The history of the
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland dates back over 1,000 years. For
centuries,
Poland

Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish
community in the world.
Poland

Poland was the centre of
Jewish

Jewish culture,
thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social
autonomy. This ended with the Partitions of
Poland

Poland which began in
1772, in particular, with the discrimination and persecution of Jews
in the Russian Empire. During
World War II

World War II there was a nearly complete
genocidal destruction of the Polish
Jewish

Jewish community by Nazi Germany
and its collaborators, during the 1939–1945 German occupation of
Poland

Poland and the ensuing Holocaust. Since the fall of communism in
Poland, there has been a
Jewish

Jewish revival, characterized by the annual
Jewish

Jewish Culture Festival, new study programmes at Polish high schools
and universities, the work of synagogues such as the Nożyk and the
Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
From the founding of the Kingdom of
Poland

Poland in 1025 through to the
early years of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth created in 1569,
Poland

Poland was the most tolerant country in Europe.[4] Known as paradisus
judaeorum (
Latin

Latin for "
Paradise

Paradise of the Jews"), it became a shelter for
persecuted and expelled European
Jewish

Jewish communities and the home to
the world's largest
Jewish

Jewish community of the time. According to some
sources, about three-quarters of the world's
Jews

Jews lived in
Poland

Poland by
the middle of the 16th century.[5][6][7] With the weakening of the
Commonwealth and growing religious strife (due to the Protestant
Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation), Poland's traditional
tolerance[8] began to wane from the 17th century onward.[9] After the
Partitions of
Poland

Poland in 1795 and the destruction of
Poland

Poland as a
sovereign state, Polish
Jews

Jews were subject to the laws of the
partitioning powers, the increasingly antisemitic Russian Empire,[10]
as well as
Austria-Hungary
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Austria-Hungary_(1869-1918).svg.png)
Austria-Hungary and
Kingdom of Prussia
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Prussia_(1892-1918).svg.png)
Kingdom of Prussia (later a part of the
German Empire). Still, as
Poland

Poland regained independence in the
aftermath of World War I, it was the center of the European Jewish
world with one of the world's largest
Jewish

Jewish communities of over 3
million.
Antisemitism

Antisemitism was a growing problem throughout
Europe
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe in those
years, from both the political establishment and the general
population.[11]
At the start of World War II,
Poland

Poland was partitioned between Nazi
Germany and the
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union (see Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact).
One-fifth of the Polish population perished during World War II, half
of them were 3,000,000 Polish
Jews

Jews murdered in The Holocaust,
constituting 90% of Polish Jewry.[12][13] Although the Holocaust
occurred largely in German-occupied Poland, there was little
collaboration with the Nazis by its citizens. Collaboration by
individual
Poles

Poles has been described as smaller than in other occupied
countries.[14][15] Statistics of the Israeli War Crimes Commission
indicate that less than 0.1% of
Poles

Poles collaborated with the Nazis.[16]
Examples of Polish attitudes to German atrocities varied widely, from
actively risking death in order to save
Jewish

Jewish lives,[17] and passive
refusal to inform on them; to indifference, blackmail,[18] and in
extreme cases, participation in pogroms such as the Jedwabne pogrom.
Grouped by nationality,
Poles

Poles represent the largest number of people
who rescued
Jews

Jews during the Holocaust.[19][20]
Part of a series of articles on the
History of
Jews

Jews and
Judaism

Judaism in Poland
History of the
Jews

Jews in Poland
20th century
The Holocaust

The Holocaust in occupied Poland
Jewish

Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
Nazi camps
Jewish

Jewish resistance under Nazi rule
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto uprisings
Rescue of
Jews

Jews by
Poles

Poles during the Holocaust
Polish Righteous Among the Nations
1989–present
Timeline of Jewish-Polish history
List of Polish Jews
v
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Category:
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Jews and Judaism
Portal: Judaism
v
t
e
In the postwar period, many of the approximately 200,000 Jewish
survivors registered at Central Committee of Polish
Jews

Jews or CKŻP (of
whom 136,000 arrived from the Soviet Union)[20][21][22] left the
People's Republic of
Poland

Poland for the nascent State of
Israel

Israel and North
or South America. Their departure was hastened by the destruction of
Jewish

Jewish institutions, post-war violence and the hostility of the
Communist Party to both religion and private enterprise, but also
because in 1946–1947
Poland

Poland was the only
Eastern Bloc

Eastern Bloc country to
allow free
Jewish

Jewish aliyah to Israel,[23] without visas or exit
permits.[24][25] Britain demanded
Poland

Poland to halt the exodus, but their
pressure was largely unsuccessful.[26] Most of the remaining
Jews

Jews left
Poland

Poland in late 1968 as the result of the Soviet-sponsored[27]
"anti-Zionist" campaign. After the fall of the Communist regime in
1989, the situation of Polish
Jews

Jews became normalized and those who
were Polish citizens before
World War II

World War II were allowed to renew Polish
citizenship. Religious institutions were revived, largely through the
activities of
Jewish

Jewish foundations from the United States. The
contemporary Polish
Jewish

Jewish community is estimated to have
approximately 20,000 members,[28] though the actual number of Jews,
including those who are not actively connected to
Judaism

Judaism or Jewish
culture, may be several times larger.[29]
Contents
1 Early history to Golden Age: 966–1572
1.1 Early history: 966–1385
1.2 The early Jagiellon era: 1385–1505
1.3 Center of the
Jewish

Jewish world: 1505–72
2 The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: 1572–1795
2.1 The
Cossack

Cossack uprising and the Deluge
3 The development of
Judaism

Judaism in
Poland

Poland and the Commonwealth
3.1
Jewish

Jewish learning
3.2 The rise of Hasidism
4 The Partitions of Poland
5
Jews

Jews of
Poland

Poland within the
Russian Empire

Russian Empire (1795–1918)
5.1 Pale of Settlement
5.2
Pogroms

Pogroms within the Russian Empire
5.3
Haskalah

Haskalah and Halakha
5.4 Politics in Polish territory
6
Interwar period

Interwar period 1918–1939
6.1 Fight for independence and Polish Jews
6.2
Jewish

Jewish and Polish culture
6.3 Growing antisemitism
7
World War II

World War II and the destruction of Polish Jewry (1939–45)
7.1 The Polish September campaign
7.2 Territories annexed by the USSR (1939–41)
7.3 The Holocaust: German-occupied Poland
7.4
Ghettos
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghettos and death camps
7.4.1
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto and its uprising
7.4.2
Białystok

Białystok
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto and uprising
8 Communist rule: 1945–1989
8.1 Postwar period
8.2
Aliyah

Aliyah Bet
8.3 1967–1989
9 Since 1989
10 Numbers of
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland since 1920
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 Further reading
14.1 Maps
14.2 History of Polish Jews
14.3
World War II

World War II and the Holocaust
Early history to Golden Age: 966–1572[edit]
The Reception of the
Jews

Jews in Poland. Painting by Jan Matejko, 1889
Adalbert of Prague

Adalbert of Prague freeing Slavic
Christian

Christian slaves from Jewish
merchants—relief of
Gniezno

Gniezno Cathedral Doors
Main article:
Jews

Jews in the Middle Ages
Further information: History of
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland before the 18th century
Early history: 966–1385[edit]
Main article: History of
Poland

Poland (966-1385)
The first
Jews

Jews arrived in the territory of modern
Poland

Poland in the 10th
century. By travelling along the trade routes leading eastwards to
Kiev

Kiev and Bukhara,
Jewish

Jewish merchants, known as Radhanites, crossed the
areas of Silesia. One of them, a diplomat and merchant from the
Moorish town of
Tortosa
.jpg/500px-Tortosa_(town_view).jpg)
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. In the summer of 965
or 966 Jacob made a trade and diplomatic journey from his native
Toledo in Muslim Spain to the
Holy Roman Empire
.svg/250px-Banner_of_the_Holy_Roman_Emperor_with_haloes_(1400-1806).svg.png)
Holy Roman Empire and Slavonic
countries.[30] The first actual mention of
Jews

Jews in Polish chronicles
occurs in the 11th century. It appears that
Jews

Jews were then living in
Gniezno, at that time the capital of the Polish kingdom of the Piast
dynasty. Among the first
Jews

Jews to arrive in
Poland

Poland (in 1097 or 1098)
were those banished from Prague.[30] The first permanent Jewish
community is mentioned in 1085 by a
Jewish

Jewish scholar Jehuda ha-Kohen in
the city of Przemyśl.[31]
Early medieval Polish coins with Hebrew inscriptions
The first extensive
Jewish

Jewish emigration from
Western Europe

Western Europe to Poland
occurred at the time of the
First Crusade

First Crusade in 1098. Under Bolesław III
(1102–1139), the Jews, encouraged by the tolerant regime of this
ruler, settled throughout Poland, including over the border in
Lithuanian territory as far as Kiev.[32] Bolesław III recognized the
utility of
Jews

Jews in the development of the commercial interests of his
country.
Jews

Jews came to form the backbone of the Polish economy. Mieszko
III employed
Jews

Jews in his mint as engravers and technical supervisors,
and the coins minted during that period even bear Hebraic
markings.[30]
Jews

Jews worked on commission for the mints of other
contemporary Polish princes, including Casimir the Just, Bolesław I
the Tall and Władysław III Spindleshanks.[30]
Jews

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.
Another factor for the
Jews

Jews to emigrate to
Poland

Poland were the Magdeburg
rights, or Magdeburg Law, a charter given to the Jews, among others,
that specifically outlined the rights and privileges that
Jews

Jews had
coming into Poland. For example, they could define their neighborhoods
and economic competitors and set up monopolies. This made it very
attractive for
Jewish

Jewish communities to pick up and move to Poland.[33]
Gesta principum Polonorum states that Princess Judith of Bohemia, wife
of Polish Prince
Władysław I Herman

Władysław I Herman ransomed many Christians with
her own money from the bondage of the Jews.[34]
The first mention of
Jewish

Jewish settlers in
Płock

Płock dates from 1237, in
Kalisz
.jpg/500px-Kalisz,_Ratusz_-_fotopolska.eu_(270187).jpg)
Kalisz from 1287 and a Zydowska (Jewish) street in
Kraków

Kraków in
1304.[30]
The tolerant situation was gradually altered by the Roman Catholic
Church on the one hand, and by the neighboring German states on the
other.[35] There were, however, among the reigning princes some
determined protectors of the
Jewish

Jewish inhabitants, who considered the
presence of the latter most desirable as far as the economic
development of the country was concerned. Prominent among such rulers
was
Bolesław the Pious

Bolesław the Pious of Kalisz, Prince of Great Poland. With the
consent of the class representatives and higher officials, in 1264 he
issued a General Charter of
Jewish

Jewish Liberties, the Statute of Kalisz,
which granted all
Jews

Jews the freedom of worship, trade and travel.
Similar privileges were granted to the Silesian
Jews

Jews by the local
princes, Prince Henry Probus of
Wrocław

Wrocław in 1273–90, Henry of Glogow
in 1274 and 1299, Henry of
Legnica

Legnica in 1290 – 95 and Bolko of Legnica
and
Wrocław

Wrocław in 1295.[30]
During the next hundred years, the Church pushed for the persecution
of the
Jews

Jews while the rulers of
Poland

Poland usually protected them.[36] The
Councils of
Wrocław

Wrocław (1267), Buda (1279), and Łęczyca (1285) each
segregated Jews, ordered them to wear a special emblem, banned them
from holding offices where Christians would be subordinated to them,
and forbade them from building more than one prayer house in each
town. However, those church decrees required the cooperation of the
Polish princes for enforcement, which was generally not forthcoming,
due to the profits which the Jews' economic activity yielded to the
princes.[30]
Wojciech Gerson, Reception of Jews, Casimir the Great and Jews
In 1332, King Casimir III the Great (1303–1370) amplified and
expanded Bolesław's old charter with the Wiślicki Statute. Under his
reign, streams of
Jewish

Jewish immigrants headed east to
Poland

Poland and Jewish
settlements are first mentioned as existing in Lvov (1356), Sandomierz
(1367), and Kazimierz near
Kraków

Kraków (1386).[30] Casimir, who according
to a legend had a
Jewish

Jewish lover named
Esterka

Esterka from Opoczno[37] was
especially friendly to the Jews, and his reign is regarded as an era
of great prosperity for Polish Jewry, and was nicknamed by his
contemporaries "King of the serfs and Jews." Under penalty of death,
he prohibited the kidnapping of
Jewish

Jewish children for the purpose of
enforced
Christian

Christian baptism. He inflicted heavy punishment for the
desecration of
Jewish

Jewish cemeteries. Nevertheless, while for the greater
part of Casimir’s reign the
Jews

Jews of
Poland

Poland enjoyed tranquility,
toward its close they were subjected to persecution on account of the
Black Death. In 1348, the first blood libel accusation against
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland was recorded, and in 1367 the first pogrom took place in
Poznań

Poznań (Posen).[38] Compared with the pitiless destruction of their
co-religionists in Western Europe, however, the Polish
Jews

Jews did not
fare badly; and the
Jewish

Jewish masses of Germany fled to the more
hospitable cities in Poland.
The early Jagiellon era: 1385–1505[edit]
Main article: History of
Poland

Poland (1385–1569)
As a result of the marriage of Wladislaus II (Jagiełło) to Jadwiga,
daughter of Louis I of Hungary,
Lithuania

Lithuania was united with the kingdom
of Poland. In 1388–1389, broad privileges were extended to
Lithuanian
Jews

Jews including freedom of religion and commerce on equal
terms with the Christians.[39] Under the rule of Wladislaus II, Polish
Jews

Jews had increased in numbers and attained prosperity. However,
religious persecution gradually increased, as the dogmatic clergy
pushed for less official tolerance, pressured by the Synod of
Constance. In 1349 pogroms took place in many towns in Silesia.[30]
There were accusations of blood libel by the priests, and new riots
against the
Jews

Jews in
Poznań

Poznań in 1399. Accusations of blood libel by
another fanatic priest led to the riots in
Kraków

Kraków in 1407, although
the royal guard hastened to the rescue.[39] Hysteria caused by Black
Death led to additional 14th-century outbreaks of violence against the
Jews

Jews in Kalisz,
Kraków

Kraków and Bochnia. Traders and artisans jealous of
Jewish

Jewish prosperity, and fearing their rivalry, supported the
harassment. In 1423 the statute of Warka forbade
Jews

Jews the granting of
loans against letters of credit or mortgage and limited their
operations exclusively to loans made on security of moveable
property.[30] In the 14th and 15th centuries rich
Jewish

Jewish merchants and
moneylenders leased the royal mint, salt mines and the collecting of
customs and tolls. The most famous of them were Jordan and his son
Lewko of
Kraków

Kraków in the 14th century and Jakub Slomkowicz of Luck,
Wolczko of Drohobycz, Natko of Lvov, Samson of Zydaczow, Josko of
Hrubieszow and Szania of Belz in the 15th century. For example,
Wolczko of Drohobycz, King Ladislaus Jagiello's broker, was the owner
of several villages in the Ruthenian voivodship and the soitys
(administrator) of the village of Werbiz. Also
Jews

Jews from Grodno were
in this period owners of villages, manors, meadows, fish ponds and
mills. However until the end of the 15th century agriculture as a
source of income played only a minor role among
Jewish

Jewish families. More
important were crafts for the needs of both their fellow
Jews

Jews and the
Christian

Christian population (fur making, tanning, tailoring).[30]
Casimir IV Jagiellon

Casimir IV Jagiellon confirmed and extended
Jewish

Jewish charters in the
second half of the 15th century
In 1454 anti-
Jewish

Jewish riots flared up in
Wrocław

Wrocław and other Silesian
cities, inspired by a Franciscan friar, John of Capistrano, who
accused
Jews

Jews of profaning the
Christian

Christian religion. As a result, Jews
were banished from Lower Silesia. Zbigniew Olesnicki then invited John
to conduct a similar campaign in
Kraków

Kraków and several other cities, to
lesser effect. In 1495,
Jews

Jews were ordered out of the center of Kraków
and allowed to settle in the "
Jewish

Jewish town" of Kazimierz. In the same
year, Alexander Jagiellon, following the example of Spanish rulers,
banished the
Jews

Jews from Lithuania. For several years they took shelter
in
Poland

Poland until they were allowed back to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
in 1503.[30]
The decline in the status of the
Jews

Jews was briefly checked by Casimir
IV the Jagiellonian (1447–1492), but soon the nobility forced him to
issue the Statute of Nieszawa.[40] Among other things it abolished the
ancient privileges of the
Jews

Jews "as contrary to divine right and the
law of the land." Nevertheless, the king continued to offer his
protection to the Jews. Two years later Casimir issued another
document announcing that he could not deprive the
Jews

Jews of his
benevolence on the basis of "the principle of tolerance which in
conformity with God's laws obliged him to protect them".[41] The
policy of the government toward the
Jews

Jews of
Poland

Poland oscillated under
Casimir's sons and successors,
John I Albert

John I Albert (1492–1501) and
Alexander the Jagiellonian
.jpg/440px-Alaksandar._Аляксандар_(1521).jpg)
Alexander the Jagiellonian (1501–1506). The latter decreed in 1495
to expel the
Jews

Jews from the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania

Lithuania when he was the
Grand Duke of
Lithuania

Lithuania but reversed his decision eight years later in
1503 after becoming King of Poland. The next year he issued a
proclamation in which he stated that a policy of tolerance befitted
"kings and rulers".[41]
Center of the
Jewish

Jewish world: 1505–72[edit]
Sigismund II Augustus

Sigismund II Augustus followed in the tolerant policy of his father
and also granted autonomy to the Jews.
Poland

Poland became more tolerant just as the
Jews

Jews were expelled from Spain
in 1492, as well as from Austria,
Hungary

Hungary and Germany, thus
stimulating
Jewish

Jewish immigration to the much more accessible Poland.
Indeed, with the expulsion of the
Jews

