated from their Christian neighbours. For example, Jews spoke local languages (although they did retain Yiddish), shared sense of fashion (for example Christian borrowed clothes from Jews to go to church, see a responsum no. 86 by Benjamin Slonik), they shared spaces too (rabbis and the clergy were increasingly worried that Jews and Christians lived together under the same roof). Contrary to the common view of total Jewish autonomy and isolation, historical evidence shows that Jews often used gentile courts against other Jews, and frequently summoned Christians both to lay and Church courts (see works by Judith Kalik, Adam Teller, and Magda Teter). The existence of the Council of Four Lands has often been cited as a pinnacle of Jewish autonomy and self-government in Poland. The Council of Four Lands ( Va'ad Arba' Aratzot) in Lublin, Poland was the central body of Jewish authority in Poland from 1580 to 1764 Yet both the creation and the dissolution of the council are linked to the fiscal transformations of the Polish state. Similarly, while traditional scholarship has promoted an idealized view of Jewish rabbinic culture and self-government, focusing on rabbinic sources, recent works by scholars have shown that this was also a period of transformation if not outright decline of rabbinic authority (see for instance books and articles by Adam Teller). In short, scholars in recent decades have created a much more textured picture of Jewish life in premodern Poland-Lithuania that has gone far away from the view of isolation and persecution. Since late XIV century native Polish merchants became powerful enough to compete with Jewish businessmen, and in the XVI century Jews were barred from the guilds, and large Polish towns limited Jewish entrepreneurship.
The Cossack uprising and the Deluge
In 1648 the Commonwealth was devastated by several conflicts, in which the Commonwealth lost over a third of its populations (over three million people), and Jewish losses were counted in hundreds of thousands. First, the Chmielnicki Uprising when Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks massacred tens of thousands of Jews and Poles in the eastern and southern areas he controlled (today's Ukraine). The term Khmelnytsky Uprising (also Khmel'nyts'kyi/Chmielnicki Uprising or Khmelnytsky / Chmielnicki Rebellion) refers to a Rebellion or Bohdan Zynovii Mykhailovych Khmel'nyts'kyi (Богдан Зиновій Михайлович Хмельницький commonly transliterated as Khmelnytsky; known in The Cossacks (Каза́ки́ Kazaki; Козаки́ Kozaki; Kozacy are a group of martial people living in the southern Steppe regions of Eastern It is recorded that Chmielnicki told the people that the Poles had sold them as slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews". The precise number of dead may never be known, but the decrease of the Jewish population during that period is estimated at 100,000 to 200,000, which also includes emigration, deaths from diseases and jasyr (captivity in the Ottoman Empire). The history of slavery uncovers many different forms of human exploitation across many cultures throughout history The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish The Jewish community suffered greatly during the 1648 Cossack uprising which had been directed primarily against the Polish nobility. The Jews, perceived as allies of the nobles, were also victims of the revolt, during which about twenty per cent of them were killed. Then the incompetent politics of the elected kings of the House of Vasa brought the weakened state to its knees, as it was invaded by the Swedish Empire in what became known as The Deluge. The House of Vasa ( Swedish: Vasaätten, Polish: Waza) was the Royal House of Sweden Sweden was between 1611 and 1718 one of the Great powers of Europe The Deluge ( Polish: Potop, full Polish name is Potop Szwedzki Deluge''' is the name commonly assigned in the History The kingdom of Poland proper, which had hitherto suffered but little either from the Chmielnicki Uprising or from the recurring invasion of the Russians, Crimean Tatars and Ottomans, now became the scene of terrible disturbances (1655–1658). The term Khmelnytsky Uprising (also Khmel'nyts'kyi/Chmielnicki Uprising or Khmelnytsky / Chmielnicki Rebellion) refers to a Rebellion or The Crimean Khanate or the Khanate of Crimea (Qırım Hanlığı|قريم خانلغى Крымское ханство - Krymskoye khanstvo; The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish Charles X of Sweden, at the head of his victorious army, overran Poland; and soon the whole country, including the cities of Kraków and Warsaw, was in his hands. Charles X Gustav (Karl X Gustav (8 November 1622 – 13 February 1660 was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death The Jews of Great and Little Poland found themselves torn between two sides: those of them who were spared by the Swedes were attacked by the Poles, who accused them of aiding the enemy. Greater Poland or Great Poland, Polish Wielkopolska (Großpolen Latin: Polonia Maior) is a historical region of west-central Poland Lesser Poland (also "Little Poland" Polish: Małopolska, Latin: Polonia Minor) is one of the historical regions of Poland "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. The Polish general Stefan Czarniecki, in his flight from the Swedes, devastated the whole country through which he passed and treated the Jews without mercy. Biography Stefan Czarniecki was born in 1599 in family estate of Czarnca by Włoszczowa in southern Poland in an impoverished Szlachta family The Polish partisan detachments treated the non-Polish inhabitants with equal severity. Moreover, the horrors of the war were aggravated by pestilence, and the Jews and townsfolk of the districts of Kalisz, Kraków, Poznań, Piotrków, and Lublin perished en masse by the sword of the besieging armies and the plague. Kalisz is a City in central Poland with 109800 inhabitants (1995 Poznań Lublin Voivodeship This article is about the city in Poland Piotrków Trybunalski {{IPA-pl|t|r|y|b|u|'|n|a|l|s|k|i}} (also known by alternative names) is a City in central Poland with 80738 inhabitants (2005 Lublin is the largest city in eastern Poland and the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 355954
As soon as the disturbances had ceased, the Jews began to return and to rebuild their destroyed homes; and while it is true that the Jewish population of Poland had decreased and become impoverished, it still was more numerous than that of the Jewish colonies in Western Europe; and Poland remained as the spiritual center of Judaism, and through 1698, the Polish kings generally remained supportive of the Jews, despite a hostile clergy and nobility. It also should be noted that while Jewish losses in those events were high, estimated by some historians to be close to 500,000, the Commonwealth lost one third of its population — approximately three million of its citizens.
Decline under the Saxon dynasty
With the accession to the throne of the Saxon dynasty the Jews completely lost the support of the government. The Free State of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen ˈzaksən Swobodny Stat Sakska is the easternmost federal state of Germany. The szlachta and the townsfolk were increasingly hostile to the Jews, as the religious tolerance that dominated the mentality of the previous generations of Commonwealth citizens was slowly forgotten. Szlachta ( refers to the noble class in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (since 1569 semi-federal semi-confederal In their intolerance, the citizens of the Commonwealth now approached the "standards" that dominated most of the contemporary European countries, and many Jews felt betrayed by the country they once viewed as their haven. In the larger cities, like Poznań and Kraków, quarrels between the Satins and the Jewish inhabitants were of frequent occurrence. Attacks on the Jews by students, the so-called Schüler-Gelauf, became everyday occurrences in the large cities, the police regarding such scholastic riots with indifference. In the XVI and XVII centuries Jews were expelled from the number of Polish towns, and victimized by pogroms usually organized by local merchants and artisans. [18]
The partitions
There were three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and in 1795. Poland was divided among Russia, Prussia and Austria; Poland-Lithuania no longer existed. The majority of Poland’s one-million Jews became part of the Russian empire. Poland became a mere client state of the Russian empire. In 1772, Catherine II, empress of Russia; discriminated against the Jews by forcing them to stay in their shtetls and barring their return to the towns they occupied before the partition. A shtetl (שטעטל diminutive form of Yiddish shtot שטאָט "town" pronounced very similarly to the South German diminutive "Städtle" "little Disorder and anarchy reigned supreme in Poland during the second half of the eighteenth century, from the accession to the throne of its last king, Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski (1764–1795). Stanisław II August Poniatowski (born Count Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; January 17 1732 – February 12 1798 was the last King In 1772, in the aftermath of the Confederation of Bar, the outlying provinces of Poland were divided among the three neighboring nations, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The Bar Confederation ( Polish: Konfederacja barska; 1768&ndash1772 was an association of Polish nobles ( Szlachta) formed at the fortress Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Prussia ( Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Prūsija Prūsija Prusy Old Prussian: Prūsa) was most recently a historic state Jews were most numerous in the territories that fell to the lot of Austria and Russia.
The permanent council established at the instance of the Russian government (1773–1788) served as the highest administrative tribunal, and occupied itself with the elaboration of a plan that would make practicable the reorganization of Poland on a more rational basis. The progressive elements in Polish society recognized the urgency of popular education as the very first step toward reform. The famous Komisja Edukacji Narodowej ("Commission of National Education"), the first ministry of education in the world, was established in 1773 and founded numerous new schools and remodeled the old ones. The Commission of National Education (Komisja Edukacji Narodowej abbreviated KEN) was the central educational authority in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, created One of the members of the commission, kanclerz Andrzej Zamoyski, along with others, demanded that the inviolability of their persons and property should be guaranteed and that religious toleration should be to a certain extent granted them; but he insisted that Jews living in the cities should be separated from the Christians, that those of them having no definite occupation should be banished from the kingdom, and that even those engaged in agriculture should not be allowed to possess land. Kanclerz ( Polish for Chancellor, from Latin: cancellarius) was one of the highest Officials in the historic Poland. On the other hand, some szlachta and intellectuals proposed a national system of government, of the civil and political equality of the Jews. This was the only example in modern Europe before the French Revolution of tolerance and broadmindedness in dealing with the Jewish question. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an But all these reforms were too late: a Russian army soon invaded Poland, and soon after a Prussian one followed.
A second partition of Poland was made on July 17, 1793. The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Events 180 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians Year 1793 ( MDCCXCIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Jews, in a Jewish regiment led by Berek Joselewicz, took part in the Kościuszko Uprising the following year, when the Poles tried to again achieve independence, but were brutally put down. Berek Joselewicz (1764-1809 was a Jewish-Polish merchant and a colonel of the Polish Army during the Kościuszko Uprising. The Kościuszko Uprising was an uprising led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in Poland and Lithuania in 1794 Following the revolt, the third and final partition of Poland took place in 1795. The great bulk of the Jewish population was transferred to Russia, and thus became subjects of that empire, although in the first half of the nineteenth century some semblance of a vastly smaller Polish state was preserved, especially in the form of the Congress Poland (1815–1831). Congress Poland Kongresówka, officially and formally Kingdom of Poland (Królestwo Polskie {{IPA-pl|'|p|o|l|s|kʲ|e}} Царство Польское Tsarstvo Polskoye
Jews were represented in the November Insurrection (1830 - 1831), the January Insurrection (1863), as well as in the revolutionary movement of 1905. Many Polish Jews were enlisted in the Legions, commanded by , which fought for the Polish independence finally achieved in 1918.
The development of Judaism in Poland and the Commonwealth
The culture and intellectual output of the Jewish community in Poland had a profound impact on Judaism as a whole. Some Jewish historians have recounted that the word Poland is pronounced as Polania or Polin in Hebrew, and as transliterated into Hebrew, these names for Poland were interpreted as "good omens" because Polania can be broken down into three Hebrew words: po ("here"), lan ("dwells"), ya ("God"), and Polin into two words of: po ("here") lin ("[you should] dwell"). Transliteration is the practice of Transcribing a Word or text written in one Writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice In Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title The "message" was that Poland was meant to be a good place for the Jews. During the time from the rule of Sigismund until the Nazi Holocaust, Poland would be at the center of Jewish religious life. The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as
Jewish learning
Yeshivot were established, under the direction of the rabbis, in the more prominent communities. Yeshiva or yeshivah (jəʃi'və ( Hebrew: ישיבה "sitting (n Such schools were officially known as gymnasiums, and their rabbi principals as rectors. A gymnasium (pronounced with ɡ- in several languages is a type of school providing Secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar The word rector ("ruler" from the Latin regere and Rector meaning "Teacher" In Latin has a number of different meanings but all of them indicate an academic Important yeshivot existed in Kraków, Poznań, and other cities. Jewish printing establishments came into existence in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. In 1530 a Hebrew Pentateuch (Torah) was printed in Kraków; and at the end of the century the Jewish printing houses of that city and Lublin issued a large number of Jewish books, mainly of a religious character. term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to Lublin is the largest city in eastern Poland and the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 355954 The growth of Talmudic scholarship in Poland was coincident with the greater prosperity of the Polish Jews; and because of their communal autonomy educational development was wholly one-sided and along Talmudic lines. The Talmud ( Hebrew: he תַּלְמוּד is a record of Rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history Exceptions are recorded, however, where Jewish youth sought secular instruction in the European universities. The learned rabbis became not merely expounders of the Law, but also spiritual advisers, teachers, judges, and legislators; and their authority compelled the communal leaders to make themselves familiar with the abstruse questions of Jewish law. Halakha ( הלכה; alternative transliterations include Halocho and Halacha) is the collective body of Jewish Religious law Polish Jewry found its views of life shaped by the spirit of Talmudic and rabbinical literature, whose influence was felt in the home, in school, and in the synagogue.
In the first half of the sixteenth century the seeds of Talmudic learning had been transplanted to Poland from Bohemia, particularly from the school of Jacob Pollak, the creator of Pilpul ("sharp reasoning"). Bohemia (Čechy; Bohemia Czechy is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Rabbi Jacob Pollak (other common spelling Yaakov Pollack) was the founder of the Polish method of halakic and Talmudic study known as the Pilpul; born about Pilpul ( Hebrew: פלפול loosely meaning "sharp analysis" refers to a method of studying the Talmud through intense textual analysis in attempts to either Shalom Shachna (ca. Shalom Shachna (d 1558 was a Rabbi and Talmudist and Rosh Yeshiva of several great Acharonim including Moses Isserles, who was 1500–1558), a pupil of Pollak, is counted among the pioneers of Talmudic learning in Poland. He lived and died in Lublin, where he was the head of the yeshivah which produced the rabbinical celebrities of the following century. Lublin is the largest city in eastern Poland and the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 355954 Shachna's son Israel became rabbi of Lublin on the death of his father, and Shachna's pupil Moses Isserles (known as the ReMA) (1520–1572) achieved an international reputation among the Jews as the co-author of the Shulkhan Arukh, (the "Code of Jewish Law"). Moses Isserles is commonly known as "the Rema" ( Hebrew: רמ"א The Shulchan Aruch (שולחן ערוך literally " Set Table " (also Shulhan Aruch or Shulchan Arukh) is a Codification His contemporary and correspondent Solomon Luria (1510–1573) of Lublin also enjoyed a wide reputation among his co-religionists; and the authority of both was recognized by the Jews throughout Europe. Solomon Luria ( 1510 - November 7, 1574) ( Hebrew: שלמה לוריא) was one of the great Ashkenazic poskim Heated religious disputations were common, and Jewish scholars participated in them. At the same time, the Kabbalah had become entrenched under the protection of Rabbinism; and such scholars as Mordecai Jaffe and Yoel Sirkis devoted themselves to its study. Kabbalah (קַבָּלָה lit "receiving" is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mystical aspect of Judaism. Rabbinic Judaism or Rabbinism ( Hebrew: " Yehadut Rabanit " - יהדות רבנית is the mainstream religious system of post- diaspora Rabbi Mordecai ben Avraham Yoffe (or Jaffe) (c 1530 Prague - March 7, 1612, Posen) ( Hebrew: מרדכי בן אברהם Yoel Sirkis, (1561-1640 also known as the Bach - an abbreviation of his magnum opus Bayit Chadash - was a prominent Jewish Posek and halakhist This period of great Rabbinical scholarship was interrupted by the Chmielnicki Uprising and The Deluge. The term Khmelnytsky Uprising (also Khmel'nyts'kyi/Chmielnicki Uprising or Khmelnytsky / Chmielnicki Rebellion) refers to a Rebellion or The Deluge ( Polish: Potop, full Polish name is Potop Szwedzki Deluge''' is the name commonly assigned in the History
The rise of Hasidism
The decade from the Cossacks' uprising until after the Swedish war (1648–1658) left a deep and lasting impression not only on the social life of the Polish-Lithuanian Jews, but on their spiritual life as well. The term Khmelnytsky Uprising (also Khmel'nyts'kyi/Chmielnicki Uprising or Khmelnytsky / Chmielnicki Rebellion) refers to a Rebellion or The Deluge ( Polish: Potop, full Polish name is Potop Szwedzki Deluge''' is the name commonly assigned in the History The intellectual output of the Jews of Poland was reduced. The Talmudic learning which up to that period had been the common possession of the majority of the people became accessible to a limited number of students only. What religious study there was became overly formalized, some rabbis busied themselves with quibbles concerning religious laws; others wrote commentaries on different parts of the Talmud in which hair-splitting arguments were raised and discussed; and at times these arguments dealt with matters which were of no practical importance. At the same time, many miracle workers made their appearance among the Jews of Poland, culminating in a series of false "Messianic" movements, most famously as Sabbatianism was succeeded by Frankism. Sabbatai Zevi, ( (other spellings include Sabetay in Turkish, Shabbethai, Sabbetai, Shabbsai; Zvi; Sabbetai Jacob Frank (יעקב פרנק Ya'akov Frank, Jakob Frank; 1726 - 1791 was an 18th century Jewish religious leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of
In this time of mysticism and overly formal rabbinism came the teachings of Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or BeShT, (1698–1760), which had a profound effect on the Jews of Eastern Europe and Poland in particular. Mysticism (from the Greek grc μυστικός mystikos, an initiate of a Mystery religion) is the pursuit of communion with identity Rabbi Yisroel (Israel ben Eliezer (רבי ישראל בן אליעזר August 27, 1698 (18 Elul &ndash May 22, 1760) often called Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. His disciples taught and encouraged the new fervent brand of Orthodox Judaism based on Kabbalah known as Hasidism. Orthodox Judaism is the formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized Kabbalah (קַבָּלָה lit "receiving" is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mystical aspect of Judaism. Hasidic Judaism (also Chasidic, etc from the Hebrew: he '''''חסידות''''', Chassidus, meaning "piety" from the Hebrew The rise of Hasidic Judaism within Poland's borders and beyond had a great influence on the rise of Haredi Judaism all over the world, with a continuous influence through its many Hasidic dynasties including those of Chabad-Lubavitch, Aleksander, Bobov, Ger, Nadvorna, among others. Hasidic Judaism (also Chasidic, etc from the Hebrew: he '''''חסידות''''', Chassidus, meaning "piety" from the Hebrew Haredi or Chareidi Judaism is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism. See also Hasidic Judaism A Hasidic dynasty is a Dynasty of Hasidic spiritual leaders known as Rebbes and usually has some or all of the Chabad-Lubavitch is one of the largest Hasidic movements in Orthodox Judaism, and is based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn Now nearly extinct the Aleksander Hasidim (also written as Alexander) were the second largest Hasidic group in pre- Holocaust Poland. Bobov, (or Bobover Hasidism) (חסידות באבוב is a Hasidic group within Haredi Judaism originating in Bobowa, Galicia in Ger, or Gur (or Gerrer when used as an adjective is a Hasidic dynasty originating from Ger the Yiddish name of Góra Kalwaria Nadvorna is a Hasidic rabbinical dynasty within Orthodox Judaism. More recent rebbes of Polish origin include Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn (1880–1950), the sixth head of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement, who lived in Warsaw until 1940 when he moved Lubavitch from Warsaw to the United States. Yosef Yitzchok (Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (יוסף יצחק שניאורסאהן 9 June, 1880 OS - 28 January 1950 NS Chabad-Lubavitch is one of the largest Hasidic movements in Orthodox Judaism, and is based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn Yosef Yitzchok (Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (יוסף יצחק שניאורסאהן 9 June, 1880 OS - 28 January 1950 NS See also: List of Polish Rabbis
Jews of Poland within the Russian Empire (1795–1918)
- For more details on this topic, see History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union. The rise of Hasidic Judaism within Poland's borders and beyond has had a great influence on the rise of Haredi Judaism all over the world with a continuous influence that has Partitions Summary Although the majority of the Szlachta was reconciled to the end of the Commonwealth in 1795 the possibility of
Official Russian policy would eventually prove to be substantially harsher to the Jews than that under independent Polish rule. The lands that had once been Poland were to remain the home of many Jews, as, in 1772, Catherine II, the tzarina of Russia, instituted the Pale of Settlement, restricting Jews to the western parts of the empire, which would eventually include much of Poland, although it excluded some areas in which Jews had previously lived. Catherine II, called Catherine the Great (Екатерина II Великая Yekaterina II Velikaya;) reigned as Empress of Russia for 34 years The Pale of Settlement (Черта́ осе́длости cherta osedlosti) was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, along its western border in which By the late 19th Century, over four million Jews would live in the Pale.
Initially, Russian policy towards the Jews of Poland was confused, alternating between harsh rules and somewhat more enlightened policies. In 1802, the Tsar established the Committee on the Improvement of the Jews in an attempt to develop a coherent approach to the Empire's new Jewish population. The Committee in 1804 suggested a number of steps that were designed to encourage Jews to assimilate, though it did not force them to do so. It proposed that Jews be allowed to attend school and even to own land, but it restricted them from entering Russia, banned them from the brewing industry, and included a number of other prohibitions. Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed Alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea The more enlightened parts of this policy were never fully implemented, and the conditions of the Jews in the Pale gradually worsened. The Pale of Settlement (Черта́ осе́длости cherta osedlosti) was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, along its western border in which In the 1820s, the Cantonist Laws passed by Tsar Nicolas kept the traditional double taxation on Jews in lieu of army service, while actually requiring all Jewish communities to produce boys to serve in the military, where they were often forced to convert. Cantonists ( Russian language: Кантонисты, the term adapted from Prussia for "recruiting district" were sons of Russian conscripts who Though the Jews were accorded slightly more rights with the emancipation reform of 1861, they were still restricted to the Pale of Settlement and subject to restrictions on ownership and profession. The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia was the first and most important of liberal reforms affected during the reign of Alexander II of Russia. The Pale of Settlement (Черта́ осе́длости cherta osedlosti) was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, along its western border in which The status quo was however shattered with the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, an act falsely blamed upon the Jews. Status quo is a Latin term meaning the present existing state of affairs or "the state in which" Alexander (Aleksandr II Nikolaevich (Александр II Николаевич ( Moscow, 29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881 in St
Pogroms
The assassination prompted a large-scale wave of anti-Jewish riots, called pogroms, throughout 1881–1884. A pogrom is a form of Riot directed against a particular group whether ethnic religious or other and characterized by destruction of their Homes Businesses In the 1881 outbreak, pogroms were primarily limited to Russia, although in a riot in Warsaw twelve Jews were killed, many others were wounded, women were raped and over two million rubles worth of property was destroyed. The ruble or rouble (рубль rublʹ, plural ru рубли́ rubli; see note on English spelling and Russian plurals with numbers The new czar, Alexander III, blamed the Jews for the riots and issued a series of harsh restrictions on Jewish movements. Alexander III Alexandrovich ( 10 March 1845 – 1 November 1894) (Александр III Александрович reigned as Emperor Pogroms continued in large numbers until 1884, with at least tacit government approval. They proved a turning point in the history of the Jews in Poland and throughout the world. The pogroms prompted a great flood of Jewish immigration to the United States, with almost two million Jews leaving the Pale by the late 1920s, and the pogroms set the stage for Zionism. The Pale of Settlement (Черта́ осе́длости cherta osedlosti) was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, along its western border in which History of Zionism|Timeline of Zionism|World Zionist Organization|Zionist political violence Zionism is an international political movement that originally supported the
An even bloodier wave of pogroms broke out from 1903 to 1906, and at least some of the pogroms are believed to have been organized or supported by the Tsarist Russian secret police, the Okhrana. The Otdeleniye po Okhraneniyu Obshchestvennoy Bezopasnosti i Poryadka ( Отделение по Охранению Общественной Безопасности и Порядка Some of the worst of these occurred on Polish territory, where the majority of Russian Jews lived then, and included the Białystok pogrom of 1906, in which up to a hundred Jews were killed and many more wounded.
Haskalah and Halakha
The Jewish Enlightenment, Haskalah, began to take hold in Poland during the 1800s, stressing secular ideas and values. Haskalah ( Hebrew: השכלה "enlightenment" "education" from sekhel " Intellect " "mind") the Jewish Enlightenment Haskalah ( Hebrew: השכלה "enlightenment" "education" from sekhel " Intellect " "mind") the Jewish Enlightenment Champions of Haskalah, the Maskilim, pushed for assimilation and integration into Russian culture. Haskalah ( Hebrew: השכלה "enlightenment" "education" from sekhel " Intellect " "mind") the Jewish Enlightenment At the same time, there was another school of Jewish thought that emphasized traditional study and a Jewish response to the ethical problems of anti-Semitism and persecution, one form of which was the Mussar movement. Mussar movement refers to a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement (a "Jewish Moralist Movement" that developed in 19th century Orthodox Polish Jews generally were less influenced by Haskalah, rather focusing on a strong continuation of their religious lives based on Halakha ("rabbis's law") following primarily Orthodox Judaism, Hasidic Judaism, and also adapting to the new Religious Zionism of the Mizrachi movement later in the 1800s. Halakha ( הלכה; alternative transliterations include Halocho and Halacha) is the collective body of Jewish Religious law Orthodox Judaism is the formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized Hasidic Judaism (also Chasidic, etc from the Hebrew: he '''''חסידות''''', Chassidus, meaning "piety" from the Hebrew Religious Zionism, or the Religious Zionist Movement (a branch of which is also called Mizrachi) is an ideology that combines Zionism and religious
Politics in Polish territory
By the late 1800s, Haskalah and the debates it caused created a growing number of political movements within the Jewish community itself, covering a wide range of views and vying for votes in local and regional elections. Zionism became very popular with the advent of the Poale Zion socialist party as well as the religious Polish Mizrahi, and the increasingly popular General Zionists. Poale Zion (also spelled Poalei Tziyon or Poaley Syjon, meaning "Workers of Zion" was a Movement of Marxist Zionist Jewish Jewish political movements refer to the organized efforts of Jews to build their own political parties or otherwise represent their interest in politics outside of The General Zionists (ציונים כלליים Tzionim Klalim) were centrists within the Zionist movement and a political party in Israel Jews also took up socialism, forming the Bund labor union which supported assimilation and the rights of labor. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of Legal rights and claimed Human rights having to do with Labor relations between Workers The Folkspartei (People’s Party) advocated for its part cultural autonomy and resistance to assimilation. The Folkspartei (ייִדישע פֿאָלקספּאַרטײַ yidishe folkspartei, 'Jewish People's Party folkist party was founded after the 1905 Pogroms in In 1912, Agudat Israel, a religious party, came into existence. Agudat Israel (אגודת ישראל "Union Israel" also Agudat Yisrael, Agudath Israel, or Agudas Yisroel) began as the original
Since Jews were treated badly by the Russians, many decided to become in involved in the Polish insurrections. Jews participated in a number of Polish insurrections against the Russians, including the Kościuszko Insurrection (above), and the January Insurrection (1863) as well as the Revolutionary Movement of 1905. The January Uprising ( Polish: powstanie styczniowe, Lithuanian: 1863 m See also Russian Revolution (1917 The 1905 Russian Revolution also known as the Failed Russian Revolution of 1905 was an empire-wide struggle of
In 1897, fourteen percent of Polish citizens were Jewish. Jews were represented in government with seats in the Sejm, municipals councils and in Jewish religious communities. Jews developed many political parties and associations, ranging in ideologies from Zionist to socialist to Anti-Zionist. The Bund, a socialist party, spread throughout Poland in the early 20th century. Many Jewish workers in Warsaw and Lodz joined the Bund.
