Jewish Disloyalty 1918 Provokes Pogroms Pilsudska

Pilsudski: A Biography, by Alexandra Pilsudska. 2007

Jewish Disloyalty in 1918-1920 Provoked Retaliatory Polish Pogroms, Which Pilsudski Tried to Stop

Jozef Pilsudski’s second wife provides invaluable details about Polish history from the mid-19th-century until early WWII. Owing to the wealth of content in this work, I can only focus on a few issues.

POLAND UNDER THE LASH OF FOREIGN OPPRESSORS

Pilsudska’s grandmother had played a conspiratorial role in the ill-fated January 1863 Insurrection against tsarist Russia. Later, the little Alexandra learned Polish patriotism at from her grandmother.

Of the three portioning powers, the Prussians were the most repressive. Pilsudska comments: “In the Prussian-ruled provinces of Poland, the iron hand of von Bulow (Buelow) was tightening its grip. Alarmed at the increasing Polish population…So in the spring of 1908 his Expropriation Bill came into force, authorizing the forcible dispossession of estates owned by Poles and their transfer to German settlers. Thousands of Poles were turned out of their farms and holdings, left to tramp the roads, homeless and penniless, or seek work at starvation wages from German masters in the industrial cities.” (p. 196).

Pilsudski was active as a conspirator under tsarist Russian rule. His wife describes his herculean efforts in raising a Polish Army (the Strzelcy, or Riflemen) at the heels of the disintegrating empires, which enabled the resurrection of the Polish State after 123 years of foreign rule.
Now consider the 1920 Polish-Soviet War. Locally, WWI had never actually ended. The German armies were stuck in Poland, and the Russian (Bolshevik) forces were advancing westward, replacing the Germans. (pp. 273-274). The Polish state was in mortal danger. Pilsudski’s taking of Wilno (Vilnius) was, in part, a pre-emptive move against the Soviets. (p. 288).

JEWISH DISLOYALTY TO POLAND PROVOKES RETALIATORY POLISH POGROMS, WHICH PILSUDSKI TRIES TO STOP

The people in Wilno were delighted at their liberation from the Soviets, except for the Jews. Pilsudski, a philo-Semite, wrote to his wife about how he had averted a retaliatory pogrom for the Jewish-Soviet collaboration: “The only exceptions have been the Jews who under the rule of the Bolsheviks were the governing classes. I have had the greatest difficulty in preventing a massacre provoked by Jewish civilians shooting and throwing hand grenades from their windows…” (p. 292).

The Poles fought alongside the Latvians against the Bolsheviks: “In January of 1920, Pilsudski attended a dinner given in his honor at Dyneburg, and received the thanks of General Ballod, Commander-in-Chief of the Latvian Army, for the help which the Poles had given.” Then the Pilsudski-Petlura alliance was forged, and the Polish forces took Kiev.

THE MIRACLE ON THE VISTULA

Communist propaganda worldwide is painting Poland as an imperialist aggressor. The Red Army drives the Poles back to Warsaw. Pilsudska describes the despondency, and the blame directed at Pilsudski. Poland’s doom seems certain. She then describes the unbelievable outcome: “The Battle of the Vistula which began on August 1th, 1920, has passed into history. The Russians, despite their immense superiority in numbers, were routed. Two-fifths of their armies were lost; the rest fled left in disorder, leaving behind them enormous quantities of war material…(the battle) stopped the triumphant march of Bolshevism.” (p. 301).

POLAND DEPRIVED OF CIESZYN (TESCHEN), AND THEN POLES ARE BLAMED FOR WANTING IT BACK

The borders of the infant Polish state were fixed by a series of border wars and international decisions. She comments: “The Allies had decided to give Cieszyn (Teschen) to Czechoslovakia, which Poland felt to be a deep injustice, since the majority of the inhabitants were Polish.” (p. 303). [In 1938, Poland was (and still is to this day) painted an aggressor for taking Cieszyn back during the Nazi-induced dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.]

GERMAN SUPREMACISM AND CRUELTY: OLD AND NEW

Attention is now focused on the interwar era. Pilsudska recounts how her husband had performed a delicate balancing act between the Soviets and Germans (p. 15), and warned of renewed German aggression right up to his death in 1935. In common with countless 1939-war eyewitnesses, Pilsudska describes German planes wantonly bombing and strafing civilians, and Poland’s Germans playing a decisive military role as fifth columnists. She managed to flee Poland, and ended up in England. Her conclusions about German aggression are as follows: “So little has the German mentality changed that there is an almost complete parallel between the arrogant and cruel [Teutonic] Order which terrorized half Europe in the Middle Ages and the Nazis of today. The ruthless ambition and greed for dominance which caused the [Teutonic] Knights to drop all pretense of spiritual calling in the pursuit of material conquests inspires the Nazi program of annexation.” (p. 67).

JOZEF PILSUDSKI THE ANIMAL LOVER

This work includes touching details of Pilsudski’s personal life. She writes: “My husband’s favorite pet was Kasztanka, the beautiful Arab mare who carried him through all his campaigns [beginning in 1914]…she was his devoted companion…could not be controlled by anyone else. But between her and her master there existed an almost human understanding…She reached an honorable age and was finally put out to grass, but she was brought to visit us at regular intervals, and it was sweet to watch her nuzzling her soft mouth into my husband’s hand, and rubbing her neck against his shoulder in the joy of greeting.” (p. 324).