Jews from Spain,
Poland

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

Jewish people.
The most prosperous period for Polish
Jews

Jews began following this new
influx of
Jews

Jews with the reign of
Sigismund I the Old

Sigismund I the Old (1506–1548),
who protected the
Jews

Jews in his realm. His son, Sigismund II Augustus
(1548–1572), mainly followed in the tolerant policy of his father
and also granted autonomy to the
Jews

Jews in the matter of communal
administration and laid the foundation for the power of the Qahal, or
autonomous
Jewish

Jewish community. This period led to the creation of a
proverb about
Poland

Poland being a "heaven for the Jews". According to some
sources, about three-quarters of all
Jews

Jews lived in
Poland

Poland by the
middle of the 16th century.[5][6][7] In the middle of the 16th
century,
Poland

Poland welcomed the
Jewish

Jewish newcomers from
Italy

Italy and Turkey,
mostly of Sephardi origin. However, some of the immigrants from the
Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire are still considered Mizrahim.
Jewish

Jewish religious life
thrived in many Polish communities. In 1503, the Polish monarchy
appointed
Rabbi

Rabbi Jacob Pollak, the official
Rabbi

Rabbi of Poland, marking
the emergence of the Chief Rabbinate. By 1551,
Jews

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 30% of the money raised by the Rabbinate served Jewish
causes, the rest went to the Crown for protection. In this period
Poland-
Lithuania

Lithuania became the main center for Ashkenazi Jewry and its
yeshivot achieved fame from the early 16th century.
Moses Isserles

Moses Isserles (1520–1572), an eminent Talmudist of the 16th
century, established his yeshiva in Kraków. In addition to being a
renowned Talmudic and legal scholar, Isserles was also learned in
Kabbalah, and studied history, astronomy, and philosophy. The Remuh
Synagogue

Synagogue was built for him in 1557. Rema (רמ״א) is the Hebrew
acronym for his name.[42]
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: 1572–1795[edit]
See also: History of
Poland

Poland (1572–1795),
Jewish

Jewish Polish history
during the 18th century, and
Warsaw

Warsaw Confederation (1573)
After the childless death of Sigismund II Augustus, the last king of
the Jagiellon dynasty, Polish and Lithuanian nobles (szlachta)
gathered at
Warsaw

Warsaw in 1573 and signed a document in which
representatives of all major religions pledged mutual support and
tolerance. The following eight or nine decades of material prosperity
and relative security experienced by Polish
Jews

Jews – wrote Professor
Gershon Hundert – witnessed the appearance of "a virtual galaxy of
sparkling intellectual figures."
Jewish

Jewish academies were established in
Lublin, Kraków,
Brześć
.jpg/500px-Brest_Montage_(2017).jpg)
Brześć (Brisk), Lwów, Ostróg and other towns.[43]
Poland-
Lithuania

Lithuania was the only country in
Europe
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe where the Jews
cultivated their own farmer's fields.[44]
Number of
Jews

Jews in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth per voivodeship in
1764
The
Cossack

Cossack uprising and the Deluge[edit]
In 1648 the Commonwealth was devastated by several conflicts, in which
the country lost over a third of its population (over three million
people). The
Jewish

Jewish losses were counted in the hundreds of thousands.
The first of these large-scale atrocities was the Chmielnicki
Uprising, in which Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks massacred tens of
thousands of
Jews

Jews and Catholic
Poles

Poles in the eastern and southern areas
he controlled (today's Ukraine).[45] The precise number of dead is not
known, but the decrease of the
Jewish

Jewish population during this period is
estimated at 100,000 to 200,000, which also includes emigration,
deaths from diseases and jasyr (captivity in the Ottoman Empire). The
Jewish

Jewish community suffered greatly during the 1648
Cossack

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 20% of them were killed.
Ruled by the elected kings of the
House of Vasa

House of Vasa since 1587, the
embattled Commonwealth was invaded by the
Swedish Empire

Swedish Empire in 1655 in
what became known as the Deluge. The kingdom of
Poland

Poland which had
already suffered from the
Chmielnicki Uprising

Chmielnicki Uprising and from the recurring
invasions of the Russians, Crimean Tatars and Ottomans, became the
scene of even more atrocities. Charles X of Sweden, at the head of his
victorious army, overran the cities of
Kraków

Kraków and Warsaw. The amount
of destruction, pillage and methodical plunder during the Siege of
Kraków

Kraków (1657) was so enormous that parts the city never again
recovered. The Polish general
Stefan Czarniecki

Stefan Czarniecki defeated the Swedes in
1660. He was equally successful in his battles against the
Russians.[46] Meanwhile, the horrors of the war were aggravated by
pestilence. Many
Jews

Jews along with the townsfolk of Kalisz, Kraków,
Poznań, Piotrków and
Lublin

Lublin fell victim to recurring
epidemics.[47][48]
As soon as the disturbances had ceased, the
Jews

Jews began to return and
to rebuild their destroyed homes; and while it is true that the Jewish
population of
Poland

Poland had decreased, it still was more numerous than
that of the
Jewish

Jewish colonies in Western Europe.
Poland

Poland continued to be
the spiritual center of Judaism. Through 1698, the Polish kings
generally remained supportive of the Jews. It also should be noted
that while
Jewish

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.
A
Jewish

Jewish couple in Poland, around 1765.
The environment of the Polish Commonwealth – wrote Professor Gershon
Hundert – profoundly affected
Jews

Jews due to genuinely positive
encounter with the
Christian

Christian culture across the many cities and towns
owned by the Polish aristocracy. There was no isolation.[49] The
Jewish

Jewish dress resembled that of their Polish neighbor. "Reports of
romances, of drinking together in taverns, and of intellectual
conversations are quite abundant." Wealthy
Jews

Jews had Polish noblemen at
their table, and served meals on silver plates.[49] By 1764, there
were about 750,000
Jews

Jews in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The
worldwide
Jewish

Jewish population at that time was estimated at 1.2 million.
In 1768 the
Koliyivshchyna

Koliyivshchyna rebellion west of the Dnieper river in
Volhynia led to ferocious murders of Polish noblemen, Catholic priests
and thousands of Jews.[50] Four years later, in 1772, the military
Partitions of
Poland

Poland had begun between Russia,
Prussia
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Prussia_(1892-1918).svg.png)
Prussia and
Austria.[51]
The development of
Judaism

Judaism in
Poland

Poland and the Commonwealth[edit]
The culture and intellectual output of the
Jewish

Jewish community in Poland
had a profound impact on
Judaism

Judaism as a whole. Some
Jewish

Jewish historians
have recounted that the word
Poland

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"). The
"message" was that
Poland

Poland was meant to be a good place for the Jews.
During the time from the rule of
Sigismund I the Old

Sigismund I the Old until the Nazi
Holocaust,
Poland

Poland would be at the center of
Jewish

Jewish religious life.
Many agreed with
Rabbi

Rabbi David ben Shemu’el ha-Levi (Taz) that Poland
was a place where “most of the time the gentiles do no harm; on the
contrary they do right by Israel” (Divre David; 1689).[52]
Jewish

Jewish learning[edit]
Late renaissance synagogue in
Zamość

Zamość (1610–1620).
Yeshivot were established, under the direction of the rabbis, in the
more prominent communities. Such schools were officially known as
gymnasiums, and their rabbi principals as rectors. Important yeshivot
existed in Kraków, Poznań, and other cities.
Jewish

Jewish printing
establishments came into existence in the first quarter of the 16th
century. In 1530 a Hebrew
Pentateuch

Pentateuch (Torah) was printed in Kraków;
and at the end of the century the
Jewish

Jewish printing houses of that city
and
Lublin

Lublin issued a large number of
Jewish

Jewish books, mainly of a
religious character. The growth of Talmudic scholarship in
Poland

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. Exceptions are recorded, however,
where
Jewish

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

Jewish 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 16th century the seeds of Talmudic learning
had been transplanted to
Poland

Poland from Bohemia, particularly from the
school of Jacob Pollak, the creator of
Pilpul ("sharp reasoning").
Shalom Shachna

Shalom Shachna (c. 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. Shachna's son Israel
became rabbi of
Lublin

Lublin on the death of his father, and Shachna's pupil
Moses Isserles

Moses Isserles (known as the ReMA) (1520–1572) achieved an
international reputation among the
Jews

Jews as the co-author of the
Shulkhan Arukh, (the "Code of
Jewish

Jewish Law"). His contemporary and
correspondent
Solomon Luria

Solomon Luria (1510–1573) of
Lublin

Lublin also enjoyed a
wide reputation among his co-religionists; and the authority of both
was recognized by the
Jews

Jews throughout Europe. Heated religious
disputations were common, and
Jewish

Jewish scholars participated in them. At
the same time, the
Kabbalah

Kabbalah had become entrenched under the protection
of Rabbinism; and such scholars as
Mordecai Jaffe and Yoel Sirkis
devoted themselves to its study. This period of great Rabbinical
scholarship was interrupted by the
Chmielnicki Uprising

Chmielnicki Uprising and The
Deluge.
The rise of Hasidism[edit]
Jacob Frank
Main article: Hasidim
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 intellectual output of the
Jews

Jews of
Poland

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

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

Jews of Poland, culminating in a
series of false "Messianic" movements, most famously as Sabbatianism
was succeeded by Frankism.
In this time of mysticism and overly formal rabbinism came the
teachings of
Israel

Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or BeShT,
(1698–1760), which had a profound effect on the
Jews

Jews of Eastern
Europe
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe and
Poland

Poland in particular. His disciples taught and encouraged
the new fervent brand of
Judaism

Judaism based on
Kabbalah

Kabbalah known as Hasidism.
The rise of Hasidic
Judaism

Judaism within Poland's borders and beyond had a
great influence on the rise of Haredi
Judaism

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. See also: List of Polish Rabbis
The Partitions of Poland[edit]
Jewish

Jewish dress in the 17th (top) and the 18th century (bottom).
Disorder and anarchy reigned supreme in
Poland

Poland during the second half
of the 18th century, from the accession to the throne of its last
king, Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski in 1764. His election was
bought by
Catherine the Great
.jpg/440px-Portrait_of_Empress_Catherine_II(a).jpg)
Catherine the Great for 2.5 million rubles, with the Russian
army stationing only three miles away from Warsaw.[53] Eight years
later, triggered by the
Confederation of Bar

Confederation of Bar against the Russian
influence and the pro-Russian king, the outlying provinces of Poland
were overrun from all sides by different military forces and divided
for the first time by the three neighboring empires, Russia, Austria,
and Prussia.[53] The Commonwealth lost 30% of its land during the
annexations of 1772, and even more of its peoples.[54]
Jews

Jews were most
numerous in the territories that fell under the military control of
Austria-Hungary
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Austria-Hungary_(1869-1918).svg.png)
Austria-Hungary and Russia.
Berek Joselewicz
.jpg/360px-Berek_Joselewicz_(1764–1809).jpg)
Berek Joselewicz (1764–1809)
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

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

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. 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

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. 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
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe before the
French Revolution

French Revolution of tolerance and
broadmindedness in dealing with the
Jewish

Jewish question. 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

Poland was made on July 17, 1793. Jews, in a
Jewish

Jewish regiment led by Berek Joselewicz, took part in the Kościuszko
Uprising the following year, when the
Poles

Poles tried to again achieve
independence, but were brutally put down. Following the revolt, the
third and final partition of
Poland

Poland took place in 1795. The
territories which included the great bulk of the
Jewish

Jewish population was
transferred to Russia, and thus they became subjects of that empire,
although in the first half of the 19th century some semblance of a
vastly smaller Polish state was preserved, especially in the form of
the Congress
Poland

Poland (1815–1831).
Under foreign rule many
Jews

Jews inhabiting formerly Polish lands were
indifferent to Polish aspirations for independence. However, most
Polonized
Jews

Jews supported the revolutionary activities of Polish
patriots and participated in national uprisings.[55] Polish
Jews

Jews took
part in the November Insurrection of 1830–1831, the January
Insurrection of 1863, as well as in the revolutionary movement of
1905. Many Polish
Jews

Jews were enlisted in the Polish Legions, which
fought for the Polish independence, achieved in 1918 when the
occupying forces disintegrated following World War One.[55]
Jews

Jews of
Poland

Poland within the
Russian Empire

Russian Empire (1795–1918)[edit]
Main article: History of
Poland

Poland (1795–1918)
See also: History of the
Jews

Jews in 19th-century Poland, History of the
Jews

Jews in
Russia

Russia and Soviet Union, and
Antisemitism

Antisemitism in the Russian
Empire
Jewish

Jewish merchants in 19th-century Warsaw
Official Russian policy would eventually prove to be substantially
harsher to the
Jews

Jews than that under independent Polish rule. The lands
that had once been
Poland

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

Jews to the western parts of the empire, which
would eventually include much of Poland, although it excluded some
areas in which
Jews

Jews had previously lived. By the late 19th century,
over four million
Jews

Jews would live in the Pale.
Tsarist policy towards the
Jews

Jews of
Poland

Poland alternated between harsh
rules, and inducements meant to break the resistance to large-scale
conversion. In 1804,
Alexander I of Russia
_crop.jpg/440px-Alexander_I_of_Russia_by_G.Dawe_(1826,_Peterhof)_crop.jpg)
Alexander I of Russia issued a "Statute
Concerning Jews",[56] meant to accelerate the process of assimilation
of the Empire's new
Jewish

Jewish population. The Polish
Jews

Jews were allowed to
establish schools with Russian, German or Polish curricula. They could
own land in the territories annexed from Poland. However, they were
also restricted from leasing property, teaching in Yiddish, and from
entering Russia. They were banned from the brewing industry. The
harshest measures designed to compel
Jews

Jews to merge into society at
large called for their expulsion from small villages, forcing them to
move into towns. Once the resettlement began, thousands of
Jews

Jews lost
their only source of income and turned to
Qahal for support. Their
living conditions in the Pale began to dramatically worsen.[56]
Map of the
Pale of Settlement
.jpg)
Pale of Settlement with the
Jewish

Jewish population density.
During the reign of Tsar Nicolas I, known by the
Jews

Jews as "Haman the
Second", hundreds of new anti-
Jewish

Jewish measures were enacted.[57] The
1827 decree by Nicolas – while lifting the traditional double
taxation on
Jews

Jews in lieu of army service – made
Jews

Jews subject to
general military recruitment laws that required
Jewish

Jewish communities to
provide 7 recruits per each 1000 "souls" every 4 years. Unlike the
general population that had to provide recruits between the ages of 18
and 35,
Jews

Jews had to provide recruits between the ages of 12 and 25, at
the qahal's discretion. Thus between 1827 and 1857 over 30,000
children were placed in the so-called
Cantonist
.jpg)
Cantonist schools, where they
were pressured to convert.[58] "Many children were smuggled to Poland,
where the conscription of
Jews

Jews did not take effect until 1844."[57]
Further information on the Garrison schools for male children:
Cantonist
Pale of Settlement[edit]
The
Pale of Settlement
.jpg)
Pale of Settlement (Russian: Черта́ осе́длости,
chertá osédlosti, Yiddish: תּחום-המושבֿ,
tkhum-ha-moyshəv, Hebrew: תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב,
tḥùm ha-mosháv) was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia
in which permanent residency by
Jews

Jews was allowed and beyond which
Jewish

Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited. It extended from
the eastern pale, or demarcation line, to the western Russian border
with the
Kingdom of Prussia
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Prussia_(1892-1918).svg.png)
Kingdom of Prussia (later the German Empire) and with
Austria-Hungary. The archaic English term pale is derived from the
Latin

Latin word palus, a stake, extended to mean the area enclosed by a
fence or boundary.
With its large Catholic and
Jewish

Jewish populations, the Pale was acquired
by the
Russian Empire

Russian Empire (which was majority Russian Orthodox) in a
series of military conquests and diplomatic maneuvers between 1791 and
1835, and lasted until the fall of the
Russian Empire

Russian Empire in 1917. It
comprised about 20% of the territory of European
Russia

Russia and largely
corresponded to historical borders of the former Polish–Lithuanian
Commonwealth; it included much of present-day Lithuania, Belarus,
Poland, Moldova, Ukraine, and parts of western Russia.
From 1791 to 1835, and until 1917, there were differing
reconfigurations of the boundaries of the Pale, such that certain
areas were variously open or shut to
Jewish

Jewish residency, such as the
Caucasus. At times,
Jews

Jews were forbidden to live in agricultural
communities, or certain cities, as in Kiev,
Sevastopol

Sevastopol and Yalta,
excluded from residency at a number of cities within the Pale.
Settlers from outside the pale were forced to move to small towns,
thus fostering the rise of the shtetls.
Although the
Jews

Jews were accorded slightly more rights with the
Emancipation reform of 1861
.jpg/660px-Liberation_of_peasants_by_B.Kustodiev_(1907).jpg)
Emancipation reform of 1861 by Alexander II, they were still
restricted to the
Pale of Settlement
.jpg)
Pale of Settlement and subject to restrictions on
ownership and profession. The existing status quo was shattered with
the assassination of Alexander in 1881 – an act falsely blamed upon
the Jews.
Pogroms

Pogroms within the Russian Empire[edit]
Printed caricature by painter Henryk Nowodworski, depicting Białystok
pogrom of 1906. Note the assailant wearing a Tsarist army hat with a
cockade sideways
The assassination prompted a large-scale wave of anti-
Jewish

Jewish riots,
called pogroms (Russian: погро́м;) throughout 1881–1884. In
the 1881 outbreak, pogroms were primarily limited to Russia, although
in a riot in
Warsaw

Warsaw two
Jews

Jews were killed, 24 others were wounded,
women were raped and over two million rubles worth of property was
destroyed.[59][60] The new czar, Alexander III, blamed the
Jews

Jews for
the riots and issued a series of harsh restrictions on Jewish
movements.
Pogroms

