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Poles - Jews
War - Occupation
Władysław Bartoszewski
Foreword republished from the book:
POLACY - ŻYDZI
POLEN - JUDEN
POLES - JEWS
1939-1945
WYBÓR ŹRÓDEL
QUELLENA USWAHL
SELECTION OF DOCUMENTS
Opracowanie/Auswahl/Edited by: Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert
Warszawa 2001
The nature of Polish-Jewish relations
has, over the passage of centuries had a varying nature.
Poles and Jews lived in the same land for many centuries
and they coexisted with each other or, on occasion perhaps
they lived indifferently, sometimes unwillingly, antagonistically,
and even in enmity.
A number of historical occurrences
during the Middle Ages as well as in more recent times
led to an increase in the number of Jewish settlers,
particularly in the historical, central and eastern
lands of the Polish nation. This expressed itself in
population data that reflected - during the course of
the 200 years preceding Second World War - the fact
that Jews comprised some 8-10% of the people residing
in this area (although by the end of the 19th century
Jews comprised over 25% of the population in some of
the Polish territories under Russian domination) and
this proportion maintained itself essentially without
any greater changes, which served among other things
to confirm the relatively stabilized position of the
Jewish religious-national group in this part of Europe.
It also meant that this group was the most numerous
not only as a percentage but also in absolute numbers
in contemporaneous Europe. In valid proportion to these
numbers, there also remained the importance of Polish
Jews in the world Diaspora. The deeply religious life
and extensively developed spiritual and intellectual
movements in a variety of their forms, in community,
artistic, scholarly, and finally political life guaranteed
the Polish Jewish community an extraordinary place in
the Jewish community of Europe, although their economic
position, and thus their standing among modern nations,
yielded to the civilizational and economic possibilities
of Jews who had settled in wealthier, more advanced,
and above all more industrialized countries of Western
Europe (i.e. Germany, England or France). The difference
in customs, the specific rooting in traditions of the
majority of Jews resident in Poland definitively comprised
a positive value for the Jewish Diaspora, remaining
as an inexhaustible reservoir of unchanging religious
and ritual values. One must however, remember that this
difference as well as the lesser economic circumstances
of the 'Ostjuden' caused a certain reserve towards
them on the part of Western European Jews.
In their overwhelming majority,
Polish Jews dismissed assimilationist tendencies, consequently
retaining faithfulness to their differentiation as a
penultimate value and a significant group of consistently
orthodox individuals in fact, preferred isolation to
a non-Jewish environment. Poles, as well, having frequent
contact with Jews as a result of practical life - did
not venture to transcend the barrier of otherness. Each
of the sides also had an inclination towards feeling
superior to the other.
In the reborn Republic of Poland
(after 1918), neither membership in Parliament or participation
in any other form of political or cultural life managed
to break the principle of isolationism. On the other
hand, the programs of Polish right wing and centrist
parties emphasized the foreignness of those of the Jewish
faith in Poland and ascribed to its members a damaging
role in economic and cultural life. The circle of Piłsudski
followers and the liberal groups (i.e. Kluby Demokratyczne
(Democratic Clubs) or later the Stronnictwo Demokratyczne
(Democratic Party)) emanating from it to a greater or
lesser degree or the social democratic groups (above
all the highly influential PPS Polska Partia Socialistyczna
(Polish Socialist Party) coordinating with the Bund)
programmatically discarded all national and religious
differences - but they encountered difficulty in defining
their position to Jewish groups with all the political
and social orthodox consequences associated with this,
and even more so with respect to the right wing Zionist
movement. The intellectual circles, which were relatively
influential in Poland and carried community influence
rejected all nationalistic, anti-Semitic or xenophobic
tendencies in the great majority, but they of course,
preferred professional and social relationships with
the appropriately liberal Jewish elite.
Economic competition appeared
in bourgeoisie circles in cities and towns, yet this
was not a simple situation, it manifested itself differently
throughout various parts of the country. The dominant
position of the Roman Catholic church in Poland vis--vis
Jews was a traditional one, characterized by mistrust
and suffused with stereotypes and prejudices resulting
from centuries of antagonism between Christianity and
Judaism as perceived by the Roman Catholic Church, and
which endured until the Second Vatican Council and was
actually only vanquished during the pontificate of the
first Polish Pope, John Paul II and that mainly through
his efforts. However, at the end of the twenties and
during the thirties a major movement leading towards
a Christian - Jewish dialogue arose in Roman Catholic
intellectual circles. This was a small movement nor
was it influential, but it did congregate about it individuals
of high intellectual and moral capability. Some of them
later played a positive role during the course of and
after World War II by continuing these previously initiated
efforts.
