Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz
Encyclopedia
Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz: An Essay in Historical Interpretation, is a book by Jan T. Gross
, published by Random House
and Princeton University Press
in 2006. An edited Polish version was published in 2008 by Znak Publishers
in Krakow
as Strach: antysemityzm w Polsce tuż po wojnie: historia moralnej zapaści ("Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland shortly after the war: the history of a moral fall"). In the book, Gross explores the issues concerning incidents of post-war anti-Jewish violence in Poland
, with particular focus on the 1946 Kielce pogrom
. Fear has received international attention and reviews in major newspapers; it has also been the subject of criticism.
version of Fear with a chapter summarizing the devastation
of Poland
during World War II
, including the physical destruction of Poland's Jews
; the initial partition of the country
between Stalin and Hitler; the subsequent Nazi crimes
; the Katyn massacre
of Polish army officers by the Soviets; the Warsaw uprising
of 1944; the Soviet decision to postpone their advance until the German army had defeated the Polish Armia Krajowa
, which resulted in the total destruction of Warsaw
and the abandonment of Poland
by Britain and America at the Yalta Conference
, knowingly consigning it to Soviet communist domination.
Gross estimates that approximately 250,000 Polish Jews returned home at the end of the war. In his chapter "The Unwelcoming of Jewish Survivors," Gross describes how returning Polish Jews were subjected to a wave of violence and hostility, with up to 1500 murdered either individually or in pogroms. Often they would find their property occupied by non-Jewish Poles or taken over by the communist government, which nationalized
much of the Polish economy. According to Gross, the expropriation of Jewish property continued a trend that occurred throughout the war years, with non-Jewish Poles acquiring the property of Polish Jews
who were sent off to extermination camps, and in some instances, carrying out the killings themselves. Gross describes how the looting of property extended to digging through the ashes of Treblinka
for gold fillings. He discusses the alienation, hostile atmosphere, and violence experienced by some Jews and the inability of Polish elites to prevent it. Gross makes additional claims about the Kielce pogrom
, arguing that the crime was initiated not by a mob, but by the police, and that it involved people from every walk of life except the highest level of government officials in the city.
According to a Piast Institute
's online summary, Gross concludes by writing that some Poles, especially in rural areas, participated in the Nazi wartime effort to annihilate and despoil the Jews, and this was the cause of postwar anti-Semitism
in Poland. The fear of punishment for their own crimes, according to Gross, was what drove them to continue attacking Jews after the war. Historian David Engel
describes the following quote as a "summation of [Gross'] basic thesis:"
The Polish
version of Fear differed from its English language original because Gross assumed that his Polish readers were familiar with the tragic history of wartime Poland. The first chapter of the English version was replaced by a chapter documenting Polish awareness of the German Nazi genocide of the Jews. Fear includes several photographs taken by Julia Pirotte
.
, The Washington Post
, the Los Angeles Times
, and the Boston Globe.
David Margolick
writing in New York Times Book Review, took issue with Gross' thesis that the murders of Jews in post-war Poland was inspired by feelings of guilt on the part of Poles, positing instead that perhaps "through their own state-of-the-art anti-Semitism, the Germans emboldened many Poles to act upon what they had always felt," taking as credible "Nazi accounts of Judenjagd, or 'Jew hunts,' [which] detailed how Poles pitched in to find any stray Jews the Germans somehow managed to miss."
Elie Wiesel
, reviewing the book in The Washington Post
, rejected the notion of collective guilt for all of Poland but noted that Gross' book impels Poland to confront its past. In response to Wiesel's review, Polish-Jewish journalist Adam Michnik
wrote in a leading Polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza
(of which he is editor-in-chief), that "Wiesel's review conveys the image of a country unable to confront the plague of anti-Semitism... Anyone who writes about anti-Semitism in Poland and ignores those facts, falsifies — even if unintentionally — the truth about Poland." The Washington Post printed a letter to the editor by Janusz Reiter
, the Polish ambassador to the United States, who cited Michnik.
Thane Rosenbaum
, reviewing Fear for the Los Angeles Times
, wrote that the book "should inspire a national reflection on why there are scarcely any Jews left in Poland.
Deborah E. Lipstadt wrote in Publishers Weekly
that Gross "builds a meticulous case."
David Engel
wrote that, unlike Gross' earlier work Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland
, in which Gross posited a continuity in the actions of a community of people over generations, in Fear "Gross himself appears to have bracketed off the Nazi era from the longer course of Polish history and by doing so to have altered the terms for reflecting on transgenerational Polish responsibility for past deeds that he set forth in his earlier work." Engel wrote that Gross now sees World War II as a radical break in the history of Polish behavior towards Jews.
The Piast Institute
, a Polish-American think tank
, published a broader analysis of Fear and its reception. While the institute was critical of the book itself, it also criticized some of the reviews in popular press: "reviewers in major newspapers such as The New York Times
, The Baltimore Sun
and the Los Angeles Times
, none of whom has any expertise in Polish or East Central European history, have reacted to the book with uncritical acclaim and considerable anti-Polish rhetoric. As such, it is clear already that Fear will have a serious and negative effect on Polish-Jewish relations
."
described as a "right wing backlash;" with the book coming under strong criticism by Polish historians, nationalists, and the country's conservative establishment. Polish rabbi Burt Schuman
, quoted in Der Spiegel, said he welcomed the debate Fear had begun, but described the book as unfairly depicting the country as anti-Semitic thus "harming our goal of reconciliation."
Marek Edelman
, a Jewish leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
against the Nazis, responded to the book by stating that postwar violence against Jews was "not about anti-Semitism... Murdering Jews was pure banditry, and I wouldn't explain it as anti-Semitism... It was contempt for man, for human life, plain meanness. A bandit doesn't attack someone who is stronger, like military troops, but where he sees weakness."
Anita J. Prazmowska
, Professor in International History at the London School for Economics, has described the debate over Gross' book in Poland as "driven by historians with a nationalist agenda that they have pursued since the end of Communism," an agenda in which Jews are portrayed as antagonistic to the existence and interests of the Polish nation and in which their claims to a Polish identity are negated in order to portray communism as an alien creed.
In a letter to the Polish publishers of Fear, Znak, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, secretary to the late Pope John Paul II, said Gross' book "awakened the demon" of anti-Semitism. A Znak spokesperson responded to the complaint by asserting that the issues should be talked about. Znak spokesman Tomasz Miedzik told Der Spiegel "We have the freedom to ask difficult questions about our history and we should do that."
In a televised discussion with Gross, historian Andrzej Paczkowski
expressed his discomfort about the speed with which Gross makes generalizations. "Memory and history are two different things," Paczkowski said. "Memory is black and white while history is about shades of gray."
Fear has been criticized by historians such as Paweł Machcewicz
, Piotr Gontarczyk
, Thaddeus Radzilowski
, Janusz Kurtyka
, Dariusz Stola, and Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
. Gross has been accused of using imperfect methodology
, making generalizations, stereotyping, ignoring works which did not confirm his views, neglecting the wider context of the events in that Jews were not a unique subject of persecution and banditry which occurred throughout postwar Europe, misinterpreting or distorting data, relying mostly on Jewish sources, using inflammatory and emotional language, and drawing unsubstantiated conclusions. The book quotes alleged Józef Kuraś
' diary, fabricated by Communist activist and journalist Władysław Machejek.
Janusz Kurtyka
, the president of the Institute of National Remembrance
, in an interview with journalist Konrad Piasecki, stated that Fear has serious methodological errors and omissions and that it makes emotive use of political epithets, and therefore will not be accepted — even conditionally — in the historical community.
Marcin Zaremba, a historian at Warsaw University, described Fear as an important publication. Zaremba told Network Europe radio that he "agree[d] with [Gross'] argument that Poles had their share in the Holocaust," and that "anti-Semitism was a kind of cultural code which Poles used at that time, and that Jews were not responsible for the introduction of communist rule in Poland."
In response to the coverage of Fear in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita
, Marek Beylin, a columnist for the competing daily Gazeta Wyborcza
, called for a "sincere debate about the dark secrets of the Polish past."
Feliks Tych
, head of Warsaw's Jewish Historical Institute
, criticized Gross for being more of a judge than an analyst, neglecting the impact of the post-war collapse of state institutions, and selectively using facts to support his thesis. Tych also said that "after [Gross'] book, it is no longer possible to escape from the question why there were killings of Jews after the war, and that is his undeniable achievement."
Polish prosecutors reviewed accusations that Fear is slanderous against the Polish nation, but rejected the claims and refused to launch an investigation. The fact that such requests were made became the subject of additional media controversy. The article of the Polish law that allowed the case to be made in the first place has been criticized by some as infringing upon the right to free speech and will be reviewed by the Polish Constitutional Court.
Gross' book was denounced at a special church service held in February 2008 at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
in Kraków
. The gathering, which was organized by the Committee Against Defamation of the Church and For Polishness and the Catholic radio station Radio Maryja
and attended by 1,000 people, was described as having strong overtones of anti-semitism. The event and its organizers have been criticized by the Polish press and Church officials, including the Vatican, for anti-Semitic overtones and for allowing a Roman Catholic church to be used as a stage for an impromptu political debate.
Jan T. Gross
Jan Tomasz Gross is a Polish-American historian and sociologist. He is the Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 Professor of War and Society and Professor of History at Princeton University.- Biography :Jan T...
, published by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
and Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press
-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
in 2006. An edited Polish version was published in 2008 by Znak Publishers
Znak (publisher)
Znak is one of the largest Polish book publishing companies. Founded in 1959 and related to the Catholic Church in Poland, it has grown since 1989. It publishes about 150 titles a year, and employs about 70 people....
in Krakow
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
as Strach: antysemityzm w Polsce tuż po wojnie: historia moralnej zapaści ("Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland shortly after the war: the history of a moral fall"). In the book, Gross explores the issues concerning incidents of post-war anti-Jewish violence in Poland
Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944-1946
Anti-Jewish Violence In Poland, 1944–1946 refers to a series of violent incidents that immediately followed the end of the Second World War in Poland and influenced postwar history of Jews as well as Polish Jewish relations. The exact number of Jewish victims is a subject of debate, but the range...
, with particular focus on the 1946 Kielce pogrom
Kielce pogrom
The Kielce pogrom was an outbreak of violence against the Jewish community in the city of Kielce, Poland on July 4, 1946, perpetrated by a mob of local townsfolk and members of the official government forces of the People's Republic of Poland...
. Fear has received international attention and reviews in major newspapers; it has also been the subject of criticism.
Content
Gross begins the EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
version of Fear with a chapter summarizing the devastation
Occupation of Poland
Occupation of Poland may refer to:* Partitions of Poland * The German Government General of Warsaw and the Austrian Military Government of Lublin during World War I* Occupation of Poland during World War II...
of Poland
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, including the physical destruction of Poland's Jews
Holocaust in Poland
The Holocaust, also known as haShoah , was a genocide officially sanctioned and executed by the Third Reich during World War II. It took the lives of three million Polish Jews, destroying an entire civilization. Only a small percentage survived or managed to escape beyond the reach of the Nazis...
; the initial partition of the country
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
between Stalin and Hitler; the subsequent Nazi crimes
Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles
In addition to about 2.9 million Polish Jews , about 2.8 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished during the course of the war...
; the Katyn massacre
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
of Polish army officers by the Soviets; the Warsaw uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
of 1944; the Soviet decision to postpone their advance until the German army had defeated the Polish Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
, which resulted in the total destruction of Warsaw
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
and the abandonment of Poland
Western betrayal
Western betrayal, also called Yalta betrayal, refers to a range of critical views concerning the foreign policies of several Western countries between approximately 1919 and 1968 regarding Eastern Europe and Central Europe...
by Britain and America at the Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
, knowingly consigning it to Soviet communist domination.
Gross estimates that approximately 250,000 Polish Jews returned home at the end of the war. In his chapter "The Unwelcoming of Jewish Survivors," Gross describes how returning Polish Jews were subjected to a wave of violence and hostility, with up to 1500 murdered either individually or in pogroms. Often they would find their property occupied by non-Jewish Poles or taken over by the communist government, which nationalized
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
much of the Polish economy. According to Gross, the expropriation of Jewish property continued a trend that occurred throughout the war years, with non-Jewish Poles acquiring the property of Polish Jews
History of the Jews in Poland
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...
who were sent off to extermination camps, and in some instances, carrying out the killings themselves. Gross describes how the looting of property extended to digging through the ashes of Treblinka
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
for gold fillings. He discusses the alienation, hostile atmosphere, and violence experienced by some Jews and the inability of Polish elites to prevent it. Gross makes additional claims about the Kielce pogrom
Kielce pogrom
The Kielce pogrom was an outbreak of violence against the Jewish community in the city of Kielce, Poland on July 4, 1946, perpetrated by a mob of local townsfolk and members of the official government forces of the People's Republic of Poland...
, arguing that the crime was initiated not by a mob, but by the police, and that it involved people from every walk of life except the highest level of government officials in the city.
According to a Piast Institute
Piast Institute
The Piast Institute is a national research institute for Polish and Polish-American affairs based in Hamtramck, Michigan in the United States, a suburb of Detroit. The Institute was founded in 2003 by Dr. Thaddeus Radzilowski and Mrs. Virginia Skrzyniarz...
's online summary, Gross concludes by writing that some Poles, especially in rural areas, participated in the Nazi wartime effort to annihilate and despoil the Jews, and this was the cause of postwar anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
in Poland. The fear of punishment for their own crimes, according to Gross, was what drove them to continue attacking Jews after the war. Historian David Engel
David Engel
David Engel is an American historian and Professor of Holocaust and Judaic Studies at New York University. Dr. Engel holds a Ph.D...
describes the following quote as a "summation of [Gross'] basic thesis:"
We must seek the reasons for the novel, virulent quality of postwar anti-Semitism in Poland not in collective hallucinations nor in prewar attitudes, but in actual experiences acquired during the war years.... Living Jews embodied the massive failure of character and reason on the part of their Polish neighbors and constituted by mere presence both a reminder and a threat that they might need to account for themselves.
The Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
version of Fear differed from its English language original because Gross assumed that his Polish readers were familiar with the tragic history of wartime Poland. The first chapter of the English version was replaced by a chapter documenting Polish awareness of the German Nazi genocide of the Jews. Fear includes several photographs taken by Julia Pirotte
Julia Pirotte
Julia Pirotte was a photojournalist known for her work in Marseille during the Second World War when she documented the French Resistance, and for photographs taken in the aftermath of the Kielce Pogrom of 1946....
.
United States
Fear received praise in reviews in a number of popular American magazines and newspapers including The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, and the Boston Globe.
David Margolick
David Margolick
David Margolick is a long-time contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Margolick has held similar positions at Newsweek and Portfolio. Prior to joining Vanity Fair he was a legal affairs reporter at The New York Times, where he wrote the weekly “At the Bar" column and covered the trials of O.J....
writing in New York Times Book Review, took issue with Gross' thesis that the murders of Jews in post-war Poland was inspired by feelings of guilt on the part of Poles, positing instead that perhaps "through their own state-of-the-art anti-Semitism, the Germans emboldened many Poles to act upon what they had always felt," taking as credible "Nazi accounts of Judenjagd, or 'Jew hunts,' [which] detailed how Poles pitched in to find any stray Jews the Germans somehow managed to miss."
Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, reviewing the book in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, rejected the notion of collective guilt for all of Poland but noted that Gross' book impels Poland to confront its past. In response to Wiesel's review, Polish-Jewish journalist Adam Michnik
Adam Michnik
Adam Michnik is the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, where he sometimes writes under the pen-names of Andrzej Zagozda or Andrzej Jagodziński. In 1966–1989 he was one of the leading organizers of the illegal, democratic opposition in Poland...
wrote in a leading Polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza is a leading Polish newspaper. It covers the gamut of political, international and general news. Like all the Polish newspapers, it is printed on compact-sized paper, and is published by the multimedia corporation Agora SA...
(of which he is editor-in-chief), that "Wiesel's review conveys the image of a country unable to confront the plague of anti-Semitism... Anyone who writes about anti-Semitism in Poland and ignores those facts, falsifies — even if unintentionally — the truth about Poland." The Washington Post printed a letter to the editor by Janusz Reiter
Janusz Reiter
Janusz Reiter is a Polish diplomat. Former Solidarity activist and editor of certain opposition magazines for seven years during communist rule in Poland, director of the Center for International Relations, Poland. From 1990 to 1995, he was Poland's ambassador to Germany. He was the Polish...
, the Polish ambassador to the United States, who cited Michnik.
Thane Rosenbaum
Thane Rosenbaum
Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, and law professor . He is the author of two novels, The Golems of Gotham and Second Hand Smoke , and a collection of short stories, Elijah Visible Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, and law professor (http://thanerosenbaum.com/). He is the author of...
, reviewing Fear for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, wrote that the book "should inspire a national reflection on why there are scarcely any Jews left in Poland.
Deborah E. Lipstadt wrote in Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
that Gross "builds a meticulous case."
David Engel
David Engel
David Engel is an American historian and Professor of Holocaust and Judaic Studies at New York University. Dr. Engel holds a Ph.D...
wrote that, unlike Gross' earlier work Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland
Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland
Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland is a 2001 book by Princeton University historian Jan T. Gross exploring the July 1941 Jedwabne massacre committed against Polish Jews in a village in Nazi-occupied Poland by their long-time neighbors.-Content and controversy:The...
, in which Gross posited a continuity in the actions of a community of people over generations, in Fear "Gross himself appears to have bracketed off the Nazi era from the longer course of Polish history and by doing so to have altered the terms for reflecting on transgenerational Polish responsibility for past deeds that he set forth in his earlier work." Engel wrote that Gross now sees World War II as a radical break in the history of Polish behavior towards Jews.
The Piast Institute
Piast Institute
The Piast Institute is a national research institute for Polish and Polish-American affairs based in Hamtramck, Michigan in the United States, a suburb of Detroit. The Institute was founded in 2003 by Dr. Thaddeus Radzilowski and Mrs. Virginia Skrzyniarz...
, a Polish-American think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
, published a broader analysis of Fear and its reception. While the institute was critical of the book itself, it also criticized some of the reviews in popular press: "reviewers in major newspapers such as The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, none of whom has any expertise in Polish or East Central European history, have reacted to the book with uncritical acclaim and considerable anti-Polish rhetoric. As such, it is clear already that Fear will have a serious and negative effect on Polish-Jewish relations
Jewish Polish current events
- 1989-present :With the fall of Communism in Poland, Jewish cultural, social, and religious life has been undergoing a revival. Many historical issues, especially related to World War II and the 1944-1989 period, suppressed by Communist censorship has been reevaluated and publicly discussed -...
."
Poland
In Poland Fear caused controversy and what the German magazine Der SpiegelDer Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
described as a "right wing backlash;" with the book coming under strong criticism by Polish historians, nationalists, and the country's conservative establishment. Polish rabbi Burt Schuman
Burt Schuman
Burt Schuman is the first Polish postwar rabbi of Reform Judaism. Originally from New York, NY, Rabbi Schuman spent 11 years as the rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Altoona, Pennsylvania.-External links:*...
, quoted in Der Spiegel, said he welcomed the debate Fear had begun, but described the book as unfairly depicting the country as anti-Semitic thus "harming our goal of reconciliation."
Marek Edelman
Marek Edelman
Marek Edelman was a Jewish-Polish political and social activist and cardiologist.Before World War II, he was a General Jewish Labour Bund activist. During the war he co-founded the Jewish Combat Organization. He took part in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, becoming its leader after the death of...
, a Jewish leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
against the Nazis, responded to the book by stating that postwar violence against Jews was "not about anti-Semitism... Murdering Jews was pure banditry, and I wouldn't explain it as anti-Semitism... It was contempt for man, for human life, plain meanness. A bandit doesn't attack someone who is stronger, like military troops, but where he sees weakness."
Anita J. Prazmowska
Anita J. Prazmowska
Anita J. Prazmowska is a Professor in International History at the London School of Economics. Her main fields of research interests lie in the Cold War, communism, contemporary history, Eastern Europe, fascism and Poland. She has published several books, and journals...
, Professor in International History at the London School for Economics, has described the debate over Gross' book in Poland as "driven by historians with a nationalist agenda that they have pursued since the end of Communism," an agenda in which Jews are portrayed as antagonistic to the existence and interests of the Polish nation and in which their claims to a Polish identity are negated in order to portray communism as an alien creed.
In a letter to the Polish publishers of Fear, Znak, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, secretary to the late Pope John Paul II, said Gross' book "awakened the demon" of anti-Semitism. A Znak spokesperson responded to the complaint by asserting that the issues should be talked about. Znak spokesman Tomasz Miedzik told Der Spiegel "We have the freedom to ask difficult questions about our history and we should do that."
In a televised discussion with Gross, historian Andrzej Paczkowski
Andrzej Paczkowski
Prof. Andrzej Paczkowski is a Polish historian. Professor of Collegium Civitas, director of Modern History Studies in the Political Institute of Polish Academy of Sciences, member of Collegium of Institute of National Remembrance.In 1960 he finished studies at the history department of the...
expressed his discomfort about the speed with which Gross makes generalizations. "Memory and history are two different things," Paczkowski said. "Memory is black and white while history is about shades of gray."
Fear has been criticized by historians such as Paweł Machcewicz
Paweł Machcewicz
Paweł Machcewicz is a Polish historian and university professor.-Biography:Machcewicz graduated in 1989 from the Department of History at the University of Warsaw. In 1990 he became a research analyst at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences...
, Piotr Gontarczyk
Piotr Gontarczyk
Piotr Gontarczyk is a Polish historian with a doctorate in history and political science.Gontarczyk is employed by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance and specializes in history of the Polish communist movement during the World War II and in contemporary history...
, Thaddeus Radzilowski
Thaddeus Radzilowski
Thaddeus C. Radzilowski or Tadeusz Radziłowski is an award-winning Polish-American historian, scholar, author, professor and co-founder of the Piast Institute, a national institute for Polish and Polish-American affairs. Dr. Radzilowski's work has focused on Poland and other Central and Eastern...
, Janusz Kurtyka
Janusz Kurtyka
Janusz Marek Kurtyka was a Polish historian, and from December 2005 until his death in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash, the second president of the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej ....
, Dariusz Stola, and Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz is a Polish-American historian specializing in East Central European history of the 19th and 20th century. His historical works include: After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Relations in the Wake of World War II, and Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland...
. Gross has been accused of using imperfect methodology
Methodology
Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...
, making generalizations, stereotyping, ignoring works which did not confirm his views, neglecting the wider context of the events in that Jews were not a unique subject of persecution and banditry which occurred throughout postwar Europe, misinterpreting or distorting data, relying mostly on Jewish sources, using inflammatory and emotional language, and drawing unsubstantiated conclusions. The book quotes alleged Józef Kuraś
Józef Kuras
Józef Kuraś, born in 1915 in Waksmund, was a lieutenant in the Polish Army who fought in the Polish September Campaign, a partisan of Armia Krajowa and Bataliony Chłopskie in the Podhale region and after World War II one of the leaders of anticommunist resistance...
' diary, fabricated by Communist activist and journalist Władysław Machejek.
Janusz Kurtyka
Janusz Kurtyka
Janusz Marek Kurtyka was a Polish historian, and from December 2005 until his death in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash, the second president of the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej ....
, the president of the Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
, in an interview with journalist Konrad Piasecki, stated that Fear has serious methodological errors and omissions and that it makes emotive use of political epithets, and therefore will not be accepted — even conditionally — in the historical community.
Marcin Zaremba, a historian at Warsaw University, described Fear as an important publication. Zaremba told Network Europe radio that he "agree[d] with [Gross'] argument that Poles had their share in the Holocaust," and that "anti-Semitism was a kind of cultural code which Poles used at that time, and that Jews were not responsible for the introduction of communist rule in Poland."
In response to the coverage of Fear in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita
Rzeczpospolita
Rzeczpospolita is a traditional name of the Polish State, usually referred to as Rzeczpospolita Polska . It comes from the words: "rzecz" and "pospolita" , literally, a "common thing". It comes from latin word "respublica", meaning simply "republic"...
, Marek Beylin, a columnist for the competing daily Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza is a leading Polish newspaper. It covers the gamut of political, international and general news. Like all the Polish newspapers, it is printed on compact-sized paper, and is published by the multimedia corporation Agora SA...
, called for a "sincere debate about the dark secrets of the Polish past."
Feliks Tych
Feliks Tych
Feliks Tych is a Polish-Jewish historian and a professor. Tych is Director of the Jewish Historical Institute , member of the Council of Science of the Polish Academy of Science, and a member of the editors committee of the Polish Biographical Dictionary.-References:...
, head of Warsaw's Jewish Historical Institute
Jewish Historical Institute
The Jewish Historical Institute is a research institute in Warsaw, Poland, primarily dealing with the history of Jews in Poland.The Jewish Historical Institute was created in 1947 as a continuation of the Central Jewish Historical Commission, founded in 1944. The Jewish Historical Institute...
, criticized Gross for being more of a judge than an analyst, neglecting the impact of the post-war collapse of state institutions, and selectively using facts to support his thesis. Tych also said that "after [Gross'] book, it is no longer possible to escape from the question why there were killings of Jews after the war, and that is his undeniable achievement."
Polish prosecutors reviewed accusations that Fear is slanderous against the Polish nation, but rejected the claims and refused to launch an investigation. The fact that such requests were made became the subject of additional media controversy. The article of the Polish law that allowed the case to be made in the first place has been criticized by some as infringing upon the right to free speech and will be reviewed by the Polish Constitutional Court.
Gross' book was denounced at a special church service held in February 2008 at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a Roman Catholic church of the Jesuits in Kraków.-Architecture:This monumental Jesuit Church erected from 1909 to 1921 to a design by Franciszek Maczyński...
in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
. The gathering, which was organized by the Committee Against Defamation of the Church and For Polishness and the Catholic radio station Radio Maryja
Radio Maryja
Radio Maryja is a Polish religious, conservative, anti-post-Communist and pro-life Roman Catholic radio station and media group, describing itself as patriotic. It was founded in Toruń, Poland, on December 9, 1991 and has been run since its inception by the Redemptorist rector doctor Tadeusz...
and attended by 1,000 people, was described as having strong overtones of anti-semitism. The event and its organizers have been criticized by the Polish press and Church officials, including the Vatican, for anti-Semitic overtones and for allowing a Roman Catholic church to be used as a stage for an impromptu political debate.
See also
- History of the Jews in PolandHistory of the Jews in PolandThe history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...
- Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland
- Polish Righteous among the NationsPolish Righteous among the NationsPolish citizens have the world's highest count of individuals awarded medals of Righteous among the Nations, given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who saved Jews from extermination during the Holocaust...
Further reading
- David Engel, On Continuity and Discontinuity in Polish-Jewish Relations: Observations on Fear: Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz—An Essay in Historical Interpretation by Jan T. Gross. New York: Random House, 2006, East European Politics & Societies, Vol. 21, No. 3, 534-548 (2007), http://eep.sagepub.com/cgi/content/citation/21/3/534
External links
- Book on Polish anti-Semitism sparks fury USA Today, January 24, 2008.
- Chasing Away the Memory of Guilt: The End of Jewish Life in Poland H-Net review of Fear
- "Polish criminal investigation into the book Fear" European Jewish Press
- Fear and Slander in Poland. Anti-Semitism Book Could Land Historian in Jail. Siobhán Dowling, Spiegel International, January 18, 2008.