Pogroms continued until 1884, with at least tacit
government approval. They proved a turning point in the history of the
Jews

Jews in partitioned
Poland

Poland and throughout the world. As a result of
the pogroms and the waves of antisemitism, 36
Jewish

Jewish Zionist delegates
met in Katowice, in 1884, forming the
Hovevei Zion movement. The
pogroms prompted a great flood of
Jewish

Jewish immigration to the United
States. Nearly two million
Jews

Jews left the Pale by the late 1920s,
setting the stage for the Zionist movement.
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 by the
Tsarist Russian secret police, the Okhrana. They included the
Białystok pogrom

Białystok pogrom of 1906 in the
Grodno Governorate

Grodno Governorate of Russian Poland,
in which at least 75
Jews

Jews were murdered by the marauding soldiers, and
many more wounded. However, ethnic
Poles

Poles did not participate and
instead sheltered
Jewish

Jewish families, testified the survivors.[61]
Haskalah

Haskalah and Halakha[edit]
Main article: Haskalah
The
Jewish

Jewish Enlightenment, Haskalah, began to take hold in Poland
during the 19th century, stressing secular ideas and values. Champions
of Haskalah, the Maskilim, pushed for assimilation and integration
into Russian culture. At the same time, there was another school of
Jewish

Jewish thought that emphasized traditional study and a
Jewish

Jewish response
to the ethical problems of antisemitism and persecution, one form of
which was the Musar movement. Polish
Jews

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

Zionism of the Mizrachi movement later in the 19th
century.
Politics in Polish territory[edit]
A Bundist demonstration, 1917
By the late 19th century,
Haskalah

Haskalah and the debates it caused created a
growing number of political movements within the
Jewish

Jewish community
itself, covering a wide range of views and vying for votes in local
and regional elections.
Zionism

Zionism became very popular with the advent of
the
Poale Zion
_-_POALEI_ZION.jpg/440px-Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_(GPO)_-_POALEI_ZION.jpg)
Poale Zion socialist party as well as the religious Polish
Mizrahi, and the increasingly popular General Zionists.
Jews

Jews also took
up socialism, forming the Bund labor union which supported
assimilation and the rights of labor. The
Folkspartei (People's Party)
advocated, for its part, cultural autonomy and resistance to
assimilation. In 1912, Agudat Israel, a religious party, came into
existence.
Many
Jews

Jews took part in the Polish insurrections, particularly against
Russia

Russia (since the Tsars discriminated heavily against the Jews). The
Kościuszko Insurrection,
January Insurrection

January Insurrection (1863) and
Revolutionary Movement of 1905 all saw significant
Jewish

Jewish involvement
in the cause of Polish independence.
By the end of the 19th century, 14% of Polish citizens were Jewish.
Jews

Jews participated in their religious communities, as well as local and
federal government. There were several prominent
Jewish

Jewish politicians in
the Polish Sejm, such as
Apolinary Hartglas

Apolinary Hartglas and Yitzhak Gruenbaum.
Many
Jewish

Jewish political parties were active, representing a wide
ideological spectrum, from the Zionists, to the socialists to the
anti-Zionists. One of the largest of these parties was the Bund, which
was strongest in
Warsaw

Warsaw and Lodz.
In addition to the socialists, Zionist parties were also popular, in
particular, the Marxist
Poale Zion
_-_POALEI_ZION.jpg/440px-Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_(GPO)_-_POALEI_ZION.jpg)
Poale Zion and the orthodox religious Polish
Mizrahi. The General Zionist party became the most prominent Jewish
party in the interwar period and in the 1919 elections to the first
Polish
Sejm

Sejm since the partitions, gained 50% of the
Jewish

Jewish vote.
In 1914, the German Zionist
Max Bodenheimer

Max Bodenheimer founded the short-lived
German Committee for Freeing of Russian Jews, with the goal of
establishing a buffer state (Pufferstaat) within the
Jewish

Jewish Pale of
Settlement, composed of the former Polish provinces annexed by Russia,
being de facto protectorate of the
German Empire

German Empire that would free Jews
in the region from Russian oppression. The plan, known as
Judeopolonia, soon proved unpopular with both German officials and
Bodenheimer's colleagues, and was dead by the following year.[62][63]
Interwar period

Interwar period 1918–1939[edit]
Main article: History of
Poland

Poland (1918–1939)
Further information: History of the
Jews

Jews in 20th-century Poland
Fight for independence and Polish Jews[edit]
Hasidic schoolchildren in Łódź, circa 1910s under Partitions
While most Polish
Jews

Jews were neutral to the idea of a Polish state,[64]
many played a significant role in the fight for Poland's independence
during World War One; around 650
Jews

Jews joined the Legiony Polskie
formed by Józef Piłsudski, more than all other minorities
combined.[65] Prominent
Jews

Jews were among the members of KTSSN, the
nucleus of the interim government of re-emerging sovereign Poland
including Herman Feldstein, Henryk Eile,
Porucznik

Porucznik Samuel Herschthal,
Dr. Zygmunt Leser, Henryk Orlean, Wiktor Chajes and others.[64] The
donations poured in including 50,000 Austrian kronen from the
Jews

Jews of
Lwów

Lwów and the 1,500 cans of food donated by the Blumenfeld factory
among similar others.[64]
In the aftermath of the Great War localized conflicts engulfed Eastern
Europe
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe between 1917 and 1919. Many attacks were launched against Jews
during the Russian Civil War, the Polish-Ukrainian War, and the
Polish–Soviet War

Polish–Soviet War ending with the Treaty of Riga. Almost half of the
Jewish

Jewish men perceived to have supported the Bolshevik
Russia

Russia in these
incidents were in their 20s.[66] Just after the end of World War I,
the West became alarmed by reports about alleged massive pogroms in
Poland

Poland against Jews. Pressure for government action reached the point
where U.S. President
Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson sent an official commission to
investigate the matter. The commission, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr.,
concluded in its
Morgenthau Report that allegations of pogroms were
exaggerated.[67] It identified eight incidents in the years
1918–1919 out of 37 mostly empty claims for damages, and estimated
the number of victims at 280. Four of these were attributed to the
actions of deserters and undisciplined individual soldiers; none was
blamed on official government policy. Among the incidents, during the
battle for Pińsk a commander of Polish infantry regiment accused a
group of
Jewish

Jewish men of plotting against the
Poles

Poles and ordered the
execution of thirty-five
Jewish

Jewish men and youth.[68] The Morgenthau
Report found the charge to be "devoid of foundation" even though their
meeting was illegal to the extent of being treasonable.[69] In the
Lwów

Lwów (Lviv) pogrom, which occurred in 1918 during the
Polish–Ukrainian War

Polish–Ukrainian War of independence a day after the
Poles

Poles captured
Lviv

Lviv from the
Sich Riflemen

Sich Riflemen – the report concluded – 64
Jews

Jews had
been killed (other accounts put the number at 72).[70][71] In Warsaw,
soldiers of Blue Army assaulted
Jews

Jews in the streets, but were punished
by military authorities. Many other events in
Poland

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.[72] The
above-mentioned atrocities committed by the young Polish army and its
allies in 1919 during their
Kiev

Kiev operation against the Bolsheviks had
a profound impact on the foreign perception of the re-emerging Polish
state.[73] The result of the concerns over the fate of Poland's Jews
was a series of explicit clauses in the Versailles Treaty signed by
the Western powers, and President Paderewski,[74] protecting the
rights of minorities in new
Poland

Poland including Germans. In 1921,
Poland's March Constitution gave the
Jews

Jews the same legal rights as
other citizens and guaranteed them religious tolerance and freedom of
religious holidays.[75]
The number of
Jews

Jews immigrating to
Poland

Poland from
Ukraine
.png/440px-Czech_Rep._-_Bohemia,_Moravia_and_Silesia_III_(en).png)
Ukraine and Soviet
Russia

Russia during the interwar period grew rapidly.
Jewish

Jewish population in
the area of former Congress of
Poland

Poland increased sevenfold between 1816
and 1921, from around 213,000 to roughly 1,500,000.[76] According to
the Polish national census of 1921, there were 2,845,364
Jews

Jews living
in the Second Polish Republic; but, by late 1938 that number had grown
by over 16% to approximately 3,310,000. The average rate of permanent
settlement was about 30,000 per annum. At the same time, every year
around 100,000
Jews

Jews were passing through
Poland

Poland in unofficial
emigration overseas. Between the end of the
Polish–Soviet War

Polish–Soviet War and
late 1938, the
Jewish

Jewish population of the Republic had grown by over
464,000.[77]
Jewish

Jewish and Polish culture[edit]
Main articles:
Jewish culture

Jewish culture and Polish culture
Warsaw

Warsaw Great Synagogue
The newly independent
Second Polish Republic
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Poland_(1928-1980).svg.png)
Second Polish Republic had a large and vibrant
Jewish

Jewish minority. By the time
World War II

World War II began,
Poland

Poland had the
largest concentration of
Jews

Jews in
Europe
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe although many Polish
Jews

Jews had
a separate culture and ethnic identity from Catholic Poles. Some
authors have stated that only about 10% of Polish
Jews

Jews during the
interwar period could be considered "assimilated" while more than 80%
could be readily recognized as Jews.[78]
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

Poland between 1931 and
1939, there were probably 3,474,000
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland as of September 1,
1939 (approximately 10% of the total population) primarily centered in
large and smaller cities: 77% lived in cities and 23% in the villages.
They made up about 50%, and in some cases even 70% of the population
of smaller towns, especially in Eastern Poland.[79] Prior to World War
II, the
Jewish

Jewish population of
Łódź

Łódź numbered about 233,000, roughly
one-third of the city’s population.[80] The city of
Lwów

Lwów (now in
Ukraine) had the third largest
Jewish

Jewish population in Poland, numbering
110,000 in 1939 (42%).
Wilno
.png/500px-Vilnus_Montage_(2016).png)
Wilno (now in Lithuania) had a
Jewish

Jewish community
of nearly 100,000, about 45% of the city's total.[81] In 1938,
Kraków's
Jewish

Jewish population numbered over 60,000, or about 25% of the
city's total population.[82] In 1939 there were 375,000
Jews

Jews in Warsaw
or one third of the city's population. Only New York City had more
Jewish

Jewish residents than Warsaw.
The major industries in which Polish
Jews

Jews were employed were
manufacturing and commerce. In many areas of the country, the majority
of retail businesses were owned by Jews, who were sometimes among the
wealthiest members of their communities.[83] Many
Jews

Jews also worked as
shoemakers and tailors, as well as in the liberal professions; doctors
(56% of all doctors in Poland), teachers (43%), journalists (22%) and
lawyers (33%).[84]
L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto
Jewish

Jewish youth and religious groups, diverse political parties and
Zionist organizations, newspapers and theatre flourished.
Jews

Jews owned
land and real estate, participated in retail and manufacturing and in
the export industry. Their religious beliefs spanned the range from
Orthodox Hasidic
Judaism

Judaism to Liberal Judaism.
The Polish language, rather than Yiddish, was increasingly used by the
young
Warsaw

Warsaw
Jews

Jews who did not have a problem in identifying themselves
fully as Jews, Varsovians and Poles.
Jews

Jews such as
Bruno Schulz
.jpg)
Bruno Schulz were
entering the mainstream of Polish society, though many thought of
themselves as a separate nationality within Poland. Most children were
enrolled in
Jewish

Jewish religious schools, which used to limit their
ability to speak Polish. As a result, according to the 1931 census,
79% of the
Jews

Jews declared
Yiddish

Yiddish as their first language, and only 12%
listed Polish, with the remaining 9% being Hebrew.[85] In contrast,
the overwhelming majority of German-born
Jews

Jews of this period spoke
German as their first language. During the school year of 1937–1938
there were 226 elementary schools [86] and twelve high schools as well
as fourteen vocational schools with either
Yiddish

Yiddish or Hebrew as the
instructional language. The
YIVO

YIVO (Jidiszer Wissenszaftlecher
Institute) Scientific Institute was based in
Wilno
.png/500px-Vilnus_Montage_(2016).png)
Wilno before transferring
to New York during the war.
Jewish

Jewish political parties, both the
Socialist

Socialist General
Jewish

Jewish Labour Bund (The Bund), as well as parties of
the Zionist right and left wing and religious conservative movements,
were represented in the
Sejm

Sejm (the Polish Parliament) as well as in the
regional councils.[87]
Isaac Bashevis Singer
.jpg/500px-Isaac_Bashevis_Singer_(upright).jpg)
Isaac Bashevis Singer (Polish: Izaak Zynger), achieved international
acclaim as a classic
Jewish

Jewish writer and was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1978
The
Jewish

Jewish cultural scene [88] was particularly vibrant in pre–World
War II Poland, with numerous
Jewish

Jewish publications and more than one
hundred periodicals.
Yiddish

Yiddish authors, most notably Isaac Bashevis
Singer, went on to achieve international acclaim as classic Jewish
writers; Singer won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature. Other Jewish
authors of the period, such as Bruno Schulz, Julian Tuwim, Marian
Hemar, Emanuel Schlechter,
Jan Brzechwa

Jan Brzechwa (a favorite poet of Polish
children) and Bolesław Leśmian, as well as
Konrad Tom

Konrad Tom and Jerzy
Jurandot, were less well-known internationally, but made important
contributions to Polish literature. Singer Jan Kiepura, born of a
Jewish

Jewish mother and Polish father, was one of the most popular artists
of that era, and pre-war songs of
Jewish

Jewish composers, including Henryk
Wars, Jerzy Petersburski, Artur Gold, Henryk Gold, Zygmunt
Białostocki,
Szymon Kataszek

Szymon Kataszek and Jakub Kagan, are still widely known
in
Poland

Poland today. Painters became known as well for their depictions of
Jewish

Jewish life. Among them were Maurycy Gottlieb, Artur Markowicz, and
Maurycy Trebacz, with younger artists like
Chaim Goldberg

Chaim Goldberg coming up in
the ranks.
Shimon Peres, born in
Poland

Poland as Szymon Perski, served as the ninth
President of
Israel

Israel between 2007 and 2014
Scientist Leopold Infeld, mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, Alfred Tarski,
and professor
Adam Ulam contributed to the world of science. Other
Polish
Jews

Jews who gained international recognition are Moses Schorr,
Ludwik Zamenhof

Ludwik Zamenhof (the creator of Esperanto), Georges Charpak, Samuel
Eilenberg, Emanuel Ringelblum, and Artur Rubinstein, just to name a
few from the long list. The term "genocide" was coined by Rafał
Lemkin (1900–1959), a Polish-
Jewish

Jewish legal scholar. Leonid Hurwicz
was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics. The Scientific
Institute
YIVO

YIVO was first organized in Wilno. In Warsaw, important
centers of Judaic scholarship, such the Main Judaic Library and the
Institute of Judaic Studies were located, along with numerous Talmudic
Schools (Jeszybots), religious centers and synagogues, many of which
were of high architectural quality.
Yiddish

Yiddish theatre also flourished;
Poland

Poland had fifteen
Yiddish

Yiddish theatres and theatrical groups.
Warsaw

Warsaw was
home to the most important
Yiddish

Yiddish theater troupe of the time, the
Vilna Troupe, which staged the first performance of
The Dybbuk

The Dybbuk in 1920
at the Elyseum Theatre. Some future Israeli leaders studied at
University of Warsaw, including
Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir.
There also were several
Jewish

Jewish sports clubs, with some of them, such
as
Hasmonea Lwow

Hasmonea Lwow and Jutrzenka Kraków, winning promotion to the
Polish First Football League. A Polish-
Jewish

Jewish footballer, Józef
Klotz, scored the first ever goal for the
Poland

Poland national football
team. Another athlete, Alojzy Ehrlich, won several medals in the
table-tennis tournaments.
Growing antisemitism[edit]
An ever-increasing proportion of
Jews

Jews in interwar
Poland

Poland lived
separate lives from the Polish majority. In 1921, 74.2% of Polish Jews
listed
Yiddish

Yiddish or Hebrew as their native language; the number rose to
87% by 1931,[85] contributing to growing tensions between
Jews

Jews and
Poles.[89]
Jews

Jews were often not identified as Polish nationals, a
problem caused not only by the reversal of assimilation shown in
national censuses between 1921 and 1931, but also by the influx of
Russian
Jews

Jews escaping persecution—especially in Ukraine, where up to
2,000 pogroms took place during the Civil War, an estimated 30,000
Jews

Jews were massacred directly, and a total of 150,000 died.[90][91] A
large number of Russian
Jews

Jews emigrated to Poland, as they were
entitled by the Peace treaty of Riga to choose the country they
preferred. Several hundred thousand refugees joined the already
numerous
Jewish

Jewish minority of the Polish Second Republic. The resulting
economic instability was mirrored by anti-
Jewish

Jewish sentiment in some of
the media; discrimination, exclusion, and violence at the
universities; and the appearance of "anti-
Jewish

Jewish squads" associated
with some of the right-wing political parties. These developments
contributed to a greater support among the
Jewish

Jewish community for
Zionist and socialist ideas,[92][93] coupled with attempts at further
migration, curtailed only by the British government. Notably, the
"campaign for
Jewish

Jewish emigration was predicated not on antisemitism but
on objective social and economic factors".[94] However, regardless of
these changing economic and social conditions, the increase in
antisemitic activity in prewar
Poland

Poland was also typical of antisemitism
found in other parts of
Europe
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe at that time, developing within a
broader, continent-wide pattern with counterparts in every other
European country.[95]
Matters improved for a time under the rule of Józef Piłsudski
(1926–1935), who opposed antisemitism. Piłsudski countered
Endecja's 'ethnic assimilation' with the 'state assimilation' policy:
citizens were judged by their loyalty to the state, not by their
nationality.[96] The years 1926–1935 were favourably viewed by many
Polish Jews, whose situation improved especially under the cabinet of
Pilsudski’s appointee Kazimierz Bartel.[97] However, a combination
of various factors, including the Great Depression,[96] meant that the
situation of
Jewish

