Jewish Polish Relations Two Sides Parkes

The emergence of the Jewish problem, 1878-1939, by James William Parkes. 1970

Includes an Unusually Clarified and Even-Handed Analysis of Pre-WWII Polish-Jewish Relations

Though not published until 1946, this book was written just before the Holocaust, and thus presents a Holocaust-eve analysis of Europe’s Jews. I focus on Poland’s Jews.

THE 1918 POGROM-MONGERING IN THE WESTERN PRESS

Both Poles and Jews tended to act in ways that exacerbated their conflicts. Consider, for instance, the so-called pogroms of 1918. (Quote) In these operations, ill-organized and ill-equipped soldiery perpetrated a number of acts of violence, including murder, on the Jewish population, sometimes with the approval of their military leaders, sometimes without. These acts, quickly reported by the Jews to the western Powers, seriously embittered feelings on both sides. The Jews rightly resented the fact that few were punished at all, and no compensation was paid for very serious damage done, and the Poles resented the action of the Jews in blackening the reputation of Poland at the hour of her rebirth. (Unquote).

JEWISH POVERTY NOT THE POLES’ FAULT

Parkes tacitly confirms Dmowski on the inherited nature of the Polish-Jewish problem and the poverty of many Jews: (quote) There were far too many tiny shops, dirty and insanitary, whose whole stock of goods could have been bought for a few zloty. Far too many staved off starvation by vague and even anti-social occupations as middlemen, moneylenders, agents, or touts. Such as the inheritance which Tsarist Russia bequeathed to Poland, for the decline of Polish-Jewish industry and commerce had set in well before the foundation of the Republic. (unquote) (p. 148).

PEASANTS PUSH BACK AGAINST THE JEWISH ECONOMIC HEGEMONY

Many Jewish positions were being eliminated as part of the march of progress. (Quote) …the Government began its efforts to modernize and raise the general level of Polish life. A large number of the village and small-town Jewish shopkeepers and middlemen were bound to be ruined
by the development of agricultural co-operatives, and yet these cop-operatives in themselves were far better designed to raise the level of peasant life than were the previous Jewish shopkeepers and middlemen. (Unquote)

AGGRESSIVE AND EXTREME JEWISH SEPARATISM

At the Peace Conference at Paris, Polish Jews demanded “the autonomous management of their religious, educational, charitable, and cultural institutions.” (p. 112). In effect, the Jews wanted separate-nation status on Polish soil. Parkes adds: “On the Jewish side also it was evident that the spread of the national idea among the masses–whether in Zionist or Socialist form–had led them to reject assimilation entirely.” (p. 135).

Poles resisted the Minorities Treaty for several reasons, including, ironically, its damage to Jewish-Polish relations: “…all the special privileges given to Jews would only put them in an invidious position which Poles would resent, thereby making friendly relations impossible. In particular, to allow a minority to complain to an outside Power…would create and not solve problems. (p. 125).

WHAT DOES ASSIMILATION ACCOMPLISH ANYWAY?

However, decades earlier, Roman Dmowski had warned that assimilation does not necessarily convert Jews into loyal members of their host nation, and cited as an example that of Hungary’s assimilated Jews. Parkes tacitly confirms Dmowski as he comments: “The demand of Jews of eastern Hungary to be considered Jews by nationality…By nature they were an extremely assimilationist group, calling themselves proudly `Israelitish Magyars.'” (p. 113). However, if the new borders placed them in Romania, they would discard their Hungarian identification and become simply Jews. The same held for Jews who lived in Silesia, which was contested by Poland and Germany. (p. 113).

TOO MANY JEWS IN POLAND

The huge Jewish presence in Poland was an unavoidable constant: “The most moderate [Poles] were troubled by the fact that they wanted to live in a society that definitely embodies the POLISH tradition, and the Polish, primarily Catholic, way of life. They desired to oppress neither Jew nor any other minority, but they did not want to be `dominated by Jews’.” (emphasis in the original)(p. 152). When Nazis used the phrase “dominated by Jews”, they meant that some professions may be 10% Jewish; rarely 20%. For Poles, Jewish over-abundance was broader and more extreme.

Figures on the universities are telling. In the early 1920’s, Jews, at 10% of Poland’s population, typically accounted for more than 33% of students at the Universities of Warsaw, Vilna (Wilno; Vilnius), Cracow, and Lvov (Lwow, Lviv). (p. 143, 240). Nearly one-third of the faculties at the University at Wilno, in 1927-1928, were Jewish. (p. 240). Parkes comments: “To even a reasonable Pole it appeared intolerable that 30 to 40 per cent of the places of influence in the life of the nation should be in the hands of Jews.” (p. 144). Ghetto benches were introduced in November 1937. (p. 141).

SUNDAY CLOSING LAW

The laws against Jews working on Sunday did not prevent them from working indoors with other Jews. They only prevented Jews from trading openly on Sundays. (p. 161). Although Parkes does not consider this, it is easy to see that this law served to reduce Jewish economic dominance
by forcing Jews to be idle two days a week. It also served to prevent Christians from being tempted to violate their Sunday rest by trading with Jews.

THE SCHECHITA LAW

Parkes says, (quote) In the last years of the Republic a new threat to Jewish economic life was launched in an attack on Jewish ritual killing of meat (Schechita), and a Bill was passed limiting the work of Jewish butchers to the Jewish community. The effect of this was to throw thousands of Jewish butchers out of work, for a large proportion of the general trade had previously been in their hands, and their clientele had included many of the Christian population. (unquote)(p. 161). For now, the Schechita law did not restrict Jewish religious practices. Although Parkes does not mention this, the Schechita law served to reduce Jewish dominance of the meat industry, and to help Polish butchers in their competition against long-established Jewish ones.

NO BLACK AND WHITE ON POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS

The 123 years of foreign rule were hardly conducive to Poles being receptive to Jews (p. 130), and the Poles’ long oppression made them unwilling to relinquish even a little bit of their sovereignty to Jewish particularism. (p. 155). The Jewish side absolutely refused to compromise on such things as matters related to their massive over-representation and the corrective numerus clausus. (p. 154). The Jews’ long history of facing discriminatory legislation made them unwilling to relinquish their advantages for some long-term good. (p. 155). In the end, Parkes contends that both Jews and Poles lacked the experience necessary to deal with each other (p. 154), and both Poles and Jews lacked the political maturity to overcome the circumstances that limited each of their thinking. (p.155).