It continued to take this role
in Poland and in Roman Catholic circles and has passed
it on to succeeding generations. In considering the
issue of Polish-Jewish relations in our history, we
must separate out several periods, which differed in
terms of conditions, and tendencies, which appeared
in community life. The interrelationship between the
national groups during the earlier Polish state until
its liquidation during the Partitions (1772-1795) between
its' three surrounding neighbors was no worse than in
other countries of contemporaneous Europe, and at various
times it was even better, however the period when the
Polish nation did not exist (1795-1918), unquestionably
brought about negative changes in this arena. There
can be no discussion therefore of the creation of an
independent, nationwide Polish policy towards other
national and denominational groups in the territory
of the prior Republic. The living conditions of Poles
as well as Jews who found themselves under the domination
of the partitioning powers - Russia, Prussia and Austria
- presented itself variously and inconsistently, generally,
however the policy of each of the partitioning powers
took into consideration the possibility of exploiting
the differences and conflicts between national and religious
groups. It was not infrequent that such conflicts, conditioned
by economic and societal factors were stimulated either
directly or indirectly by it.
In selecting future paths of action
for Poland, in shaping policies and positions, both
passive and active, particularly in the last years of
the 19th century, there frequently arose serious differences
in the area of interests and engagement for Poles and
Jews. Poles were inclined to perceive a tendency by
Jews to assume as far reaching rapprochement and cooperation
with the structures and authorities of the partitioning
powers, as well as tendencies towards self-Germanization
and self-Russification in certain Jewish circles. Nonetheless,
certain Jews from the bourgeoisie and intellectual circles
played a significant role in organizational efforts
in the area of general societal interests and in the
fundamental organizational efforts thereof, while others
partook in the birth of the socialist movement, in which
certain Poles sought the possibility of accelerating
the perspective for an Independent Nation. For the Jewish
masses however, this question was rather distant and
was not reflected at all in their world of values and
perceptions. We do not forget however, about patriotic
Jews cooperating and fighting with Poles, but present
typical examples.
During the period of the Republic
of Poland after 1918, aside from traditional groupings
there existed a significant number of Jews, whose totals
are difficult to assess, educated in an environment
of Russian culture who did not feel any psychological
or political identification with the newly created Polish
Nation. This was an explainable and understandable occurrence,
however having its consequences in community life. With
the passage of time, this situation did succumb to differentiation.
The increase in numbers of the younger generation of
Jews educated since birth in the Polish State caused
a change to the common nationality and among the intellectual
and economic elite the matter presented itself in a
totally different fashion.
The world economic crisis of 1928-1933/34
brought Poland a significant pauperization of the already
previously economically underprivileged Polish and Jewish
proletarian masses, as well as the poverty stricken
Polish peasant and Jewish petit bourgeoisie. Actually
extant problems were exploited in the political struggle
and the propaganda activities by the parties and groups
of the well known so-called Obóz Narodowy (National
Camp) (the political center and right) as well as against
the ruling party of Pilsudski's supporters, and in the
Polish liberal and left wing parties. The argument of
Polish-Jewish economic competition belonged in this
struggle to the most frequently used and served to convince
many people.
The period of the last years prior
to the outbreak of the Second World War, and particularly
the years 1934-39 (coinciding with the period of the
mortal illness of Józef Piłsudski and after his death,
the years of struggle for control of power) did in reality
bring a gradual economic improvement to Poland, however,
relations with the national minorities rather worsened.
This became apparent in Polish-Ukrainian, Polish-Byelorussian,
as well as Polish-Jewish relations. The most extreme
expression of this tension were the brutal anti-Jewish
disturbances and demonstrations conducted by right wing
factions and groups at institutions of higher learning
in several larger cities in Poland, as well as anti-Jewish
actions by the rabble in several smaller cities and
towns of East-Central Poland (the best known among them
occurring in Przytyk in 1936 and in Brest Litovsk in
1937).
These occurrences, although incomparable
either in their dimensions or in their results with
what had occurred in Ukraine or Russia in the 19th and
at the start of the 20th centuries, caused a major psychological
trauma in the minds of intellectuals and the intelligentsia.
They met with the protests of professors, writers, artists,
political activists and many significant personalities
in public life. They also met with the reaction of the
police and courts. A significant factor was the realization
that these were criminal actions prosecuted by the administration.
The government did not always oppose these occurrences
in a most effective manner, although the great majority
of the populace considered it damaging not only for
Jews, but also for Poles. The significance of these
occurrences was such that it caused the Roman Catholic
Church to take a public stance on the matter. August
Cardinal Hlond, the erstwhile head of the Roman Catholic
Church in Poland stated publicly in 1936, that the use
of physical force against Jews was not in accordance
with Christian ethics, but he did however approve of
separation from the Jewish community and an economic
boycott of it.
One must clearly state though,
that the development of fascist movements in Europe
did not remain without influence on Polish political
life, not only with respect to national minorities.
An organization similar in its model to Fascism, the
Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny (National Radical Camp) was
declared illegal after several months of overt activity
and was outlawed by the administrative authorities,
yet it continued to function in an underground manner
promulgating a fascist overthrow of the government.