In 1914 German Zionist have founded German Committee for Freeing of Russian Jews, which main goal was establishment of a buffer state (Pufferstaat) within the Jewish Pale of Settlement, composed of the former Polish provinces annexed by Russia, being de facto protectorate of the German Empire and hence to make impossible resurrection of independent Poland. The German Committee for the Freeing of Russian Jews was created in August 1914 by Franz Oppenheimer, Adolf Friedman and Leo Motzkin to lobby for the socio-political The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the In International law, a protectorate is a autonomous territory that is "protected" by a stronger state or entity hense the protector which engages to protect The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification [19]
Zionism also became popular among Polish Jews, who formed the Poale Zion. Another group, the Folksists (People’s Party) supported assimilation and trade unions. The Polish Mizrahi, a Zionist orthodox political party, had a large following. General Zionists became popular in the inter-war period. In the 1919 election of the Sejm, the General Zionists received 50 percent of the votes for Jewish parties.
Interwar period 1918–39
Independence and Polish Jews
Jews also played a role in the fight for independence in 1918, some joining Józef Piłsudski, while many other non-Polish minorities were ambivalent or neutral to the idea of a Polish state. See also Second Polish Republic The History of interwar Poland starts with the recreation of independent Poland in 1918 and ends with the occupation of In the wake of World War I and the ensuing conflicts that engulfed Eastern Europe — the Russian Civil War, Polish-Ukrainian War, and Polish-Soviet War — many pogroms were launched against the Jews by all sides. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The Russian Civil War (1917–1923 was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed As a substantial number of Jews were perceived to have supported the Bolsheviks in Russia, they came under frequent attack by those opposed to the Bolshevik regime. The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction [20] Anti-Jewish atrocities committed by the Polish army and its allies during the 1920 invasion into Ukraine and Belarus had a profound impact on the perception of Polish state among the local Jews. The 1920 Kiev Offensive (or Kiev Operation) sometimes considered to have started the Soviet-Polish War, was an attempt by the newly re-emerged Poland Belarus ( Belarusian Беларусь / Biełaruś is a Landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east [21]
Just after the end of World War I, the West became alarmed by reports about alleged massive pogroms in Poland against Jews. Pressure for government action reached the point where U. S. President Woodrow Wilson sent an official commission to investigate the matter. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28 1856—February 3 1924 was the twenty-eighth President of the United States. The commission, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., announced in its report that the reports of pogroms were exaggerated, and in some cases may even have been fabricated (Morgenthau Report). Henry Morgenthau (ˈmɔrgəntaʊ April 26, 1856 – November 25, 1946) was a businessman and United States ambassador, most famous The Morgenthau report was a report issued by the United States ' commission led by Henry Morgenthau Sr It identified eight major incidents in the years 1918–1919, and estimated the number of victims at 200–300 Jews. Four of these were attributed to the actions of deserters and undisciplined individual soldiers; none were blamed on official government policy. Among the incidents, in Pińsk a Polish officer accused a group of Jewish civilians of plotting against the Poles and shot thirty-five of them (Pinsk massacre). Pinsk (Пінск a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and The Pinsk massacre was the murder of thirty-five Jewish residents of Pinsk taken as Hostages by the Polish Army after it captured the city in April In Lviv (then Lwów) in 1918, after the Polish Army captured the city, hundreds of people were killed in the chaos, including some seventy-two Jews. Lviv ( Ukrainian: Львів, L’viv, Lwów Lemberg Львов L'vov; see also other names) is a major city in western Polish Land Forces (Wojska Lądowe RP is a branch of Poland 's Armed Forces. In Warsaw, soldiers of Blue Army assaulted Jews in the streets, but were punished by military authorities. Warsaw (Warszawa; also known by other names) is the Capital and Largest city of Poland. The Blue Army, or Haller's Army, are informal names given to the Polish Army units formed in France during the later stages of World War I. Many other events in Poland were later found to have been exaggerated, especially by contemporary newspapers such as The New York Times, although serious abuses against the Jews, including pogroms, continued elsewhere, especially in Ukraine. Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. [22] The result of the concern over the fate of Poland's Jews was a series of explicit clauses in the Versailles Treaty protecting the rights of minorities in Poland. In 1921, Poland's March Constitution gave the Jews the same legal rights as other citizens and guaranteed them religious tolerance. The Second Polish Republic adopted the March Constitution on 17 March 1921, after ousting the occupation of the German / Prussian forces
Jewish and Polish culture
The newly independent Second Polish Republic had a large Jewish minority – by the time World War II began, Poland had the largest concentration of Jews in Europe but most Polish Jews had a cultural and ethnic identity totally different from that of Polish Catholics. Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena above all it is the Culture of secular communities of Jewish people but it can also include The Culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1000 year history. The Second Polish Republic or interwar Poland is the Republic of Poland between World War I and World War II. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including It has been estimated that more than 80 percent of Polish Jews were easily recognizable.
According to the 1931 National Census there were 3,130,581 Polish Jews measured by the declaration of their religion. Estimating the population increase and the emigration from Poland between 1931 and 1939, there were probably 3,474,000 Jews in Poland as of September 1, 1939 (approximately 10% of the total population). Events 462 - Possible start of first Byzantine indiction cycle. Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Jews were primarily centered in large and smaller cities: 77% lived in cities and 23% in the villages. In 1939 there were 375,000 Jews in Warsaw or one third of the city's population. Only New York City had more Jewish residents than Warsaw.
The overwhelming majority of Polish Jews at that time worked in commerce industry. In some areas the Jews constituted a majority of shopkeeppers and merchants. Tailoring and shoemaking were also typical Jewish occupations. At the same time 56 per cent of all doctors, 43 per cent of teachers, 33 per cent of lawyers, and 22 per cent of journalists were Jewish.
Jewish youth and religious groups, diverse political parties and Zionist organizations, newspapers and theatre flourished. In addition to small businesses, Jews owned real estate and export and manufacturing enterprises. Religious practices ranged from Hasidism to modern “Progressive” Judaism. Most Warsaw Jews spoke Yiddish, but Polish was increasingly used by the young who have not had a problem in identifying themselves fully as Jews, Warsavians and Poles. Polish Jews were entering the mainstream of Polish society, though many thought of themselves as a separate nationality within Poland. More than half the Jewish children attended special Jewish schools. Enrollment in religious school, in turn, discouraged mastery of the Polish language. Thus, in answer to a 1931 census inquiry, the overwhelming majority of Jews mentioned Yiddish as their native tongue (79 per cent) and only 12 percent gave Polish as their first language. The rest chose Hebrew. During the school year of 1937–1938 there were 226 elementary schools[4] and twelve high schools as well as fourteen vocational schools with either Yiddish or Hebrew as the instructional language. Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High The YIVO (Jidiszer Wissenszaftlecher Institute) Scientific Institute was based in Wilno before transferring to New York during the war. YIVO, ( Yiddish: yi ייִוואָ established in 1925 in Vilna Poland (now Vilnius Lithuania as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut ( Yiddish Jewish political parties, both the Socialist General Jewish Labor Union (The Bund)[5], as well as parties of the Zionist right and left wing and religious conservative movements, were represented in the Sejm (the Polish Parliament) as well as in the regional councils. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution
![[4]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=7270&lang=EN&type_id=&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/7270.JPG){kind=link}
![[5]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=7694&lang=EN&type_id=&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/7694.JPG){kind=link}
The Jewish cultural scene[6] was particularly vibrant and blossomed in pre-World War II Poland. 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. Isaac Bashevis Singer (יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער (November 21 1902 (see notes below – July 24 1991 was a Nobel Prize -winning Polish -born The Nobel Prize (Nobelpriset (Nobelprisen is a Swedish prize established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Peace, 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. Janusz Korczak, the Pen name of Henryk Goldszmit ( July 22, 1877 &ndash August 1942) was a Polish-Jewish children's Bruno Schulz ( July 12, 1892 &ndash November 19, 1942) was a Polish Writer, graphic artist and literary Julian Tuwim (the Surname comes from the Hebrew "טובים" " tovim," "good" September 13, 1894 Jan Brzechwa ('bʒɛxfa real name Jan Wiktor Lesman ( August 15, 1898 &ndash July 2, 1966) was a Polish poet and author Bolesław Leśmian (born Bolesław Lesman; 1878-1937 was a Polish poet artist and member of the Polish Academy of 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. Jan Wiktor Kiepura (b May 16 1902, Sosnowiec, Poland &ndash d Henryk Wars (birth name Warszawski or Warszowski December 29 1902, Warsaw - September 1 1977, USA) was a Polish Jerzy Petersburski (1895 – 1979 was a Polish pianist and composer of popular music renowned mostly for his Tangos some of which (such as Ta ostatnia Scientist Leopold Infeld, mathematician Stanislaw Ulam or professor Adam Ulam contributed to the world of science. Leopold Infeld ( August 20, 1898, Cracow &ndash January 15, 1968, Warsaw) was a Polish Physicist. Stanisław Marcin Ulam ( April 13, 1909 &ndash May 13, 1984) was a Polish Mathematician who participated in the Manhattan Adam Bruno Ulam (1922&ndash2000 was a Polish-American Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard University. Others are Moses Schorr, Ludwik Zamenhof - the creator of Esperanto, Georges Charpak, Samuel Eilenberg, Emanuel Ringelblum, Arthur Rubinstein just to name a few from the long list of Polish Jews who are known internationally. Moses Schorr, Polish Mojżesz Schorr ( May 10, 1874, Przemyśl, Galicia - July 8, 1941, 5th NKVD Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (ˈzɑːmɨnhɒf in English born Eliezer Samenhof December 15 1859 &ndash April 14 1917 was an ophthalmologist, Philologist is by far the most widely spoken constructed International auxiliary language in the world Georges Charpak (born August 1, 1924) is a Polish - French Physicist and Nobel Prize in Physics winner Samuel Eilenberg ( September 30, 1913 — January 30, 1998) was a Polish and American Mathematician of Emanuel Ringelblum ( November 21, 1900 – March 7, 1944) was a Polish-Jewish historian politician and social worker known Arthur Rubinstein KBE ( January 28 1887 &ndash December 20 1982) was a Polish - American pianist who is widely WIKIPEDIAVERIFIABILITY AND WIKIPEDIANO ORIGINAL RESEARCH, WHICH The term "genocide" was coined by Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), a Polish-Jewish legal scholar. Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction in whole or in part of an ethnic racial religious or national group Raphael Lemkin ( June 24, 1900 – August 28, 1959) was a Lawyer of Polish - Jewish descent Leonid Hurwicz was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics. Leonid “Leo” Hurwicz ( August 21, 1917 June 24, 2008) was an American Economist and Mathematician. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially named The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk The Main Judaic Library and the Institute of Judaic Studies were located in Warsaw, religious centers had at their disposal Talmudic Schools (Jeszybots), as well as synagogues, many of which were architecturally outstanding. Yiddish theatre also flourished; Poland had fifteen Yiddish theatres and theatrical groups. Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish community Warsaw was home to the most important Yiddish theater troupe of the time, the Vilna Troupe, which staged the first performance of The Dybbuk in 1920 at the Elyseum Theatre. The Vilna Troupe (aka Vilner Troupe) were one of the most famous theatrical companies in the history of Yiddish theater. The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds (Yid דער דיבוק אדער צווישן צוויי וועלטן is a 1914 play by S
Some future Israeli leaders studied at University of Warsaw - Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir. University of Warsaw (Uniwersytet Warszawski is the largest University in Poland, ranked by the Times Higher Education Supplement as the second best Polish (מְנַחֵם בְּגִין Mieczysław Biegun Менахем Вольфович Бегин 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992 was the sixth prime minister of the State of Israel (יִצְחָק שָׁמִיר born Icchak Jaziernicki on 15 October 1915 was Prime Minister of Israel from 1983 to 1984 and again from 1986 to 1992
Growing anti-Semitism
Polish attitudes regarding Jews and Jewish regarding Poles have been shaped by a complex and long history. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility Antisemitism in Poland had reached high proportions in the immediate years before the Second World War, although Jews enjoyed unprecedented liberties during the Middle Ages, at a time when their brethren suffered persecution in the rest of Europe. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Jews were often not identified as true Poles; a problem caused by both Polish nationalism, supported by the Endecja government, and the fact that a substantial proportion of Jews lived separate lives from the Polish majority: 85% of Polish Jews listed Yiddish or Hebrew as their native language, for example. Narodowa Demokracja (National Democracy also known from its initials ND as " Endecja," was a Polish Right-wing Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High The matters improved for a time under the rule of Józef Piłsudski (1926–1935), who opposed anti-Semitism. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility Piłsudski replaced Endecja's 'ethnic assimilation' with the 'state assimilation' policy: citizens were judged by their loyalty to the state, not by their nationality. Polonization (polonizacja is the acquisition or imposition [23] The years 1926–1935 were favourably viewed by many Polish Jews, whose situation improved especially under the cabinet of Pilsudski’s appointee Kazimierz Bartel. Kazimierz Bartel ( 3 March 1882 &ndash 26 July 1941) was a Polish mathematician and politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland [24] However a combination of various reasons, including the Great Depression,[23] meant that the situation of Jewish Poles was never too satisfactory, and it deteriorated again after Piłsudski's death in May 1935, which many Jews regarded as a tragedy. [25]
With Endecja party influence growing antisemitism gathered new momentum in Poland and was most felt in smaller towns and spheres in which Jews came into direct contact with Poles, such as in Polish schools or on the sports field. Narodowa Demokracja (National Democracy also known from its initials ND as " Endecja," was a Polish Right-wing Verbal abuse of Jewish children in Polish schools was commonplace. Polish high-school students, influenced by the Endeks, forced their Jewish comrades to stand during lessons; the teachers, even those who were not antisemites, were usually afraid to intervene. Jewish children often fell victim to antisemitic incidents on their way to or from school. On the way to the soccer stadium, Jews were set upon and beaten, and a victory by the Jewish side was sufficient reason for renewed attacks. Many Jews feared having stones flung at them at Easter. Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. Further academic harassment like ghetto benches, anti-Jewish riots, and semi-official or unofficial quotas (Numerus clausus) introduced in 1937 in some universities halved the number of Jews in Polish universities between independence and the late 1930s. Ghetto benches or bench Ghetto (known in Polish as Getto ławkowe) was a form of official Segregation in the seating of students introduced in Numerus clausus ("closed number" in Latin) is one of many methods used to limit the number of Students who may study at a University The restrictions were so inclusive that while in 1921 Jews made up 24. 6% of the student population by 1938 their share was down to only 8%. Right-wing students sometimes even assaulted their Jewish associates with canes or razors. In 1937 the Catholic trade unions of Polish doctors and lawyers restricted their new members to Christian Poles (it is to be noted that similar Jewish trade unions did never accept non-Jews into their ranks) while many government jobs continued to be unavailable to Jews during this entire period. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth This was accompanied by physical violence: in the years between 1935 and 1937 seventy-nine Jews were killed and 500 injured in anti-Jewish incidents, there were also victims among anti-semites. [26] National policy was such that jobless Jews were excluded from welfare benefits. The Endecja party promoted a national boycott of Jewish merchants. Under the guise of animal rights there was a national movement to forbid the Jewish ritual slaughter or koshering of animals. Violence was also frequently aimed at Jewish stores and many of them were looted. At the same time, persistent economic boycotts and harassment including property-destroying riots, combined with the effects of the Great Depression that had been very severe on agricultural countries like Poland, reduced the standard of living of Polish Jews until it was among the worst among major Jewish communities in the world. This is a chronological list of Riots The list is incomplete and contains only riots documented in Western culture archives The standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people and the way these goods and services are distributed within a population The result was that at the eve of the Second World War, the Jewish community in Poland was large and vibrant internally, yet (with the exception of a few professionals) also substantially poorer and less integrated than the Jews in most of Western Europe. Poland was also a strict Catholic country and the Poles were passionately devoted to the Catholic religion which at that time taught them that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. On the eve of World War II, many typical Polish Christians believed that there were far too many Jews in the country and the Polish government became increasingly concerned with the "Jewish Question. " The favored solution was mass Jewish emigration.