Jewish
Poles

Poles was never very satisfactory, and it
deteriorated again after Piłsudski's death in May 1935, which many
Jews

Jews regarded as a tragedy.[98] The
Jewish

Jewish industries were negatively
affected by the development of mass production and the advent of
department stores offering ready-made products. The traditional
sources of livelihood for the estimated 300,000
Jewish

Jewish family-run
businesses in the country began to vanish, contributing to a growing
trend toward isolationism and internal self-sufficiency.[99] The
difficult situation in the private sector led to enrolment growth in
higher education. In 1923 the
Jewish

Jewish students constituted 62.9% of all
students of stomatology, 34% of medical sciences, 29.2% of philosophy,
24.9% of chemistry and 22.1% of law (26% by 1929) at all Polish
universities. It is speculated that such disproportionate numbers were
the probable cause of a backlash.[100]
The student's book of the
Jewish

Jewish student of medicine Marek Szapiro at
the
Warsaw

Warsaw University with "
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto benches" (odd-numbered seats) stamp
With the influence of the
Endecja

Endecja party growing, antisemitism gathered
new momentum in
Poland

Poland and was most felt in smaller towns and in
spheres in which
Jews

Jews came into direct contact with Poles, such as in
Polish schools or on the sports field. Further academic harassment,
such as the introduction of ghetto benches, which forced Jewish
students to sit in sections of the lecture halls reserved exclusively
for them, anti-
Jewish

Jewish riots, and semi-official or unofficial quotas
(Numerus clausus) introduced in 1937 in some universities, halved the
number of
Jews

Jews in Polish universities between independence (1918) and
the late 1930s. The restrictions were so inclusive that – while the
Jews

Jews made up 20.4% of the student body in 1928 – by 1937 their share
was down to only 7.5%,[101] out of the total population of 9.75% Jews
in the country according to 1931 census.[102]
Although many
Jews

Jews were educated, they were excluded from most of the
government bureaucracy.[103] A good number therefore turned to the
liberal professions, particularly medicine and law. In 1937 the
Catholic trade unions of Polish doctors and lawyers restricted their
new members to
Christian

Christian
Poles

Poles (in a similar manner the
Jewish

Jewish trade
unions excluded non-
Jewish

Jewish professionals from their ranks after
1918).[104] The bulk of
Jewish

Jewish workers were organized in the Jewish
trade unions under the influence of the
Jewish

Jewish socialists who split in
1923 to join the Communist Party of
Poland

Poland and the Second
International.[105][106]
Complex and long history shaped Polish attitudes towards the
Jews

Jews and
Jewish

Jewish attitudes towards the Poles, but the anti-
Jewish

Jewish sentiment in
Poland

Poland had reached its zenith in the years leading to the Second World
War.[107] Between 1935 and 1937 seventy-nine
Jews

Jews were killed and 500
injured in anti-
Jewish

Jewish incidents.[108] National policy was such that
the
Jews

Jews who largely worked at home and in small shops were excluded
from welfare benefits according to American commentators.[109]
Nevertheless, the impact of right-wing extremism would have been hard
to substantiate in towns with percentage of
Jews

Jews equal or even higher
than that of the non-
Jewish

Jewish Poles. In the provincial capital of Łuck
Jews

Jews constituted 48.5% of the diverse multicultural population of
35,550 Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians and others.[110]
Łuck

Łuck had the
largest
Jewish

Jewish community in the voivodeship.[111] In the capital of
Brześć
.jpg/500px-Brest_Montage_(2017).jpg)
Brześć in 1936
Jews

Jews constituted 41.3% of general population and some
80.3% of private enterprises were owned by Jews.[112][113] The 32% of
Jewish

Jewish inhabitants of
Radom

Radom enjoyed considerable prominence also,[114]
with 90% of small businesses in the city owned and operated by the
Jews

Jews including tinsmiths, locksmiths, jewellers, tailors, hat makers,
hairdressers, carpenters, house painters and wallpaper installers,
shoemakers, as well as most of the artisan bakers and clock
repairers.[115] In Lubartów, 53.6% of the town's population were
Jewish

Jewish also along with most of its economy.[116] In a town of Luboml,
3,807
Jews

Jews lived among its 4,169 inhabitants, constituting the essence
of its social and political life.[110]
Demonstration of Polish students demanding implementation of "ghetto
benches" at
Lwów

Lwów Polytechnic (1937).
The national boycott of
Jewish

Jewish businesses and advocacy for their
confiscation was promoted by the
Endecja

Endecja party, which introduced the
term "
Christian

Christian shop". A national movement to prevent the
Jews

Jews from
kosher slaughter of animals, with animal rights as the stated
motivation, was also organized.[117] Violence was also frequently
aimed at
Jewish

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
Poles

Poles and Polish
Jews

Jews alike
to the extent that by the end of the 1930s, a substantial portion of
Polish
Jews

Jews lived in grinding poverty.[118] As a result, on the eve of
the Second World War, the
Jewish

Jewish community in
Poland

Poland was large and
vibrant internally, yet (with the exception of a few professionals)
also substantially poorer and less integrated than the
Jews

Jews in most of
Western Europe.[citation needed]
The main strain of antisemitism in
Poland

Poland during this time was
motivated by Catholic religious beliefs and centuries-old myths such
as the blood libel. This religious-based antisemitism was sometimes
joined with an ultra-nationalistic stereotype of
Jews

Jews as disloyal to
the Polish nation.[119] On the eve of World War II, many typical
Polish Christians believed that there were far too many
Jews

Jews in the
country and the Polish government became increasingly concerned with
the "
Jewish

Jewish Question". Some politicians were in favor of mass Jewish
emigration from Poland.
By the time of the German invasion in 1939, antisemitism was
escalating, and hostility towards
Jews

Jews was a mainstay of the
right-wing political forces post-Piłsudski regime and also the
Catholic Church. Discrimination and violence against
Jews

Jews had rendered
the Polish
Jewish

Jewish population increasingly destitute, as was the case
throughout much of Central and Eastern Europe. Despite the impending
threat to the Polish Republic from Nazi Germany, there was little
effort seen in the way of reconciliation with Poland's Jewish
population. In July 1939 the pro-government Gazeta Polska wrote, "The
fact that our relations with the Reich are worsening does not in the
least deactivate our program in the
Jewish

Jewish question—there is not and
cannot be any common ground between our internal
Jewish

Jewish problem and
Poland's relations with the Hitlerite Reich."[120][121] Escalating
hostility towards Polish
Jews

Jews and an official Polish government desire
to remove
Jews

Jews from
Poland

Poland continued until the German invasion of
Poland.[122]
World War II

World War II and the destruction of Polish Jewry (1939–45)[edit]
Main article: History of
Poland

Poland (1939–45)
The Polish September campaign[edit]
Main article: Invasion of Poland
Graves of
Jewish

Jewish soldiers who died in Invasion of Poland, also known
as the September Campaign.
The number of
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland on September 1, 1939, amounted to about
3,474,000 people.[123] One hundred thirty thousand soldiers of Jewish
descent, including Boruch Steinberg, Chief
Rabbi

Rabbi of the Polish
Military, served in the Polish Army at the outbreak of the Second
World War,[124] thus being among the first to launch armed resistance
against Nazi Germany.[125] The Polish
Jewish

Jewish losses during the
September Campaign were 7,000 killed, 20,000 wounded, and 61,000 in
German captivity.[126] It is estimated that during the entirety of
World War II

World War II as many as 32,216 Polish-
Jewish

Jewish soldiers and officers
died and 61,000 were taken prisoner by the Germans; the majority did
not survive. The soldiers and non-commissioned officers who were
released ultimately found themselves in the Nazi ghettos and labor
camps and suffered the same fate as other
Jewish

Jewish civilians in the
ensuing
Holocaust

Holocaust in Poland. In 1939,
Jews

Jews constituted 30% of Warsaw's
population.[127] With the coming of the war,
Jewish

Jewish and Polish
citizens of
Warsaw

Warsaw jointly defended the city, putting their
differences aside.[127] Polish
Jews

Jews later served in almost all Polish
formations during the entire World War II, many were killed or wounded
and very many were decorated for their combat skills and exceptional
service.
Jews

Jews fought with the Polish Armed Forces in the West, in the
Soviet formed
Polish People's Army

Polish People's Army as well as in several underground
organizations and as part of Polish partisan units or
Jewish

Jewish partisan
formations.[128]
Territories annexed by the USSR (1939–41)[edit]
Main article: Territories of
Poland

Poland annexed by the Soviet Union
The
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union signed a Pact with
Nazi Germany
.jpg/440px-Westfaelischer_Friede_in_Muenster_(Gerard_Terborch_1648).jpg)
Nazi Germany on August 23, 1939
containing a protocol about partition of
Poland

Poland (generally known but
denied by the
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union for the next 50 years).[129] The German
army attacked
Poland

Poland on September 1, 1939. The
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union followed
suit by invading eastern
Poland

Poland on September 17, 1939. Within weeks,
61.2% of Polish
Jews

Jews found themselves under the German occupation,
while 38.8% were trapped in the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet
Union. Based on population migration from West to East during and
after the German invasion the percentage of
Jews

Jews under the
Soviet-occupation was substantially higher than that of the national
census.[130] In the weeks following the attack about 200,000–300,000
Polish
Jews

Jews fled to the eastern city of
Lwów

Lwów alone, not yet
occupied.[131]
The Soviet annexation was accompanied by the widespread arrests of
government officials, police, military personnel, border guards,
teachers, priests, judges etc., followed by the
NKVD
.svg/234px-NKVD_Emblem_(Gradient).svg.png)
NKVD prisoner
massacres and massive deportation of 320,000 Polish nationals to the
Soviet interior and the
Gulag

Gulag slave labor camps where, as a result of
the inhuman conditions, about half of them died before the end of
war.[132]
Jewish

Jewish refugees under the Soviet occupation had little knowledge about
what was going on under the Germans, since the Soviet media did not
report on their Nazi ally. Many people from Western
Poland

Poland registered
for repatriation back to the German zone, including wealthier Jews, as
well as some political and social activists from the interwar period.
Instead, they were labelled "class enemies" by the
NKVD
.svg/234px-NKVD_Emblem_(Gradient).svg.png)
NKVD and deported
to Siberia with the others.
Jews

Jews caught at border crossings, or
engaged in trade and other "illegal" activities were also arrested and
deported. Several thousand, mostly captured Polish soldiers, were
executed; some of them Jewish.[133]
All private property and – crucial to
Jewish

Jewish economic life –
private businesses were nationalized; political activity was
delegalized and thousands of people were jailed, many of whom were
later executed. Zionism, which was designated by the Soviets as
counter-revolutionary was also forbidden. In just one day all Polish
and
Jewish

Jewish media were shut down and replaced by the new Soviet
press,[133] which conducted political propaganda attacking religion
including the
Jewish

Jewish faith. Synagogues and churches were not yet
closed but heavily taxed. The Soviet ruble of little value was
immediately equalized to the much higher Polish zloty and by the end
of 1939, zloty was abolished.[134] Most economic activity became
subject to central planning and the
NKVD
.svg/234px-NKVD_Emblem_(Gradient).svg.png)
NKVD restrictions. Since the
Jewish

Jewish communities tended to rely more on commerce and small scale
businesses, the confiscations of property affected them to a greater
degree than the general populace. The Soviet rule resulted in near
collapse of the local economy, characterized by insufficient wages and
general shortage of goods and materials. The Jews, like other
inhabitants of the region, saw a fall in their living
standards.[130][134]
Under the Soviet policy, ethnic
Poles

Poles were dismissed and denied access
to positions in the civil service. Former senior officials and notable
members of the Polish community were arrested and exiled together with
their families.[135][136] At the same time the Soviet authorities
encouraged young
Jewish

Jewish communists to fill in the newly emptied
government and civil service jobs.[134][137]
Welcome banner in the eastern city of
Białystok

Białystok during the Soviet
invasion of Poland. In the background the Catholic Church of St. Roch
(Soviet archival photo)
While most eastern
Poles

Poles consolidated themselves around the
anti-Soviet sentiments,[138] a portion of the
Jewish

Jewish population, along
with the ethnic Belarusian and Ukrainian activists had welcomed
invading Soviet forces as their protectors.[139][140][141] The general
feeling among the Polish
Jews

Jews was a sense of temporary relief in
having escaped the Nazi occupation in the first weeks of
war.[142][143] The Polish poet and former communist
Aleksander Wat

Aleksander Wat has
stated that
Jews

Jews were more inclined to cooperate with the
Soviets.[144][145] Following Jan Karski's report written in 1940,
historian
Norman Davies

Norman Davies claimed that among the informers and
collaborators, the percentage of
Jews

Jews was striking; likewise, General
Władysław Sikorski

Władysław Sikorski estimated that 30% of them identified with the
communists whilst engaging in provocations; they prepared lists of
Polish "class enemies".[137][144] Other historians have indicated that
the level of
Jewish

Jewish collaboration could well have been less than
suggested.[146] Historian Martin Dean has written that "few local Jews
obtained positions of power under Soviet rule."[147]
The issue of
Jewish

Jewish collaboration with the Soviet occupation remains
controversial. Some scholars note that while not pro-Communist, many
Jews

Jews saw the Soviets as the lesser threat compared to the German
Nazis. They stress that stories of
Jews

Jews welcoming the Soviets on the
streets, vividly remembered by many
Poles

Poles from the eastern part of the
country are impressionistic and not reliable indicators of the level
of
Jewish

Jewish support for the Soviets. Additionally, it has been noted
that some ethnic
Poles

Poles were as prominent as
Jews

Jews in filling civil and
police positions in the occupation administration, and that Jews, both
civilians and in the Polish military, suffered equally at the hands of
the Soviet occupiers.[148] Whatever initial enthusiasm for the Soviet
occupation
Jews

Jews might have felt was soon dissipated upon feeling the
impact of the suppression of
Jewish

Jewish societal modes of life by the
occupiers.[149] The tensions between ethnic
Poles

Poles and
Jews

Jews as a result
of this period has, according to some historians, taken a toll on
relations between
Poles

Poles and
Jews

Jews throughout the war, creating until
this day, an impasse to Polish-
Jewish

Jewish rapprochement.[141]
Even though only a small percentage of the
Jewish

Jewish community had been
members of the Communist Party of
Poland

Poland during the interwar era, 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,
Łódź

Łódź and Lwów. A larger number of younger Jews, often through the
pro-Marxist Bund or some Zionist groups, were sympathetic to Communism
and Soviet Russia, both of which had been enemies of the Polish Second
Republic. As a result of these factors they found it easy after 1939
to participate in the Soviet occupation administration in Eastern
Poland, and briefly occupied prominent positions in industry, schools,
local government, police and other Soviet-installed institutions. The
concept of "Judeo-communism" was reinforced during the period of the
Soviet occupation (see Żydokomuna).[150][151]
Jewish

Jewish gravestone at Monte Cassino
There were also
Jews

Jews who demonstrated loyalty toward Poland, assisting
Poles

Poles during brutal Soviet occupation. Among the thousands of Polish
officers killed by the Soviet
NKVD
.svg/234px-NKVD_Emblem_(Gradient).svg.png)
NKVD in the
Katyń massacre

Katyń massacre there were
500–600 Jews. From 1939 to 1941 between 100,000 and 300,000 Polish
Jews

Jews were deported from Soviet-occupied Polish territory into the
Soviet Union. Some of them, especially Polish Communists (e.g. Jakub
Berman), moved voluntarily; however, most of them were forcibly
deported or imprisoned in a Gulag. Small numbers of Polish
Jews

Jews (about
6,000) were able to leave the
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union in 1942 with the
Władysław Anders

Władysław Anders army, among them the future Prime Minister of
Israel

Israel Menachem Begin. During the Polish army's II Corps' stay in the
British Mandate of Palestine, 67% (2,972) of the
Jewish

Jewish soldiers
deserted to settle in Palestine, and many joined the Irgun. General
Anders decided not to prosecute the deserters and emphasized that the
Jewish

Jewish soldiers who remained in the Force fought bravely.[152] The
Cemetery of Polish soldiers who died during the Battle of Monte
Cassino includes headstones bearing a Star of David.
The Holocaust: German-occupied Poland[edit]
Main articles:
The Holocaust

The Holocaust in occupied
Poland

Poland and Polish areas
annexed by Nazi Germany
Further information: Rescue of
Jews

Jews by
Poles

Poles during the Holocaust
Holocaust

Holocaust in German occupied Poland: the map
The Polish
Jewish

Jewish community suffered the most in the Holocaust. About
six million Polish citizens perished during the war,[153] half of them
(three million) Polish Jews—all but about 300,000 of the Jewish
population—who were killed at the German Nazi extermination camps of
Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibór, Chełmno or died of
starvation in ghettos.[154]
Poland

Poland was where the German Nazi program for the extermination of
Jews, the "Final Solution" was implemented, since this was where the
majority of Europe's
Jews

Jews lived at the time (excluding the Soviet
Union).[155]
In 1939 several hundred synagogues were blown up or burnt by the
Germans who sometimes forced the
Jews

Jews to do it themselves.[123] In
many cases Germans turned the synagogues into factories, places of
entertainment, swimming-pools or prisons.[123] By the end of the war,
almost all of the synagogues in
Poland

Poland had been destroyed.[156] rabbis
were ordered to dance and sing in public with their beards cut or
torn. Some rabbis were set on fire or hanged.[123]
Jewish

Jewish children in the Ghetto
Germans ordered registration of all
Jews

Jews and a word "Jude" was stamped
in their identity cards.[157] Numerous restrictions and prohibitions
targeting
Jews

Jews were introduced and brutally enforced.[158] For
example,
Jews

Jews were forbidden to walk on the sidewalks,[159] use public
transport, enter places of leisure, sports arenas, theaters, museums
and libraries.[160] On the street,
Jews

Jews had to lift their hat to
passing Germans.[161] By the end of 1941 all
Jews

Jews in German-occupied
Poland, except the children, had to wear an identifying badge with a
blue Star of David.[162][163] Rabbis were humiliated in "spectacles
organised by the German soldiers and police" who used their rifle
butts "to make these men dance in their praying shawls."[164] The
Germans "disappointed that
Poles

Poles refused to collaborate",[165] made
little attempts to set up a collaborationist government in
Poland,[166][167][168] nevertheless, German tabloids printed in Polish
routinely ran antisemitic articles that urged local people to adopt an
attitude of indifference towards the Jews.[169]
"The Mass Extermination of
Jews

Jews in German Occupied Poland", by the
Polish government-in-exile
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Poland_(1928-1980).svg.png)
Polish government-in-exile addressed to the wartime allies of the
then-United Nations, 1942
Following Operation Barbarossa, many
Jews

Jews in what was then Eastern
Poland

Poland fell victim to Nazi death squads called Einsatzgruppen, which
massacred Jews, especially in 1941. Some of these German-inspired
massacres were carried out with help from, or active participation of
Poles

Poles themselves: for example, the Jedwabne pogrom, in which between
300 (Institute of National Remembrance's Final Findings[170]) and
1,600
Jews

Jews (Jan T. Gross) were tortured and beaten to death by members
of the local population. The full extent of Polish participation in
the massacres of the Polish
Jewish

Jewish community remains a controversial
subject, in part due to
Jewish

Jewish leaders' refusal to allow the remains
of the
Jewish

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.[171] The reasons for these massacres are still debated, but
they included antisemitism, resentment over alleged cooperation with
the Soviet invaders in the Polish-Soviet War and during the 1939
invasion of the
Kresy

Kresy regions, greed for the possessions of the Jews,
and of course coercion by the Nazis to participate in such massacres.
Some
Jewish

Jewish historians have written of the negative attitudes of some
Poles

Poles towards persecuted
Jews

Jews during the Holocaust.[172] While members
of Catholic clergy risked their lives to assist Jews, their efforts
were sometimes made in the face of antisemitic attitudes from the
church hierarchy.[95][173] Anti-
Jewish

Jewish attitudes also existed in the
London-based Polish Government in Exile,[174] although on December 18,
1942 the President in exile
Władysław Raczkiewicz

Władysław Raczkiewicz wrote a dramatic
letter to Pope Pius XII, begging him for a public defense of both
murdered
Poles

Poles and Jews.[175] In spite of the introduction of death
penalty extending to the entire families of rescuers, the number of
Polish Righteous among the Nations

Polish Righteous among the Nations testifies to the fact that Poles
were willing to take risks in order to save Jews.[176]
Holocaust

Holocaust survivors' views of Polish behavior during the War span a
wide range, depending on their personal experiences. Some are very
negative, based on the view of
Christian

Christian
Poles

Poles as passive witnesses
who failed to act and aid the
Jews

Jews as they were being persecuted or
liquidated by the Nazis.[177] Poles, who were also victims of Nazi
crimes,[178] were often afraid for their own and their family's lives
and this fear prevented many of them from giving aid and assistance,
even if some of them felt sympathy for the Jews. Emanuel Ringelblum, a
Polish-
Jewish

Jewish historian of the
Warsaw

Warsaw Ghetto, wrote critically of the
indifferent and sometimes joyful responses in
Warsaw

Warsaw to the
destruction of Polish
Jews

Jews in the Ghetto.[179] However, despite that,
as another scholar (Gunnar S. Paulsson) in his work on the
Jews

Jews of
Warsaw

Warsaw has demonstrated, Polish citizens of
Warsaw

Warsaw managed to support
and hide the same percentage of
Jews

Jews as did the citizens of cities in
Western European countries.[15] Paulsson's research shows that at
least as far as
Warsaw

Warsaw is concerned, the number of
Poles

Poles aiding Jews
far outnumbered those who sold out their
Jewish

Jewish neighbors to the
Nazis. During the Nazi occupation of
Warsaw

Warsaw 70,000–90,000 Polish
gentiles aided Jews, while 3,000–4,000 were szmalcowniks, or
blackmailers who collaborated with the Nazis in persecuting the
Jews.[180]
Ghettos
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghettos and death camps[edit]
The German Nazis established six extermination camps throughout
occupied
Poland

Poland by 1942. All of these – at Chełmno (Kulmhof),
Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka,
Majdanek

Majdanek and
Auschwitz

Auschwitz (Oświęcim) –
were located near the rail network so that the victims could be easily
transported. The system of the camps was expanded over the course of
the German occupation of
Poland

Poland and their purposes were diversified;
some served as transit camps, some as forced labor camps and the
majority as death camps. While in the death camps, the victims were
usually killed shortly after arrival, in the other camps able-bodied
Jews

Jews were worked and beaten to death.[181] The operation of
concentration camps depended on Kapos, the collaborator-prisoners.
Some of them were
Jewish

Jewish themselves, and their prosecution after the
war created an ethical dilemma.[182]
Jewish

Jewish
Ghettos
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghettos in German occupied
Poland

Poland and Eastern Europe
Between October 1939 and July 1942 a system of ghettos was imposed for
the confinement of Jews. The
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto was the largest in all of
World War II, with 380,000 people crammed into an area of 1.3 square
miles (3.4 km2). The
Łódź

Łódź
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto was the second largest,
holding about 160,000 prisoners. Other large
Jewish

Jewish ghettos in leading
Polish cities included
Białystok

Białystok
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto in Białystok, Częstochowa
Ghetto,
Kielce

Kielce Ghetto,
Kraków

Kraków
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto in Kraków,
Lublin

Lublin Ghetto, Lwów
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto in present-day Lviv,
Stanisławów Ghetto

Stanisławów Ghetto also in present-day
Ukraine,
Brześć
.jpg/500px-Brest_Montage_(2017).jpg)
Brześć
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto in presend-day Belarus, and
Radom

Radom Ghetto
among others.
Ghettos
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghettos were also established in hundreds of smaller
settlements and villages around the country. The overcrowding, dirt,
lice, lethal epidemics such as typhoid and hunger all resulted in
countless deaths.
Further information:
Jewish

Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
Walling-off Świętokrzyska Street (seen from Marszałkowska Street on
the "Aryan side")
During the occupation of Poland, the Germans used various laws to
separate ethnic
Poles

Poles from
Jewish

Jewish ones. In the ghettos the population
was separated by putting the
Poles

Poles into the "Aryan Side" and the
Polish
Jews

Jews into the "
Jewish

Jewish Side". Any Pole found giving any help to
a
Jewish

Jewish Pole was subject to the death penalty.[183] Another law
implemented by the Germans was that
Poles

Poles were forbidden from buying
from
Jewish

Jewish shops, and if they did they were subject to
execution.[184] Many
Jews

Jews tried to escape from the ghettos in the hope
of finding a place to hide outside of it, or of joining the partisan
units. When this proved difficult escapees often returned to the
ghetto on their own. If caught, Germans would murder the escapees and
leave their bodies in plain view as a warning to others. Despite these
terror tactics, attempts at escape from ghettos continued until their
liquidation.[185]
NOTICE
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
.svg/250px-Flag_of_the_German_Reich_(1935–1945).svg.png)
General Government (page 595 of the GG Register)
Jews

Jews leaving the
Jewish

Jewish Quarter without permission will incur the death penalty.
....According to this decree, those knowingly helping these
Jews

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

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
Since the Nazi terror reigned throughout the Aryan districts, the
chances of remaining successfully hidden depended on a fluent
knowledge of the language and on having close ties with the community.
Many
Poles

Poles were not willing to hide
Jews

Jews who might have escaped the
ghettos or who might have been in hiding due to fear for their own
lives and that of their families.
While the German policy towards
Jews

Jews was ruthless and criminal, their
policy towards
Christian

Christian
Poles

Poles who helped
Jews

Jews was very much the same.
The Germans would often murder non-
Jewish

Jewish
Poles

Poles for small
misdemeanors. Execution for help rendered to Jews, even the most basic
kinds, was automatic. In any apartment block or area where
Jews

Jews were
found to be harboured, everybody in the house would be immediately
shot by the Germans. For this thousands of non-
Jewish

Jewish
Poles

Poles were
executed.[186]
Announcement of death penalty for
Jews

Jews captured outside the
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto and
for
Poles

Poles helping Jews, November 1941
Hiding in a
Christian

Christian society to which the
Jews

Jews were only partially
assimilated was a daunting task.[187] They needed to quickly acquire
not only a new identity, but a new body of knowledge.[187] Many Jews
spoke Polish with a distinguished
Yiddish

Yiddish or Hebrew accent, used a
different nonverbal language, different gestures and facial
expressions.
Jews

Jews with the specific physical characteristics were
particularly vulnerable.[187]
Some individuals blackmailed
Jews

Jews and non-
Jewish

Jewish
Poles

Poles hiding them,
and took advantage of their desperation by collecting money, or worse,
turning them over to the Germans for a reward. The
Gestapo

Gestapo provided a
standard prize to those who informed on
Jews

Jews hidden on the 'Aryan'
side, consisting of cash, liquor, sugar, and cigarettes.
Jews

Jews were
robbed and handed over to the Germans by "szmalcowniks" (the 'shmalts'
people: from shmalts or szmalec,
Yiddish

Yiddish and Polish for 'grease'). In
extreme cases, the
Jews

Jews informed on other
Jews

Jews to alleviate hunger
with the awarded prize.[188] The extortionists were condemned by the
Polish Underground State. The fight against informers was organized by
the
Armia Krajowa

Armia Krajowa (the Underground State's military arm), with the
death sentence being meted out on a scale unknown in the occupied
countries of Western Europe.[189]
Janusz Korczak's orphanage
The belief that the experienced suffering was preordained and that it
would result in the coming of the
Messiah

Messiah also existed among some
religious Jews.[190]
To discourage
Poles

Poles from giving shelter to Jews, the Germans often
searched houses and introduced ruthless penalties.
Poland

Poland was the only
occupied country during
World War II

World War II where the Nazis formally imposed
the death penalty for anybody found sheltering and helping
Jews.[191][192][193] The penalty applied not only to the person who
did the helping, but also extended to his or her family, neighbors and
sometimes to entire villages.[194] In this way Germans applied the
principle of collective responsibility whose purpose was to encourage
neighbors to inform on each other in order to avoid punishment. The
nature of these policies was widely known and visibly publicized by
the Nazis who sought to terrorize the Polish population.
Food rations for the
Poles

Poles were small (669 kcal per day in 1941)
compared to other occupied nations throughout
Europe
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe and black market
prices of necessary goods 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

Poland has the highest number of Righteous Among The
Nations awards at the
Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem Museum (6,339).[195]
The
Polish Government in Exile
.svg/250px-Flag_of_Poland_(1928-1980).svg.png)
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

Jews by the Nazis, through its courier
Jan Karski[196] and through the activities of Witold Pilecki, a member
of
Armia Krajowa

Armia Krajowa who was the only person to volunteer for imprisonment
in
Auschwitz

Auschwitz and who organized a resistance movement inside the camp
itself.[197] One of the
Jewish

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

Holocaust in Poland. The Polish government in exile was also the only
government to set up an organization (Żegota) specifically aimed at
helping the
Jews

Jews in Poland.
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto and its uprising[edit]
Main article:
Warsaw

Warsaw Ghetto
Further information:
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Uprising
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto fighters memorial in
Warsaw

Warsaw built in 1948 by sculptor Natan
Rappaport
Deportation to
Treblinka

Treblinka at the Umschlagplatz
The
Warsaw

Warsaw Ghetto[198] and its 1943 Uprising represents what is likely
the most known episode of the wartime history of the Polish Jews. The
ghetto was established by the German Governor-General
Hans Frank

Hans Frank on
October 16, 1940. Initially, almost 140,000
Jews

Jews were moved into the
ghetto from all parts of Warsaw. At the same time approximately
110,000
Poles

Poles had been forcibly evicted from the area. The Germans
selected
Adam Czerniakow

Adam Czerniakow to take charge of the
Jewish

Jewish Council called
Judenrat

Judenrat made up of 24
Jewish

Jewish men ordered to organize
Jewish

Jewish labor
battalions as well as
Jewish

Jewish
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Police which would be responsible
for maintaining order within the
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto walls.[199][200] A number of
Jewish

Jewish policemen were corrupt and immoral. Soon the Nazis demanded
even more from the
Judenrat

Judenrat and the demands were much more cruel.
Death was the punishment for the slightest indication of noncompliance
by the Judenrat. Sometimes the
Judenrat

Judenrat refused to collaborate in
which case its members were consequently executed and replaced by the
new group of people.
Adam Czerniakow

Adam Czerniakow who was the head of the Warsaw
Judenrat

Judenrat committed suicide [201] when he was forced to collect daily
lists of
Jews

Jews to be deported to
Treblinka extermination camp

Treblinka extermination camp at the
onset of Grossaktion Warsaw.
The population of the ghetto reached 380,000 people by the end of
1940, about 30% of the population of Warsaw. However, the size of the
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto was only about 2.4% of the size of the city. The Germans closed
off the
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto from the outside world, building a wall around it by
November 16, 1940. During the next year and a half,
Jews

Jews from smaller
cities and villages were brought into the
Warsaw

Warsaw Ghetto, while
diseases (especially typhoid) and starvation kept the inhabitants at
about the same number. Average food rations in 1941 for
Jews

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
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto inhabitants began.[202] During the next fifty-two days (until
September 12, 1942) about 300,000 people were transported by freight
train to the
Treblinka

Treblinka extermination camp. The
Jewish

Jewish
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Police
were ordered to escort the ghetto inhabitants to the Umschlagplatz
train station. They were spared from the deportations until September
1942 in return for their cooperation, but afterwards shared their fate
with families and relatives. On January 18, 1943, a group of Ghetto
militants led by the right leaning ŻZW, including some members of the
left leaning ŻOB rose up in a first
Warsaw

Warsaw uprising. Both
organizations resisted, with arms, German attempts for additional
deportations to
Auschwitz

Auschwitz and Treblinka.[203] The final destruction of
the
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto came four months later after the crushing of one of
the most heroic and tragic battles of the war, the 1943
Warsaw

Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising.
The cover page of The
Stroop Report

Stroop Report with International Military
Tribunal in Nuremberg markings.
When we invaded the
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto for the first time – wrote SS commander
Jürgen Stroop

Jürgen Stroop – the
Jews

Jews and the Polish bandits succeeded in
repelling the participating units, including tanks and armored cars,
by a well-prepared concentration of fire. (...) The main
Jewish

Jewish battle
group, mixed with Polish bandits, had already retired during the first
and second day to the so-called Muranowski Square. There, it was
reinforced by a considerable number of Polish bandits. Its plan was to
hold the
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto by every means in order to prevent us from invading
it. — Jürgen Stroop, Stroop Report, 1943.[204][205][206]
The Uprising was led by ŻOB (
Jewish

Jewish Combat Organization) and the
ŻZW.[203][207] The ŻZW (
Jewish

Jewish Military Union) was the better
supplied in arms.[203] The ŻOB had more than 750 fighters, but lacked
weapons: they had only 9 rifles, 59 pistols and several grenades.[190]
A developed network of bunkers and fortifications were formed. The
Jewish

Jewish fighters also received support from the Polish Underground
(Armia Krajowa). The German forces, which included 2,842 Nazi soldiers
and 7,000 security personnel, were not capable of crushing the Jewish
resistance in open street combat and after several days, decided to
switch strategy by setting buildings on fire in which the Jewish
fighters hid. The commander of the ŻOB,
Mordechai Anielewicz

Mordechai Anielewicz died
fighting on May 8, 1943 at the organization's command centre on 18
Mila Street.
34
Mordechaj Anielewicz

Mordechaj Anielewicz Street, Warsaw, Poland
It took the Germans twenty-seven days to put down the uprising, after
some very heavy fighting. The German general
Jürgen Stroop

Jürgen Stroop in his
report stated that his troops had killed 6,065
Jewish

Jewish fighters during
the battle. After the uprising was already over,
Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler had
the Great
Synagogue

Synagogue on Tłomackie Square (outside the ghetto)
destroyed as a celebration of German victory and a symbol that the
Jewish

Jewish
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto in
Warsaw

Warsaw was no longer.
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. Even after the end of the uprising there were
still several hundreds of
Jews

Jews who continued living in the ruined
ghetto. Many of them survived thanks to the contacts they managed to
establish with
Poles

Poles outside the ghetto. The Uprising inspired Jews
throughout Poland. Many
Jewish

Jewish leaders who survived the liquidation
continued underground work outside the ghetto. They hid other Jews,
forged necessary documents and were active in the Polish underground
in other parts of
Warsaw

Warsaw and surrounding area.
Freed prisoners of
Gęsiówka

Gęsiówka and the
Szare Szeregi

Szare Szeregi fighters after the
liberation of the camp in August 1944
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Uprising, was followed by other
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto uprisings in many
smaller towns and cities across German occupied Poland. Many
Jews

Jews were
found alive in the ruins of the former
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto during the 1944
general
Warsaw

Warsaw Uprising when the
Poles

Poles themselves rose up against the
Germans. Some of the survivors of 1943
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Uprising, still
held in camps at or near Warsaw, were freed during 1944 Warsaw
Uprising, led by the Polish resistance movement Armia Krajowa, and
immediately joined Polish fighters. Only a few of them survived. The
Polish commander of one
Jewish

Jewish unit, Waclaw Micuta, described them as
some of the best fighters, always at the front line. It is estimated
that over 2,000 Polish Jews, some as well known as
Marek Edelman

Marek Edelman or
Icchak Cukierman, and several dozen Greek,[208] Hungarian or even
German
Jews

