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Polish & Jewish Relations: Full Course
CP330
| WED |
| 7 |
| MAR |
Mini Series held in partnership with the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies
7 March
Polish & Jewish Relations During World War Two with Antony Polonsky
14 March
Polish & Jewish Relations Since World War Two with Antony Polonsky
21 March
Polish & Jewish Relations - A Personal Perspective - Ben Helfgott - in Conversation with Trudy Gold
28 March
Polish and Jewish Relations - Into the 21st Century - with Kate Gerrard
_______________________________________________________________
7 March
Polish & Jewish Relations During World War Two with Antony Polonsky
14 March
Polish & Jewish Relations Since World War Two with Antony Polonsky
In the Jewish world, Poland has often been seen as a by-word for anti-semitism. In the view of many Jews, the independent Polish state which emerged after the first world war waged an increasingly successful campaign against its Jewish minority of over three million people (ten per cent of the country's population). On the eve of the second world war, a majority of Polish political parties held the view that the only 'solution' to the country's 'Jewish problem' lay in the emigration of the bulk of its Jewish community. During the second world war, most Poles were indifferent to the fate of the Jews and a minority actively cooperated in the anti-Jewish genocide carried out by the Nazis. Even after the war, in which more than ninety per cent of Polish Jewry perished, anti-semitism remained strong and the immediate post-war period was characterised by large-scale anti-Jewish violence. The worst incident was the pogrom in the town of Kielce on 4 July 1946, when a mob incited by fears that the local Jews had kidnapped a Christian child, murdered 42 Jews. Most Jewish survivors now fled Poland, but the country remained plagued by the phenomenon of 'anti-semitism without Jews'.
Most Poles reject this analysis as one-sided and over-simplified. Jews settled in Poland when they were persecuted elsewhere and created on Polish soil a unique Jewish civilization. By the end of the eighteenth century, over a third of all Jews in the world lived in Poland. Polish-Jewish relations were exacerbated by foreign rule in the nineteenth century, when the powers which had partitioned Poland, above all the Russians, applied the well-known tactic of 'divide and rule' and set Poles and Jews against each other. In the interwar period, the problems of the Jews resulted far more from the poverty of Poland and the impact of the Great Depression than from official or popular anti-semitism. Jewish accusations that the Poles failed to help them during the Nazi occupation fail to take into account the scale of Nazi terror and the isolation of the Jews which the Nazis created. In the post-war period, it was the communists who exploited the Jewish issue, both to compromise their democratic opponents and to obtain legitimacy in the eyes of Polish society.
Professor Polonsky’s two lectures will attempt to examine how these two diametrically opposed views of Polish-Jewish relations have come to be current and how much truth lies behind the stereotypes.
28 March Polish and Jewish Relations - Into the 21st Century - with Kate Gerrard
This session will offer a conclusion to the mini-series by bringing the issues surrounding Polish-Jewish relations up to the present day. Focusing mainly on the example of Krakow, the session will consider what the contemporary Polish-Jewish context means for the future of Polish-Jewish relations.
Please click here to find more details about Kate on our faculty page.
7 March
Polish & Jewish Relations During World War Two with Antony Polonsky
14 March
Polish & Jewish Relations Since World War Two with Antony Polonsky
21 March
Polish & Jewish Relations - A Personal Perspective - Ben Helfgott - in Conversation with Trudy Gold
28 March
Polish and Jewish Relations - Into the 21st Century - with Kate Gerrard
_______________________________________________________________
7 March
Polish & Jewish Relations During World War Two with Antony Polonsky
14 March
Polish & Jewish Relations Since World War Two with Antony Polonsky
In the Jewish world, Poland has often been seen as a by-word for anti-semitism. In the view of many Jews, the independent Polish state which emerged after the first world war waged an increasingly successful campaign against its Jewish minority of over three million people (ten per cent of the country's population). On the eve of the second world war, a majority of Polish political parties held the view that the only 'solution' to the country's 'Jewish problem' lay in the emigration of the bulk of its Jewish community. During the second world war, most Poles were indifferent to the fate of the Jews and a minority actively cooperated in the anti-Jewish genocide carried out by the Nazis. Even after the war, in which more than ninety per cent of Polish Jewry perished, anti-semitism remained strong and the immediate post-war period was characterised by large-scale anti-Jewish violence. The worst incident was the pogrom in the town of Kielce on 4 July 1946, when a mob incited by fears that the local Jews had kidnapped a Christian child, murdered 42 Jews. Most Jewish survivors now fled Poland, but the country remained plagued by the phenomenon of 'anti-semitism without Jews'.
Most Poles reject this analysis as one-sided and over-simplified. Jews settled in Poland when they were persecuted elsewhere and created on Polish soil a unique Jewish civilization. By the end of the eighteenth century, over a third of all Jews in the world lived in Poland. Polish-Jewish relations were exacerbated by foreign rule in the nineteenth century, when the powers which had partitioned Poland, above all the Russians, applied the well-known tactic of 'divide and rule' and set Poles and Jews against each other. In the interwar period, the problems of the Jews resulted far more from the poverty of Poland and the impact of the Great Depression than from official or popular anti-semitism. Jewish accusations that the Poles failed to help them during the Nazi occupation fail to take into account the scale of Nazi terror and the isolation of the Jews which the Nazis created. In the post-war period, it was the communists who exploited the Jewish issue, both to compromise their democratic opponents and to obtain legitimacy in the eyes of Polish society.
Professor Polonsky’s two lectures will attempt to examine how these two diametrically opposed views of Polish-Jewish relations have come to be current and how much truth lies behind the stereotypes.
28 March Polish and Jewish Relations - Into the 21st Century - with Kate Gerrard
This session will offer a conclusion to the mini-series by bringing the issues surrounding Polish-Jewish relations up to the present day. Focusing mainly on the example of Krakow, the session will consider what the contemporary Polish-Jewish context means for the future of Polish-Jewish relations.
Please click here to find more details about Kate on our faculty page.
Course Dates
- Wed 7th March 12
- Wed 14th March 12
- Wed 21st March 12
- Wed 28th March 12