Even worse, no more than two years after the death of
Piłsudski a political organization formed by some individuals
hereto acquiescent to him, known as the Obóz Zjednoczenia
Narodowego (OZON) (Camp of National Unity) appropriated,
presumably with the intention of demagogic contention
with the traditionally anti-Jewish Stronnictwo Narodowe
- slogans presenting an economic boycott of the Jewish
minority and its' eventual migration from the country.
It is difficult to say (there were no studies conducted)
to what degree these tendencies, raised in party propaganda
reverberated, and how accurately, among the greater
masses of society which were highly variated. There
is no lack of evidence that people who had lived somewhat
better or worse as neighbors of Jews for centuries,
in circumscribed but reasonably stable relationships
with them, continued to treat their presence as evident
neighborliness, as a part of the local landscape. It
is not possible for one not to appreciate the influence
of propaganda, using the argument or rather demagoguery
which struck directly at the perception of the actually
lethargically improving circumstances and indicated
the 'universal key' which purportedly should serve to
improve it. The invocation of basest instincts behind
a screen of patriotic slogans usually finds some adherents,
which can be documented in cases that do not deal solely
with Poland. It seems however, that one can confirm
that in Poland there did not appear those tendencies
which led to a radical solution of the 'Jewish question'
and that the populace would not have accepted this.
* * *
At the time when the Second World
War erupted, Poland had the largest concentration of
Jews in Europe. According to the figures of the last,
prewar National Census in 1931 - 3,130,581 Polish citizens
declared themselves followers of the faith of Moses.
On the basis of an estimated population increase of
the Jewish population in Poland during the years 1931-39
(bearing in mind Jewish emigration from Poland during
this period) one can accept that the number of Polish
Jewish citizens as of September 1, 1939 would have equaled
3,474,000. This comprised about 10% of the general population
of the Polish nation. (In comparison: in the USSR -
1.6%, in Czechoslovakia - 2.4%, in Bulgaria - 0.8%,
in Yugoslavia - 0.5%, in France - 0.8%, in Belgium -
1.2%, in Holland - 1.7%, in Denmark - 0.2%, in Norway
- 0.1% and even in the acknowledged Jewish centers of
Europe such as Rumania or Hungary in the area of 4.5%.)
In light of Hitlerian racist criteria, these numbers
would have to be appropriately increased - since as
is known, they included in the definition of 'Jews'
those Christians whose grandparents had been Jews.
Polish Jews were primarily centered
in larger and smaller cities. The census of 1939 revealed
that 77% of Jews lived in cities and only 23% in the
villages. Among the less than 9,000,000 residents of
cities 5,500,000 were Poles, 2,400,000 were Jews (The
remainder of these residents was German, Ukrainian,
etc.). The conditions extant in 1931 did not undergo
any major changes prior to the eruption of World War
II. This had tragic consequences: for Germans the great
concentration of people of Jewish origin centered in
larger and smaller cities simplified the process of
achieving their policy of discrimination and afterwards
extermination.
Polish Jews had a strong national feeling. The clear
indication of this is the fact that some 85% of Polish
Jews listed Yiddish or Hebrew as their native language
in the census of 1931. During the school year of 1937-38
there were 226 elementary schools and 12 high schools
[gymnasium] as well as 14 vocational schools with either
Yiddish or Hebrew as the instructional language, although
most Jewish students attended Polish schools (i.e. in
the 1936-37 school year there were 4,132 students of
the faith of Moses who graduated from gymnasium from
a total graduating population of 21,915 and 911 Jews
received diplomas at institutions of higher learning
out a total population of 6,114 graduates). At this
same time 130 periodicals were published in either Yiddish
or Hebrew, among them were 11 scholarly publications
and 94 general interest or literary publications. During
the course of 1937, there appeared 27 in Poland a total
of 443 non-periodical publications (books and brochures)
in Yiddish and Hebrew in a total print run of 675,000
volumes. There were 15 theatres and theatrical groups
performing in Yiddish. Thus one can determine that the
intellectual and cultural life of Polish Jews during
the period immediately prior to the Second World War
was in full flower as would be appropriate considering
the great significance that, the concentration of Jews
in Poland had for the Jewish World, Diaspora.
Concurrently Polish intelligentsia of Jewish origin
took an active part in Polish community life. Very many
of the scholars, writers, performers, artists, musicians,
theatrical performers, journalists, doctors, lawyers,
etc. helped enliven the intellectual movement and the
development of scholarship and art in the reborn Polish
nation. Jews participated in Polish political life as
members and frequently as leading activists of Democratic
and Socialist parties and unfortunately, also in the
illegal Komunistyczna Partia Polski (Communist Party
of Poland) which in the light of current historical
analysis is seen as an organization working to destroy
the sovereignty of Poland. There was no lack of Jewish
members of the intelligentsia and bourgeoisie in various
traditional political groups of the Pilsudski camp,
i.e. the Bezpartyjny Blok Współpracy z Rządem (Non-Partisan
Block for Cooperation with the Government).
