Abstract
The context of Polish-Jewish relations underwent a fundamental change with the fall of Poland to German and Soviet invading forces in September 1939. For the previous two decades, in the independent Polish state, those relations had been defined by the position of the Poles as the dominant national group in their own country against that of the Jews as a subject national minority. The military occupation of Poland, however, placed both groups on the level of conquered populations. From the moment of conquest, the attitudes of each group toward the other would be determined according to a new set of factors, not the least important of which was each group’s estimation of the other’s willingness and ability to assist it in the achievement of its aims vis-à-vis the occupiers. During the initial months of Nazi and Soviet rule, Jewish and Polish leaders observed the behaviour of both peoples toward one another and toward the conquerors with a view toward arriving at just such an evaluation.
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Notes
On the formation and structure of the Government-in-Exile, see Michał Kwiatkowski, Rząd i Rada Narodowa RP (London, 1942);
Edward Raczyński, In Allied London (London, 1962), pp. 22–44;
George Kacewicz, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the Polish Government-in-Exile (The Hague, 1979), pp. 29–51.
See Stefan Korboński, The Polish Underground State: A Guide to the Underground, 1939–1945 (New York, 1978), pp. 22–42, passim.
On the relation of the Government-in-Exile to the prewar regime, see Kacewicz, Great Britain, pp. 38–40. On the official antisemitism of the post-1935 Governments, see Edward Wynot, ‘A Necessary Cruelty: The Emergence of Official Antisemitism in Poland, 1936–1939,’ American Historical Review, 76, no. 4 (October 1971), pp. 1,035–58.
The Government-in-Exile was initially based upon a coalition of four former opposition parties: The National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe, also known as Endecja), the Christian Labor party (Stronnictwo Pracy), the Peasant party (Stronnictwo Ludowe), and the Polish Socialist party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna — PPS). Of these, the first three had adopted platforms between 1935–1938 bemoaning the role played by Jews in Polish life and supporting forced emigration of Jews as the proper solution to the Jewish Question in Poland. Only the socialists had taken a strong stand in favor of equal individual and national rights for Polish Jewry. See Joel Cang, ‘The Opposition Parties in Poland and their Attitudes towards the Jews and the Jewish Problem,’ Jewish Social Studies, 1, no. 2 (April 1939), pp. 241–56.
Jan Karski has become a well-known figure among students of the Holocaust as a result of the role he played in bringing the news of the murder of European Jewry to the attention of Western leaders. In October 1942, according to the account presented in his book, Story of a Secret State (Boston, Mass., 1944), Karski was approached by two leaders of the Jewish underground in Warsaw (probably Leon Feiner of the Bund, and the Zionist, Menahem Kirschenbaum), with the request to carry a message concerning the situation of Polish Jewry to key figures in the Government-in-Exile — whom Karski was in any case scheduled to contact as part of his duties as the Polish underground’s political courier — and to the representatives of Polish Jewry in the Polish National Council, Szmul Zygielbojm and Ignacy Schwarzbart. In preparation for this mission Karski secretly entered the Warsaw Ghetto and later, disguised as an Estonian (or Lithuanian) guard, witnessed the mass killing of Jews at Bełzec. When he arrived in London in mid-November, he reported what he had seen not only to the Polish and Jewish leaders, but to key members of the British government and Parliament and to important figures in British intellectual life. Quite probably Karski’s report played a significant role in prompting the Polish government’s note to the Allied governments of 9 December 1942, entitled ‘The Extermination of Polish Jewry.’ In July 1943, Karski visited the United States and brought his news of the Final Solution to President Roosevelt and to other American political and intellectual leaders. On Karski’s activities in 1942 and 1943, see, among others, Korboński, Polish Underground, pp. 128–29; Walter Laqueur, The Terrible Secret (Boston, Mass., 1981), pp. 229–237;
Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies (New York, 1982), pp. 93–95;
Nora Levin, The Holocaust (New York, 1968), pp. 337–40. None of these works, or any others in which Karski’s activities in relation to Polish Jewry are discussed, mention his earlier mission in 1940. Until now, it was not known that on this mission Karski conveyed information about Jews. Karski’s authorship of the report is established by the following: The report on the Jews was the fourth in a series of reports on conditions in occupied Poland. In the first report of the series, entitled ‘Podróz Autora Raportu’ (The Journey of the Author of the Report,’ located in HIA — Mikołajczyk, Box #9), the author referred to himself by the code name ‘Jan Kanicki’. A code key attached to the copy of the report located in HIA — Mikołajczyk, Box #12, identified Kanicki as Karski (also a pseudonym for his actual family name, Kozielewski). In addition, Karski identified himself as the author of the report after reviewing it in the course of an interview with me held in San Francisco, California, on 18 April 1982, and again in a letter to me dated 20 August 1982. In fact, it seems that Karski himself later forgot about the report altogether (he told me as much in the aforementioned interview, as well as in the letter to me), a fact which helps to account for its subsequent loss to historians.