Jews freed by
Armia Krajowa

Armia Krajowa from
Gesiowka

Gesiowka concentration camp in
Warsaw, men and women, took part in combat against Nazis during 1944
Warsaw

Warsaw Uprising. Some 166,000 people lost their lives in the 1944
Warsaw

Warsaw Uprising, including perhaps as many as 17,000 Polish
Jews

Jews who
had either fought with the AK or had been discovered in hiding (see:
Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński and Stanisław Aronson).
Warsaw

Warsaw was razed
to the ground by the Germans and more than 150,000
Poles

Poles were sent to
labor or concentration camps. On January 17, 1945, the Soviet Army
entered destroyed and nearly uninhabited Warsaw. Some 300
Jews

Jews were
found hiding in the ruins in the Polish part of the city (see:
Wladyslaw Szpilman).
The
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Uprising of 1943 saw the destruction of what
remained of the Ghetto
The fate of the
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto was similar to that of the other ghettos
in which
Jews

Jews were concentrated. With the decision of
Nazi Germany
.jpg/440px-Westfaelischer_Friede_in_Muenster_(Gerard_Terborch_1648).jpg)
Nazi Germany to
begin the Final Solution, the destruction of the
Jews

Jews of Europe,
Aktion Reinhard

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).[209] Many died from hunger, starvation,
disease, torture or by pseudo-medical experiments. The mass
deportation of
Jews

Jews from ghettos to these camps, such as happened at
the
Warsaw

Warsaw Ghetto, soon followed, and more than 1.7 million
Jews

Jews were
killed at the
Aktion Reinhard

Aktion Reinhard camps by October 1943 alone.
Białystok

Białystok
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto and uprising[edit]
Main article:
Białystok

Białystok Ghetto
Further information:
Białystok

Białystok
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Uprising
In August 1941, the Germans ordered the establishment of a ghetto in
Białystok. About 50,000
Jews

Jews from the city and the surrounding region
were confined in a small area of Białystok. The ghetto had two
sections, divided by the Biala River. Most
Jews

Jews in the Białystok
ghetto worked in forced-labor projects, primarily in large textile
factories located within the ghetto boundaries. The Germans also
sometimes used
Jews

Jews in forced-labor projects outside the ghetto.
In February 1943, approximately 10,000
Białystok

Białystok
Jews

Jews were deported
to the
Treblinka

Treblinka extermination camp. During the deportations, hundreds
of Jews, mainly those deemed too weak or sick to travel, were killed.
In August 1943, the Germans mounted an operation to destroy the
Białystok

Białystok ghetto. German forces and local police auxiliaries
surrounded the ghetto and began to round up
Jews

Jews systematically for
deportation to the
Treblinka

Treblinka extermination camp. Approximately 7,600
Jews

Jews were held in a central transit camp in the city before
deportation to Treblinka. Those deemed fit to work were sent to the
Majdanek

Majdanek camp. In Majdanek, after another screening for ability to
work, they were transported to the Poniatowa, Blizyn, or Auschwitz
camps. Those deemed too weak to work were murdered at Majdanek. More
than 1,000
Jewish

Jewish children were sent first to the Theresienstadt
ghetto in Bohemia, and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were
killed.
On August 15, 1943, the
Białystok

Białystok
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Uprising began, and several
hundred Polish
Jews

Jews and members of the Anti-Fascist Military
Organisation (Polish: Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa) started an
armed struggle against the German troops who were carrying out the
planned liquidation and deportation of the ghetto to the Treblinka
extermination camp.[210][211] The guerrillas were armed with only one
machine gun, several dozen pistols, Molotov cocktails and bottles
filled with acid. The fighting in isolated pockets of resistance
lasted for several days, but the defence was broken almost instantly.
As with the earlier
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Uprising of April 1943, the
Białystok

Białystok uprising had no chances for military success, but it was
the second largest ghetto uprising, after the
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Uprising.
Several dozen guerrillas managed to break through to the forests
surrounding
Białystok

Białystok where they joined the partisan units of Armia
Krajowa and other organisations and survived the war.
Communist rule: 1945–1989[edit]
Main article: History of
Poland

Poland (1945–1989)
Further information:
Polish anti-religious campaign (1945–1990) and
Anti-
Jewish

Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–46
Postwar period[edit]
The number of Polish
Jews

Jews who survived the
Holocaust

Holocaust is difficult to
ascertain. Following the Soviet annexation of over half of
Poland

Poland at
the onset of World War II, all Polish nationals including
Jews

Jews were
declared by Moscow to have become Soviet nationals regardless of
birth.[212] Also, all Polish
Jews

Jews who perished in the
Holocaust

Holocaust behind
the Curzon Line were included with the Soviet war dead.[213] For
decades to come, the Soviet authorities refused to accept the fact
that thousands of
Jews

Jews who remained in the USSR opted consciously and
unambiguously for Polish nationality.[214] At the end of 1944, the
number of Polish
Jews

Jews in the Soviet and the Soviet-controlled
territories has been estimated at 250,000–300,000 people.[215] Jews
who escaped to eastern
Poland

Poland from areas occupied by Germany in 1939
were numbering at around 198,000.[216] Over 150,000 of them were
repatriated or expelled back to new communist
Poland

Poland along with the
Jewish

Jewish men conscripted to the Red Army from
Kresy

Kresy in 1940–1941.[215]
Their families died in the Holocaust. Some of the soldiers married
women with the Soviet citizenship, others agreed to paper
marriages.[215] Those who survived the
Holocaust

Holocaust in
Poland

Poland included
Jews

Jews who were saved by the
Poles

Poles (most families with children), and
those who joined the Polish or Soviet resistance movement. Some
20,000–40,000
Jews

Jews were repatriated from Germany and other
countries. At its postwar peak, up to 240,000 returning
Jews

Jews might
have resided in
Poland

Poland mostly in Warsaw, Łódź, Kraków, Wrocław
and Lower Silesia, e.g.,
Dzierżoniów

Dzierżoniów (where there was a significant
Jewish

Jewish community initially consisting of local concentration camp
survivors), Legnica, and Bielawa.[217]
The character of
Poland

Poland had changed however. In spite of the major
Polish contribution to World War II,
Poland

Poland was placed under direct
Soviet control due to British and US dependence on the Soviet military
commitment to the defeat of
Hitler

Hitler and Franklin D. Roosevelt's
unwillingness to confront Stalin over his future plans for Poland.
Soviet style
Communism

Communism was established and the borders of
Poland

Poland were
moved west. The
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union annexed the eastern regions, which had
many ethnic minorities including
Jewish

Jewish shtetl communities.
Jewish

Jewish survivors found it practically impossible to reconstruct their
earlier lives as they were before in pre-war Poland.[218] Jewish
communities and
Jewish

Jewish life as it had existed was gone. Those
Jews

Jews who
somehow survived the
Holocaust

Holocaust and returned to their town or villages
often discovered that their homes had been looted or destroyed. Some
homes had new repatriated inhabitants who at times were very unhappy
to see returning
Jewish

Jewish survivors.
Aliyah

Aliyah Bet[edit]
Jewish

Jewish
Holocaust

Holocaust survivors awaiting departure for the British Mandate
of Palestine
For a variety of reasons, vast majority of returning
Jewish

Jewish survivors
left
Poland

Poland soon after the war ended.[219] Many left for the West
because they did not want to live under a Communist regime. Some left
because they did not want to live where their family members had been
murdered, and instead have arranged to live with relatives or friends
in different western democracies. Others wanted to go to British
Mandate of Palestine soon to be the new state of Israel, especially
after Gen. Spychalski signed a decree allowing
Jews

Jews to leave Poland
without visas or exit permits.[24]
Amidst the raging civil war in postwar Poland,[220] anti-
Jewish

Jewish riots
broke out in several cities. Hundreds of
Jews

Jews were murdered in
anti-communist violence (see: Anti-
Jewish

Jewish violence in Poland,
1944–46).[221] The best-known case is the
Kielce pogrom

Kielce pogrom of
1946,[222] in which thirty-seven
Jews

Jews and two
Poles

Poles were murdered. The
Communist government's response to the
Kielce

Kielce atrocity was rapid.[223]
Special

Special investigators were dispatched and military tribunals
formed.[223] Activities of the local authorities were
investigated.[223] However, only the local commander of Milicja
Obywatelska was found guilty of inaction.[223] Nine alleged
participants of the pogrom were sentenced to death on trumped up
charges; three were given lengthy prison sentences.[223] The debate in
Poland

Poland continues about the involvement of regular troops in the
killings, at the exact time of the Soviet takeover.[224]
Between 1945 and 1948, 100,000–120,000
Jews

Jews left Poland. Their
departure was largely organized by the Zionist activists including
Adolf Berman

Adolf Berman and Icchak Cukierman, under the umbrella of a
semi-clandestine
Berihah

Berihah ("Flight") organization.[225]
Berihah

Berihah was
also responsible for the organized
Aliyah

Aliyah emigration of
Jews

Jews from
Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Poland, totaling
250,000 survivors. In 1947, a military training camp for young Jewish
volunteers to
Hagana

Hagana was established in Bolków, Poland. The camp
trained 7,000 soldiers who then traveled to Palestine to fight for
Israel. The boot-camp existed until the end of 1948.[226]
A second wave of
Jewish

Jewish emigration (50,000) took place during the
liberalization of the Communist regime between 1957 and 1959. After
1967's Six-Day War, in which the
Soviet Union
.jpg/460px-Soviet_Union-1964-stamp-Chapayev_(film).jpg)
Soviet Union supported the
Arab

Arab side,
the Polish communist party adopted an anti-
Jewish

Jewish course of action
which in the years 1968–1969 provoked the last mass migration of
Jews

Jews from Poland.[219]
The Bund took part in the post-war elections of 1947 on a common
ticket with the (non-communist) Polish
Socialist

Socialist Party (PPS) and
gained its first and only parliamentary seat in its Polish history,
plus several seats in municipal councils. Under pressure from
Soviet-installed communist authorities, the Bund's leaders
'voluntarily' disbanded the party in 1948–1949 against the
opposition of many activists. Stalinist
Poland

Poland was basically governed
by the Soviet
NKVD
.svg/234px-NKVD_Emblem_(Gradient).svg.png)
NKVD which was against the renewal of
Jewish

Jewish religious
and cultural life. In the years 1948–49, all remaining Jewish
schools were nationalized by the communists and
Yiddish

Yiddish was replaced
with Polish as a language of teaching.
For those Polish
Jews

Jews who remained, the rebuilding of
Jewish

Jewish life in
Poland

Poland was carried out between October 1944 and 1950 by the Central
Committee of Polish
Jews

Jews (Centralny Komitet Żydów Polskich, CKŻP)
which provided legal, educational, social care, cultural, and
propaganda services. A countrywide
Jewish

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.
Eleven independent political
Jewish

Jewish parties, of which eight were
legal, existed until their dissolution during 1949–50. Hospitals and
schools were opened in
Poland

Poland by the American
Jewish

Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee and ORT to provide service to Jewish
communities.[227] Some
Jewish

Jewish cultural institutions were established
including the
Yiddish

Yiddish State Theater founded in 1950 and directed by
Ida Kaminska, the
Jewish

Jewish Historical Institute, an academic institution
specializing in the research of the history and culture of the
Jews

Jews in
Poland, and the
Yiddish

Yiddish newspaper Folks-Shtime ("People's Voice").
Following liberalization after Joseph Stalin's death, in this
1958–59 period, 50,000
Jews

Jews emigrated to Israel.[7]
Some Polish Communists of
Jewish

Jewish descent actively participated in the
establishment of the communist regime in the People's Republic of
Poland

Poland between 1944 and 1956. Hand-picked by Joseph Stalin, prominent
Jews

Jews held posts in the
Politburo

Politburo of the Polish United Worker's Party
including Jakub Berman, head of state security apparatus Urząd
Bezpieczeństwa (UB),[228] and
Hilary Minc

Hilary Minc responsible for
establishing a Communist-style economy. Together with hardliner
Bolesław Bierut, Berman and Minc formed a triumvirate of the
Stalinist leaders in postwar Poland.[228] After 1956, during the
process of destalinisation in the People's Republic under Władysław
Gomułka, some
Jewish

Jewish officials from
Urząd Bezpieczeństwa

Urząd Bezpieczeństwa including
Roman Romkowski, Jacek Różański, and Anatol Fejgin, were prosecuted
and sentenced to prison terms for "power abuses" including the torture
of Polish anti-fascists including
Witold Pilecki

Witold Pilecki among others. Yet
another
Jewish

Jewish official, Józef Światło, after escaping to the West
in 1953, exposed through
Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe the interrogation methods
used the UB which led to its restructuring in 1954.
Solomon Morel a
member of the Ministry of Public Security of
Poland

Poland and commandant of
the Stalinist era Zgoda labour camp, fled
Poland

Poland for
Israel

Israel to escape
prosecution. Helena Wolińska-Brus, a former Stalinist prosecutor who
emigrated to England in the late 1960s, fought being extradited to
Poland

Poland on charges related to the execution of a Second World War
resistance hero Emil Fieldorf. Wolińska-Brus died in London in
2008.[229]
1967–1989[edit]
In 1967, following the
Six-Day War

Six-Day War between
Israel

Israel and the
Arab

Arab states,
Poland's Communist government, following the Soviet lead, broke off
diplomatic relations with
Israel

Israel and launched an antisemitic campaign
under the guise of "anti-Zionism". However, the campaign did not
resonate well with the Polish public, as most
Poles

Poles saw similarities
between Israel's fight for survival and Poland's past struggles for
independence. Many
Poles

Poles also felt pride in the success of the Israeli
military, which was dominated by Polish Jews. The slogan "our Jews
beat the Soviet Arabs" (Nasi Żydzi pobili sowieckich Arabów) became
popular in Poland.[230][231]
The vast majority of the 40,000
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland by the late 1960s were
completely assimilated into the broader society.[citation needed]
However, this did not prevent them from becoming victims of a
campaign, centrally organized by the Polish Communist Party, with
Soviet backing, which equated
Jewish

Jewish origins with "Zionism" and
disloyalty to a
Socialist

Socialist Poland.[citation needed]
In March 1968 student-led demonstrations in
Warsaw

Warsaw (see Polish 1968
political crisis) gave Gomułka's government an excuse to try and
channel public anti-government sentiment into another avenue. Thus his
security chief, Mieczysław Moczar, used the situation as a pretext to
launch an antisemitic press campaign (although the expression
"Zionist" was officially used). The state-sponsored "anti-Zionist"
campaign resulted in the removal of
Jews

Jews from the Polish United
Worker's Party and from teaching positions in schools and
universities. In 1967–1971 under economic, political and secret
police pressure, over 14,000 Polish
Jews

Jews were forced to leave Poland
and relinquish their Polish citizenship.[232] Officially, they were
expelled to Israel. However, only about 4,000 actually went there;
most settled throughout
Europe
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe and in the United States. The leaders
of the Communist party tried to stifle the ongoing protests and unrest
by scapegoating the Jews. At the same time there was an ongoing power
struggle within the party itself and the antisemitic campaign was used
by one faction against another. The so-called "Partisan" faction
blamed the
Jews

Jews who had held office during the Stalinist period for
the excesses that had occurred, but the end result was that most of
the remaining Polish Jews, regardless of their background or political
affiliation, were targeted by the communist authorities.[233]
There were several outcomes of the March 1968 events. The campaign
damaged Poland's reputation abroad, particularly in the U.S. Many
Polish intellectuals, however, were disgusted at the promotion of
official antisemitism and opposed the campaign. Some of the people who
emigrated to the West at this time founded organizations which
encouraged anti-Communist opposition inside Poland.
First attempts to improve Polish-Israeli relations began in the
mid-1970s.
Poland

Poland was the first of the
Eastern Bloc

Eastern Bloc countries to
restore diplomatic relations with
Israel

Israel after these have been broken
off right after the Six-Day's War.[7] In 1986 partial diplomatic
relations with
Israel

Israel were restored,[7] and full relations were
restored in 1990 as soon as communism fell.
During the late 1970s some
Jewish

Jewish activists were engaged in the
anti-Communist opposition groups. Most prominent among them, Adam
Michnik (founder of Gazeta Wyborcza) was one of the founders of the
Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). By the time of the fall of Communism
in
Poland

Poland in 1989, only 5,000–10,000
Jews

Jews remained in the country,
many of them preferring to conceal their
Jewish

Jewish origin.
Since 1989[edit]
Main article: History of
Poland

Poland (1989–present)
Further information:
Jewish

Jewish Polish history (1989–present)
With the fall of communism in Poland,
Jewish

Jewish cultural, social, and
religious life has been undergoing a revival. Many historical issues,
especially related to
World War II

World War II and the 1944–89 period,
suppressed by Communist censorship, have been re-evaluated and
publicly discussed (like the Jedwabne pogrom, the Koniuchy massacre,
the
Kielce

Kielce pogrom, the
Auschwitz

Auschwitz cross, and Polish-
Jewish

Jewish wartime
relations in general).
Chief
Rabbi

Rabbi of
Poland

Poland – Michael Schudrich
In a 2005 survey commissioned by
Anti-Defamation League

Anti-Defamation League from New York
in 12 European countries, asking about selective stereotypes among 500
callers each, Polish respondents averaged 52% at question #1, 43% at
#2, 43% at #3, 52% at #4 and 39% at #5 (the highest) asked if "The
Jews

Jews are responsible for the death of Christ", with the lowest
percentage of believers that Israeli actions were responsible for
violence against European
Jews

Jews (21% at question #7) among all of the
12 countries surveyed.[234] According to a Polish survey conducted in
2005,[235] by
CBOS institute (target of critical evaluations
themselves by the media),[236] in which
Poles

Poles were asked to assess
their attitudes toward 32 nationalities representing different
European and non-European countries, 45% claimed to feel antipathy
towards
Jews