Jewish political parties, both the Socialist Bund, as
well as groupings of the Zionist right and left wing
and religious conservative movements, were represented
in Parliament and quite frequently also in the regional
councils (for example in Warsaw at the start of World
War II there were 20 Jewish council members while in
Lodz there were 17, etc.).
During the campaign of September 1939, some 120,000
Jewish Polish citizens took part in battles with the
Germans as members of the Polish Armed Forces. According
to Jewish historians as many as 32,216 Jewish soldiers
and officers died and 61,000 were taken prisoner by
the Germans, of which the greater number did not survive,
the soldiers and non-commissioned officers were released
and ultimately found themselves in the ghettos and labor
camps and suffered the same fate as other civilians.
This process was one of the particularly despicable
forms of deviation by the Third Reich from the code
of the Geneva Convention.
The results of the military operations of 1939 brought,
as is known, the partitioning of the lands of the Polish
Nation almost precisely in half in terms of surface
area between the Third Reich and the USSR. 48.8% of
Polish territory was under German occupation with 62.9%
of the population, while 51.2% with 37.1% of the population
(after the incorporation of Lithuania into the USSR)
was under the control of the Soviets. According to prewar
demographic statistics 61.2% of Polish Jews found themselves
under German occupation while 38.8% were in Soviet occupied
territory (this data comes from the verified sources
of Ludwik Landau). Based on population migration from
West to East during the September 1939 campaign one
can presume however, that the number of Poles as well
as Jews who found themselves in the Eastern part of
Poland at the start of the occupation was somewhat higher,
and in the West somewhat lower, than would appear from
prewar statistics which reflected permanent residency.
The circumstances of the Jewish national and religious
group did not prophecy any threat to them in Polish
lands lying to the east of the demarcation line as defined
in the German-Soviet pacts of August and September 1939,
the mass deportations of the population into the depths
of Russia mainly affected Poles although there did occur
cases of repression against prewar Jewish community
and political activists, equally against members of
Zionist organizations as well as the Bund. There exists
a clear lack of analytical studies and historical research
on this period of the occupation. There is also a lack
of any documented sociological and statistical data
detailing the participation of specific national groups
in the administrative and repressive structure of the
new Soviet authorities in this region. Notwithstanding
the reports and recollections detailing mass participation
in the processes of the Soviet authorities
against Poles by the Jewish proletariat, this must be
reviewed very carefully although it cannot
be disregarded. It does however appear that there can
be no doubt, that according to Poles residing in the
Eastern Voyevodships of the prewar Polish State, the
response of the Jewish people did not indicate that
the collapse of the Polish Stateand the tragedy of the
occupation was perceived by them in the same manner
as it was by their neighbor Poles. Of course, this circumstance
can be explained in many ways, i.e. considering the
Russian and Hassidic cultural heritage of a certain
proportion of Jews - citizens residing on these lands,
further the relief that Hilterite German authority would
not rule there, but above all, perhaps a greater sympathy
for Communism and the USSR than for the Polish nation
with its prewar political structure. One should not
exclude the significant evolution of these views during
the successive months of life under Soviet authority.
Nonetheless, the facts remain the facts, and in the
opinion of very many Poles the national minorities in
the eight Eastern Voievodeships (Lwów, Stanisławów Tarnopol,
Wołyń, Polesie, Nowogródek, Białystok and Wilno) were
engaged in anti-Polish actions and supported the then
current occupier of these lands.
After the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany on
June 22, 1941, the Germans occupied the entire territory
of prewar Poland. Thus in July of 1941 all of Poland
and all Polish Jews who had not been deported into the
depths of the USSR or who had not themselves sought
refuge there, found themselves under the authority of
the Third Reich. In July of 1941, almost immediately
after the German occupation, in several communities
of the Voievodeship of Białystok - in Grajewo, Radziłów,
and Jedwabne, there occurred the mass murder of Jews
committed by groups of Poles or with their participation.
Historians do not have any doubts however that the inspirers
of these despicable crimes were Germans, yet this does
not alter that they were committed by Poles. In July
of 2000, the book of Jan Tomasz Gross 'Neighbors', which
is an attempt to reconstruct the massacre of Jews on
July 10, 1941 in Jedwabne, appeared in Poland, the inquiry
in this matter is being conducted by the Polish Institute
of National Remembrance (created in the year 2000) which
is also preparing to investigate the murders in Grajewo
and Radziłów in detail. A number of the participants
were brought to trial in the years immediately after
the war.