Moshe Sneh was well known for his anti-Nazi activity. As a journalist he attacked the Polish policy of rapprochement with Germany incessantly and called for the establishment of a European democratic front against Hitler. As a public figure he was among the organisers of Polish Jewry’s boycott of German merchandise. See Emanuel Melzer, ‘Yahadut Polin baMa’avak ha Medini al Kiyuma baShanim 1935–1939’, unpublished PhD dissertation, Tel Aviv University, 1975.
The departure of refugees from the ‘Wilno group’ (as the tens of thousands of Polish Jewish refugees who arrived in Wilno were known) to Palestine along the route described here by Sneh (or a similar one) is described in, among others, Friede Zerubavel, Hayiti Pelitah [Tel Aviv] 1941;
Bentsiyon Benshalom, BaSa’ar beYom Sufah, Tel Aviv 1944; Tsvi Barak (Bryk), ‘HaMisrad haErets-Yisra’eli beLita’, Sefer Yahadut Lita, 2, [Tel Aviv] 1972; idem., ‘Pelitei Polin beLita baShanim 1939–1941’, ibid.
See also Dina Porat, ‘Rikkuz haPelitim haYehudiyim beVilna baShanim 1939–1941: Ma’amatsei haYetsi’ah’, unpublished MA thesis, Tel Aviv University, 1973, pp. 43–7.
Such a scheme was in fact employed in various places, including in the Warsaw ghetto. See Yisrael Gutman, Yehudei Varshah, 1939–1943: Geto, Mahteret, Mered, Jerusalem, 1977, p. 131.
According to Yitshak Arad, Vilna haYehudit beMa’avak uveKhilayon (Tel Aviv 1976), p. 22, anti-Jewish riots had already begun in Wilno on 28 October, the day on which Wilno had been transferred to Lithuanian rule. They reached their peak on 31 October. Nevertheless, in another contemporary testimony published in Sho’at Yehudei Polin (Jerusalem, 1940), Sneh again referred explicitly to a pogrom that lasted only one day. Perhaps the events of 28–29 October were not regarded by him as an actual pogrom.
The reference is to Ignacy Schwarzbart (1888–1961), who was appointed as a Jewish member of the Polish National Council, which met first in France and later in London. * On the Jews of Wilno under Soviet occupation in September–October 1939 see Dov Levin, ‘Yerushalayim deLita: Shisha Shavu’ot beSograyim’ (Yehudei Vilna tahat haShilton haSovieti, 19 September–28 October 1939), Gal-Ed, 3 (1975):213–44. ** The word ‘Ukas’ appears in the original. Its meaning in this context is not clarified. *** On the source of this saying, see Levin, ‘Yerushalayim deLita’, p. 222, n. 25. **** Evidently the reference is to an attorney named Reuven Nechimowski — this according to the testimony of A. L. Fajans, who heard the story later, in Israel, both from him and from Sneh. i. The final Zionist Congress before the war was adjourned less than one week prior to the German invasion of Poland. ii. Such immigration certificates were granted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine under the quotas that had been established by the British White Paper of 17 May 1939. This British proclamation limited Jewish immigration to Palestine to an annual figure of 10 000 until 1944, when all such immigration was to cease. An additional 25 000 immigrant certificates were to be reserved for ‘refugees’. iii. This four-paragraph section is being omitted in the present translation. In it the author attributed Poland’s downfall not only to German military might but to internal Polish factors as well, including ‘the lack of good sense on the part of the top military leadership’ and the foreign policy pursued by Foreign Minister Józef Beck. iv. The reference is to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. v. The Tarbut movement operated a network of Jewish schools in Poland in which the language of instruction was Hebrew. vi. The term refers to prominent Jews who would enter pleas with the authorities on behalf of their communities in order to avert persecution. vii. The term refers to people who parlay their wealth or influence into positions of authority over the community. viii. Italics in source. For Tsaban’s comments, see below, n. 11. ix. Tsisho is the acronym for Tsentrale Idishe Shul-Organizatsie (Central Jewish School Organisation), a network of private all-day Jewish schools operated by the Bund in interwar Poland in which Yiddish was the primary language of instruction. x. Tarbut (Culture) was the name of a network of private all-day Jewish schools in interwar Poland in which Hebrew was the language of instruction. Although the network was not operated directly by any Zionist political group, its basic ideological orientation was Zionist.