Concerning:
the Sheltering of Escaping Jews.
. . . . There is a need for a reminder, that in accordance with paragraph 3 of the decree of October 15, 1941, on the Limitation of Residence in General Government (page 595 of the GG Register) Jews leaving the Jewish Quarter without permission will incur the death penalty. Events 533 - Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The General Government (Generalgouvernement refers to a part of the territories of Poland (and Ostrava Czechoslovakia under German Military occupation Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment.
. . . . According to this decree, those knowingly helping these Jews by providing shelter, supplying food, or selling them foodstuffs are also subject to the death penalty
. . . . This is a categorical warning to the non-Jewish population against:
. . . . . . . . . 1) Providing shelter to Jews,
. . . . . . . . . 2) Supplying them with Food,
. . . . . . . . . 3) Selling them Foodstuffs.
Dr. Franke - Town Commander - Częstochowa 9/24/42
World War II and the destruction of Polish Jewry (1939–45)
The Polish September campaign
The number of Jews in Poland on September 1st 1939 amounted to about 3,474,000 people. The history of Poland from 1939 to 1945 encompasses the German invasion of Poland through to the end of World War II The Invasion of Poland (1939 precipitated World War II. It was carried out by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small German-allied [7] One hundred thirty thousand soldiers of Jewish descent served in Polish Army at the outbreak of the Second World War, thus being among the first to launch armed resistance against the Nazi Germany. [8] It is estimated that during the entirety of World War II as many as 32,216 Jewish soldiers and officers died and 61,000 were taken prisoner by the Germans; the majority did not survive. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including [9] The soldiers and non-commissioned officers who were released ultimately found themselves in the ghettos and labor camps and suffered the same fate as other Jewish civilians.
For the duration of the war, many Jews were in the Polish Armed Forces in the West, in the Polish People's Army formed in the Soviet Union, as well as in civilian resistance movements and guerilla detachments. Polish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight along the Western Allies and against Nazi Germany and its allies Ludowe Wojsko Polskie (Pronounced 'vɔjskɔ 'pɔlskʲe}} lit Peoples' Army of Poland, LWP was the second formation of the Polish Armed The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Many lost their lives or were wounded; very many received the highest combat distinctions.
Territories annexed by the USSR
The relations between the Jews and the local Gentile population of then Eastern Poland which contained Byelorussians, Ukrainians and mostly Poles, had been in general very good until the outbreak of the war in September 1939. After the Soviet invasion of Poland following the corresponding German invasion that marked the start of World War II in 1939 the Soviet Union annexed On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany entered into a Nonaggression Pact, so-called Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact with a secret protocol providing the partition of Poland. Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 and the Soviet Union on September 17, 1939. [10] In newly partitioned Poland, according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, (according to 1931 census) 61. 2% of Polish Jews found themselves under German occupation while 38. At the beginning of World War II, significant Polish areas were annexed by Nazi Germany in contrary to Hague Convention IV 1907 and put under German civil 8% were in the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union. After the Soviet invasion of Poland following the corresponding German invasion that marked the start of World War II in 1939 the Soviet Union annexed Based on population migration from West to East during and after the Invasion of Poland the percentage of Jews in the Soviet-occupied areas was probably higher than that of the 1931 census. The Invasion of Poland (1939 precipitated World War II. It was carried out by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small German-allied The Soviet annexation was accompanied by the widespread arrests of government officials, police and military personnel, teachers, priests, judges, border guards, etc. The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939 during the early stages of World War II, sixteen , followed by executions and massive deportation to Soviet interior and forced labour camps were many perished as a result of harsh conditions. 1. 450 million people inhabiting the region were deported by the Soviet regime. The largest group of all those deported (63. 1%) were ethnic Poles but Jews accounted for 7. 4% of all the prisoners. Jewish refugees from Western Poland who registered for repatriation back to the German zone (people in the Soviet occupation zone had little knowledge of what was going on in the German occupation zone since the Soviet media did not report on their Nazi ally's misdeeds), 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 Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya The Soviets also implemented a new employment policy that enabled many Jews to find jobs as civil servants while Poles were denied access to them and former Polish senior officials and leading personalities were arrested and exiled to remote regions of Russia together with their families. [11]
Compared to Poles who had strong anti-Soviet and anti-communist sentiments, a larger portion of the Jewish population, with the passive acquiescence of the vast majority, had initially welcomed Russian forces and openly embraced Soviet rule. [27][28] Enthusiastic greeting of Soviet troops by Jewish residents, with flowers, kisses and pro-Soviet speeches was a common occurrence in almost every Polish town and village. [12][13] Some young Jewish men and women with communist sympathies, wearing red armbands and often armed with rifles, cooperated with the Soviet security forces and served in the Red Militia or Revolutionary Committees actively assisting NKVD in the destruction of Polish State. The NKVD ( НКВД, ru Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел ''Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del'') or People's Commissariat A knowledge of the language and the local scene made them essential for the Sovietization of the newly acquired Polish territories. Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct (but related meanings the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets (workers' councils Polish soldiers (especially officers) and policemen were disarmed, abused verbally and physically, and delivered by the Red Militia to the NKVD, sometimes even killed (see: Massacre of Brzostowica Mala). Brzostowica Although most Jews feared the Soviet Union and the Communist ideology[27] the very existence of a small share of the pro-communist Jewish Poles fueled the antisemitic stereotypes among the Polish Christians. While most Polish Catholics saw Soviets as invaders, some ordinary Polish Jews, even those who did not sympathize with Russian communism, saw them for what they claimed to be - protectors from the Nazis. That led to growing tensions between Polish and Jewish communities in those regions[14], made a strong impression in the rest of Poland and left an indelible mark that was to take its toll on relations between Poles and Jews throughout the war, creating until this day, an impasse to Polish-Jewish rapprochement. [28]
Only a small percentage of the Jewish community had been members of the Communist Party of Poland during the inter-war era, though they had occupied an influential and conspicuous place in the party's leadership and in the rank and file in major centres, such as Warsaw, Lodz and Lwow. This article is about the 1918-1938 Communist Party of Poland Far greater number of younger Jews, often through the pro-Marxist Bund (General Jewish Workers' Union) or some Zionist groups, had possessed an underlying sympathy for Communism and an affinity with Soviet Russia, both of which had been, of course, prime enemies of the Polish Second Republic. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based The Second Polish Republic or interwar Poland is the Republic of Poland between World War I and World War II. As a result of these ideological, political and anti-Polish factors they found it easy after 1939 to join the Soviet bandwagon in Eastern Poland, and soon occupied prominent positions in industry, schools, local government, police and other Soviet-installed institutions (Żydokomuna). Żydokomuna ( Polish for "Judeo-Communism" or "Judeo-Bolshevism" is a Pejorative term that has been used to express an Antisemitic [29]
There were also many Jews, who regardless of some negative Jewish experiences in the prewar years, 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 NKVD in 1940 in the Katyń massacre there were 500–600 Jews. The NKVD ( НКВД, ru Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел ''Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del'') or People's Commissariat From 1939 to 1941 between 100,000 and 300,000 Polish Jews were deported from Soviet-occupied Polish territory into the Soviet Union. After the Soviet invasion of Poland following the corresponding German invasion that marked the start of World War II in 1939 the Soviet Union annexed The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Some of them, especially Polish Communists (e. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based g. Jakub Berman), moved voluntarily; however, most of them were forcibly deported or imprisoned in Gulag. Jakub Berman (born December 26, 1901, in Warsaw, then Russian Empire - died April 10, 1984 Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories deportations of " Anti-Soviet " categories of population often classified The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. Small numbers of Polish Jews (about 6,000) were able to leave the Soviet Union in 1942 with the Władysław Anders army, among them the future Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin. Lieutenant-General Władysław Anders (August 11 1892 &ndashMay 12 1970 was a General in the Polish The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and is the most powerful political officer in Israel (the President of Israel being a titular figurehead (מְנַחֵם בְּגִין Mieczysław Biegun Менахем Вольфович Бегин 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992 was the sixth prime minister of the State of Israel During the Polish army's II Corps' stay in the British Mandate of Palestine, 67% (2,972) of the Jewish soldiers deserted, many to join the Irgun. Polish II Corps (Drugi Korpus Wojska Polskiego 1943&ndash1947 was a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West The Palestine Mandate, was a set of protocols or articles that formed a multilateral legal and administrative agreement Irgun (ארגון shorthand for HaIrgun HaTzva'i HaLe'umi BeEretz Yisra'el, he הארגון הצבאי הלאומי בארץ ישראל "National Military Organization General Anders decided not to prosecute the deserters. The others fought in Italy, so the cemetery of Polish soldiers who died during the Battle of Monte Cassino contains also headstones bearing a Star of David. The Polish cemetery at Monte Cassino contains graves of more than one thousand Poles who died while storming the abbey in May 1944 during the Battle of Monte Cassino Monte Cassino has made it the repeated scene of battles and Sieges from antiquity. The Star of David or Shield of David ( Magen David in Hebrew with nikkud or מגן דוד without academically transcribed Māḡēn Dāwīḏ by
The Holocaust: German-occupied Poland
The Polish Jewish community suffered the most in the Holocaust. At the beginning of World War II, significant Polish areas were annexed by Nazi Germany in contrary to Hague Convention IV 1907 and put under German civil The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as About six million Polish citizens perished during the war[15], half of them (three million) Polish Jews - all but about 300,000 of the Jewish population - who were killed at the Nazi extermination camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibór, Chełmno or died of starvation in ghettos. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Extermination camps were two types of facilities that Nazi Germany built during World War II for the systematic killing of millions of people in what has become "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany Treblinka II was a German Extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II. Majdanek was a Nazi Concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland. Belzec (Bełżec approximate Polish pronunciation bew-zhets) was the first of the Nazi German Extermination camps created for implementing Chełmno extermination camp ( German name Kulmhof) was an Extermination camp of Nazi Germany that was situated 70 kilometres (43 Starvation (also called inanition) is a severe reduction in Vitamin, Nutrient, and Energy intake and is the most extreme form of A ghetto is described as a "portion of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social legal or economic pressure [30] Poland became the largest site of the Nazi extermination program, since this was where most of the intended victims lived. In 1939 several hundred synagogues were blown up or burnt by the Germans who sometimes forced the Jews to do it themselves. In many cases Germans turned the synagogues into factories, places of entertainment, swimming-pools or prisons. Jewish rabbis were ordered to dance and sing in public with their beards cut or torn. Some rabbis were set on fire or hung.
![[15]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=3428&lang=EN&type_id=&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/3428.GIF){kind=link}
Within a few days, Germans ordered all Jews to register with them and the word “Jude” was stamped on their identity cards. Jews were placed outside the law and their lives were regulated by German orders or edicts. Series of restrictions and prohibitions were introduced and brutally enforced. Jews were forbidden to walk on the sidewalks, use public transport, enter places of leisure, sports arenas, theaters, museums and libraries. On the street, Jews had to lift their hat to passing Germans and contact between Jews and non-Jews was banned. By the end of 1941 all Jews in German occupied Poland, except the children, had to wear an identifying badge with a blue Star of David. [16] The German-controlled Polish language press ran anti-Jewish articles that urged people to adopt an attitude of indifference towards the Jews.
