Against Anti-Semitism

An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Polish Writings

Edited by Adam Michnik and Agnieszka Marczyk

The roster of authors is a Who's-Who of the most prominent polish writers and thinkers of the 20th century
Features a robust collection of essays, many of which have been translated into English here for the first time
Refutes the perception of anti-Semitism as being innate to the Polish identity, highlighting the ways anti-Semitism has been resisted from the beginnings of World War I to the present

Against Anti-Semitism

An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Polish Writings

Edited by Adam Michnik and Agnieszka Marczyk

Description

Poland's relationship with its Jewish population has long been a subject of often agonizing debate. In September 1939, there were approximately 3.3 million Jews living in Poland, the largest population in Europe. In May 1945, between 40,000 and 60,000 remained. Most of the Nazi death camps had been located on Polish soil. The intertwined issues of wartime complicity and victimhood haunt Poland to this day, complicated by the unavoidable fact that anti-Semitism in Poland existed well before the outbreak of the Second World War, and has existed long after it. The deadly Kielce Pogrom in July 1946 appalled the world, since its victims were precisely those Jews who had miraculously survived annihilation. And while with the years physical violence against Jews diminished-if only because there were not many at whom to direct it-anti-Semitism has remained no less virulent, emerging as a force in Polish politics, religious life, and in society at large. A study undertaken in 2002 determined that one in nine Poles believed the Jews collectively responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. One in four claimed that Jews were secretly plotting to rule the world.

Is anti-Semitism integral to Polish identity? Nowhere has this question been more the cause of soul-searching than in Poland itself. In this volume, Adam Michnik, one of Poland's foremost writers and intellectuals, and Agnieszka Marczyk have brought together the most significant essays of the twentieth century written by prominent Poles on Polish anti-Semitism, including by such writers and intellectuals as Czeslaw Milosz, Leszek Kolakowski, Jerzy Andrzejewski, and Tadeusz Mazowiecki. Taken from a three-volume original Polish edition, 3,000 pages in length and containing 320 entries, the essays, most of which have been translated into English here for the first time by Marczyk, resonate with Michnik's central argument-that anti-Semitism is not a given of Polish culture. It has been consistently challenged and rejected.

Taken together, through their collective courage and wisdom, expressed even in moments when reason seemed lost, these essays and their authors remind readers not only of the destructive and self-destructive elements of anti-Semitism, but of the necessity of combatting it in all of its forms. Even some of the darkest parts of Polish history have produced moments of illumination.

Against Anti-Semitism

An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Polish Writings

Edited by Adam Michnik and Agnieszka Marczyk

Introduction: Poland and Anti-Semitism
Adam Michnik and Agnieszka Marczyk

I. Prologue: 1900-1936

Jews - the 1920s
Czeslaw Milosz

II. 1936-1939: The Mustard Gas of Racism

The Przytyk Market Stands
_{Ksawery Pruszynski}
Annual Shame
Maria Dabrowska

III. 1939-1945: On Both Sides of The Wall

Jews and Polish Commerce
Kazimierz Wyka

We, Polish Jews
Julian Tuwim

The Orchestration of Rage
Michal M. Borwicz

IV. 1945-1947: The Power of Ignorance

The Power of Ignorance
Mieczyslaw Jastrun

The Problem of Polish Anti-Semitism
Jerzy Andrzejewski

With Kielce in the Background
Stanislaw Ossowski

Our Part (A Pessimist's Voice)
Witold Kula

V. 1956-1957: The Anti-Semitism of Kind and Gentle People

Anti-Semites: Five Familiar Theses and a Warning
Leszek Kolakowski

From National Democrats to Stalinists
Konstanty A. Jelenski

Anti-Semitism
Jerzy Turowicz

The Anti-Semitism of Kind and Gentle People
Tadeusz Mazowiecki

VI. 1967-1969: Expulsion from Poland

March 1968 and the So-Called Jewish Question in Poland after World War II
Krystyna Kersten

