Uncertain Citizenship: Jewish Belonging and the Ethnic Revolution in Poland and Czechoslovakia, 1938-1948
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Uncertain Citizenship: Jewish Belonging and the Ethnic Revolution in Poland and Czechoslovakia, 1938-1948 by Sarah Agnes Cramsey A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History and the Designated Emphasis in Jewish Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor John Connelly, Chair Professor John Efron Professor Jason Wittenberg Spring 2014 Abstract Uncertain Citizenship: Jewish Belonging and the Ethnic Revolution in Poland and Czechoslovakia, 1938-1948 by Sarah Agnes Cramsey Doctor of Philosophy in History and the Designated Emphasis in Jewish Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor John Connelly, Chair This study explores how citizenship came to be defined in ethnic and national terms during and after World War II. Before the war, citizenship within east central European states stood above ethnic and linguistic categories yet, in an unstudied revolution that gripped the region after 1945, new political entities came into being that were predicated on homogeneous populations. I trace this process in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and use debates and laws regarding Jewish citizenship to understand the revolutionary changes of this time. The story begins in London and New York, where Poles and Czechs in diplomatic exile interacted with Allied governments and transnational Jewish organizations like the World Jewish Congress. Within these circles new ideas were forged concerning who constituted the Jewish people and where they belonged geographically. By 1944 and 1945 two distinct developments impelled key Czech, Polish and Jewish authorities to consider emigration away from Europe and towards Palestine as the most desirable option for east central Europe’s Jewish citizens. First, the deadly extent of the Holocaust became increasingly public. And second, two high-profile meetings of the United National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) failed to produce a plan helping three groups of “stateless” European Jews who could not return to their pre-war “homes”: Czechoslovak Jews who opted for German nationality before 1938, Jews from Subcarpathian Rus, and Polish Jews in the lands occupied and later annexed by the Soviet Union. Accordingly, the second half of my dissertation follows these three groups after liberation and examines laws and social policies in the postwar era that codified ethnic difference and facilitated Jewish migration elsewhere. Notably, Czechoslovak officials played a key role in helping many east central European Jews leave Europe by fashioning their state into a major transit point en 1 route to Palestine. In sum, my dissertation shows how a deeper transformation of ideas concerning who belonged to a given nation-state under-girded broader political, economic and societal changes thus enabling the emergence of three new ethnic polities: Czechoslovakia, Poland and Israel. My dissertation makes important contributions to studies of the Jewish experience, east central Europe and the contours of citizenship in the twentieth century. First, it shows how an “ethnic revolution,” that took place among Allied leaders in exile, inspired new ideas about the Polish and Czechoslovak body politic and Jewish/Gentile coexistence thereby mandating massive population shifts as World War II ended. Usually, scholars think of the revolutions gripping east central Europe after 1945 as being political or economic, but in fact wartime shifts in ideas about ethnic belonging greatly influenced the course of the socialist revolution. Second, I showcase how the bricha, or semi-legal movement of Jews towards Palestine, can be linked to broader stories about Jewish citizenship, postwar state policies encouraging ethnic un-mixing and the massive population transfers that transpired in the wake of Germany’s defeat. Finally, by illustrating how the possibilities for Jewish belonging narrowed over a short period and how a triad of ethnically homogenous states materialized, my work helps us better understand the prevalence of ethnically-defined nation-states. 