The bloody losses of Polish Jews have been estimated
by respected Jewish historians as 2,900,000 to 3,000,000
and the number of Jews who managed to survive in the
Polish lands under German occupation is calculated variously
- in the range of 40,000-50,000 (Philip Friedman) to
100,000-120,000 (Józef Kermisz). A certain portion managed
to survive in some of the concentration camps (Auschwitz,
Majdanek), in labor or prison camps. The rest survived
in the ranks of the partisans or hiding in Polish surroundings
and with assistance from Poles. The number of those
in hiding - at first quite large - lessened from year
to year as the terror tactics of the occupier increased
and as did the bloody losses of the entire Polish population.
The first months of German occupation in Poland were
characterized as is known, by the discriminatory and
repressive orders issued against Jews, which did not
lead either Jews or Poles to consider the possibility
of a biological threat to the entire Jewish population.
Concurrently the Hitlerite administration in occupied
Poland; beginning with the autumn of 1939 through the
autumn of 1940, was already conducting a methodical
extermination of the Polish intellectual and political
elite. In the late autumn of 1940 (Warsaw) and only
in the beginning of 1941 (Kraków) did there arise on
Polish territory the huge ghettos created by the Germans.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews were segregated there.
The very process of creating Jewish residential districts
(ghettos) was considered variously in both Jewish as
well as Polish circles. On one hand there arose a solidly
based suspicion as to the intention of the Germans,
as well as moral opposition to the concept of segregation,
on the other hand there appeared the opinion among Jews
that through the price of isolation they would, in the
majority be able to survive the war, particularly since
the belief in 1940 was widespread, both among Jews and
Poles, that the war would last but a short time and
Germany would shortly be defeated. This manner of thinking
certainly led many Jews in the ghettos to participate
in pseudo self-governing bodies under German supervision
in the honest belief that in that manner they would
be able to help many people survive the occupation.
The process of direct extermination of Jews (the indirect
began at the moment of the sealing of the ghettos and
the creation of labor camps) began in the early autumn
of 1941 in the rear of the Eastern Front. It was started
in the territories of occupied Poland in December of
1941 in Chełmno on the Ner River and in the course of
1942 in several other extermination camps, among them
in Treblinka and in Auschwitz. These methodically conducted
mass murders of hundreds of thousands of men, women
and children created a moral shock for the greater majority
of Poles. For the majority even those who were indifferent,
and even for those who were not positively oriented
towards Jews, for whatever reasons. There existed and
still exists a basic difference between a feeling of
indifference, even dislike and the approval or simply
the moral 'permission' of horrible suffering and innocent
death, and the scale of this mass murder was something
unknown in the annals of human history, inconceivable
to the consciousness and the imagination and by that
very factor awakening feelings of tragic danger.
It is worthwhile to remember that beginning with the
earliest months of the occupation Poles were convinced
of the threat of biological destruction of the Polish
nation by the Germans. This arose and was based on the
experiences of the public executions in the market square
of the cities and larger towns of Pomorze, Wielkopolska
and the Lódż region in 1939 and 1940, the mass executions
in Palmiry near Warsaw and in the woods near Kraków
and Częstochowa, the AB action against Polish intellectuals
in the summer and autumn of 1940, the Gestapo prisons
such as Pawiak, Montelupich and Fort VII in Poznań,
the creation in August of 1940 of KL Auschwitz, where
the prisoners in the first several months consisted
almost solely of Polish intelligentsia (from the summer
of 1941 Soviet prisoners of war destined for execution
were also included). The majority of the attention of
Poles was drawn - even before the creation of the Jewish
ghettos as well as in the first period of their existence
- to their own experiences and their own dangers. There
is a lack of any documented scientific studies whether,
and to what degree, there functioned any realization
in the sealed confines of the ghettos of the true intensification
of German terror towards Poles and particularly towards
the planned extermination of Polish intelligentsia.
After the ghettos were sealed a dominant opinion continued
in the Jewish community that this form of isolation
although linked with oppression and exploitation would
allow them to endure the war. There also existed the
opinion that it could allow for survival through the
price of accommodation and passivity. Only a few - increasing
in numbers with the passage of time and as a result
of observing the German methods - held a different viewpoint.
The living conditions extant in the ghettos, the poverty
and illness gradually destroying the physically weaker
and more impoverished members of the population was
a fact known in Poland. These facts were considered
in the reports submitted to the Government of the Republic
of Poland in London, as well as to the underground Polish
press which had a significant circulation - this even
before the famous letter of the Bund in Poland to the
Government in London dated May 11, 1942. The succeeding
waves of preventive terror affecting the Polish populace
in various parts of the country during 1941-42 and particularly
the intensification of terror in Warsaw, as it was the
largest concentration of Poles in the country, accustomed
the majority in a certain degree to the dramatically
stringent conditions of daily life. The constant arrests,
the overflowing Gestapo prisons and the systematic transports
to the various concentration camps led to a situation
where in each of the Hitlerite camps Poles constituted
the majority of those imprisoned therein - all of this
served to in some way numb of attention with regard
to that which was occurring behind the walls of the
ghetto.