![[16]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=4414&lang=EN&type_id=&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/4414.JPG){kind=link}
Many Jews in what was then Eastern Poland also fell victim to Nazi death squads called Einsatzgruppen, which massacred Jews, especially in 1941. A death squad is an armed Squad that kills civilians terrorists or guerillas Einsatzgruppen ( German: "task forces" "intervention groups" were Paramilitary groups formed by Heinrich Himmler and
Some of these German-inspired massacres were carried out with help from, or even active participation of Poles themselves: for example, the massacre in Jedwabne, in which between 300 (Institute of National Remembrance's Final Findings[31]) and 1,600 Jews (Jan T. Gross) were tortured and beaten to death by part of Jedwabne's citizens. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (German "Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto", Polish "Powstanie w getcie warszawskim") was the Jewish The Jedwabne Pogrom (or Jedwabne massacre) (jɛdˈvabnɛ was a massacre of Jewish people living in and near the town of Jedwabne in Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej — Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu Jan Tomasz Gross (born December 8, 1947) is a Polish American historian and sociologist The full extent of Polish participation in the massacres of the Polish Jewish community remains a controversial subject, in part due to Jewish leaders refusing to allow the remains of the Jewish victims to be exhumed and their cause of death to be properly established. The Polish Institute for National Remembrance identified twenty-two other towns that had pogroms similar to Jedwabne. A pogrom is a form of Riot directed against a particular group whether ethnic religious or other and characterized by destruction of their Homes Businesses [32] The reasons for these massacres are still debated, but they included anti-Semitism, resentment over alleged cooperation with the Soviet invaders in the Polish-Soviet War and during the 1939 invasion of the Kresy regions, greed for the possessions of the Jews (although the majority of Polish Jews prior to the war constituted some of Poland's poorest citizens), and of course coercion by the Nazis to participate in such massacres. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility The term Kresy, meaning Outskirts or Borderlands, was first used to define the Polish eastern frontier [17]
By the spring of 1942, the German Nazis had established six killing centers (death camps) in Poland: Chelmno (Kulmhof), Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Maidanek and Auschwitz located near railway lines so that Jews could be easily transported daily. Chełmno extermination camp ( German name Kulmhof) was an Extermination camp of Nazi Germany that was situated 70 kilometres (43 Belzec (Bełżec approximate Polish pronunciation bew-zhets) was the first of the Nazi German Extermination camps created for implementing Treblinka II was a German Extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II. Majdanek was a Nazi Concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland. "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany A vast system of camps, called Lagersystem, supported the death camps. The purpose of these camps varied: some were slave labor camps, some transit camps, others concentration camps and their subcamps, and still others the death camps. Extermination camps were two types of facilities that Nazi Germany built during World War II for the systematic killing of millions of people in what has become Some camps combined all of these functions or only a few of them. All the camps were intolerably brutal. Many healthy, young strong Jews were not killed immediately. The Germans war effort and the “Final Solution” required a great deal of manpower, so the Germans reserved large pools of Jews for slave labor in German munitions and other factories wherever the Nazis needed laborers. The Final Solution ( Die Endlösung) was Nazi Germany 's plan and execution of its systematic Genocide against European Jewry during World They were worked from dawn until dark without adequate food and shelter and thousands perished worked to death. The German concentration camps depended on the cooperation of trustee inmates who supervised the prisoners. Known as Kapos, these trustees carried out the will of the Nazi camp commandants and guards, and were often as brutal as their SS counterparts. Kapo was a term used for certain prisoners who worked inside Nazi concentration camps during World War II in various lower administrative positions The ( German for "Protective Squadron" abbreviated SS - or ( Runic)- was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the Some of these Kapos were Jewish, and even they inflicted harsh treatment on their fellow prisoners. After the war, the prosecution of Kapos as war criminals, particularly those who were Jewish, created an ethical dilemma which continues to this day.
The Germans also established a number of ghettos in which Jews were confined, slowly starved and cruelly offered hopes of survival but eventually ended up being killed.
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest, with 380,000 people and the Łódź Ghetto, the second largest, holding about 160,000. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish Ghettos located in the territory of General Government during World War II, established by The Ghetto Litzmannstadt was the second-largest Ghetto (after the Warsaw Ghetto) established for Jews and Roma in German -occupied Other Polish cities with large Jewish ghettos included Białystok, Częstochowa, Kielce, Kraków, Lublin, Lwów, and Radom. Białystok Lublin Voivodeship Białystok (also known by alternative names) is the largest City in northeastern Poland. Częstochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 248894 inhabitants (2004 Kielce is a city in central Poland with 202609 inhabitants (2006 The Jewish Ghetto in Kraków (Cracow was one of the five main ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the General Government during their Lublin is the largest city in eastern Poland and the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 355954 Lviv ( Ukrainian: Львів, L’viv, Lwów Lemberg Львов L'vov; see also other names) is a major city in western Radom is a city in central Poland with 227309 inhabitants It is located on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Ghettos were also established in smaller settlements.
Living conditions in the Ghettos, most hermetically sealed and without ability to leave, were terrible. Overcrowding, dirt and lice resulted in lethal epidemics such as typhoid. Typhoid fever, also known as enteric fever, bilious fever, Yellow Jack or commonly just typhoid, is an illness caused by the Bacterium Hunger was also a permanent fixture and resulted in countless deaths. Jews who tried to escape were shot to death with their bodies to be left in public view until dusk as a warning. Many of those who fled to the Aryan side without connections with Christian Poles willing to risked their lives in order to help, returned to the ghettos when they were unable to find a place to hide. Since Nazi terror reigned throughout the Aryan districts, the chances of remaining successfully hidden undoubtedly depended on a fluent knowledge of the language and on having close ties with the community. Generally Poles were not willing to hide Jews who might have escaped ghettoes or who might have been in hiding due to fear for ones own life. The murder of Polish inhabitants by the Nazis was common even for lesser infractions, let alone for rendering assistance to Jews. The criminal ruthlessness of the Germans towards the Jews, regardless of sex or age, was accompanied by the very same ruthlessness towards the Poles who helped them, no matter for what reasons. In any apartment block or area where Jews were found to be harboured, everybody in the house was immediately shot by the Germans. Hundreds of Polish families died as a result of helping the Jews. [18][19]
For Jews to hide in Christian society was a daunting task. A new identity required being familiar with Christian religious customs of which Jews had no knowledge. Jews with the physical characteristics of curly black hair, dark eyes, dark complexion, a long nose were in special jeopardy and most Jews spoke Polish with an accent or used expressions derived from Yiddish which gave them away. Money or items of value were needed to pay those rescuers who required payment, to purchase food on the black market (hidden Jews did not have ration books), to purchase counterfeit documents or to pay bribes to blackmailers. Some individuals took advantage of a hiding persons desperation by collecting money, then reneging on their promise of aid—or worse, turning them over to the Germans for an additional reward. The Gestapo routinely offered a bounty for those who turned in Jews who were hiding. The ( contraction of ge heime Sta ats' po' lizei: "Secret State Police" was the official Secret police of Nazi Germany This bounty consisted of a quart of liquor, four pounds of sugar, a carton of cigarettes, or, at times, small cash payments. Many Jews were robbed and handed over to the Germans by "szmalcownik" Poles (from the Polish word "smalec" which means "fat") many of whom practiced blackmail as an "occupation". Szmalcownik (ʂmal 'ʦɔv ɲik is a Pejorative Polish Slang word used during World War II that denoted a person Blackmailing The fight against these informers was organized by Armia Krajowa, with the death sentence being meted out on a scale unknown in the occupied countries of Western Europe.
Hidden Jewish children were kept in cellars and attics, where they had to keep quiet, even motionless, for hours on end. [20] In rural areas, hidden children lived in barns, chicken coops, and forest huts. Any noise—conversation, footsteps—could arouse neighbors suspicion and perhaps even prompt a Gestapo raid. During bombings, Jewish children had to remain hidden, unable to flee to the safety of shelters. Under these conditions, the children often suffered from a lack of human interaction and endured boredom and fear.
![[20]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=4334&lang=EN&type_id=2&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/4334.JPG){kind=link}
Some religious Jews believed that their suffering was preordained and would bring about the Messiah. This article is about the concept of a Messiah in religion notably in the Christian Islamic and Jewish traditions There were also many religious Jews involved in heroic acts. One famous leader was Janusz Korczak, the director of the Jewish orphanage, who chose to accompany the children he cared for when they were deported. Janusz Korczak, the Pen name of Henryk Goldszmit ( July 22, 1877 &ndash August 1942) was a Polish-Jewish children's
Poland was the only occupied country during World War II where the Nazis formally imposed the death penalty[21] for anybody found sheltering and helping Jews. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. [14][15] This penalty was widely announced by the occupying authorities and was quite often imposed not only on the rescuer, but also on his/her family, neighbors, and on whole towns or villages. Failure to inform on a neighbor hiding Jews was punished by deportation to a concentration camp. The Germans believed in collective responsibility making Poles the most terrorized populations after the Jews and the Gypsies. Food rations for Poles were very small (669 kcal per day in 1941) and black market prices of food were high, factors which made it difficult to hide people and almost impossible to hide entire families, especially in the cities. Despite these draconian measures imposed by the Nazis, Poland has the highest number of Righteous Among The Nations awards at the Yad Vashem Museum. Righteous among the Nations (חסידי אומות העולם Chassidey Umot HaOlam) which may at times refer to the B'nei Noah or Noahides as well is a term used Yad Vashem (יד ושם also spelled Yad VaShem; "Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority" is Israel 's official memorial to the Jewish
![[21]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=2743&lang=EN&type_id=&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/2743.JPG){kind=link}
The Warsaw Ghetto[22] was established by the German Governor-General Hans Frank on October 16, 1940. The General Government (Generalgouvernement refers to a part of the territories of Poland (and Ostrava Czechoslovakia under German Military occupation Hans Michael Frank ( May 23 1900 &ndash October 16 1946) was a German Lawyer who worked for the Nazi party Events 456 - Magister militum Ricimer defeats the Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the western Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Around 138,000 Jews were forced into the ghetto from various districts around the city of Warsaw, whilst 113,000 Poles were forced to leave the area and were assigned quarters in so-called 'Aryan' districts. The German authorities allowed a Jewish Council (Judenrat) of 24 men, led by Adam Czerniaków,[23][24] to form its own police to maintain order in the ghetto. Judenräte (singular Judenrat; German for "Jewish council" were administrative bodies that the Germans required Jews to form in the Adam Czerniaków (1880 &ndash July 23, 1942) was a Polish-Jewish engineer and senator born in Warsaw, Poland. Some Jewish policemen distinguished themselves with their fearful corruption and immorality. Judenrat was also responsible for organizing the labour battalions demanded by the Germans. At the beginning the Judenrat served as a representative of the Jewish community, trying with bribes and submission to soften the Nazi blows. With the passage of time the Germans imposed new and more brutal demands on the Judenrat. The slightest sign of insubordination by the Judenrat was punished by death. In many towns the Judenrat refused cooperation and were subsequently executed with another group taking their place. The President of Warsaw Judenrat Adam Czerniakow, cooperated with the German authorities until he was ordered to compile daily lists of Jews destined for "resettlement". Adam Czerniaków (1880 &ndash July 23, 1942) was a Polish-Jewish engineer and senator born in Warsaw, Poland. Knowing what resettlement meant, he refused and committed suicide.
