Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath [Hardcover]

Joshua D. Zimmerman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2003

Few issues have divided Poles and Jews more deeply than the Nazi occupation of Poland during the Second World War and the subsequent slaughter of almost ninety percent of Polish Jewry. Many Jewish historians have argued that, during the occupation, Poles at best displayed indifference to the fate of the Jews and at worst were willing accomplices of the Nazis. Many Polish scholars, however, deny any connection between the prewar culture of antisemitism and the wartime situation. They emphasized that Poles were also victims of the Nazis and, for the most part, tried their best to protect the Jews. This collection of essays, representing three generations of Polish and Jewish scholars, is the first attempt since the fall of Communism to reassess the existing historiography of Polish-Jewish relations just before, during, and after the Second World War. In the spirit of detached scholarly inquiry, these essays fearlessly challenge commonly held views on both sides of the debates. The authors are committed to analyzing issues fairly and to reaching a mutual understanding. Joshua D. Zimmerman is an assistant professor of East European Jewish History at Yeshiva University, where he holds the Eli and Diana Zborowski Chair in Holocaust Studies. He is the author of the forthcoming title Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Jewish Labor Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Czarist Russia, 1892-1914.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A concise and useful summary of Polish and Jewish historiography and public debate from the early 1980s. -- Slavic Review

Offers a summary of scholarly thought on Polish-Jewish relations at the beginning of the twenty-first century. -- H-Net Reviews

This book deserves praise for offering a fascinating insight into a significant piece of modern history." -- Los Angeles Times

This well researched and gripping collection of essays will become a standard work on the subject. -- Antony Polonsky, Albert Abramson Professor of Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Brandeis University

About the Author

Joshua D. Zimmerman is an assistant professor of East European Jewish History at Yeshiva University, where he holds the Eli and Diana Zborowski Chair in Holocaust Studies. He is the author of the forthcoming title Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: The Jewish Labor Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Czarist Russia, 1892-1914.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (January 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813531586
• ISBN-13: 978-0813531588
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,943,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better Than Most, But Repeats Common Generalizations, March 10, 2004

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath (Hardcover)

This book mixes historical facts and stereotyped generalizations. Owing to space limitations, only a few of the latter can be reviewed. The prewar economic boycotts and numerus clausus at universities are mentioned, but not the fact that Polish Jews, at 10% of the Polish population, owned over 40% of Poland's wealth, and were over-represented at universities. These anti-Jewish policies were, using modern parlance, a form of affirmative action designed to get more Polish gentiles into Jewish-dominated institutions.

Although Poland was only one of two German-occupied nations in which the death penalty was imposed for aiding Jews, certain writers (cited by Zimmerman) have attempted to minimize its significance by disingenuously arguing that it didn't decisively constrain Polish behavior. But concealing an inanimate object (e. g., a gun) is far less risky than hiding a human being! We keep hearing that Poles did not "do enough" to save Jews. But who is to be the judge of this, and on what basis is the judgment to be made? As for Poles having failed a moral test, this additionally implies the uniqueness of Jewish suffering, a view that did not develop until long after WWII. How was the average Pole, trying to survive under the lash of the Germans, realize that his conduct would be subject to an ex post facto moralization? No convincing evidence is presented to support reflexive claims that Poles were disinclined to help Jews owing to prewar attitudes (and church teachings). In fact, the acknowledged anti-Semitic beliefs of many rescuers of Jews argue for the opposite.

Polish inaction towards the Jews is simplistically generalized as indifference. Polish help to Jews, Zegota aside, is characterized as "only individual and unorganized". Yet discussion of Zegota (Pawlikowski) makes it clear that the Germans would only have more easily penetrated a larger underground rescue network. Furthermore, substantially more Polish assistance to Jews would have triggered a correspondingly greater German terror against the Polish population with little net additional saving of Jewish lives. Complaints about the AK (Polish Home Army) lacking a systematic program for aiding fugitive Jews are misunderstandings. It was a clandestine guerrilla organization, devoted to military objectives and, exceptions aside, unable to save individual Jewish (or Polish) lives. Poles outside of the AK wanting to fight procured arms themselves, never waiting for outside assistance or "moral support" [for instance, the Peasant Battalions combating draconian German colonization, and rural Poles of Volhynia thwarting genocidal attacks by the UPA (so-called Ukrainian Insurgent Army)]. The AK did not become involved until later.

The usual inaction of Poles and occasional betrayal of Jews is portrayed as a violation that provoked a degree of Jewish pain and anger incapable of being assuaged by the actions of those Poles who did assist Jews. But could not the same be said about Polish reactions to earlier long-term comparable Jewish behaviors? Bearing in mind that loyalty is the expected conduct, the sacrifices of patriotic Polish Jews could not counterbalance the actions of a large fraction of Polish Jews who acted indifferently to Poland's centuries-long struggle for independence, and even supported Poland's enemies. While this book touches on the latter (Lwow 1918, disproportionate Jewish involvement in Communism 1939-1947) it fails to inform the reader about the significant pro-Russian orientation of Polish Jews going far back into the 19th century.

Recurrent charges of Poles turning in or killing fugitive Jews neglect a number of factors, one of which is the latter's significant involvement in the plunder (and sometimes murder) of Polish villagers. Contrary to Krakowski's claims, Jewish (and, for that matter, also gentile) banditry was very real, and subject to Polish counter-action.

The Jedwabne massacre is presented uncritically, along with the citation of some Polish authors who lament "the loss of Polish victimhood and innocence". But are Poland's centuries of tragic history so easily disposed of? And how many tens of Jedwabnes would be needed to rival the number of Jews killed by Horthy's Hungary or Petain's France? Pinchuk objects, on the basis of the fact that Jews were killed indiscriminately, to the notion of Jedwabne being Polish revenge for the recent Jewish-Soviet collaboration. But the Poles sent earlier to horrible slavery and death in Siberia, largely facilitated by Jewish denunciations, were hardly limited to those Poles guilty in Jewish eyes, and included numerous children. Finally, the evidence does not support Gross' storytelling. There were 200-400 Jewish victims, not 1,600. Very likely, the Germans orchestrated this atrocity, with the Poles relegated to a compelled subsidiary role (perhaps 40 Poles, certainly not "half the town"). Who actually torched the barn is unclear.

Perhaps the weakest part of this book is the rather superficial treatment of continued mutual Jewish-Polish prejudices (Gitelman), with no factoring of its extreme asymmetry. When a Pole makes negative comments about Jews, his audience is relatively small and almost always Polish. In contrast, a vast, diverse audience was exposed to the Polonophobic remarks of such prominent Jews as Carole Burnett, Alan Dershowitz, Yitzhak Shamir, Eppie Lederer (Ann Landers), etc. The Polack joke syndrome is mentioned, but not its origin from Jewish comedians. No mention is made of the usual anti-Polish slant of Holocaust-related films. (The Pianist is the exception that proves the rule. Free of Pole-bashing, it was widely criticized by Jewish commentators for this reason). The widely acclaimed educational cartoon Maus has pigs representing Poles, an inexcusable choice, while comparatively innocuous animals (cats, mice, etc.) represent all other nationalities. British scholar Norman Davies was denied tenure at Stanford University, as a result of Jewish pressure, all because of the opinion that he was "too pro-Polish".

The persistence of Polish anti-Semitism is simplistically attributed to the continued presence of negative characterizations of Jews in the Polish language, even though such characterizations, unfortunately, are virtually universal (e. g., the phrase "To Jew someone down" in the English language). Clearly, this book leaves much to be desired.

8 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Important Book that You will Read on this Subject, April 11, 2003

By 

Lisa Gitelson (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath (Hardcover)

The continuing debate between historians as to how to view the invasion of Poland and the Holocaust is perfectly expressed in this collection of essays. A must read for any historian, or anyone with an interest in the subject.