The mass extermination of Jews during 1942-44 (and particularly
from the spring of 1942 to the autumn of 1943) was an
occurrence for which no one could be prepared either
practically or psychologically: it exceeded in fact
the possibility of foreseeing and the ability to forestall.
There were improvised efforts, and sometimes even, beginning
with the second half of 1942, the organized effort to
assist the victims which formed but a drop in the sea
of misery. The disproportion between the infernal situation
and the extremely limited resources was enormous. Those
few individuals who survived know better than the theoreticians,
journalists and writers of history, as do those who
attempted to assist, frequently to no avail and only
in some cases successfully. However, the witnesses of
that era can only grasp that which occurred in their
then current field of vision and personal experience.
The enormous number of these experiences can only serve
as material for historical and sociological study. In
undertaking such studies one must however consider the
conditions of group life then extant in the countries
occupied by or allied with the Third Reich (thus not
only Germany, but also France, Rumania, Hungary and
Lithuania), as well as the conditions then extant in
the Polish territories, thus in a nation which had been
selected as an execution place by the Germans. The fact
is that the number of Jews executed in Auschwitz-Birkenau
exceeds tenfold the number of non-Jewish victims of
that infamous site. The fact is that in the specially
created centers of human destruction created by the
Germans, such as Treblinka II, Sobibór and Bełżec only
Jews from Poland and from beyond Poland died. Yet the
fact is also that in the then current consciousness
of Poles there existed - judging from documents that
were revealed by the prosecution during the main trials
of the Nazi criminals before the International Tribunal
in Nuremberg - the substantiated perception that we
would be the next to be taken after the Jews.
Not one nation in the world responded adequately to
the seriousness of the problem in response to the Note
of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government
of the Republic of Poland to the governments of the
United Nations dated the 10th of December of 1942 (see
doc. I/21), in which he asserted as follows:
'[...] Most recent reports present a horrifying picture
of the position to which the Jews in Poland have been
reduced. The new methods of mass slaughter applied during
the last few months confirm the fact that the German
authorities aim with systematic deliberation at the
total extermination of the Jewish population of Poland
and of the many thousands of Jews whom the German authorities
have deported to Poland from Western and Central European
countries and from the German Reich itself. The Polish
Government consider it their duty to bring to the knowledge
of the Governments of all civilized countries the following
fully authenticated information received from Poland
during recent weeks, which indicates all too plainly
the new methods of extermination adopted by the German
authorities.
[...] The Polish Government - as the representatives
of the legitimate authority on territories in which
the Germans are carrying out the systematic extermination
of Polish citizens and of citizens of Jewish origin
of many other European countriesc - onsider it their
duty to address themselves to the Governments of the
United Nations, in the confident belief that they will
share their opinion as to the necessity not only of
condemning the crimes committed by the Germans and punishing
the criminals, but also of finding means offering the
hope that Germany might be effectively restrained from
continuing to apply her methods of mass extermination.'
No effective means were found and essentially no effort
was made to find them. Yet at that moment over half
of the future victims were still alive...The Institute
of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem has documentation on some
six thousand people (individuals or entire families)
from Poland who helped the victims, whilst themselves
being in conditions of extreme danger, one which cannot
be understood by those who have never lived under conditions
of a totalitarian system. For many persons who attempted
to bring aid to Jews, successfully or not, there is
not, nor will there ever be any documentation. Similarly,
the documentation of the crimes and persecutions by
collaborators with the German occupier in various countries
is only partially recorded. Moreover, although this
type of criminality was investigated in Poland both
during and after the war, it is most certain that neither
lawyers nor historians know everything about it. There
does not exist any possibility at this time of a scientific
study of the motivations and the experiences of the
great mass of the people in the various occupied lands
(including those in which the Nazi regime was significantly
less stringent than in Poland), who simply feared and
wanted to survive the war. They did nothing evil, yet
they did not manage to evoke within themselves the ability
to risk rescuing anyone: neither their own neighbor,
nor an officer in hiding, nor an escapee from a Hitlerite
prison, nor even more so a completely foreign person
with whom they had had no previous bonds. The matter
may have occurred differently had it concerned those
they had known and had bonded with.
Even after the Second World War, many millions of people
have fallen victim to mass murder, i.e. in certain Asian
countries. The helplessness of the world, as manifested
in these circumstances, leads one to reflect that humanity
failed and continues to fail to that same degree in
which it allowed or allows for the development of totalitarian
systems. As a Christian I take the position that Christian
communities failed as well, both though their community
and political organizations, if they were not able to
discern in a timely fashion or did not do everything
which was in their power to successfully stop this.
But as a final moral consequence one can accept that
under these conditions of testing, during the years
of the Second World War, when entire nations were presented
with the extermination of the entire Jewish nation and
the destruction of hundreds of thousands of people for
various other reasons, the only ones who did not fail
and who documented their humanity in full, were those
who endured the test and made a final choice. Many of
them paid for this with their lives. None of the living
can say this about themselves, that he did enough to
rescue the others. But neither can anyone say this who
has not himself endured this test - he should not for
either political or polemical purposes - accuse others
in a wholesale fashion of not being heroes.
