Chapter 8. The Aftermath of Nazism: Antisemitic Ideology in Postwar Poland 8.1. Antisemitism During the Holocaust Until recently in Polish historiography, there dominated the attitude to discuss the consequences of the Second World War and occupation of Poland in sepa- ration from the tendencies in Polish politics and society of the interwar period. This is particularly striking in the works on the Holocaust, which lack in-depth analysis of Poles” attitudes toward the Jews. Without such analysis, we cannot understand many events and, from time to time, the public opinion shockingly discovers the proverbial skeleton in the closet, as happened after the dissemination of the Jedwabne pogrom.531 There were many pro-Nazi sympathizers in Poland in the 1930s that we could absolve with the words “they did not know what they were doing,” but it is difficult to apply this to the initiators of pogroms or ter- rorist attacks. One of the marginal fascist groups, the Radical Healing Movement, wrote: “We will not beat or maltreat by the Jews because it will not lead to any- thing. We do not hate the Jews because one may only hate the equal or stronger. We abhor the Jews as we abhor rats and vermin.”532 The author of these words dismisses violence, but the deep contempt he expresses is similar to that found in the Nazi ideology. Such emotionless attitude led the Nazis to invent gas chambers where they murdered people in an industrial way, separated from the blood and horror of death. Were Polish Antisemites capable of similar crimes? We know that some instigated, organized, and participated in anti-Jewish rallies. The incitement of hate speech – also in Catholic publications – fostered a psychological readiness for radical action, pushing to violence even those disinterested in politics. However, the Antisemites received no help or impu- nity from the Polish state – despite the leniency of the courts – nor obedience in society because the opposing forces were strong. On the other hand, at the end of the Second Republic, everyday discrimination against the Jewish population intensified which translated into the rise of violence. In the mass emigration plans hid a threat of state coercion. However, these plans were completely unrealistic. 531 J. T. Gross (2001), Neighbors. The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Princeton; A. Bikont (2004), My z Jedwabnego, Warszawa; Idem, (2001), “Mieli wódkę, broń i nienawiść,” Gazeta Wyborcza, 16–17 VI 2001; also see J. Michlic (2004), “Rozliczenie z “ciemną stroną:” polska debata o zbrodni w Jedwabnem,” ed. K. Jasiewicz, Świat nie pożegnany, Warszawa-Londyn. 532 “Czym jest faszyzm” (1934), Front Polski Zbudzonej, No. 12. Qtd. after A. Landau- Czajka (1998), p. 178. Alina Caa - 9783631670828 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 05:45:54AM via free access 234 Antisemitic Ideology in Postwar Poland In addition to the state assistance, Polish Jew-eaters lacked the modern technical means that had enabled the Germans to carry out the Holocaust. Antisemitic ag- gression, however, has accustomed the thought that violence against the Jews is not “immoral” or “sinful” but “normal.” Xenophobic nationalism also produced hostility and distrust that tore the Polish society from the inside, which let the Russian and German invaders use ethnic animosity for their own purposes. Contrary to many papers which discuss the specifics and evolution of Nazi Antisemitism in Germany, so far there has been no research on the possible evo- lution of Antisemitism in the Polish society of the Second World War.533 The Poles entered the war with strong Church Antisemitism, a powerful nationalist right that influenced at least 200,000 people, and other right and centrist parties who accepted Antisemitism to some degree. The problem of Antisemitism’s influ- ence on the attitudes of various factions of the Polish society and actions of the civil and armed underground state still awaits its comprehensive study, although recently appear works on various pathological phenomena like shmaltsovniks, informers, and other collaborators, but also on positive actions of helping the Jews.534 These themes are far from exhausted, and there is also a lack of analysis of the relationship between these behaviors and the influence of Antisemitism in its pre-war form or in the form of Nazi agitation. After 1989, publications appeared that aimed at cleaning the memory of the radical right, including the National Armed Forces. Typically, they were of merely factual and documentary value, but they tend to be biased, especially in discussing the relationship between these formations and the Holocaust. Due to the subject of this book, we focus on the negative and ambivalent attitudes of Poles during the occupation, their relation- ship with the mood of the late 1930s, the changes influenced by the occupiers, and the occupation’s impact on the history of Polish-Jewish relations in postwar Poland. Many historians proudly emphasize the lack of institutional collaboration between Poles and the Nazi occupiers. It was, above all, the result of the Nazi 533 E.g., G. L. Mosse (1972); P. Pulzer (1988), The Rise of Political Antisemitism in Germany and Austria, Cambridge, Mass.; S. Friedländer (1997), Nazi Germany and the Jews, Vol. 1–2, New York. K. Holz (2001), Nationaler Antisemitismus; G. E. Schafft (2006), (2004), From Racism to Genoside, Washigton. 