1930s Poland AntiJewish Violence Way Overblown Zyndul

Zajscia Antyzydowskie w Polsce w Latach 1935-1937, by Jolanta Zyndul. 1994

1930′ s So-Called Pogroms Greatly Exaggerated. Breaking Jewish Economic Hegemony. Schechita Law, Medical-School Cadavers, etc

ANTI-JEWISH INCIDENTS IN POLAND IN THE YEARS 1935-1937 is the title of this Polish-language book. Author Jolanta Zyndul got her information from various newspapers, including those in Palestine, but especially from the local Jewish NASZ PRZEGLAD, and the WARSZAWSKI DZIENNIK NARODOWY of the SN (Stronnictwo Narodowe). (p. 7).

One weakness of her work is her use of the term “Endek” indiscriminately. The reader must remember that the Polish national movement was hardly a monolith. For example, Roman Dmowski always opposed violence against Jews. However, Zyndul realizes that synagogues were rarely the target of extreme nationalists, and that Polish nationalists opposed violence against institutions of Jewish religion. (p. 40). In fact, an article in the 1936 WARSZAWSKI DZIENNIK NARODOWY categorically forbade any Polish action against synagogues, and the like, “because our struggle is not against the Jewish religion, but solely for the de-Judaization of Poland.” (p. 39).

Although Zyndul is prejudiced against Endeks, she realizes that the Endeks never promoted Jewish collective guilt for the Crucifixion of Christ (deicide), accusations of ritual murder, use of Christian blood in matzos, poisoning of wells, etc. (pp. 93-94). She briefly mentions the ONR, but does not elaborate on this organization.

ECONOMIC RIVALRY SPILLS INTO VIOLENCE

For decades, various Poles strove to emancipate Poland from Jewish economic dominance. This included the encouraging of Poles to support Polish entrepreneurs and to boycott Jewish ones. More severe measures included the organizing of Jewish-free fairs and markets, as well as the picketing of Jewish shops and even the physical blocking of Poles who went shopping there anyway. Finally, some extremists went as far as the overturning of Jewish product booths, the vandalizing of Jewish-owned products, and the beating up of Jewish merchants. Participants claimed that they were acting on principle, and that they never stole any merchandize from the Jews. (p. 42). Notable examples of these violent incidents against Jewish merchants included those at Sokol (August 25, 1935), Krzepic (February 6, 1936), Nowe Miasto (March 12, 1936), Lodz (April 1936), and Busko (May 8, 1936). (p. 43).

JEW KILLS POLE: “RACE” RIOT TOUCHED OFF

Jolanta Zyndul identified the cause of particularly large-scale Polish violence against Jews. The template repeated itself. It invariably started when a Jew killed a Pole. (p. 44-on). (The killing of a Pole by a Jew often occurred when fisticuffs escalated into homicide. At other times, it had nothing to do with either person being Jewish or being Polish.) A mob of Poles would then form, and would retaliate collectively against Jews by the overturning of Jewish product stands, the smashing of the windows of Jewish shops, and the beating up of whatever Jews were encountered along the way. These large-scale riots occurred at Grodno (June 1935), Przytyk (March 1936), Minsk Mazowiecki (June 1936), Brzesc nad Bugiem (May 1937), Czestochowa (June 1937), Bielsko Biala (November 1937), and at several other locations. (pp. 44-45). For more on the Przytyk pogrom, please click on Pogrom? Zajscia polsko-zydowskie w Przytyku 9 marca 1936 r. : Mity, Fakty, Dokumenty (Polish and English Edition), and read, the detailed English-language Peczkis review.

The informed American reader can find many parallels between anti-Jewish violence in interwar Poland and the episodes of past racial violence in the USA. A black would kill a white, and then whites would riot and wreak acts of collective revenge violence against blacks. In other U. S. race riots, the roles would be reversed.

THE GHETTO BENCHES

In 1936, the Mlodziez Wszechpolska took a strong initiative to force ghetto benches at all the major universities in Poland. (pp. 28-on). This led to bitter confrontations, including that between militant Polish youth and Polish university professors opposed to the separate seating of Jews.

The informed American reader can see the parallels between this development and the actions of militant antiwar demonstrators (such as the SDS, the so-called Students for a Democratic Society) on U. S. campuses in the 1960’s. Both involved sustained attempts, by militant youth, to impose their views and policies on universities and their personnel.

POLITICAL ISSUES BEHIND ANTI-JEWISH VIOLENCE?

An article in the Jewish NASZ PRZEGLAD opined that the Polish nationalist violence against Jews was not driven solely by anti-Semitism. Rather, it was intended to destabilize the Pilsudski regime and its actual or purported philosemitism.

The author notes that there was an obvious drop in anti-Jewish violence in 1937. She suggests that this was because the most radical nationalist groups, which were responsible for most of the violence, had joined the government in the Oboz Zjednoczenia Narodowego (OZON) in 1937. (p. 41).

ANTI-JEWISH VIOLENCE WAY OVERBLOWN: ONLY 14 JEWS DEAD

Zyndul has consulted numerous sources of information, and concluded that that 14 Jews died from Polish violence in its peak years–1935 through 1937. (pp. 54-55). This fact-based figure is much smaller than the several hundred alleged elsewhere, following the long-established trend of the numbers of pogrom victims being greatly exaggerated in many non-scholarly sources.

The author also concludes that about 2,000 Jews were assaulted by Poles during this time (p. 54), but does not differentiate this figure according to the severity of the injuries received. Jewish estimates of the wounded vary widely–from over 1,200 down to 426. (pp. 52-54).

There is no doubt about the fact that Polish violence was much more directed against Jewish property than Jewish persons. This is typical of mob action. In addition, Zyndul found 50 incidents of bombs and petards set off on Jewish properties, along with several instances of arson. (p. 39).

The foregoing incidents, however unfortunate, should be kept in perspective. The numbers (14 Jews killed and about 2,000 Jews injured) pale in insignificance relative to the 3,400,000 Jews in Poland at the time. It also means that, in the vast majority of communities in Poland in which Jews lived, there were no violent incidents against them. Finally, a sense of broader perspective is needed. Were more Jews killed by horses, in the 1930s, than by Poles?

Now consider the high ratio of Jewish wounded to Jewish dead, which becomes even higher when we realize that many of the Jewish dead were not killed intentionally, but died later from their wounds. This supports the premise that murderous anti-Semitism, as opposed to common anti-Semitism, was exceedingly rare among Poles.

Polish violence against Jews is sometimes said to be inspired by Nazi violence against Jews in next-door Germany. However, the figures quoted by Zyndul are quite low in comparison with the victims of Nazi violence against Jews in pre-WWII Germany, even that in just one episode (Kristallnacht).

POLICE RESTORE ORDER

Contrary to accusations that Polish police sided with Polish extremists, or stood by and did nothing to counteract Polish violence against Jews, the police decisively took control of the situation many times. (pp. 87-on). In fact, the extremists attacked the Polish police, at several specified locations, for coming to the aid of the Jews. (p. 43).

I now discuss some other matters raised by Zyndul:

THE CADAVER AFFAIR: HUMAN CADAVERS FOR DISSECTION IN MEDICAL SCHOOL

For some time, Jewish medical students freely used the bodies of Christians for dissection, but refused to use bodies of Jews, for this purpose, on religious grounds. Zyndul skirts around the Jewish racism behind this thinking. [See my review of JEWISH BIOETHICS, by Barilan].

The MLODZIEZ WSZECHPOLSKA took forceful action in the fall of 1931. It pressed for a numerus clausus for Jewish students, and demanded a solution to the “cadaver” problem. (pp. 10-11). Belatedly, in 1935, the cadavers of Jews were supplied, for use, to Jewish medical students. (p. 13).

SCHECHITA: A HIDDEN TAX ON POLES

Action against the ritual slaughter of animals was conducted by a Polish animal-welfare organization in 1935, and this form of slaughter was condemned on humanitarian grounds. (p. 69). [The reader should know that the debate about whether or not schechita causes suffering to the animal still goes on to this date.]

Instead of having the carcass of the slaughtered animal cut lengthwise, the schechita practice was to slice it in the transverse direction. This meant that the well-bled headward part of the carcass was sold to Jews, and the less-bled legward part of the carcass was sold to Poles. (p. 70). [The author does not state if this means that Poles were perceptively or actually relegated to the less desirable cuts of meat.]

Owing to the fact that an intermediary was required in the case of schechita-slaughtered meat, this meant that prices were higher for meat of this origin. (p. 70). Apart from invoking religious considerations, Jewish groups objected that as many as 50,000 Jewish meat-related workers and intermediaries would lose their jobs if schechita ended. (p. 71). Again, Zyndul falls short of developing these themes. Does it imply that many Jewish occupations in the schechita-based meat industry were “unproductive” in that they were economically unnecessary, causing only to raise the price of meat, and that they fell under the rubric of the “parasitic middleman”? Does it imply that the anti-Schechita law largely existed to help Poles by driving many Jews out of the meat industry?

Finally, at no time did the Polish law abolish schechita entirely. It was allowed, in limited form, to serve the religious needs of Jews, Karaims (Karaites), and Muslims–as long as they formed at least 3% of the population. Following this development, the Endeks complained that Jews were conducting schechita illegally, and pressed (unsuccessfully) for its total abolition. (p. 72).