![[23]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=1361&lang=EN&type_id=&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/1361.JPG){kind=link}
At this time, the population of the ghetto was estimated to be about 380,000 people, about 30% of the population of Warsaw. However, the size of the Ghetto was about 2. 4% of the size of Warsaw. The Germans then closed off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world on November 16 of that year, building a wall around it. Events 534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published During the next year and a half, Jews from smaller cities and villages were brought into the Warsaw Ghetto, while diseases (especially typhoid) and starvation kept the inhabitants at about the same number. Typhoid fever, also known as enteric fever, bilious fever, Yellow Jack or commonly just typhoid, is an illness caused by the Bacterium Average food rations in 1941 for Jews in Warsaw were limited to 253 kcal and 669 kcal for Poles as opposed to 2,613 kcal for Germans. 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 Treblinka extermination camp. Events 1099 - First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1213 - Albigensian Crusade: Simon de Montfort 5th Earl of Leicester, defeats Peter II of Aragon at the Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Treblinka II was a German Extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II. The deportations were carried out by fifty German SS soldiers, 200 soldiers of the Latvian Schutzmannschaften Battalions, 200 Ukrainian Police[25], and 2,500 Jewish Ghetto Police. The ( German for "Protective Squadron" abbreviated SS - or ( Runic)- was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the Latvia ( Latvija officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvijas Republika is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. Jewish Ghetto Police (German de Jüdische Ghetto-Polizei, de Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst) also known as the Jewish Order Service and referred by the Employees of the Judenrat, including the Ghetto Police[26], along with their families and relatives, were given immunity from deportations in return for their cooperation. Judenräte (singular Judenrat; German for "Jewish council" were administrative bodies that the Germans required Jews to form in the Additionally, in August 1942, Jewish Ghetto policemen, under the threat of deportation themselves, were ordered to personally "deliver" five ghetto inhabitants to the Umschlagplatz train station. In The Holocaust, the Umschlagplatz (collection point or reloading point in the Warsaw Ghetto was where Jews gathered for deportation to the Treblinka On January 18, 1943, some Ghetto inhabitants, including members of ŻOB (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, Jewish Combat Organisation), resisted, often with arms, German attempts for additional deportations to Treblinka. Events 350 - Generallus Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa ( ŻOB, Polish for the Jewish Combat Organization; called in Yiddish יידישע קאמף ארגאניזאציע
![[26]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=866&lang=EN&type_id=&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/866.JPG){kind=link}
The first ghetto uprising is believed to have occurred in 1942 in the small town of Łachwa in the Polesie Voivodship. Ghetto uprisings were armed revolts by Jews and other groups incarcerated in Nazi Ghettos during World War II against the plans to deport the inhabitants Lakhva (or Lachva Lachwa ( Belarusian and Russian: Лахва לחווא Łachwa לאַכװע is a small town in southern Belarus, with a population Population Its capital biggest and most important city was Brześć nad Bugiem (now Brest in Belarus)
The final destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto came four months later after the crushing of one of the most heroic and tragic battles of the war, the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising led by Mordechaj Anielewicz. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (German "Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto", Polish "Powstanie w getcie warszawskim") was the Jewish Mordechaj (Mordecai Anielewicz (1919 – May 8, 1943) was the commander of the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa ( English: Jewish Fighting He recruited more than 750 fighters, but amassed only 9 rifles, 59 pistols and a couple of grenades. A developed network of bunkers and fortifications were formed. The Jewish fighters also received support from the Polish Underground (Armia Krajowa). The Germans assembled a force of 2,842 men to enter the ghetto and brought 7,000 security forces into Warsaw. Their greatest fear was that the rebellion would spread to the Polish side of the city. Germans were unable to defeat the Jews in open street combat. After several days, the Germans switched tactics and began burning down houses. The ZOB headquarters on 18 Mila Street fell on May 8, 1943; at this time Mordechai Anielewicz died fighting. The battle raged for 27 days, when it was over German general Jürgen Stroop claimed to have destroyed 6,065 Jews. Jürgen Stroop, (born Josef Stroop, September 26, 1895 &ndash March 6, 1952) was a General of the SS and As a "celebration" Heinrich Himmler ordered the Great Synagogue on Tlomacka Street (which was outside the ghetto) blown up as a symbol of the fact that "the Jewish quarter of Warsaw no longer exists. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945 was a Nazi German politician and head of the Schutzstaffel (SS. " A group of fighters escaped from the ghetto through the sewers and reached the Lomianki forest. About 50 ghetto fighters were saved by the Polish "People’s Guard" and later formed their own partisan group, named after Anielewicz. There were still hundreds of Jews living in the ruins of the ghetto after May 16, 1943. Many succeeded in making contact with Poles in other parts of the city. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising empowered Jews throughout Poland. After the ghetto was liquidated, Jewish leaders continued to work underground on the "Aryan" side by hiding Jews and issuing forged documents. Aryan is an English word derived from the Sanskrit " Ārya " meaning "noble" or "honorable" Many Jews became active in the Polish underground of Greater Warsaw. Polish Underground State (Polskie Państwo Podziemne also known as Polish Secret State) refers to all underground resistance organizations in Poland during
The 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which reverberated throughout Poland and the rest of the world as an example of courage and defiance, was followed by other failed Ghetto uprisings in Nazi occupied Poland. Ghetto uprisings were armed revolts by Jews and other groups incarcerated in Nazi Ghettos during World War II against the plans to deport the inhabitants As late as the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, when the Poles rose up against the Germans in anticipation of the entry of the Soviet Army, there were still a few Jews eking out an existence in the ruins of the former ghetto. The Warsaw Uprising ( Powstanie Warszawskie) was a World War II struggle by the Polish Home Army ( Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya Some of the survivors of 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, still held in camps at or near Warsaw were freed during 1944 Warsaw Uprising, led by Polish resistance movement Armia Krajowa and immediately joined Polish fighters. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (German "Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto", Polish "Powstanie w getcie warszawskim") was the Jewish A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups dedicated to fighting an Invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation Only few of them survived. Polish commander of one Jewish unit, Waclaw Micuta, described them as one of the best fighters, always at the front line. It is estimated that over 2000 Polish Jews, some as well known as Marek Edelman or Icchak Cukierman, and several dozen Greek[27], Hungarian or even German Jews freed by Armia Krajowa from Gesiowka concentration camp in Warsaw, men and woman, took part in combat against Nazis during 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Marek Edelman (b December 31, 1922) is a Polish political and social activist Cardiologist, and last living leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Icchak Cukierman (1915–1981 also known by his Nom de guerre " Antek " or by the anglicised spelling Yitzhak Zuckerman, was one of Gęsiówka (Polish informal name for the prison on Gęsia Street was a Nazi concentration camp in Warsaw, Poland. The Warsaw Uprising ( Powstanie Warszawskie) was a World War II struggle by the Polish Home Army ( Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw As many as 17,000 Polish Jews lost their lives during 1944 Warsaw Uprising, who either fought with the AK units (Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński) or had been discovered in hiding. Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, (code-name Jan Bugaj, 1921-1944 - Polish poet and Home Army soldier one of the most renowned authors of Generation of After the failed 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the city of Warsaw was razed to the ground by the Germans and more than 150,000 Poles were sent to labor or concentration camps. On January 17, 1945, the Soviet Army entered destroyed and inhabited Warsaw. The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya Some 300 Jews were found hiding in the ruins on the Polish part of the city (Wladyslaw Szpilman). Władysław “Władek” Szpilman ( 5 December 1911 &ndash 6 July 2000) was a Polish Pianist, Composer
![[27]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=8301&lang=EN&type_id=2&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/8301.JPG){kind=link}
The fate of the Warsaw Ghetto was similar to that of the other ghettos in which Jews were concentrated. With the decision of Nazi Germany to begin the Final Solution, the destruction of the Jews of Europe, Aktion Reinhard began in 1942, with the opening of the extermination camps of Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka, followed by Auschwitz-Birkenau where people were killed in gas chambers and mass executions (death wall). Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers The Final Solution ( Die Endlösung) was Nazi Germany 's plan and execution of its systematic Genocide against European Jewry during World Operation Reinhard ( Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard in German) was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews Belzec (Bełżec approximate Polish pronunciation bew-zhets) was the first of the Nazi German Extermination camps created for implementing Sobibór is a Village in the administrative district of Gmina Włodawa, within Włodawa County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland Treblinka II was a German Extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II. "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany Many died from hunger, starvation, disease, torture or by pseudo-medical experiments. The mass deportation of Jews from ghettos to these camps, such as happened at the Warsaw Ghetto, soon followed, and more than 1. 7 million Jews were killed at the Aktion Reinhard camps by October 1943 alone.
The Polish Government in Exile was the first (in November 1942) to reveal the existence of Nazi-run concentration camps and the systematic extermination of the Jews by the Nazis, through its courier Jan Karski[28] and through the activities of Witold Pilecki, member of Armia Krajowa who was the only person to volunteer for imprisonment in Auschwitz and who organized a resistance movement inside the camp itself. The Government of the Polish Republic in Exile was the government of Poland after the country had been occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union during September–October Jan Karski ( 24 June, 1914 &ndash 13 July, 2000) was a Polish World War II resistance fighter and Witold Pilecki (May 13 1901 &ndash May 25 1948 ˈvitɔld piˈletski Codenames Roman Jezierski Tomasz Serafiński Druh Witold) was a Soldier "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany [33] One of the Jewish members of the National Council of the Polish government in exile, Szmul Zygielbojm, committed suicide to protest the indifference of the Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust in Poland. Szmul Zygielbojm, sometimes spelled Zygelbojm or Zigelboim ( Yiddish and Hebrew: שמואל זיגלבוים ( February 21, 1895 &ndash The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as The Polish government in exile was also the only government to set up an organization (Żegota) specifically aimed at helping the Jews in Poland. " Żegota " ( also known as the " Konrad Żegota Committee," was a codename for the Council to Aid Jews ( Rada Pomocy Żydom) an underground
Communist rule: 1945–89
Postwar
Between 40,000 and 100,000 Polish Jews survived the Holocaust in Poland by hiding or by joining the Polish or Soviet partisan units. The history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 spans the period of Soviet Communist dominance over the People's Republic of Poland following World A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups dedicated to fighting an Invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation 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. Warsaw (Warszawa; also known by other names) is the Capital and Largest city of Poland. Łódź is Poland 's third largest city with population of 753192 in 2007 (lost its second rank to Krakow in 2007 Wrocław (Breslau Vratislav Vratislavia or Wratislavia Yiddish: ברעסלוי) is the chief City of the historical region of Lower Silesia Lower Silesia (Niederschlesien Silesia Inferior Dolny Śląsk is the northwestern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Upper Silesia is to g. , Legnica, Dzierżoniów and Bielawa. Legnica (Liegnitz is a City on the Kaczawa river in Lower Silesia in south-western Poland. Dzierżoniów (Reichenbach; former Rychbach is a Town in southwestern Poland. Bielawa (Langenbielau is a town in south-western Poland with 31219 inhabitants (2006
The character of Poland was changed however. Poland was left with a government-in-exile that had failed to negotiate a plan for postwar liberation and reconstruction, nor a coherent policy towards the encroaching Soviet Union. In spite of major Polish contribution to World War II, Poland was placed under direct Soviet control due to British and the US dependence on the Soviet military commitment to the defeat of Hitler and Franklin D. Roosevelt's unwillingness to confront Stalin over his future plans for Poland. The European theater of World War II opened with the German invasion of Poland on September 1 1939 Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately The Soviet style Communism was established and the boundaries of Poland were moved west. The Soviet Union swallowed the eastern regions, which had many ethnic minorities including Jewish shtetl communities. A shtetl (שטעטל diminutive form of Yiddish shtot שטאָט "town" pronounced very similarly to the South German diminutive "Städtle" "little
For the survivors, returning to life as it had been before the Holocaust was impossible. Jewish communities no longer existed in Poland. When people tried to return to their homes from camps or hiding places, they found that, in many cases, their homes had been looted or taken over by others who were not happy to see survivors return.
Soon after the end of the Second World War, Jews began to flee Poland. The exodus took place in stages. After the war, the vast majority of survivors left for several reasons, often more than one. Many left simply because they did not want to live in a communist country. Some left because the refusal of the Communist regime to return prewar property. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based Others did not wish to rebuild their lives in the places where their families were murdered. Yet others wanted to go to British Mandate of Palestine, which soon became Israel. The Palestine Mandate, was a set of protocols or articles that formed a multilateral legal and administrative agreement For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Some of the survivors had relatives abroad.
The attitude of Christian Poles toward Jews hardened significantly, since many Poles believed that all Jews were Communists, the new oppressors of the Polish state.
Postwar Poland was also a chaotic country in which Communists and post Home Army anti-Communist formations fought each other. High proportion of Jews among the Communist leadership and Communist Secret Service (UB) fanned prejudices and many Christian Poles viewed Jews with deep hostility. Ordinary Polish Jews sometimes incurred lethal risks. Anti-Jewish riots broke out in several Polish cities and hundreds of Jews were murdered in anti-Jewish violence (see: Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944-1946) [29]. The best-known case is the Kielce pogrom of 1946[30], in which thirty seven Jews were brutally murdered. The Kielce pogrom refers to the events that occurred on July 4 1946 in the Polish town of Kielce. The massacre at Kielce was a turning point in the attempt to rebuild a Jewish community and convinced most survivors that they had no future in Poland. The Kielce tragedy has been variously described as an event stage-managed by the Communists and the outcome of old religious hostilities exacerbated by the war and the participation of Jews in the postwar Communist-dominated administration.
![[30]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=3048&lang=EN&type_id=&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/3048.JPG){kind=link}
The Communist government's response to the pogrom was initially decisive. Special investigators were despatched to the town on the same day and military tribunals assumed responsibility for the prosecutions that followed. Under investigation were not only those who had directly participated in the pogrom. The local administration as well as the responses of the Milicja Obywatelska and the Ministry of Public Security of Poland were scrutinized. Milicja Obywatelska ( Citizens' Militia or Civic Militia) was a state Police institution in People's Republic of Poland. The Ministry of Public Security of Poland ( Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or MBP) was a Polish Secret police, Intelligence The heads of the MO and the UB were both arrested and questioned. Nine participants in the pogrom were sentenced to death; three were given lengthy prison sentences. [31] Until today the debate in Poland continues whether the murderers were leftists or rightists and who inspired the killings.
Between 1945 and 1948, 100,000–120,000 Jews left Poland . Their departure was largely organized by the Zionist activists in Poland such as Adolf Berman and Icchak Cukierman under the umbrella of a semi-clandestine organization Berihah ("Flight"). History of Zionism|Timeline of Zionism|World Zionist Organization|Zionist political violence Zionism is an international political movement that originally supported the Adolf Abraham Berman (17 October 1906 Warsaw &ndash 3 February 1978, Tel-Aviv) was a Polish - Jewish psychologist member Icchak Cukierman (1915–1981 also known by his Nom de guerre " Antek " or by the anglicised spelling Yitzhak Zuckerman, was one of Berihah, or "Brichah" ( was the organized effort that helped Jews escape post- Holocaust Europe to Palestine. [32] Berihah was also responsible for the organized emigration of Jews from Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia totaling 250,000 (including Poland) Holocaust survivors. Aliyah ( refers to Jewish Immigration to the Land of Israel (and since its establishment in 1948 the State of Israel) Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic Czechoslovakia may also refer to what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. See also Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian
![[32]](http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/image_into.asp?id=8069&lang=EN&type_id=2&addr=/IMAGE_TYPE/8069.JPG){kind=link}
A second wave of Jewish emigration (50,000) took place during the liberalization of the Communist regime between 1957 and 1959. The last mass migration of Jews from Poland took place in 1968-69, after Israel’s 1967 War, because of the anti-Jewish policy adopted by Polish communist party, which closed down Jewish youth camps, schools and clubs. One might call this event as an expulsion of Jews of 1968. Thereafter almost all Jews who decided to stay in Poland "stopped" being Jewish.
The Bund took part in the post-war elections of 1947 on a common ticket with the (non-communist) Polish Socialist Party (PPS) and gained its first and only parliamentary seat in its Polish history, plus several seats in municipal councils. The Polish legislative election 1947 was held on January 19, 1947 in the People's Republic of Poland. The Polish Socialist Party ( Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS was one of the most important Polish Left-wing Political parties from its inception Under pressure from Soviet-installed Communist authorities, the Bund's leaders 'voluntarily' disbanded the party in 1948–1949 against the opposition of many activists. The Soviet Union’s secret police essentially governed Poland and Stalin’s anti-Semitic regime stifled Jewish cultural and religious activities. Jewish schools were nationalized in 1948-49 and Yiddish was no longer used as the language of instruction.
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 Dawid Kahane, who served as chief rabbi of the Polish Armed Forces, functioned between 1945 and 1948 until it was absorbed by the CKŻP. Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular Eleven independent political Jewish parties, of which eight were legal, existed until their dissolution during 1949–50. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and ORT opened schools and hospitals for the Jewish communities in Poland. Some Jewish cultural institutions were established including the Yiddish State Theater founded in 1950 and directed by Ida Kaminska, the Jewish Historical Institute, an academic institution specializing in the research of the history and culture of the Jews in Poland, and the Yiddish newspaper Folks-Shtime ("People's Voice"). Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish community Ida Kaminska, in Poland Kamińska nee Halpern (September 18 1899 – May 21 1980 was an Oscar-nominated Jewish Polish actress
Stalin’s death in 1953 eased the situation for the Jews, who then were allowed to reestablish connections with Jewish organizations abroad and began producing Jewish literature. In this 1958-59 period, 50,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, which was the only country Jews were able to migrate to under Polish law.
A number of Polish Jews participated in the establishment of the Communist regime in the People's Republic of Poland between 1944 and 1956 and played an important role in the apparatus of oppression, holding, among others, prominent posts in the Politburo of the Polish United Worker's Party (e. The People's Republic of Poland or Polish People's Republic ( Polish: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL Russian Politburo, short for Political Bureau, Russian Politicheskoye Buro, is the executive organization for a number of Political parties, most notably The Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza - PZPR was a Communist party in the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1990 g. Jakub Berman, Hilary Minc – responsible for establishing a Communist-style economy), and the security apparatus Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (UB) and in diplomacy/intelligence. Jakub Berman (born December 26, 1901, in Warsaw, then Russian Empire - died April 10, 1984 Hilary Minc (1905 - 1974 was a Polish politician Marxist economist member of the Communist Party of Poland and the PWP/PUWP Politburo of the KC PPR The Ministry of Public Security of Poland ( Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or MBP) was a Polish Secret police, Intelligence After 1956, during the process of destalinisation in Poland under Władysław Gomułka's regime, some Urząd Bezpieczeństwa officials including Roman Romkowski (born Natan Grunsapau-Kikiel), Jacek Różański (born Jozef Goldberg), and Anatol Fejgin were prosecuted for "power abuses" including the torture of Polish anticommunists (among them, Witold Pilecki), and sentenced to long prison terms. The Cold War ensued as the USSR and the United States struggled indirectly for influence around the world Władysław Gomułka ( February 6, 1905, Krosno - September 1, 1982) was a Polish Communist leader Witold Pilecki (May 13 1901 &ndash May 25 1948 ˈvitɔld piˈletski Codenames Roman Jezierski Tomasz Serafiński Druh Witold) was a Soldier A UB official, Józef Światło, (born Izaak Fleichfarb), after escaping in 1953 to the West, exposed through Radio Free Europe the methods of the UB which led to its dissolution in 1954. Józef Światło (1915-1975 was a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Public Security of Poland (deputy director of 10th Department This article is about the radio broadcast service For the REM Solomon Morel a member of the Ministry of Public Security of Poland and commandant of the Stalinist era Zgoda labour camp, fled Poland for Israel to escape prosecution for genocide. Salomon ( Solomon or Shlomo) Morel ( November 15 1919 in Grabowo Poland &ndash February 14 2007 The Ministry of Public Security of Poland ( Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or MBP) was a Polish Secret police, Intelligence The Zgoda labour camp was a Concentration camp for Germans and Silesians in Communist Poland operated in 1945 in Świętochłowice Helena Wolińska-Brus, a former Stalinist prosecutor, now a British citizen living in Oxford, is fighting being extradited to Poland on charges related to the execution of a Second World War resistance hero August Fieldorf. Helena Wolińska-Brus (born 1919 as Fajga Mindla Danielak) is a former military prosecutor from Poland, involved in Stalinist regime Show trials Emil August Fieldorf (1895&ndash1953 was a Polish brigadier general
1967–1989
In 1967, following the Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab states, communist Poland broke off diplomatic relations with Israel. Background Suez Crisis aftermath The Suez Crisis of 1956 represented a military defeat but a political victory for Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding The Israeli victory over the Soviet backed Arab states in 1967 was greeted by Poles with glee; "Our Jews have given the Soviet Arabs a drumming!" By 1968 most of Poland's 40,000 remaining Jews were assimilated into Polish society, but over the next year they became the center of a Soviet backed, centrally organized campaign, equating Jewish origins with Zionist sympathies and thus disloyalty to Poland.
In March 1968 student-led demonstrations in Warsaw (see Polish 1968 political crisis) gave Gomułka's government an excuse to channel public anti-government sentiment into another avenue. The Polish 1968 political crisis (also known in Polish as 'March 1968' or 'March events' Marzec 1968 or wydarzenia marcowe) describes the major Student and intellectual Thus his security chief, Mieczysław Moczar, used the situation as a pretext to launch an anti-Semitic press campaign (although the expression "Zionist" was officially used). Mieczysław Moczar (original name Mikołaj Diomko, Pseudonym Mietek, born December 25 1913 in Łódź - died November The state-sponsored "anti-Zionist" campaign resulted in the removal of Jews from the Polish United Worker's Party and from teaching positions in schools and universities. The Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza - PZPR was a Communist party in the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1990 Due to economic, political and police pressure, 25,000 Jews were forced to emigrate during 1968–1970. The campaign, though ostensibly directed at Jews who had held office in the Stalinist era and at their families, affected most of the remaining Polish Jews, whatever their backgrounds.
There were several outcomes of the March 1968 events. The Polish 1968 political crisis (also known in Polish as 'March 1968' or 'March events' Marzec 1968 or wydarzenia marcowe) describes the major Student and intellectual The campaign damaged Poland's reputation abroad, particularly in the U. S. Many Polish intellectuals, however, were disgusted at the promotion of official anti-Semitism and opposed the campaign. Some of the people who emigrated to the West at this time founded organizations which encouraged anticommunist opposition inside Poland.
In 1977, communist Poland began to try to improve its image regarding Jewish matters. Partial diplmatic relations were restored in 1986 — the first of the communist bloc countries to take this step — full diplomatic relations were not restored until 1990, a year after Poland ended its communist rule
During the late 1970s some Jewish activists were engaged in the anticommunist opposition groups. Most prominent among them, Adam Michnik (founder of Gazeta Wyborcza) was one of the founders of the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). Adam Michnik (born October 17 1946 Warsaw, Poland) is the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, where he sometimes writes under the pen-names of Gazeta Wyborcza vɨ'bɔrtʂa}} ( Polish for "Election Gazette" is Poland 's second-largest daily newspaper (after the tabloid Fakt The Workers’ Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników KOR) ( pronounced kɔmitɛt ɔbrɔnɨ rɔbɔtɲikuf was a Polish Civil society By the time of the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989, only 5,000–10,000 Jews remained in the country, many of them preferring to conceal their Jewish origin.
Since 1989
With the fall of Communism in Poland, Jewish cultural, social, and religious life has been undergoing a revival. In the 1970s and 1980s tension grew between the people of Poland and its Communist government as with the rest of the Eastern bloc as the influence of the Soviet Many historical issues, especially related to World War II and the 1944–89 period, suppressed by Communist censorship have been re-evaluated and publicly discussed (like the Massacre in Jedwabne, the Koniuchy Massacre, the Kielce pogrom, the Auschwitz cross, and Polish-Jewish wartime relations in general). The Jedwabne Pogrom (or Jedwabne massacre) (jɛdˈvabnɛ was a massacre of Jewish people living in and near the town of Jedwabne in The Kaniūkai (Koniuchy massacre was a massacre carried out by Jewish and Soviet partisans during the Second World War in the Polish The Kielce pogrom refers to the events that occurred on July 4 1946 in the Polish town of Kielce. Auschwitz cross refers to the Cross erected near the Auschwitz concentration camp.
According to the Coordination Forum of Countering Antisemitism there were eighteen anti-Semitic incidents in Poland in the period from January 2001 to November 2005. Half of them was propaganda, eight were violent incidents such as vandalism or desecration (the last of them took place in 2003), and one was verbal abuse. There were no anti-Semitic attacks by means of weapons in Poland [33]. However, according to a 2005 survey, the portion of the population holding anti-Semitic views is somewhat higher than in some European countries [34]. According to a survey carried out by CBOS and published in January, 2005, in which Poles were asked to assess their attitudes toward other nations, 45% claimed to feel antipathy towards Jews, 18% to feel sympathy, while 29% felt indifferent and 8% were undecided. Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej (CBOS (Centre for Public Opinion Research is an Opinion polling institute in Poland, based in Warsaw. Those surveyed were asked to express their feeling on the scale from -3 (strong antipathy) to +3 (strong sympathy), with 0 taken to indicate indifference. The average score for attitude towards Jews was -0. 67. Another contemporary nationwide survey indicated that as of January 2004 40 percent of Poles believed that their country with the Jewish population of less that 20,000 out of 39 million populations is still "being governed by Jews". [34] "Cultural Anti-Semitism" is still in existence in Poland today. It is exemplified in the saying "Don't be a Jew". Even the word "Zyd" ("Jew" in Polish) has a pejorative connotation.
Football stadiums are a recruiting ground for extremist organizations, and neo-fascist symbols are a common sight there and often seen as graffiti in major Polish cities.
Poland has many legal provisions to combat antisemitism, neo-fascism, extremism and has ratified all the major international conventions pertaining to human rights protection and anti-discrimination. Jewish religious life has been revived with the help of the Ronald Lauder Foundation, the Polish Jewish community employs two rabbis, operated a small network of Jewish schools and summer camps, and sustains several Jewish periodicals and book series events. In 1993 the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland was established with the aim of organizing the religious and cultural life of the members of the communities in Poland.
Synagogues can be found in Warsaw, Cracow, Zamosc, Tykocin, Lesko, Lanco, Rzeszow, Kielce and Gora Kalwaria, but not all are functioning today. The oldest synagogue in Poland, Stara Synagoga, built in the early 15th century, can be found in Cracow. Today, it hosts a Jewish museum. The Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin was reopened in Lublin in 2007, the first synagogue to be renovated and dedicated in Poland since World War II solely through funding from Polish Jewry, without government or charitable support. Prior to World War II, the yeshiva was Europe's largest.
The leading Jewish publications are the monthly Midrasz, Dos Jidische Wort, Jidele for youth and Sztendlach for primary school children. All of these publications are printed in Polish except for Dos Jidische Wort, which is published in a bi-lingual Yiddish-Polish edition. Jewish Institutions include the Jewish Historical Institute, the E. R. Kaminska State Yiddish Theater in Warsaw, and the Jewish Cultural Center in Cracow.
Academic Jewish studies programs were established at Warsaw University and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. University of Warsaw (Uniwersytet Warszawski is the largest University in Poland, ranked by the Times Higher Education Supplement as the second best Polish For several academies alternatively called "Krakow Academy" see Education in Kraków The Jagiellonian University (Uniwersytet Kraków became home to the Judaica Foundation, which has sponsored a wide range of cultural and educational programs on Jewish themes for a predominantly Polish audience. The building of the new Museum of the History of Polish Jewry in Warsaw will be based on a design of a Finnish architect, Rainer Mahlamaecki. The plot of land for the museum and an additional $13 million were donated by the city of Warsaw and additional $13 million were donated by the Polish government.
Of the Communist Bloc countries that interrupted diplomatic relations with Israel in 1967 (i. During the Cold War, the term Communist Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) was used to refer to the Soviet Union and countries it either controlled or that were Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting Negotiations between representatives of groups or states e. all communist countries less Romania), Poland was the first to restart them again in 1986, and to fully restore them in 1990. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Government relations between Poland and Israel are steadily improving, resulting in the mutual visits of the presidents and the ministers of foreign affairs.
It is also possible to visit the extermination camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek and Treblinka. "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany Auschwitz currently houses the Oswiecim State Museum, exhibiting documents from Nazi crimes. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after Block Number 27 is set aside for martyrology of the Jews and the millions who were killed there. All that remains of Treblinka is a mausoluem and monument consisting of thousands of shards of broken stone. Treblinka II was a German Extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II. At Majdanek, there is a museum and a monument, which incorporates a mound of human ashes commemorating the 350,000 people who were murdered there. Majdanek was a Nazi Concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland.
Besides the camps, Poland also has the largest Jewish burial ground in Europe, which is found in Lodz. Historic grave sites can be found in Gora Kalwaria (the Ger) and Lesajsk (Lezensk). Poles have preserved and catalogued the graves in Jewish cemeteries.
In June 2004, during an excavation of the site of the Great Synagogue in Oswiecim, archeologists uncovered a unique collection of Jewish treasures. Oswiecim's population was 70 percent Jewish, but was wiped out after the German invasion of Poland. It is also where the Auschwitz death camp was built. In this project initiated by a young Israeli named Yariv Nornberg, archaeologists dug at the site based on the testimony of Holocaust survivor Yishayahu Yarod, who remembered the relics being hidden by the Jews before the Nazis razed the synagogue. Many Jewish ritual objects were found at the site, including three bronze candelabras, a bronze menorah, ten chandeliers and a ner tamid. Tiles, marble plaques and charred wood from the synagogue were also discovered. The objects will most likely go through a year-long restoration process and then be displayed in the Auschwitz Jewish Center.
The Memorial of the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto is located on a square which was once the site of one the main bunkers of the Jewish Combat Organization. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish Ghettos located in the territory of General Government during World War II, established by The Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa ( ŻOB, Polish for the Jewish Combat Organization; called in Yiddish יידישע קאמף ארגאניזאציע This monument is the work of Natan Rappaport; it is made of the bronze and granite (labradorite) ordered by Hitler from Sweden in 1942 for a monument "honoring the victory of Germany. " The Warsaw Ghetto Memorial was unveiled on April 19th, 1948 - the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw ghetto Uprising.
On July 4, 2006, a memorial to Holocaust survivors killed and wounded in Kielce, Poland after World War II will was unveiled. The city of Kielce and the U. S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad financed the memorial. On that day in 1946, residents killed more than 40 Jews who had returned to the town after the war to reclaim their property. The massacre consolidated the perception among survivors that they couldn’t return to Poland.
