Few issues have divided Poles and Jews more deeply than the Nazi occupation of Poland during the Second World War and the subsequent slaughter of almost ninety percent of Polish Jewry. Many Jewish historians have argued that, during the occupation, Poles at best displayed indifference to the fate of the Jews and at worst were willing accomplices of the Nazis. Many Polish scholars, however, deny any connection between the prewar culture of antisemitism and the wartime situation. They emphasized that Poles were also victims of the Nazis and, for the most part, tried their best to protect the Jews.
This collection of essays, representing three generations of Polish and Jewish scholars, is the first attempt since the fall of Communism to reassess the existing historiography of Polish-Jewish relations just before, during, and after the Second World War. In the spirit of detached scholarly inquiry, these essays fearlessly challenge commonly held views on both sides of the debates. The authors are committed to analyzing issues fairly and to reaching a mutual understanding. Contributors cover six topics:
1. The prewar legacy
2. The deterioration of Polish-Jewish relations during the first years of the war
3. Institutional Polish responses to the Nazi Final Solution
4. Poles and the Polish nation through Jewish eyes
5. The destruction of European Jewry and Polish popular opinion
6. Polish-Jewish relations since 1945
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Changing Perceptions in the Historiography of Polish-Jewish Relations during the Second World War
PART I. The Prewar Legacy
Emigration versus Emigrationism: Zionism in Poland and the Territorialist Projects of the Polish Authorities, 1936--1939
Lwow, 1918: The Transmutation of a Symbol and Its Legacy in the Holocaust
PART II. The Widening Gap, 1939--1941
Psychological Distance between Poles and Jews in Nazi-Occupied Warsaw
Polish Jews under Soviet Occupation, 1939--1941: Specific Strategies of Survival
Facing Hitler and Stalin: On the Subject of Jewish "Collaboration'' in Soviet-Occupied Eastern Poland, 1939--1941
Jews and Their Polish Neighbors: The Case of Jedwabne in the Summer of 1941
PART III. Institutional Polish Responses to the Final Solution
The Polish Government-in-Exile and the Final Solution: What Conditioned Its Actions and Inactions?
The Attitude of the Polish Underground to the Jewish Question during the Second World War
Polish Catholics and the Jews during the Holocaust: Heroism, Timidity, and Collaboration
PART IV. Poles through Jewish Eyes
Poland and the Polish Nation as Reflected in the Jewish Underground Press
Jewish and Polish Perceptions of the Shoah as Reflected in Wartime Diaries and Memoirs
Polish-Jewish Relations in the Writings of Emmanuel Ringelblum
Metaphysical Nationality in the Warsaw Ghetto: Non-Jews in the Wartime Writings of Rabbi Kalonimus Kalmish Shapiro
PART V. The Destruction of Polish Jewry and Polish Popular Opinion
Ringelblum Revisited: Polish-Jewish Relations in Occupied Warsaw, 1940--1945
Hiding and Passing on the Aryan Side: A Gendered Comparison
Some Issues in Jewish-Polish Relations during the Second World War
PART VI. Aftermath
The Cracow Pogrom of August 1945: A Narrative Reconstruction
The Impact of the Holocaust on Jewish Attitudes in Postwar Poland
Jewish Responses to Antisemitism in Poland, 1944--1947
Teaching about the Holocaust in Poland
Collective Memory and Contemporary Polish-Jewish Relations
The Impact of the Shoah on the Thinking of Contemporary Polish Jewry: A Personal Account
List of Contributors
Index