VII. 1970-1989: The Poor Poles Look At The Ghetto

Jews as a Polish Problem
Aleksander Smolar

The Poor Poles Look at the Ghetto
Jan Blonski

VIII. After 1989: Toward Description and Diagnosis

Polish-Jewish Relations 30 Years after the Publication of the "Nostra Aetate" Conciliar Declaration
Rev. Archbishop Henryk Muszynski

The Disgrace of Indifference
Hanna Swida-Ziemba

The Holocaust
Maria Janion

IX. 2001-2009: Against the Conformity of Silence

The Burning Barn and I
Waldemar Kuczynski

Helplessness
Jerzy Jedlicki

Against Anti-Semitism

An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Polish Writings

Edited by Adam Michnik and Agnieszka Marczyk

Author Information

Adam Michnik is a historian and editor-in-chief of Poland's largest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza. He was a leader of the student antigovernment protests in 1968, a Solidarity activist in the 1980s, and a negotiator at the Round Table Talks in 1989. His books include Letters from Prison and In Search of Lost Meaning: The New Eastern Europe.

Agnieszka Marczyk is a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where her work focuses on democratic citizenship and historical thinking skills. She is co-editor of Does Democracy Matter? The United States and Global Democracy Support.

Contributors:

Adam Michnik
Agnieszka Marczyk
Czeslaw Milosz
Ksawery Pruszynski
Maria Dabrowska
Kazimierz Wyka
Julian Tuwim
Michal M. Borwicz
Mieczyslaw Jastrun
Jerzy Andrzejewski
Stanislaw Ossowski
Witold Kula
Leszek Kolakowski
K.A. Jelenski
Jerzy Turowicz
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Krystyna Kersten
Aleksander Smolar
Jan Blonski
Rev. Archbishop Henryk Muszynski
Hanna Swida-Ziemba
Maria Janion
Waldemar Kuczynski
Jerzy Jedlicki

Against Anti-Semitism

An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Polish Writings

Edited by Adam Michnik and Agnieszka Marczyk

Reviews and Awards

"It is an important, thought-provoking, and very timely publication, masterfully translated by Agnieszka Marczyk. Against Anti-Semitism is a powerful contribution to the ongoing debate about the dangers of antisemitism, and the under-lying reasons for its persistence."--Jan Grabowski, Antisemitism Studies

"A collectively significant and seminal work of simply outstanding scholarship, 'Against Anti-Semitism: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Polish Writings' is a critically important and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic library collections."--The Midwest Book Review

"To understand anti-Semitism is to see its world history and to perceive it around us. To oppose it is to learn from others who have done so before us, in perhaps more challenging times and places than our own. This collection of important essays by opponents of anti-Semitism in Poland was, in its Polish edition, a generous gesture by Mr. Michnik towards his nation. In its English translation, it is a distant mirror that can help us see ourselves." --Timothy Snyder, Levin Professor of History, Yale University, and author of Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

"This volume brings together the most enlightened voices of Polish intellectuals - poets, writers, priests, professors - speaking up in dark times against intolerance. Judiciously chosen and introduced by Agnieszka Marczyk and Adam Michnik (himself one of our most distinguished public intellectuals) it is indispensable reading for our time, when populism, xenophobia, and narrow-minded nationalism are again in ascendance." --Jan Gross, author of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, and Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz

"Against Anti-Semitism offers powerful testimony to the courage of those Polish writers and intellectuals who over the decades have dared to confront one of the most pernicious ideologies of our time, while also providing evidence of its endurance from one generation to the next. Given the recent rise of radical nationalism in Poland (and elsewhere in the world), this book will be a beacon for those who see the threat and want to confront it." --Jan Grabowski, University of Ottawa

"This comprehensive account of anti-Semitism and its opponents in Poland is essential reading for all those in the history of Europe in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries." --Anthony Polonsky, Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University