Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath

347 Pages·2003·2.14 MB·English

by  Joshua D. Zimmerman

Contents i
Contested Memories
ii Preface
Contents iii
Contested Memories

P J
OLES AND EWS DURING THE
HOLOCAUST A�ND ITS AFTERMATH

EDITED BY JOSHUA D. ZIMMERMAN
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
iv Preface
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Contested memories : Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its aftermath / edited by
Joshua D. Zimmerman
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 0-8135-3158-6

1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Poland. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Public
opinion 3. Public opinion—Poland. 4. Poland—Ethnic relations. I. Zimmerman, Joshua D.
D804.3 .C69 2002
940.53'18'0943—dc21
2002017876
British Cataloging-in-Publication information available
This collection copyright © 2003 by Rutgers, The State University
Individual chapters copyright © 2003 in the names of their authors
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permis­
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Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by
U.S. copyright law.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents v
To the late Jan Karski (1914–2000), courier for the Polish government-in-exile
during the Second World War, who tried to alert the world to the tragedy of
Polish Jewry. The light of his legacy will forever pierce the darkness of that era.
vi Preface
Contents vii
C
ONTENTS
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Abbreviations xix
Introduction: Changing Perceptions in the
Historiography of Polish-Jewish Relations
during the Second World War 1
JOSHUA D. ZIMMERMAN
PART I The Prewar Legacy
1 Emigration versus Emigrationism: Zionism in
Poland and the Territorialist Projects of the
Polish Authorities, 1936–1939 19
EMANUEL MELZER
2 Lwów, 1918: The Transmutation of a Symbol and
Its Legacy in the Holocaust 32
DAVID ENGEL
PART II The Widening Gap, 1939–1941
3 Psychological Distance between Poles and Jews
in Nazi-Occupied Warsaw 47
BARBARA ENGELKING-BONI
4 Polish Jews under Soviet Occupation, 1939–1941:
Specific Strategies of Survival 54
.
ANDRZEJ ZBIKOWSKI
vii
viviiiii PCreofnatceents
5 Facing Hitler and Stalin: On the Subject of Jewish
“Collaboration” in Soviet-Occupied Eastern Poland,
1939–1941 61
BEN CION PINCHUK
6 Jews and Their Polish Neighbors: The Case of
Jedwabne in the Summer of 1941 69
JAN T. GROSS
PART III Institutional Polish Responses to the Final Solution
7 The Polish Government-in-Exile and the Final Solution:
What Conditioned Its Actions and Inactions? 85
DARIUSZ STOLA
8 The Attitude of the Polish Underground to the Jewish
Question during the Second World War 97
SHMUEL KRAKOWSKI
9 Polish Catholics and the Jews during the Holocaust:
Heroism, Timidity, and Collaboration 107
JOHN T. PAWLIKOWSKI
PART IV Poles through Jewish Eyes
10 Poland and the Polish Nation as Reflected in the
Jewish Underground Press 123
DANIEL BLATMAN
11 Jewish and Polish Perceptions of the Shoah as
Reflected in Wartime Diaries and Memoirs 134
FELIKS TYCH
12 Polish-Jewish Relations in the Writings of
Emmanuel Ringelblum 142
SAMUEL KASSOW
13 Metaphysical Nationality in the Warsaw Ghetto:
Non-Jews in the Wartime Writings of Rabbi
Kalonimus Kalmish Shapiro 158
HENRY ABRAMSON
Contents ix
PART V The Destruction of Polish Jewry and
Polish Popular Opinion
14 Ringelblum Revisited: Polish-Jewish Relations
in Occupied Warsaw, 1940–1945 173
GUNNAR S. PAULSSON
15 Hiding and Passing on the Aryan Side:
A Gendered Comparison 193
NECHAMA TEC
16 Some Issues in Jewish-Polish Relations during
the Second World War 212
ISRAEL GUTMAN
PART VI Aftermath
17 The Cracow Pogrom of August 1945: A Narrative
Reconstruction 221
ANNA CICHOPEK
18 The Impact of the Holocaust on Jewish Attitudes
in Postwar Poland 239
.
BOZ ENA SZAYNOK
19 Jewish Responses to Antisemitism in Poland,
1944–1947 247
NATALIA ALEKSIUN
20 Teaching about the Holocaust in Poland 262
MICHAEL C. STEINLAUF
21 Collective Memory and Contemporary Polish-Jewish
Relations 271
ZVI GITELMAN
22 The Impact of the Shoah on the Thinking of
Contemporary Polish Jewry: A Personal Account 291
STANISÒAW KRAJEWSKI
List of Contributors 305
Index 311