2 For the “Chief” i Table of Contents Acknowledgements iii Introduction vi Chapter One 1 A Tale of Two Diplomats: Edvard Beneš, Arieh Tartakower and their divergent Jewish future Chapter Two 29 Inventing the Jewish DP: Arieh Tartakower, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and postwar visions of European Jewry Chapter Three 60 The Palestinian Turn: How Nahum Goldmann and the World Jewish Congress recast “Jewish belonging” away Europe Chapter Four 91 Jan Masaryk, Friend of the Jews? Statelessness, Citizenship and the German Jewish Question Chapter Five 110 Uncertain Citizenship: National Committees, the Interior Ministry and the fate of Czechoslovak Jews from Subcarpathian Rus, 1945-1947 Chapter Six 137 “The Most Significant Spot in Europe”: How the “Ethnic Revolution” and 130,000 Polish Jews arrived in Náchod, Czechoslovakia in 1946 Conclusion 163 Works Cited 170 ii Acknowledgements Compared to the rest of this dissertation, these words of acknowledgement were easy to write. I am brimming with gratitude. I would like to thank all of the entities that funded the research and writing of this project: the Rabbi T. Levy Tribute Fellowship for research at the American Jewish Archives; the Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship from the Graduate Division at the University of California, Berkeley; the Institute for International Education’s Graduate Fellowship for International Study with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Writing Fellowship in East European Studies; the John L. Simpson Memorial Research Fellowship in International and Comparative Studies granted by the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley; and a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the History Department at the University of California, Berkeley. I would like to thank the administrators of these scholarships and the Fulbright Commissions in Poland and the Czech Republic for their sponsorship during my time in each country. In Berkeley’s Graduate Division, I would like to specifically thank Gina Farales-Blanco for her help with numerous FLAS awards over my time in graduate school and Solomon Lefler, who stepped in quickly when the Fulbright-Hays competition was cancelled in 2011-2012. I presented portions of this dissertation at many conferences and seminars where I received valuable advice from many accomplished scholars and keen graduate student colleagues. I thank the following for crucial insights and their careful reading: Yehuda Bauer, Wolf Gruner, Eliot Nidam, Michael Brenner, Marion Kaplan, David Sorkin, David Engel, Dariusz Stola, Norman Naimark, Holly Case, Chad Bryant, Jindřinch Toman, Raz Segal, Jan Láníček and Malena Chinski. Personal conversations with Megan Forbes, Alice Lovejoy, Krista Hegburg, Lisa Peschel, Itay Zutra, Stephen Christopher Russell, Tara Zahra, Bill Eddleston, Jacob Labendz, Konstanty Gebert, Angela Botehlo, Deena Aranoff, Jay Espovich, Laura Brade, Maggie Wunnenberg Kirsh and, last but not least, Molly Pucci have improved my project infinitely. My research for this dissertation took me to sixteen different archives in four countries. I would like to thank the staffs of those archives for their relentless work on my behalf. Two particular archivists are worthy of note. Kevin Proffitt and his staff at the American Jewish Archives were exceptionally kind and knowledgeable during my three trips to Cincinnati. Misha Mitsel of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archive coordinated with me over multiple, truncated trips to New York and made sure I had space to do my work. At Berkeley, I would like to thank the staff of the Doe Library, the staff of Interlibrary Services, and librarian Elissa Mondschein who runs the Interlibrary Services department with efficiency and care. While traveling during my research, friends and family opened up their homes and kitchens to me, often carting me to and from airports and waiting for iii me to return from the archive so that we could share dinner together. I am stunned by the generosity so many have offered me. I must thank: Stacie & Jeff Stanley, Padma & Mandyam Srinivasa, Veena Srinivasa, Louisa Morgan, Mary Slonina, Alanna Rosenberg, Nina Hartog, Kamila Šatrová, Andrea Semancová, Shaina Hammerman & Octavio Di Sciullo, Angela Botehlo & Barry Silverblatt, Joan & John Holets, Nick & Rebecca Cramsey and Molly Cramsey & Zac Coleman. Over the past few years, I also accrued a wonderful triumverate of flat-mates who I would like to thank: Larissa Gassmann, Laura Brade and Rachel Rothstein.And of course, I could always return to the friendly confines of Allentown, PA and the home of my parents, George & Diane Cramsey. I am in the personal debt of many close friends and family who have supported me through this process. Thank you to: Mom, Dad, Poppy, Aunt Joanie, Josh, Cass, Mak, Merdie, Uncle Joe, Aunt Sue, Uncle Bill, Aunt Claire, Zac, Rebecca, Angela Botelho, Christine Forsthoefel, Louisa Morgan, Mary Slonina and Kate Powers. Special commendation is owed to my “virtual graduate school cohort”: Shaina Hammerman and Rachel Rothstein. These two wonderful friends baffle me with their intelligence and kindness while managing to communicate with me frequently regardless of the miles between us. I hope one day to share parts of this dissertation with my beautiful niece Emily Grace Cramsey.