* * *
The life of the Jewish community in Poland, with a heritage
of several hundred years, a chapter now closed in the
history of Jews and in the history of Poland demands
a historical remembrance. Yet one must recall in this
moment those elements of the Polish postwar reality
which are rarely understood or find expression in opinions
about the relationship of the Polish community with
Jews during that period. That society did not have an
opportunity to develop differentiated centers of educating
public opinion, they did not have a voice, because they
could not have one in a system which mandated a unified
vision, and so there was no voice of the authentic democratic
and humanitarian non-chauvinist, anti-xenophobic and
now destroyed, concept of the Rzeczpospolita (Republic)
of many national groups. The loss of the multinational
territories of Poland, the declaration of the 'concept'
of an ethnically unified nation, as a successful point
of arrival and a condition for further development -
not mentioning any additional conflict generating occurrences
and actions - in some fashion aided in eliminating the
conditioning which had, in the last period of the war
and immediately after it been characterized by outrage
over the fact of the extermination and human sympathy
for its victims. Only in the conditions of a free public
life and an interchange of opinion could one successfully
work towards educating people free of biases and able
to discard stereotypes in evaluating 'others' and oneself.
Despite these disadvantageous circumstances there has
developed over the course of the past ten years a group
of Poles seriously interested in the history of the
Jewish community in land, its religion, customs, the
culture of Jews who no longer are. An interest is developing
in what Jews had developed over the course of centuries
in the circle of their culture and art, and that which
they brought into various areas of the culture of the
country they lived in together with Poles or at the
side of Poles, but which during the course of many centuries
was their home on this earth.
Through a strange and psychologically
perverse set of circumstances during the period of 1967-68,
which were in the PRL (Polish People's Republic) to
be the years where accounts would be settled with Jews,
as organized by the authorities then in power, instead
brought a significant increase of in interest in Israel
and of sympathy to it's people, and further brought
manifestations of solidarity in intellectual circles
and by students not only with their colleagues but,
in general with people who were defamed, persecuted
because of their origins or faith or that of their parents,
which event was unprecedented in its scope in the recent
history of Poland. For the youth that had been brought
up in the postwar period there was a major shock in
the campaign, which sought to emblazon and mark them
as foreign, different and hostile. People who remembered
the war and the extermination of Jews - at the least
those who were more aware - understood this to be the
awakening of specters and - despite the fact that it
was not the Polish populace that was the creator of
this campaign - a personal disgrace. It was in those
categories that they evaluated the speeches, the compulsory
exodus of Jews from Poland. There were of course many
of those who to a greater or lesser degree were susceptible
to the manipulations of propaganda which consciously
evoked the prewar anti-Semitic rhetoric of the nationalist
groups, and among the loudest voices were those of the
inveterate anti-Semites who revealed themselves and
included members of the then ruling Communist Party
as well as those who were not. The majority of the Polish
populace was disoriented and remained 'outside' the
issue - as everywhere and always. However, after several
years, there was a widespread and large interest, which
was not limited to the intelligentsia, in all lectures
and publications of those trustworthy individuals who
dealt with the history of Jews in Poland or with the
issue of Polish-Jewish relations (they occurred at some
universities and at the 'Uniwersytet Latający' (Flying
University). In January of 1981, during the months of
the initial 'Solidarność' there appeared an appeal which,
was met with public support, cosigned by 21 individuals
from the world of scientific and cultural circles calling
for an explanation of the 'anti-Zionist' campaign of
1968 and for a reversal of the harm done.
A further appeal on the issue of Polish-Jewish relations
was cosigned by three eminent Polish Jews - Michał Borwicz,
Józef Lichten and Simon Wiesenthal as well as three
couriers of the Polskie Państwo Podziemne (Polish Underground
State) - Jan Karski, Jerzy Lerski and Jan Nowak-Jeziorański,
which was announced in September of 1983 in the monthly
'Kultura' (Paris, No. 9/342), and afterwards appeared
in many publications both in Polish, German, English
and French and met with positive acceptance by the elite
which formed independent public opinion in Poland.
This appeal contained (among others) the following points:
'It is time to lay rest to mutual antagonism. It damages
both sides and is particularly painful to those Jews
who, being Polish patriots do not forget about their
Jewish origins and wish to be faithful to their heritage
and religion. This goal is not served by mutual recriminations
or by efforts to discern who caused the greater harm
in this tragic outcome. People of good will on either
side wish to engage in dialogue and a mutual dialogue.
We seek in this dialogue that which should link Poles
and Jews.'
After several weeks this appeal was countersigned by
the author of this foreword, as a younger colleague
of the authors, additionally members of the Armia Krajowa
(Home Army) residing in Poland countersigned it as well
(vide 'Kultura', Paris, No. 10/433 dated October 1983).