Jews (steadily decreasing) with 18% to feel sympathy
(fluctuating by up to 10 percentage points annually; in 1997 it was
28%), while 29% felt impartial and 8% were undecided. Those surveyed
were asked to express their feeling on the scale from −3 (strong
antipathy) to +3 (strong sympathy). The average score for attitude
towards
Jews

Jews was −0.67 in that year. In the
CBOS survey from
2010,[237] antipathy decreased to 27%, and sympathy rose to 31% (down
from 34% in 2008). The average score for attitude was +0.05 at that
time.[235]
The Chief
Rabbi

Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, said in a
BBC

BBC interview:
"it's ... false and painful stereotype that all
Poles

Poles are antisemitic.
This is something I want to clearly state: this is a false stereotype.
Today there is antisemitism in Poland, as unfortunately the rest of
Europe; it is more or less at the same level as the rest of Europe.
More important is that you have a growing number of
Poles

Poles who oppose
antisemitism."[238]
Lesko Synagogue, Poland
Reform Beit Warszawa Synagogue
Poland

Poland has many legal provisions to combat antisemitism, neo-fascism,
and extremism and has ratified all the major international conventions
pertaining to human rights protection and anti-discrimination.
Jewish

Jewish religious life has been revived with the help of the Ronald
Lauder Foundation and the Taube Foundation for
Jewish

Jewish Life &
Culture. There are two rabbis serving the Polish
Jewish

Jewish community,
several
Jewish

Jewish schools and associated summer camps as well as several
periodical and book series sponsored by the above foundations. Jewish
studies programs are offered at major universities, such as Warsaw
University and the Jagiellonian University. The Union of Jewish
Religious Communities in
Poland

Poland was founded in 1993. Its purpose is
the promotion and organization of
Jewish

Jewish religious and cultural
activities in Polish communities.
A large number of cities with synagogues include Warsaw, Kraków,
Zamość, Tykocin, Rzeszów, Kielce, or
Góra Kalwaria

Góra Kalwaria although not
many of them are still active in their original religious role. Stara
Synagoga ("Old Synagogue") in Kraków, which hosts a
Jewish

Jewish museum,
was built in the early 15th century and is the oldest synagogue in
Poland. Before the war, the
Yeshiva

Yeshiva Chachmei in
Lublin

Lublin was Europe's
largest. In 2007 it was renovated, dedicated and reopened thanks to
the efforts and endowments by Polish Jewry.
Warsaw

Warsaw has an active
synagogue, Beit Warszawa, affiliated with the Liberal-Progressive
stream of Judaism.
There are also several
Jewish

Jewish publications although most of them are
in Polish. These include Midrasz, Dos Jidische Wort (which is
bilingual), as well as a youth journal Jidele and "Sztendlach" for
young children. Active institutions include the
Jewish

Jewish Historical
Institute, the E.R. Kaminska State
Yiddish

Yiddish Theater in Warsaw, and the
Jewish

Jewish Cultural Center. The Judaica Foundation in
Kraków

Kraków has
sponsored a wide range of cultural and educational programs on Jewish
themes for a predominantly Polish audience. With funds from the city
of
Warsaw

Warsaw and the Polish government ($26 million total) a Museum of
the History of Polish
Jews

Jews is being built in Warsaw. The building was
designed by the Finnish architect Rainer Mahlamäki.[227]
2005 March of the Living
Former extermination camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau,
Majdanek

Majdanek and
Treblinka

Treblinka are open to visitors. At
Auschwitz

Auschwitz the
Oświęcim
_AL01.JPG/500px-Oświęcim_-_Rynek_Główny_8_(po_prawej_stronie_zdjęcia)_AL01.JPG)
Oświęcim State
Museum currently houses exhibitions on
Nazi crimes
.jpg/440px-Public_execution_of_54_Poles_in_Rożki_(1942).jpg)
Nazi crimes with a special
section (Block Number 27) specifically focused on
Jewish

Jewish victims and
martyrs. At
Treblinka

Treblinka there is a monument built out of many shards of
broken stone, as well as a mausoluem dedicated to those who perished
there. A small mound of human ashes commemorates the 350,000 victims
of the
Majdanek

Majdanek camp who were killed there by the Nazis. In Łódz
there is the largest
Jewish

Jewish burial ground in Europe, and preserved
historic sites include those located in
Góra Kalwaria

Góra Kalwaria and
Leżajsk.[239]
The Great
Synagogue

Synagogue in
Oświęcim
_AL01.JPG/500px-Oświęcim_-_Rynek_Główny_8_(po_prawej_stronie_zdjęcia)_AL01.JPG)
Oświęcim was excavated after testimony by a
Holocaust

Holocaust survivor suggested that many
Jewish

Jewish relics and ritual
objects had been buried there, just before Nazis took over the town.
Candelabras, chandeliers, a menorah and a ner tamid were found and can
now be seen at the
Auschwitz

Auschwitz
Jewish

Jewish Center.[239]
The
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Memorial was unveiled on April 19, 1948—the fifth
anniversary of the outbreak of the
Warsaw

Warsaw ghetto Uprising. It was
constructed out of bronze and granite that the Nazis used for a
monument honoring German victory over
Poland

Poland and it was designed by
Natan Rappaport. The Memorial is located where the
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto used
to be, at the site of one command bunker of the
Jewish

Jewish Combat
Organization.
A memorial to the victims of the
Kielce

Kielce
Pogrom

Pogrom of 1946, where a mob
murdered more than 40
Jews

Jews who returned to the city after the
Holocaust, was unveiled in 2006. The funds for the memorial came from
the city itself and from the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of
America's Heritage Abroad.
In modern Poland, interest in learning about and preserving the
artifacts of
Jewish culture

Jewish culture is quite strong, especially among the
younger generations.[citation needed] Many works devoted to the
Holocaust

Holocaust have been published. Notable among them are the Polish
Academy of Sciences's journal Zaglada (first issue, 2005) as well as
other publications from the Institute of National Remembrance.
President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, at the
groundbreaking ceremony for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews,
26 June 2007
There have been a number of
Holocaust

Holocaust remembrance activities in Poland
in recent years. The
United States

United States Department of State documents that:
In September 2000, dignitaries from Poland, Israel, the United States,
and other countries (including Prince Hassan of Jordan) gathered in
the city of
Oświęcim
_AL01.JPG/500px-Oświęcim_-_Rynek_Główny_8_(po_prawej_stronie_zdjęcia)_AL01.JPG)
Oświęcim (Auschwitz) to commemorate the opening of the
refurbished
Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot synagogue

Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot synagogue and the
Auschwitz

Auschwitz Jewish
Center. The synagogue, the sole synagogue in
Oświęcim
_AL01.JPG/500px-Oświęcim_-_Rynek_Główny_8_(po_prawej_stronie_zdjęcia)_AL01.JPG)
Oświęcim to survive
World War II

World War II and an adjacent
Jewish

Jewish cultural and educational center,
provide visitors a place to pray and to learn about the active
pre–
World War II

World War II
Jewish

Jewish community that existed in Oświęcim. The
synagogue was the first communal property in the country to be
returned to the
Jewish

Jewish community under the 1997 law allowing for
restitution of
Jewish

Jewish communal property.[240]
The
March of the Living

March of the Living is an event held each year in April to
commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. It takes place from
Auschwitz

Auschwitz to Birkenau and is attended by many people from Israel,
Poland

Poland and other countries. The marchers honor
Holocaust

Holocaust Remembrance
Day as well as
Israel

Israel Independence Day.
"Shalom in Szeroka Street", the final concert of the 15th Jewish
Festival
An annual festival of
Jewish

Jewish culture, which is one of the biggest
festivals of
Jewish culture

Jewish culture in the world, takes place in Kraków.[241]
In 2006, Poland's
Jewish

Jewish population was estimated to be approximately
20,000;[28] most living in Warsaw, Wrocław, Kraków, and
Bielsko-Biała, though there are no census figures that would give an
exact number. According to the Polish
Moses Schorr

Moses Schorr Centre and other
Polish sources, however, this may represent an undercount of the
actual number of
Jews

Jews living in Poland, since many are not
religious.[242] The Centre estimates that there are approximately
100,000
Jews

Jews in Poland, of which 30,000 to 40,000 have some sort of
direct connection to the
Jewish

Jewish community, either religiously or
culturally.[citation needed] There are also people with
Jewish

Jewish roots
who do not possess adequate documentation to confirm it, due to
various historical and family complications.[242] A special program of
introduction to
Judaism

Judaism is offered to them by a progressive Jewish
Community Beit Kraków.[242][243]
Poland

Poland is currently easing the way for
Jews

Jews who left
Poland

Poland during the
Communist organized massive expulsion of 1968 to re-obtain their
citizenship.[244] Some 15,000 Polish
Jews

Jews were deprived of their
citizenship in the 1968 Polish political crisis.[245] On June 17, 2009
the future
Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Museum of the History of Polish Jews in
Warsaw

Warsaw launched a
bilingual Polish-English website called "The Virtual Shtetl",[246]
providing information about
Jewish

Jewish life in Poland.
According to an ADL report released in 2012, based on telephone survey
of 500 adults in
Poland

Poland (out of the total number of 5,000 adults
polled by Ipsos-Reid in 10 European countries), 54% of
Poles

Poles continue
to believe in some anti-Semitic stereotypes. The percentage is down
from similar survey conducted in 2009. For instance, with regard to a
question of whether "
Jews

Jews have too much power in the business world",
Poles

Poles surveyed ranked the third-highest after
Hungary

Hungary (73%) and Spain
(60%). On another question regarding loyalty of their
Jewish

Jewish citizens,
the surveyed
Poles

Poles answered at par with Italians at 61% (overall, more
than half of all European respondents gave the same answer).[247]
Later research conducted in
Poland

Poland and published in 2013 revealed that
more than 64.4% of the population agree with phrases that express
belief in
Jewish

Jewish conspiracy (
Jews

Jews would like to control the
international financial institution;
Jews

Jews often meet in hiding to
discuss their plans; etc.) Moreover, the survey found that people who
believed that
Jews

Jews are a collectively intentional group that aims at
dominating the world were the ones who would most strongly oppose
Jewish

Jewish rights to buy land, to open businesses, or to regain their lost
properties. People who hold such beliefs are also unwilling to vote
for a political candidate with
Jewish

Jewish origins or to accept a
Jew

Jew in
their closest environment.[248] The study's results were presented to
the Polish
Sejm

Sejm (parliament) in January 2014 and were well received by
most of its members.[249] Towards the end of 2014, a study conducted
by
Warsaw

Warsaw University Center for Research on Prejudice found out that
more than half of Polish youth visit anti-Semitic websites that
glorify
Hitler

Hitler and the Nazi era. It was also found that some Polish
participants agreed with antisemitic phrases. The study's results were
presented to the Polish parliament.[250]
In July 2013, following animal rights activist campaigns and the
European Council

European Council directive of September 24, 2009, the Polish
government passed an animal protection law that had the effect of
banning kosher slaughter. This was condemned by
Jewish

Jewish groups in
Poland

Poland and around the world.[251][252][253]
Poland

Poland is the second
member state of the
European Union

European Union to pass a relevant bill, after
Sweden. In the parliamentary vote, although 178 members voted for
re-legalizing ritual slaughter, 222 members opposed it.[254] The new
law is causing concerns for some Polish meat processing plants.[254]
The
Shechita

Shechita ritual requires cutting the throat of an animal without
stunning it first. According to FAWC it can take up to two minutes for
cattle to bleed to death.[255]
A research published by
Pew Research Center

Pew Research Center in June 2015 revealed that
out of six European countries researched,
Poland

Poland has the most
unfavorable opinion of Jews. While 78% of Europeans have a favorable
opinion of Jews, only 59% of the participants in
Poland

Poland have positive
feelings for
Jewish

Jewish people, and 28% hold unfavorable opinion.
According to the authors, these outcomes shows no significance change
from previous studies.[256]
Numbers of
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland since 1920[edit]
Historical core
Jewish

Jewish population (using current borders) with
Jews

Jews as
a % of the total Polish population
(Source:
YIVO

YIVO Encyclopedia & the North American
Jewish

Jewish Data Bank)
Year
1921
1939
1945
1946
1951
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Population
2,845,000.3
(+14.2%)
3,250,000[257][258]
(100%)
9.14% of the total
100,000
(−96.9%)
0.43%
230,000
(+130.0%)
0.97%
70,000
(−69.6%)
0.28%
31,000
(−55.7%)
0.10%
9,000
(−71.0%)
0.03%
5,000
(−44.4%)
0.01%
3,800
(−24.0%)
0.01%
3,500
(−7.9%)
0.01%
3,200[258]
(−8.6%)
0.01%
However, most sources other than
YIVO

YIVO give a larger number of Jews
living in contemporary Poland. In the 2011 Polish census, 7,353 Polish
citizens declared their nationality as "Jewish," a big increase from
just 1,055 during the previous 2002 census.[259] There are likely more
people of
Jewish

Jewish ancestry living in
Poland

Poland but who do not actively
identify as Jewish. According to the
Moses Schorr

Moses Schorr Centre, there are
100,000
Jews

Jews living in
Poland

Poland who don't actively practice
Judaism

Judaism and
do not list "Jewish" as their nationality.[260] The
Jewish Renewal

Jewish Renewal in
Poland

Poland organization estimates that there are 200,000 "potential Jews"
in Poland.[261] The American
Jewish

Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and
Jewish

Jewish Agency for
Israel

Israel estimate that there are between 25,000 and
100,000
Jews

Jews living in Poland,[262] a similar number to that estimated
by Jonathan Ornstein, head of the
Jewish

Jewish Community Center in Kraków
(between 20,000 and 100,000).[263]
See also[edit]
History of Poland
History of the
Jews

Jews in Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Israel–
Poland

Poland relations
Jewish

Jewish ethnic divisions
Jewish

Jewish history
Jewish

Jewish Roots in Poland
Lauder – Morasha School
List of Polish Jews
Three Hares
Timeline of
Jewish

Jewish Polish history
Notes[edit]
^ http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/PL
^ Article on Ynet news site, Hebrew (Google translate: "Polish
passport" by Naama Sickoler).
^ "Jews, by Country of Origin and Age". Statistical Abstract of Israel
(in English and Hebrew).
Israel

Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 26
September 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
^ Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, From
Counter-Reformation

Counter-Reformation to Glorious
Revolution, University of Chicago Press 1992, page 51. Quote: "Poland,
at that time, was the most tolerant country in Europe." Also in
Britain and the Netherlands by S. Groenveld, Michael J. Wintle; and in
The exchange of ideas (Walburg Instituut, 1994).
^ a b George Sanford, Historical Dictionary of
Poland

Poland (2nd ed.)
Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, 2003. p. 79.
^ a b European
Jewish

Jewish Congress – Poland
^ a b c d e The Virtual
Jewish

Jewish History Tour – Poland.
Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved on 2010-08-22.
^ In accordance with its tradition of religious tolerance, Poland
refrained from participating in the excesses of the Reformation and
Counter-Reformation

Counter-Reformation "Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends" by
Lonnie R. Johnson
Oxford University Press

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

Jewish life and
culture, as well as Jewish-
Christian

Christian relations during that period: M.
Rosman Lords' Jews: Magnate-
Jewish

Jewish Relations in the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth during the Eighteenth Century (Harvard University Press,
new ed. 1993), G. Hundert The
Jews

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

Jewish Law and Life in Poland,
1550–1655 (HUC Press, 1996), and M. Teter
Jews

Jews 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. 68, No. 2 (Jun., 1996), 351–381.
^ "The Hidden
Jews

Jews of Poland". Shavei Israel. 2015-11-22. Retrieved
2018-02-20.
^ Shoa Resource Center: Estimated Casualties During World War II.
Internet Archive
^ Paulsson, Gunnar S (2002). Secret City: The Hidden
Jews

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 anti-Semitism in
Poland

Poland than in many other countries,
there was also less collaboration.... The Nazis generally preferred
not to count on outbursts of 'emotional anti-Semitism', when what was
needed to realize their plans was 'rational antisemitism', as Hitler
himself put it. For that, they neither received or requested
significant help from the Poles.
^ a b Unveiling the Secret City H-Net Review: John Radzilowski
^ Richard C. Lukas Out of the inferno:
Poles

Poles remember the Holocaust
University Press of Kentucky, 1989 ISBN 0-8131-1692-9, p. 13
^ Anna Poray, Polish Righteous, Those Who Risked Their Lives, 2008
^ "I know this Jew!" Blackmailing of the
Jews

Jews in
Warsaw

Warsaw 1939–1945.
Archived 2007-10-07 at the Wayback Machine. Polish Center for
Holocaust

Holocaust Research
^ Yad Vashem,
The Holocaust

The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance
Authority, Righteous Among the Nations – per Country & Ethnic
Origin January 1, 2009. Statistics
^ a b Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno:
Poles

Poles Remember the
Holocaust

Holocaust University Press of Kentucky 1989 – 201 pages. Page 13;
also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The
Poles

Poles Under
German Occupation, 1939–1944, University Press of Kentucky 1986 –
300 pages.
^ Natalia Aleksiun. "
Jewish

Jewish Responses to
Antisemitism

Antisemitism in Poland,
1944–1947." In: Joshua D. Zimmerman, ed. Contested Memories: Poles
and
Jews

Jews During the
Holocaust

Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Rutgers University
Press, 2003. Pages 249; 256.
^ Michael C. Steinlauf. "Poland.". In: David S. Wyman, Charles H.
Rosenzveig. The World Reacts to the Holocaust. The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1996.
^ Devorah Hakohen, Immigrants in turmoil: mass immigration to Israel
and its repercussions... Syracuse University Press, 2003 – 325
pages. Page 70. ISBN 0-8156-2969-9
^ a b Aleksiun, Natalia. "Beriḥah". YIVO. Suggested reading: Arieh
J. Kochavi, "Britain and the
Jewish

Jewish Exodus...," Polin 7 (1992): pp.
161–175
^ Marrus, Michael Robert; Aristide R. Zolberg (2002). The Unwanted:
European Refugees from the First World War Through the Cold War.
Temple University Press. p. 336. ISBN 1-56639-955-6.
^ Kochavi, Arieh J. (2001). Post-
Holocaust

Holocaust Politics: Britain, the
United States

United States &
Jewish

Jewish Refugees, 1945–1948. The University of
North Carolina Press. pp. xi. ISBN 0-8078-2620-0.
^ Dariusz Stola. ""The Anti-Zionist Campaign in
Poland

Poland of
1967–1968." The American
Jewish

Jewish Committee research grant. See: D.
Stola, Fighting against the Shadows (reprint), in Robert Blobaum, ed.;
Antisemitism

Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland. Cornell University
Press, 2005.
^ a b The Canadian Foundation of Polish-
Jewish

Jewish Heritage.
Polish-jewish-heritage.org (2005-01-08). Retrieved on 2010-08-22.
^ The history of the
Jewish

Jewish population in Plonsk and the history of
the
Jews

Jews in Poland
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "The Polish
Jews

Jews Heritage – Genealogy
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^ Postan, Miller, Habakkuk. The Cambridge Economic History of Europe.
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^ Friedman, Jonathan C (2012) [2011]. "
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^ Origins of Polish Jewry (This Week in
Jewish

Jewish History) « Henry
Abramson, PhD
^ Andrzej Żbikowki, Żydzi,
Wrocław

Wrocław 1997, s. 17.
^ Simon Dubnow, History of the
Jews

Jews in
Russia

Russia and Poland, Varda Books
(2001 reprint), Vol. 1, p. 44.
^ Simon Dubnow, History of the
Jews

Jews in
Russia

Russia and Poland, Varda Books
(2001 reprint), Vol. 1, p. 42.
^ Official portal of the city of
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.jpg/500px-Opoczno_(js).jpg)
Opoczno Archived 2008-12-05 at the
Wayback Machine.
^ American
Jewish

Jewish Committee, 1957, 1367 pogrom Poznan. Google Books
^ a b S. M. Dubnow with
Simon Dubnow

Simon Dubnow and
Israel

Israel Friedlaender (2000).
History of the
Jews

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Russia

Russia and Poland, Volume 1. Translated by
Israel

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ISBN 1-886223-11-4. Retrieved June 11, 2011.
^ The Encyclopedia of World History 1447–92. 2001 Archived
2008-02-28 at the Wayback Machine.
^ a b Bernard Dov Weinryb "
Jews

Jews of Poland", p. 50
^ "Remuh Synagogue. A relic of Kazimierz's Golden Age".
Cracow-life.com. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
^ Hundert 2004, p. 11.
^ Hundert 2004, p. 19.
^ Herman Rosenthal, "Chmielnicki, Bogdan Zinovi",
Jewish

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1901.
^ Nagielski, Mirosław (1995). "
Stefan Czarniecki

Stefan Czarniecki (1604–1655) hetman
polny". Hetmani Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów. Wydawn. Bellona.
pp. 206–213. ISBN 978-83-11-08275-5.
^ Dariusz Milewski, Szwedzi w Krakowie (The Swedes in Krakow) Mówią
Wieki monthly, 08.06.2007, Internet Archive. (in Polish)
^ Mgr inz. arch. Krzysztof Petrus. "Zrodla do badan przemian
przestrzennych zachodnich przedmiesc Krakowa" (PDF). Architektura,
Czasopismo techniczne. Politechnika Krakowska. pp. 143–145.
Retrieved 5 May 2014.
^ a b Hundert 2004, pp. 51–52.
^ Hundert 2004, pp. 17–18.
^ "Timeline:
Jewish

Jewish life in
Poland

Poland from 1098",
Jewish

Jewish Journal, June 7,
2007.
^ David ben Samuel Ha-Levi, "Divre ̄ David Ture ̄ Zahav" (1689) in
Hebrew. Published in: Bi-defus Y. Goldman, Warsaw: 1882. Quoted by the
YIVO

YIVO Encyclopedia of
Jews

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^ a b Bartłomiej Szyndler (2009). Racławice 1794. Bellona.
pp. 64–65. ISBN 9788311116061. Retrieved 26 September
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^ Hundert 2004, p. 18.
^ a b Olaf Bergmann (2015), Narodowa demokracja wobec problematyki
żydowskiej w latach 1918–1929, Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie,
page 16. ISBN 978-83-7976-222-4.
^ a b Domnitch, Larry (2003). The Cantonists: the
Jewish

Jewish children's
army of the Tsar. Devora Publishing. p. 11.
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^ a b Domnitch, Larry (2003). The Cantonists: the
Jewish

Jewish children's
army of the Tsar. pp. 12–15. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
^ Ĭokhanan Petrovskiĭ-Shtern (2009).
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Jews in the Russian Army,
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^ Brian Porter, When Nationalism Began to Hate: Imagining Modern
Politics in Nineteenth-Century Poland,
Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press (2000),
p. 162.
^ Simon Dubnow, History of the
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^ Sara Bender (2008). Introduction: "Bialystock-upon-Tiktin". The Jews
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Białystok

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^ Walter Laqueur. A History of Zionism. Tauris Parke, 2003 pp.
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^ Isaiah Friedman. Germany, Turkey, Zionism, 1897–1918. Transaction
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^ a b c Zygmunt Zygmuntowicz, Żydzi w Legionach Józefa Piłsudskiego
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^ Marek Gałęzowski (10 November 2012). "Żydzi w Legionach" (in
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^ Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife,
Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide... McFarland &
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1919, a Polish National Committee (Komitet Narodowy Polski) report
analyzed all the 'so-called pogroms' that had occurred in
Poland

Poland up to
that date and concluded that, 'none of the occurrences which took
place in Poland, in which the
Jewish

Jewish people suffered, had the
character of a 'pogrom' organized by the Polish people against an
unarmed population. [Note 45.]
^ Neal Pease. 'This Troublesome Question': The
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in East Central Europe, ed. M. B. B. Biskupski. University of
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^ Mieczysław B. Biskupski; Piotr Stefan Wandycz (2003). Ideology,
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^ Joanna B. Michlic. Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew
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^ Andrzej Kapiszewski, Controversial Reports on the Situation of Jews
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Warsaw Hugh Gibson and American
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^
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^
Sejm

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^ Gershon David Hundert. The
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^ Yehuda Bauer, A History of the American
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^ Nechama Tec, "When Light Pierced the Darkness:
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^
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^ The Virtual
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^ Peter D. Stachura, Poland, 1918–1945: An Interpretive and
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^ Shoa Resource Center: Students at a
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^ Yad Vashem, The Bund Council in August 1937, Warsaw, Poland. Film
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^ Aleksander Hertz, Lucjan Dobroszycki The
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^ Ilya Prizel, National identity and foreign policy, Cambridge
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^ Sharman Kadish, Bolsheviks and British Jews: The Anglo-Jewish
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^ Zvi Y. Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence: The
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Jews of
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Department of State. 2001. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
^
Jewish Culture Festival

Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow. Archived 2009-07-22 at the
Wayback Machine. Homepage. Retrieved July 19, 2012. (in Polish)
^ a b c Beit Kraków » Wstęp do Judaizmu (Introduction to
Judaism): "Korzenie" (Roots). August 31, 2009. See also pl:Szkoła
rabinacka Beit Meir w Krakowie in Polish. Retrieved July 19,
2012.
^ The festival of Simchat
Torah

Torah Archived 2009-10-07 at the Wayback
Machine. at the Galicia
Jewish

Jewish Museum, Kraków
^ "
Poland

Poland reaches out to expelled Jews" at www.americangathering.com
^ "
Poland

Poland reaches out to expelled Jews"[permanent dead link] at
www.jta.org]
^ "The Virtual Shtetl", information about
Jewish

Jewish life in
Poland

Poland at
www.sztetl.org.pl
^ Anti-Semitism on the rise in France, new ADL survey shows. The Times
of Israel, 2012. Data from ADL 2012 European tracking poll. Retrieved
December 23, 2012.
^ Bilewicz, Michal; Winiewski, M.; Kofta, M.; Wójcik, A (November 6,
2013). "Harmful Ideas, The Structure and Consequences of Anti-Semitic
Beliefs in Poland". Political Psychology. 34: 821–839.
doi:10.1111/pops.12024. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
^ "
Poland

Poland Poll Reveals Stubborn Anti-Semitism Amid
Jewish

Jewish Revival
Hopes". The Forward. 2014-01-14. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
^ Snyder, Don (November 16, 2014). "Poll reveals anti-Semitism in
Poland, renews debate over hate-speech laws". Fox News. Retrieved 31
December 2014.
^ "Polish
Jews

Jews fight law on religious slaughter of animals". NYTimes.
4 September 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
^ "Polish Kosher Slaughter Ban Has
Jews

Jews Feeling Uneasy". The Jewish
Daily Forward. July 21, 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
^ "Żydzi skarżą się w Brukseli na zakaz uboju rytualnego w Polsce"
[
Jews

Jews appeal to Brussels against the Polish prohibition].
Rzeczpospolita. 2013-07-18. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
^ a b "Izraelski MSZ: zakaz uboju rytualnego w Polsce "bezczelny""
[Israeli Foreign Ministry: Ban on ritual slaughter in Poland
"insolent"]. Wprost. 2013-07-15. Missing or empty url= (help);
access-date= requires url= (help)
^ "Red Meat Animals" (PDF). Report on the Welfare of Farmed Animals at
Slaughter or Killing. Farm Animal Welfare Council. Archived from the
original (PDF) on 31 May 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
^ Stokes, Bruce. "Faith in European Project Reviving". PEW research
center. PEW research center. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
^ YIVO, Population since World War I at the
YIVO

YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews
in Eastern Europe.
^ a b Berman Institute, World
Jewish

Jewish Population. North American Jewish
Data Bank. (See Table 1:
Jewish

Jewish Population by Country, 1920s–1930s;
PDF file, direct download 52.4 KB)
^
http://mniejszosci.narodowe.mac.gov.pl/mne/mniejszosci/charakterystyka-mniejs/6480,Charakterystyka-mniejszosci-narodowych-i-etnicznych-w-Polsce.html
Archived 2015-10-17 at the Wayback Machine.
^ "THE HISTORY FROM THE JEWS POPULATION". JewishGen KehilaLinks.
Retrieved 2018-02-20.
^ "
Jewish Renewal

Jewish Renewal in Poland".
Jewish Renewal

Jewish Renewal in Poland. Retrieved
2018-02-20.
^ Henoch, Vivian. "The JCC of Krakow". My
Jewish

Jewish Detroit . Retrieved
2018-02-20.
^ "Q+A with Jonathan Ornstein". J-Wire. 2016-04-06. Retrieved
2018-02-20.
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in the content (see the help page).
References[edit]
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, After the Holocaust, East European Monographs,
2003, ISBN 0-88033-511-4.
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics
in Poland, 1939–1947, Lexington Books, 2004,
ISBN 0-7391-0484-5.
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. 68, No. 2 (Jun., 1996), 351–381.
Hundert, Gershon David (2004).
Jews

Jews in Poland-
Lithuania

Lithuania in the
Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity. Berkeley: University of
California Press. ISBN 0-520-23844-3.
Antony Polonsky and Joanna B. Michlic. The Neighbors Respond: The
Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland, Princeton University
Press, 2003 ISBN 0-691-11306-8. (The introduction is online)
Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski,
Jews

Jews in Poland. A Documentary History,
Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1998, ISBN 0-7818-0604-6.
David Vital, A People Apart: A Political History of the
Jews

Jews in Europe
1789–1939, Oxford University Press, 2001.
M. J. Rosman, The Lord's Jews: Magnate-
Jewish

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

Jewish Life and Culture in Poland
1550–1655, HUC Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8143-2906-3
Magda Teter,
Jews

Jews and Heretics in Premodern Poland: A Beleaguered
Church in the Post-Reformation Era, Cambridge University Press, 2006,
ISBN 0-521-85673-6
Laurence Weinbaum, The De-Assimilation of the
Jewish

Jewish Remnant in
Poland, in: Ethnos-Nation: eine europäische Zeitschrift, 1999,
pp. 8–25
This article incorporates text from a publication now in
the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906).
"Russia".
Jewish

Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls
Company. New York: Funk and Wagnalls. Considerable amount of
copy-pasted paragraphs lacking inline citations originate from the
Chapter: "Russia" in this source. The encyclopedia was published when
sovereign
Poland

Poland did not exist following the century of Partitions by
neighbouring empires. OCLC 632370258.
Further reading[edit]
Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan (2003). After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish
Conflict in the Wake of World War II, East European Monographs.
Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-88033-511-4.
Dynner, Glenn. Men of Silk: The Hasidic Conquest of Polish Jewish
Society NY: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Engel, David (1998). "Patterns of Anti-
Jewish

Jewish Violence in Poland
1944–1946".
Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem Studies.
Krajewski, Stanisław.
Poland

Poland and the Jews: Reflections of a Polish
Polish Jew, Kraków: Austeria P, 2005.
Levine, Hillel (1991). Economic Origins of Antisemitism:
Poland

Poland and
Its
Jews

Jews in the Early Modern Period. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale
University Press. ISBN 9780300049879. OCLC 22908198.
Nikžentaitis, Alvydas, Stefan Schreiner, Darius Staliūnas (editors).
The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews. Rodopi, 2004,
ISBN 90-420-0850-4
Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2014) [1942]. Rohde, Aleksandra
Miesak, ed. German Occupation of Poland. Washington, D.C.: Dale Street
Books. ISBN 1941656102.
Polonsky, Antony. The
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland and Russia, Volume 1: 1350–1881
(Littman Library of
Jewish

Jewish Civilization, 2009)
ISBN 978-1-874774-64-8
Polonsky, Antony. The
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland and Russia, Volume 2: 1881–1914
(Littman Library of
Jewish

Jewish Civilization, 2009)
ISBN 978-1-904113-83-6
Polonsky, Antony. The
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland and Russia, Volume 3: 1914-20008
(Littman Library of
Jewish

Jewish Civilization, 2011)
ISBN 978-1-904113-48-5
Ury, Scott. Barricades and Banners: The Revolution of 1905 and the
Transformation of
Warsaw

Warsaw Jewry,
Stanford University

Stanford University Press, 2012.
ISBN 978-0-804763-83-7
Weiner, Miriam; Polish State Archives (in cooperation with) (1997).
Jewish

Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories.
Secaucus, NJ: Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation.
ISBN 978-0-96-565080-9. OCLC 38756480.
Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daily life in the Warsaw
Ghetto.
Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Judaism

Judaism in Poland.
Maps[edit]
The Cossak Uprising and its Aftermath in Poland,
Jewish

Jewish Communities in
Poland

Poland and
Lithuania

Lithuania under the Council of the Four Lands, The Spread
of Hasidic Judaism,
Jewish

Jewish Revolts against the Nazis in
Poland

Poland (All
maps from Judaism: History, Belief, and Practice)
History of Polish Jews[edit]
Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Virtual Shtetl
The Polish
Jews

Jews Home Page
Beyond the Pale: A History of the
Jews

Jews in Russia. See especially: Jews
of
Lithuania

Lithuania and Poland
Mike Rose's History of the
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland before 1794 and After 1794
Virtual
Jewish

Jewish History Tour of Poland
Early History of the Polish
Jewish

Jewish Community from Medieval Jewish
Civilization: An Encyclopedia
Jews

Jews in
Poland

Poland from the LNT Travel company.
Judaism

Judaism in the Baltic: Vilna as the Spiritual Center of Eastern Europe
The
Jews

Jews in Poland. Saving from oblivion – Teaching for the future
Historical Sites of
Jewish

Jewish Warsaw
Kazimierz in
Kraków

Kraków – History and
Jewish

Jewish Festivals
Jewish

Jewish presence in the history of Gliwice
Polish-
Jewish

Jewish Relations section of the Polish Embassy in Washington
Facts and Myths: on the Role of the
Jews

Jews during the Stalinist Period
Joanna Rohozinska, A Complicated Coexistence:Polish-
Jewish

Jewish relations
through the centuries, Central
Europe
.svg/400px-Europe-Ukraine_(disputed_territory).svg.png)
Europe Review, 28 January 2000.
Primary sources for the premodern period in
Jewish history

Jewish history and video
presentations by scholars, including: Edward Fram, Moshe Rosman, Adam
Teller, and Magda Teter on
Jews

Jews in Poland-Lithuania
Jewish

Jewish organisations in
Poland

Poland before the Second World War
Foundation for the Preservation of
Jewish

Jewish Heritage in Poland
The Canadian foundation of Polish-
Jewish

Jewish Heritage
Foundation for Documentation of
Jewish

Jewish
Cemeteries

Cemeteries in Poland
World War II

World War II and the Holocaust[edit]
Chronicles of the Vilna Ghetto: wartime photographs & documents
– vilnaghetto.com
Warsaw

Warsaw
Ghetto
_Panorama.jpg/660px-Ghetto_(Venice)_Panorama.jpg)
Ghetto Uprising from the US
Holocaust

Holocaust Museum. From the same
source see:
Non-
Jewish

Jewish Polish Victims of the Holocaust
Bibliography of Polish
Jewish

Jewish Relations during the War
Chronology of German Anti-
Jewish

Jewish Measures during
World War II

World War II in
Poland
The Catholic Zionist Who Helped Steer Israeli Independence through the
UN
Poland's Jews:A light flickers on, The Economist, 20 December 2005
v
t
e
History of the
Jews

Jews in Europe
Sovereign states
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Pentecostal Church in Poland
Judaism
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Karaim
Not state-recognised
Jehovah's Witnesses
Buddhism
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See also
Irreligion in Poland
Protestantism in Poland
Slavic Nati