Today there is greater awareness of Poland's rich Jewish past as well as of the tragedies of the Holocaust. Interest in learning about and preserving the artifacts of Jewish culture is quite strong, especially among the young. Zaglada, a journal devoted to the Holocaust, was first published in 2005 by a special division of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Polish Academy of Sciences, headquartered in Warsaw, is one of two Polish institutions having the nature of an Academy of sciences. Other publications have also been published recently dealing with the subject, most notably from the Institute of National Remembrance. Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej — Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu
There have been a number of Holocaust remembrance activities in Poland in recent years. In September 2000, dignitaries from Poland, Israel, the United States, and other countries (including Prince Hassan of Jordan) gathered in the city of Oświęcim (the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp) to commemorate the opening of the refurbished Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot synagogue and the Auschwitz Jewish Center. Oświęcim (Auschwitz Yiddish Oshpitsin אָשפּיצין Romany: Aushvitsa, Osvyenchim, Czech: Osvětim "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany The synagogue, the sole synagogue in Oświęcim to survive World War II and an adjacent Jewish cultural and educational center, provide visitors a place to pray and to learn about the active pre–World War II Jewish community that existed in Oświęcim. The synagogue was the first communal property in the country to be returned to the Jewish community under the 1997 law allowing for restitution of Jewish communal property. Additionally, in April of each year, the March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau to honor victims of the Holocaust, draws young people from Israel and elsewhere, as well as Poles, as marchers to mark two of the most significant dates: Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israel Independence Day. The March of the Living, is an annual educational program which brings students from all over the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Birkenau may mean the following Birkenau (Odenwald, a municipality in the Odenwald located in the South of Hesse in Germany Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laGvura (יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה "Remembrance Day for the Holocaust and Heroism" known colloquially in Israel Yom Ha'atzmaut (יום העצמאות yom hā-‘aṣmā’ūṯ; عيد الاستقلال is the national independence day of Israel, commemorating its The purpose of this trip is to give students a first hand look at history and the evils of mankind. There are also more general activities, like the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków.
In 2000, Poland's Jewish population is generally estimated to have risen to somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000 — most living in Warsaw, Wrocław, Kraków, and Bielsko-Biała, though there are no census figures that would give an exact number. Wrocław (Breslau Vratislav Vratislavia or Wratislavia Yiddish: ברעסלוי) is the chief City of the historical region of Lower Silesia Kraków, in English also spelled Krakow or Cracow (ˈkrækaʊ M-W: krăk'ou krāk'ō is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland Bielsko-Biała (Bielitz-Biala Bílsko-Bělá is a city in southern Poland with 176987 inhabitants (2006 According to the Polish Moses Schorr Centre and other Polish sources, however, this may represent an undercount of the actual number of Jews living in Poland, since many are not religious. The Centre estimates that there are approximately 100,000 Jews in Poland, of which 30,000 to 40,000 have some sort of direct connection to the Jewish community, either religiously or culturally.
Poland will ease the way for Jews to reclaim citizenship 40 years after the start of massive expulsions. In a letter released March 3, 2008, Polish Interior Minister Grzegorz Schetyna said he would "order the implementation of the appropriate procedures today. " Piotr Kadlcik, the president of the Union of Religious Jewish Communities in Poland, told JTA he had already received verbal confirmation that Schetyna endorsed the plan to re-naturalize Jews who fled between 1968 and 1970. Some 15,000 Polish Jews were deprived of their citizenship. [35]
See also
- Chronology of Jewish Polish history
- List of Polish Jews
- Jewish history
- Jewish ethnic divisions
- Shtetl
- Jan T. Gross
Notes
- ^ polishjews.org
- ^ Poland, at that time, was the most tolerant country in Europe "From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution" by Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper University of Chicago Press 1992, page 51
- ^ In accordance with its tradition of religious tolerance, Poland refrained from participating in the excesses of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation "Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends" by Lonnie R. Chronology of Jewish Polish history: 960 A Jewish merchant from Spain, Ibrahim Ibn Jaqub (Abraham ben Jakov travels to Poland and writes the first description WIKIPEDIAVERIFIABILITY AND WIKIPEDIANO ORIGINAL RESEARCH, WHICH Jewish history is the History of the Jewish people, faith, and culture. See also Judaism by country Jewish ethnic divisions refers to a number of distinct communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population A shtetl (שטעטל diminutive form of Yiddish shtot שטאָט "town" pronounced very similarly to the South German diminutive "Städtle" "little Jan Tomasz Gross (born December 8, 1947) is a Polish American historian and sociologist Johnson Oxford University Press 1996
- ^ Although traditional narrative holds that as a consequence, the predicament of the Commonwealth’s Jewry worsened, declining to the level of other European countries by the end of the eighteenth century, recent scholarship by Gershon Hundert, Moshe Rosman, Edward Fram, and Magda Teter, suggest that the reality was much more complex. See for example, the following works, which discuss Jewish life and culture, as well as Jewish-Christian relations during that period: M. Rosman Lords' Jews: Magnate-Jewish Relations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Eighteenth Century (Harvard University Press, new ed. 1993), G. Hundert The Jews in a Polish Private Town: The Case of Opatów in the Eighteenth Century (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), E. Fram Ideals Face Reality: Jewish Law and Life in Poland, 1550–1655 (HUC Press, 1996), and M. TeterJews and Heretics in Pre-modern Poland: A Beleaguered Church in the Post-Reformation Era (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
- ^ Beyond the Pale Online exposition
- ^ William W. Hagen, Before the "Final Solution": Toward a Comparative Analysis of Political Anti-Semitism in Interwar Germany and Poland, The Journal of Modern History, Vol. William W Hagen is a prominent historian and Professor of History at the University of California-Davis. The Journal of Modern History is recognized as the leading American journal for the study of European intellectual political and cultural History. 68, No. 2 (Jun. , 1996), 351–381.
- ^ Paulsson, Gunnar S (2002). Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 245. ISBN 0-300-09546-5. “There were people everywhere who were prepared, for whatever motives, to do the Nazis' work for them. And if there was more antisemitism in Poland than in many other countries, there was also less collaboration. . . . The Nazis generally preferred not to count on outbursts of 'emotional antisemitism', when what was needed to realize their plans was 'rational antisemitism', as Hitler himself put it. For that, they neither wanted nor received significant help from the Poles. ”
- ^ Unveiling the Secret City H-Net Review: John Radzilowski
- ^ Poland's Jewish Secret Unearthed DW-World. de
- ^ "I know this Jew!" Blackmailing of the Jews in Warsaw 1939-1945. Polish Center for Holocaust Research
- ^ The Polish Undergroud State and Home Army
- ^ Polish Righteous, Those Who Risked Their Lives
- ^ Poland, Members of the Malkiewicz Family, Who Were Awarded the Title of Righteous Gentiles After the War (image)
- ^ a b Donald L. Niewyk, Francis R. Nicosia, The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, ISBN 0231112009, Google Print, p.114
- ^ a b Antony Polonsky, 'My Brother's Keeper?': Recent Polish Debates on the Holocaust, Routledge, 1990, ISBN 0415042321, Google Print, p.149
- ^ 1367 pogrom Poznan. Google Books
- ^ The Encyclopedia of World History 1447-92. 2001
- ^ Frederic Cople Jaher A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-semitism in America, Harvard University Press, 1994, p. 79–80
- ^ Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski Jews in Poland - New York 1998, p. 297.
- ^ (English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide. . . . McFarland & Company, pp. 41-42. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
- ^ Isaac Babel, 1920 Diary, Yale, 2002, ISBN 0-300-09313-6, ex. Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel, Исаак Эммануилович Бабель ( – January 27, 1940) was a Soviet journalist playwright and short story writer who pp. 4, 7, 10, 26, 33, 84
- ^ Andrzej Kapiszewski, CONTROVERSIAL REPORTS ON THE SITUATION OF JEWS IN POLAND IN THE AFTERMATH OF WORLD WAR I Studia Judaica 7: 2004 nr 2(14) s. 257-304 (pdf)
- ^ a b Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10586-XGoogle Books, p.144
- ^ Feigue Cieplinski, Poles and Jews: The Quest For Self-Determination 1919–1934, Binghamton Journal of History, Fall 2002, Last accessed on 2 June 2006. Timothy D Snyder is an American professor of history at Yale University. Events 455 - The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
- ^ DavidGorodok - Section IV - a
- ^ The Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust by Martin Gilbert, pp. Sir Martin John Gilbert, CBE, DLitt (born October 25, 1936) is a British Historian and the author of over eighty books 21. Relevant page viewable via Google book search
- ^ a b The Death of Chaimke Yizkor Book Project, JewishGen: The Home of Jewish Genealogy
- ^ a b (English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide. . . . McFarland & Company, p. 49-65. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3.
- ^ 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), p. Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej — Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu 37-42, online article, entire issue
- ^ Death tolls in the Holocaust, from the US Holocaust Museum
- ^ Summary of IPN's final findings on Jedwabne (English)
- ^ Discussion of IPN findings
- ^ Note of December 10, 1942, addressed by the Polish Government to the Governments of the united nations concerning the mass extermination of Jews
- ^ Jan T. Gross, Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz, Random House, 2006, ISBN 0-375-50924-0. Events 1041 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Jan Tomasz Gross (born December 8, 1947) is a Polish American historian and sociologist
References
This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. The Jewish Encyclopedia was an Encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
- Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, After the Holocaust, East European Monographs, 2003, ISBN 0-88033-511-4. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (born in 1962 in Warsaw, Poland) is an American Historian specializing in East Central
- Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939–1947, Lexington Books, 2004, ISBN 0-7391-0484-5. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (born in 1962 in Warsaw, Poland) is an American Historian specializing in East Central Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc was founded in 1949. It is an independent publishing house which offers scholarly works for the academic market
- William W. Hagen, Before the "Final Solution": Toward a Comparative Analysis of Political Anti-Semitism in Interwar Germany and Poland, The Journal of Modern History, Vol. William W Hagen is a prominent historian and Professor of History at the University of California-Davis. The Journal of Modern History is recognized as the leading American journal for the study of European intellectual political and cultural History. 68, No. 2 (Jun. , 1996), 351–381.
- Gershon David Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity, University of California Press, 2004, ISBN 0-520-23844-3 Google Print
- Antony Polonsky and Joanna B. University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a Publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in Academic Michlic. The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland, Princeton University Press, 2003 ISBN 0-691-11306-8. The Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. (The introduction is online)
- Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, Jews in Poland. Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski (born Sept 3 1921 in Lwów, Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine) is a Polish – Belgian – and American A Documentary History, Hippocrene Books, Inc. Hippocrene Books are a US Publishing press located at 171 Madison Avenue New York City, NY 10016 , 1998, ISBN 0-7818-0604-6.
- David Vital, A People Apart: A Political History of the Jews in Europe 1789–1939, Oxford University Press, 2001.
- M. J. Rosman, The Lord's Jews: Magnate-Jewish Relations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth During the Eighteenth Century, Harvard University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-916458-18-0
- Edward Fram, Ideals Face Reality: Jewish Life and Culture in Poland 1550–1655, HUC Press, 1996, ISBN 0814329063
- Magda Teter, Jews and Heretics in Premodern Poland: A Beleaguered Church in the Post-Reformation Era, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0521856736
Further reading
- Alvydas Nikžentaitis, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas (editors). Alvydas Nikžentaitis (born on October 18, 1961) is a Lithuanian historian director of the Lithuanian Institute of History, and associated professor The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews. Rodopi, 2004, ISBN 90-420-0850-4 Google print
Notes
See also Stanisław Krajewski, Poland and the Jews: Reflections of a Polish Polish Jew (Kraków: Austeria P, 2005). Kraków, in English also spelled Krakow or Cracow (ˈkrækaʊ M-W: krăk'ou krāk'ō is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland
Glenn Dynner, "Men of Silk: The Hasidic Conquest of Polish Jewish Society" (NY: Oxford University Press, 2006)
External links
Maps
- The Cossak Uprising and its Aftermath in Poland, Jewish Communities in Poland and Lithuania under the Council of the Four Lands, The Spread of Hasidic Judaism, Jewish Revolts against the Nazis in Poland (All maps from Judaism: History, Belief, and Practice)
History of Polish Jews
- The Polish Jews Home Page
- Beyond the Pale: A History of the Jews in Russia. See especially: Jews of Lithuania and Poland
- Mike Rose's History of the Jews in Poland before 1794 and After 1794
- Virtual Jewish History Tour of Poland
- Early History of the Polish Jewish Community from Medieval Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia
- Jews in Poland from the LNT Travel company.
- Judaism in the Baltic: Vilna as the Spiritual Center of Eastern Europe
- The Jews in Poland. Saving from oblivion - Teaching for the future
- Historical Sites of Jewish Warsaw
- Kazimierz in Kraków - History and Jewish Festivals
- Jewish presence in the history of Gliwice
- Polish-Jewish Relations section of the Polish Embassy in Washington
- Facts and Myths: on the Role of the Jews during the Stalinist Period
- A Complicated Coexistence:Polish-Jewish relations through the centuries, Joanna Rohozinska, Central Europe Review, 28 January 2000
- Primary sources for the premodern period in Jewish history and video presentations by scholars, including: Edward Fram, Moshe Rosman, Adam Teller, and Magda Teter on Jews in Poland-Lithuania
World War II and the Holocaust
- Chronicles of the Vilna Ghetto: wartime photographs & documents - vilnaghetto.com
- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from the US Holocaust Museum. Events 1077 - Walk to Canossa: The Excommunication of Henry IV Holy Roman Emperor is lifted 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. From the same source see:
- Non-Jewish Polish Victims of the Holocaust
- Bibliography of Polish Jewish Relations during the War
- Chronology of German Anti-Jewish Measures during World War II in Poland
- THE JEWS AND THE POLES: HOLOCAUST UNDERSTANDING & PREVENTION by Alexander Kimel
- The Catholic Zionist Who Helped Steer Israeli Independence through the UN
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic