Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: All
“Beyond the effects of the economic situation, the Jews of Poland were the object of outright anti-Semitism. It found expression in every social class and wherever social intercourse took place, and it grew especially virulent during the 1930s as a result of domestic developments and the influence of Nazi anti-Semitism from abroad. Nothing was done to halt the anti-Jewish riots or the assaults on Jewish property, synagogues, and persons. By the same token, anti-Semitism found its way into the country's economic, social, and cultural life. In 1921, for example, Jewish students composed 24.6 percent of the student population in Poland: by 1938 only one-third of this number remained. Similarly, it was not by chance that the number of Jews employed in industry was so small. For quite a while before Hitler's rise to power in neighboring Germany, the Polish government had aspired to purge the economy of Jews—beginning in those sectors controlled by the state through a system of economic concentration known as etatism. As a rule, Jewish workers could find jobs only with Jewish employers, and there were few Jewish industrialists. When Poland was hit by massive unemployment, the authorities instituted a system of welfare allowances from which most of the jobless Jews derived no benefit because they belonged to the lowest classification of laborers, who were not compensated for the loss of their livelihood. Thus the economic condition of the Jewish masses steadily declined. The eligibility of Jews to join the free professions was increasingly restricted, and in 1938 the legal profession was closed to them altogether. A quota was placed on the number of Jews permitted to study in Polish secondary schools, while the government ignored the commitment (stipulated by the Versailles treaty) {the victorious WWI allies tried in vain to persuade Poland to abandon it's historic anti-Semitism as a condition for statehood} to fund independent Jewish education...” it goes on and on.

—”The Holocaust” by Leni Yahil 1987 pages 189-190

The 1930s fascist oppression of the Jews in Poland was a one step behind copy of Nazi Germany. The SS Realtors looking for friendly country to construct mass murder industrial complexes knew where to look because even though anti-Semitism was common in 1930s Europe, Poland was enabler perfect.
Poland is a great country and Poles are a great people—what they did to help Reagan bring down the Evil Empire can never be over appreciated. BUT as far as the Holocaust is concerned, they sucked big time...no spin just fact.

39 posted on 01/08/2013 12:57:48 PM PST by Happy Rain ("Banning guns over Adam Lanza would be like banning speech over Bill Maher.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies ]


To: Happy Rain
There are things that are questionable in the quote you cite: that few Jews worked in industry and that there were few Jewish industrialists, for example.

There was prejudice against Jews and some of the governments acted upon it. But Poland was a poor country. There was also a more general move towards state industries and a depression at the time that had effects on society as a whole.

There were different parties and ideologies and sectors of the population with different attitudes, and not all govermnents pursued a single policy.

No one questions that Polish history in the 1930s was difficult and at times shameful, but your own claims and language are exaggerated and inflammatory. Most historians realize that things were more complicated than you claim.

41 posted on 01/08/2013 1:43:41 PM PST by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies ]

To: Happy Rain

As always things are more complex than they appear on the surface.

There were two major forces in Poland in the early 30s, Sanacja, which was headed by Marshall Pilsudski, and Endecja, headed by Roman Dmorwski.

Pilsudski’s death in 1935 brought about the rise of the Endecja, and with it the harsher treatment of Jews in Poland......But if anything, they hated the Germans even more than the Jews, which explains why despite the shared anti-semitism, cooperation with the the Nazis would have been impossible. There was no “Vichy Poland.”


43 posted on 01/08/2013 2:59:41 PM PST by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson