In the mid-1960s, public opinion in Poland turned against the
Gomulka regime for a variety of reasons. In an attempt to regain
public support and divert attention from the real problems, Gomulka
adopted an antisemitic stance. On 19 March 1968 he delivered a
speech to party activists in which he divided Jews into three
categories: 'patriotic Jews', 'Zionists', and those who were
neither Jews nor Poles but 'cosmopolitans', who should 'avoid those
fields of work where the affirmation of nationality is
indispensable'. In consequence, nearly 15,000 Jews--a very large
part of Poland's Jewish community--left for Israel, western Europe,
and North America, effectively ending Jewish life in the country
for over a decade. The events of 1968 were long ignored by scholars
but in recent years their importance in the process which led to
the collapse of communism has become increasingly evident. This
volume illuminates the events that triggered the crisis, the crisis
itself, and its consequences. Different aspects of this are
examined by Dariusz Stola, Jerzy Eisler, and Wlodzimierz Rozenbaum,
while the role of the the Polish Military Intelligence Service
during 1945-1961 in precipitating the crisis is analyzed by Leszek
Gluchowski. Several contributors consider the background to the
crisis in terms of the concerns of the Jewish community. Audrey
Kichelewski describes developments in the community between the
consolidation of Gomulka's power in 1957 and the outbreak of the
Six Day War. Malgorzata Melchior examines how Jews who had survived
in Poland during the Second World War responded to the crisis.
Joanna Wiszniewicz provides a group portrait of pupils of Jewish
origin in Warsaw schools in the 1960s, a milieu from which
important elements in the student opposition were drawn. Karen
Auerbach sharpens the focus in her consideration of the situation
of Yiddish writer Naftali Herts Kon, while Holly Levitsky describes
the travails of the Jewish communist writer Sara Nomberg-Przytyk.
The book also reprints the testimonies of several people who lived
through these painful events: Jerzy Jedlicki, Henryk Dasko, and
Miroslaw Sawicki. Bozena Szaynok analyses the rhetoric of the
period and examines the role of 'Israel' in the crisis. The
controversies which it still arouses are reflected in the exchange
between generals Pioro and Jaruzelski concerning the impact of the
purge of Jewish officers from the Polish People's Army and in the
responses to the publication by Piotr Gontarczyk of a report on the
role of Jacek Kuron in 1968. As in previous volumes of Polin, in
the section 'New Views' substantial space is also given to new
research into a variety of topics in Polish-Jewish studies. These
include a study by Kalman Weiser of the Yiddishist Ideology of Noah
Prylucki; an reassessment by Julian Bussgang of the role of
Metropolitan Sheptytsky during the Holocaust; an account by Michael
Beizer and Israel Bartal of the tragic career of Moses Schorr; an
evaluation by Krzysztof Czyzewski of the work of the Polish poet
Jerzy Ficowski; and a description of the reception in Poland of Art
Spiegelman's Maus. CONTRIBUTORS Karen Auerbach, Israel Bartal,
Michael Beizer, Teresa Bogucka, Julian Bussgang, Wojciech
Czuchnowski, Krzysztof Czyzewski, Henryk Dasko, Jerzy Eisler,
Leszek W. Gluchowski, Piotr Gontarczyk, Anna Jarmusiewicz, Wojciech
Jaruszelski, Jerzy Jedlicki, Audrey Kichelewski, Holli Levitsky,
Krzysztof Link-Lenczowski, Tomasz Lysak, Jacek Maj, Malgorzata
Melchior, Joanna B. Michlic, Karol Modzelewski, Tadeusz Pioro,
Wlodzimierz Rozenbaum, Maciej Rybinski, Dariusz Stola, Bozena
Szaynok, Kalman Weiser, Joanna Wisniewicz, Tadeusz Witkowski, Piotr
Wrobel, Rafal Ziemiewicz.
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