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"Patterns
of Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland, 1944-1946"
This is an
attempt at a systematic and thorough examination of the anti-Jewish
violence in Poland following World War Two. Government records
together with contemporary diplomatic and Jewish reports and studies
enable us to draw tentative and approximate inferences concerning
where and when Jews in postwar Poland were at greatest risk. No
exact figures of Jews murdered during the first two postwar years
can be adduced, but historians' earlier estimates of 1,000 - 1,500
seem high. The peak periods of violence - March-August 1945 and
February-July 1946 - coincided with periods during which the number
of Jews in Poland was increasing through emergence of liberated Jews
from hiding and repatriation from the USSR. The precipitous drop in
anti-Jewish violence following the Kielce pogrom, July 4, 1946,
seems connected to a number of factors: the adoption of avoidance
measures by Jews; the emigration of many survivors; government
action to reduce the violence; and the restraining influence of
armed anti-communist groups, who saw the international focus on the
survivors' plight as detrimental to their cause. |