xi. Zionist youth movements conducting their activities within the framework of an umbrella organisation known as HeHaluts (The Pioneer) operated camps and training farms for prospective young Jewish agricultural settlers in Palestine. These programmes were often conducted as if they were actually communal settlements in Palestine of the type known as kibbutzim (collectives), and they were often referred to by this name. xii. A Committee on Polish Jewry was formed by the American Jewish Congress shortly following the outbreak of war. The World Jewish Congress began to discuss setting up a similar committee in early 1940, but no action was taken until the Congress transferred its headquarters to New York following the fall of France in June. See Aryeh Tartakower, ‘Ha-Pe’ilut haMedinit lema’an Yehudei Polin al Ademat Amerika beMilhemet haOlam haSheniyah’, Gal-Ed, 6 (1982), pp. 169–71. xiii. Yiddish for pity or mercy. The word is written in this transliterated form in the original text. xiv. A prayer marking passage from one portion of the Jewish prayer service to another, generally recited at the conclusion of the service by mourners. It is also said by mourners at a funeral or at a memorial service. xv. The reference is to the Institute for Jewish Affairs, created by the World Jewish Congress in 1941 for the purpose of coordinating Jewish postwar planning. xvi. Much thought had been given since the outbreak of war to establishing a unified representative body of Polish Jews to promote the interests of Polish Jewry. Efforts were made in Britain and in the United States during 1939 and 1940 to create such a body. In the event a Representation of Polish Jewry (Reprezentacja Żydostwa Polskiego) was established in Palestine in September 1940. xvii. The reference is to the orthodox religious, anti-Zionist party Agudas Yisroel. xviii. The reference is to a Zionist faction led by Vladimir Jabotinsky that in 1935 broke away from the World Zionist Organisation and established its own New Zionist Organisation. xix. The reference is to associations of Jewish businessmen, manufacturers, artisans, or workers that did not have any specific political or ideological orientation. xx. This paragraph has been omitted from the present translation. It deals with what Sneh regards as the proper relationship between the World Jewish Congress and the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
Stanisław Kot, Listy z Rosji do Gen. Sikorskiego (London, 1965) p. 154.
Wladyslaw Anders, Bez ostatniego rozdzialu. Wspomnienia z lat 1939–1946 (2nd edn, Newton, 1950) p. 99.
For these conversations see Documents on Polish Soviet Relations, 1939–1945, vol. I (London, 1961) nos. 159–60 and A. Polonsky, The Great Powers and the Polish Question (London, 1976), nos. 29 and 30.
For more details see Stanisław Zabiełło, O rz̧ad i granice. Walka dyplomatyczna o sprawȩ polsķa w II wojnie światowej (For the government and frontiers. Diplomatic struggle for the Polish cause during the Second World War), ‘Pax’, 1964, Warszawa; Shimon Redlich, ‘The Erlich-Alter Affair’ in Soviet-Jewish Affairs, 1979, vol. 9, No. 2;
Józef Garliński Polska w Drugiej Wojnie Światowej (Poland in the Second World War) in Odnova 1982, London;
Sarah Mejklejohn Terry, Poland’s place in Europe. General Sikorski and the Origin of the Oder-Neisse Line, 1939–1943, Princeton University Press, 1983, Princeton N. J.;
Jacek Ślusarczyk, Polityka rz̧adu generała W. Sikorskiego wobec ZSSR. Z dziejów stosunków polsko-radzieckich od września 1939 do kwietnia 1943 (The policy of the W. Sikorski’s government towards the USSR. Of the history of Polish-Soviet relations from September 1939 to April 1943), the Institute of Socialist Countries of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 1985, Warsaw.
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Davies, N., Polonsky, A. (1991). Documents. In: Davies, N., Polonsky, A. (eds) Jews in Eastern Poland and the USSR, 1939–46. Studies in Russia and East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21789-2_15
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