534 E. Ringelblum (1992), Polish-Jewish Relations Turing the Second World War, Evanston, Ill.; Idem (1958), Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, New York; T. Prekerowa (1982), Konspiracyjna Rada Pomocy Żydom w Warszawie 1942–1945, Warszawa; P. Szapiro (1992), Wojna żydowsko-niemiecka, Londyn; W. W. Hagen (1996); T. Szarota (2000), U progu zagłady, Warszawa; K. Dunin-Wąsowicz (1996), Społeczeństwo polskie wobec martyrologii i walki Żydów w latach II wojny światowej, Warszawa; B. Engelking-Boni (2004), Szanowny panie gistapo, Warszawa; J. Grabowski (2004), Ja tego Żyda znam, Warszawa; Ed. A. Żbikowski (2006), Polacy i Żydzi pod okupacją niemiecką, Warszawa; A. Żbikowski (2006), U genezy Jedwabnego, Warszawa. Alina Caa - 9783631670828 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 05:45:54AM via free access Antisemitism During the Holocaust 235 ideology. The Germans considered the Poles to be “subhumans” and planned no form of political cooperation as was the case in other subordinate Western coun- tries. This does not mean that the Germans did not show interest in influencing Polish political life. Nazi agency operated in the ONR-Falangi ranks in the summer of 1939. It worked at least a year and a half under the leadership of Stanisław Kozłowski, aka Stanisław Brochwicz, who was an SS intelligence officer.535 A Falanga activist, Włodzimierz Sznarbachowski, collaborated with the National Radical Organization (NOR) founded by Andrzej Świetlicki and prof. Zygmunt Cybichowski536 with the consent of the occupying military German authorities. It is difficult to judge what they expected from this collaboration, but they undoubtedly cited ideological similarities, especially Antisemitism.537 Bolesław Piasecki prob- ably backed this initiative, according to Jan Józef Lipski (1985). NOR was used to organize anti-Jewish riots in the occupied Warsaw, which began in the last days of 1939, but the greatest number of victims and material damage caused the pogrom during the Holy Week of 1940. The riots served the Nazis as a justification for the creation of the Warsaw ghetto, ostensibly for the purpose of “ensuring the safety” of the Jewish population. On March 29, 1940, the Germans ordered the Jewish community to build a wall around the Jewish quarter. Świetlicki was arrested, and soon afterward shot. Czesław Madajczyk estimates that the share of the Polish resistance movement in the General Governorate amounted to 25 % of the inhabitants while the volun- tary collaborators at a minimum of 5 %.538 Madajczyk does not consider the political choices of the German minority. It is not easy to introduce a typology of motiv- ations for the collaborative attitudes. Collaborators primarily worked with the German Security Police (Sipo) or Gestapo. We should clearly condemn the people who did not identify with Nazism but, for various reasons, engaged in contacts or cooperation with the occupying forces, for example, by denunciations out of jealousy, will of profit, or revenge; but their number remains unknown. The Polish underground accused journalists who worked for the fifty titles published by the Nazis in the Polish language. Among the journalists, we find such Antisemitic activists as Jan Emil Skiwski; one may assume that they were motivated by political 535 J. J. Lipski (1985), Antysemityzm ONR “Falangi,” (Warszawa). 536 Z. Cybichowski (1879–1946), prawnik, profesor Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. W późnych latach 30. skompromitował się aferą łapówkarską. Znał osobiście Hansa Franka, co ułatwiło mu kontakty z władzami okupacyjnymi. Do NOR należał też jego syn Jerzy oraz: Wojciech Kwasieborski, Tadeusz Lipkowski i Ryszard Oracz. Z organizacją współpracował ksiądz St. Trzeciak. 537 See T. Szarota (2000), pp. 19–82. A. Świetlicki (1915–1940) od 1938 r. był przywódcą warszawskiej ONR-Falangi. W. Sznarbachowski (1913–2003) po aresztowaniu Świetlickiego przedostał się do Rzymu, gdzie działał na rzecz polskiego podziemia. Radykalnie zmienił poglądy, wstępując do PPS. Od 1952 r. pracował w rozgłośni polskiej Radia Wolna Europa. 538 See Cz. Madajczyk (1984), Faszyzm i okupacje 1938–45, Poznań, Vol. 2. Alina Caa - 9783631670828 Downloaded from PubFactory at 09/24/2021 05:45:54AM via free access 236 Antisemitic Ideology in Postwar Poland sympathies, not just opportunism. The underground also boycotted the actors and audiences of theaters and cinemas especially because the repertoire served as a means of German propaganda. The artistic director of a theater, the Antisemite Zygmunt Ipohorski-Lenkiewicz, was accused of collaboration with the Gestapo and killed in a 1944 underground operation. Today we would judge cases of Polish- German romances or prostitution less strongly as they were judged during the war unless they resulted in the infiltration of conspiracy or denunciations.