* * *
The possibilities for an objective engagement both in
analysis and in publishing, on the issues of Polish-Jewish
relations during the period 1939-45 in Poland and in
the world, since it was not only in the occupied country
but also in the universe of the wartime exiles in Great
Britain or in the Middle East, not forgetting the circle
of those Poles and Jews deported to the USSR, did not
realistically exist until 1989. The only permitted analyses
were partial studies of the problem of Nazi terror and
the extermination of Jews and Poles in certain parts
of Poland under the occupation of the Third Reich excluding
those Voyevode of the Republic which lay to the east
of the Rivers Bug and San. The worthwhile documentary
publications of the first twenty-year postwar period
can include the collective work entitled 'Eksterminacja
Żydów na ziemiach polskich w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej.
Zbiór dokumentów' (The Extermination of Jews on Polish
Territory during the Hitlerite Occupation, A Collection
of Documents) T. Berenstein, A. Eisenbach and A. Rutkowski
(Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warsaw, 1957). It contains
one hundred eighty seven documents. Based on this documentary
volume an expanded and illustrated volume was issued
in Polish in the Federal Republic of Germany ('Faschismus
- Getto - Massenmord', Berlin, 1960). During the winter
of 1966-67, it became possible to issue a volume in
Kraków of recollections entitled 'Ten jest z ojczyzny
mojej. Polacy z pomocą Żydom 1939-1945' (He is from
my Land) edited by Władysław Bartoszewski and Zofia
Lewin. It was only however, in a later and expanded
edition of this volume, in 1969 that it was possible
to add a hundred selected documents. They were also
included in the English language version 'Righteous
Among the Nations How Poles Helped the Jewish 1939-45',
London, 1969.
In 1981, as a result of the efforts of the Institute
of Yad Vashem Authority for the Remembrance of the Martyrs
and Heroes of the Holocaust in Jerusalem there appeared
an American-English edition entitled 'Documents on the
Holocaust Selected Sources on the Destruction of the
Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland and the Soviet Union'.
A total of one hundred eighty nine documents concerning
the territory of Poland were presented by Prof. Israel
Gutman, the eminent Israeli scholar whose family origins
lie in Warsaw. A further volume was published under
the scholarly aegis of Prof. Gutman and published in
America as the 'Encyclopedia of the Holocaust', Vols.
I-IV, New York-London,1990) with a multitude of references
concerning Polish-Jewish relations during the period
of 1939-45, among them are individual monographic references,
detailing both locations as well as institutions, organizations
and persons including the Council for Aid to Jews 'Żegota'.
The research status of studies on the Second World War
has progressed significantly in the last decades, and
the now known archives both in Poland and the world
have allowed for the presentation of a multi-volume
edition of source documents concerning Polish-Jewish
relation during the period 1939-45.
The current initiative is limited of necessity to some
one hundred forty three documents arranged in five sections,
which include: documents from the Authorities of the
Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile and also
concerning Poles residing abroad at that time, documents
from the Polish Underground State, additionally documents
from the Council for Aid to Jews 'Żegota', and finally
within the confines of a separate chapter Jewish voices
(mainly containing articles from the Jewish press) as
well as a section of thirteen German records.
In selecting these documents there was a conscious decision
made to reject those documents which contain the familiar
general principles of Hitlerian politics, concentrating
therefore on that which appears to be significantly
important in defining an immediate picture of Polish-Jewish
relations. Therefore the extremely rich documentation
of the Council for Aid to Jews was also excluded, as
it was included in the previously mentioned 'Ten jest
z ojczyzny mojej' (He is from my Land) and with respect
to Warsaw in the monograph edited by Teresa Prekerow
'Konspiracyjna Rada Pomocy Żydom w Warszawie 1942-45'
(The Underground Council for Aid to Jews in Warsaw 1942-45),
Warsaw 1982.
The documents selected are described with factual information
not including any evaluation of the comments contained
therein, not condemning that which is repugnant, not
praising that which is noble, leaving this to the discernment
of the readers of the volume. Readers in today's Poland
have easy access to several hundred autobiographical
reports as well as scholarly research published in book
form or in serious periodicals. It would be commendable
if perusing the materials included herein would lead
to further readings and consideration thereof.
Warsaw, March 2001
Władysław Bartoszewski
Prisoner of KL Auschwitz,
Cofounder of the Underground Council for Aid to Jews
'Żegota' (1942),
Righteous Among the Nations,
Honorary Citizen of the State of Israel
The above text is republished from :
POLACY - ŻYDZI / POLEN - JUDEN
/ POLES - JEWS 939-1945
SELECTION OF DOCUMENTS
Foreword : Władysław Bartoszewski
Edited by Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert
Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa,
Instytut Dziedzictwa Narodowego,
Oficyna Wydawnicza RYTM
Warszawa 2001
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