Jews, Poles, and Slovaks: a Story of Encounters, 1944-48
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JEWS, POLES, AND SLOVAKS: A STORY OF ENCOUNTERS, 1944-48 by Anna Cichopek-Gajraj A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Todd M. Endelman, Co-Chair Associate Professor Brian A. Porter-Sz űcs, Co-Chair Professor Zvi Y. Gitelman Professor Piotr J. Wróbel, University of Toronto This dissertation is dedicated to my parents and Ari ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am greatly appreciative of the help and encouragement I have received during the last seven years at the University of Michigan. I have been fortunate to learn from the best scholars in the field. Particular gratitude goes to my supervisors Todd M. Endelman and Brian A. Porter-Sz űcs without whom this dissertation could not have been written. I am also thankful to my advisor Zvi Y. Gitelman who encouraged me to apply to the University of Michigan graduate program in the first place and who supported me in my scholarly endeavors ever since. I am also grateful to Piotr J. Wróbel from the University of Toronto for his invaluable revisions and suggestions. Special thanks go to the Department of History, the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, and the Center of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Michigan. Without their financial support, I would not have been able to complete the program. I also want to thank the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture in New York, the Ronald and Eileen Weiser Foundation in Ann Arbor, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC for their grants. Thanks also go to Mr. and Mrs. Hubert Brandt, Sheldon Hamburger and Eva Jankelowitz, and Marshall M. Weinberg for their financial support. During my research in Poland, Slovakia, Israel, and the United States, I met many gracious scholars, archivists, and librarians whose knowledge and kindness greatly aided iii my work. I want to thank the staff and scholars in the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, especially Michlean Amir, Lisa Zaid, Lisa Yavnai, and Avinoam J. Patt. I am also grateful to James Ward, Susanne Wiedemann, Gideon Frieder, and Malvina and Miriam Burstein whom I met thanks to the fellowship in the Center. Special thanks must go to Misha Mitsel for his informed guidance in the Archives of the American Joint Distribution Committee in New York. I also wish to thank Paul Glasser, Leo Greenbaum, and the entire staff at the library and the archives of the YIVO Institute in New York. In Slovakia, I am grateful to the archivists in the State Archives in Nitra and Bratislava as well as to Daniela Ostatnikova, Pavol Traubner, Pavol Mešťan, and Peter Salner. In Poland, I wish to thank Andrzej Chwalba and Barbara Klich-Kluczewska from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków as well as the archivists in the State Archives in Kraków, the Archives of Modern Records and the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warszawa. In Israel, I owe special thanks to Zehava Bar-Yosef, Yeshayahu A. Jelinek, Witold Medykowski from the Yad Vashem, and the archivists in the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem and in the Strochlitz Institute for Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa. A debt of gratitude goes to John J. Hartman who believed in me, invested in me, and brought me to the United States. Without him, none of this would be possible. I also want to thank Elizabeth Gajraj who, with her flawless English, tirelessly edited my dissertation. And, finally, heartfelt gratitude and love go to my husband Ari who not only edited the entire thesis but also lightly carried me through the stress, anxiety, and fatigue of the process. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. OUTLINE OF HISTORICAL CONTEXT 14 3. RETURN TO “NO HOME” (1944-46) 77 4. RESTITUTION OF PROPERTY (1944-48) 137 5. VIOLENCE (1945-48) 215 6. CITIZENSHIP OF JEWS (1945-47) 279 7. RETURN TO “NORMALITY” (1946-48) 354 8. CONCLUSION 432 BIBLIOGRAPHY 440 v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The literature on the history of Polish Jews between 1944 and 1948 portrays this period as a time of transition between the end of the war and emigration to the West or to Israel. The narrative is that as Jewish survivors returned after liberation, the local population “welcomed” them with antisemitism and violence. As a result, rebuilding Jewish life in Poland was impossible and emigration was inevitable. The titles like Le Massacre des Survivants: En Pologne après l'Holocauste, 1945-1947 (The Massacre of Survivors) and Żydzi w Polsce po II Wojnie Światowej: Akcja Kalumni i Zabójstw (Jews in Poland after the Second World War: Operation of Slanders and Murders) reflect this understanding of postwar Polish Jewish history.1 Even the works that deal with issues 11 Marc Hillel, Le Massacre des Survivants: En Pologne après l'Holocauste, 1945-1947 (Paris: Plon, 1985); Yisrael Gutman, " Żydzi w Polsce po II Wojnie Światowej: Akcja Kalumni i Zabójstw," Przegl ąd Prasy Zagranicznej 2, no. 3-4 (1986). Other works on antisemitism in postwar Poland include Paul Lendvai, Antisemitism without Jews (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971); Krystyna Kersten, “Kielce – 4 Lipca 1946,” Tygodnik Solidarno ść 36, (December, 1981); Bo żena Szaynok, Pogrom Żydów w Kielcach 4 Lipca 1946 (Warszawa: Bellona, 1992); Marian Mushkat, Philosemitic and Anti-Jewish Attitudes in Post- Holocaust Poland (Levistone, 1992); Stanisław Meducki and Zenon Wrona, ed., Anty żydowskie Wydarzenia Kieleckie 4 Lipca 1946: Dokumenty i Materiały (Kielce: Urz ąd Miasta Kielce, 1992); Tadeusz Wi ącek, Zabi ć Żyda: Kulisy i Tajemnice Pogromu Kieleckiego 1946 (Kraków: Oficyna Wydawnicza Temax, 1992); Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego , “Anatomia Pogromu: Rzeszów 1919, Kielce 1946,” no. 4 (1996); Jan Tomasz Gross, Upiorna Dekada: Trzy Eseje o Stereotypach na Temat Żydów, Polaków, Niemców i Komunistów, 1939-1948 (Kraków: Universitas, 1998); Anna Cichopek, Pogrom Żydów w Krakowie 11 Sierpnia 1945 Roku (Warszawa: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, 2000); Jerzy Daniel, Żyd w Zielonym Kapeluszu: Rzecz o Kieleckim Pogromie 4 Lipca 1946 (Kielce: Scriptum, 1996); Joshua D. Zimmerman, ed., Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003). 1 other than antisemitism, like Natalia Aleksiun’s study of Zionism in postwar Poland, stress violence and emigration as the defining factors of postwar Jewish experience.2 The most notable example of this approach is the recently published Fear: Antisemitism in Poland after Auschwitz. An Essay in Historical Interpretation , in which Jan Tomasz Gross seeks to explain anti-Jewish violence in postwar Poland, in general, and the Kielce pogrom, in particular. 3 In his attempt to pinpoint the main cause, Gross shifts attention from the power of stereotypes to the power of “everyday experience,” like the fear of losing property. He shows that tangible individual interests were the central incentive for anti-Jewish violence. Although seemingly reductionist in its emphasis on a single cause, Gross’ argument is a powerful intervention into the field. Gross succeeded to prompt a rethinking of postwar antisemitism and gave rise to another nationwide debate in Poland. Yet, as original as his book is, it remains within the limits of the 2 Natalia Aleksiun, Dok ąd Dalej? Ruch Syjonistyczny w Polsce 1944-1950 (Warszawa: Trio, 2002); Natalia Aleksiun, "Jewish Responses to Antisemitism in Poland, 1944-1947," in Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its Aftermath , ed. Joshua D. Zimmerman (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003); August Grabski, Działalno ść Komunistów W śród Żydów w Polsce 1944-1949 (Warszawa: Trio, 2004). There are, however, a few studies which escape this easy clasification, including Michał Grynberg, Żydowska Spółdzielczo ść Pracy w Polsce w Latach 1945-1949 (Warszawa: Pa ństwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1986); Irena Hurwic-Nowakowska, A Social Analysis of Postwar Polish Jewry (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 1986); Józef Adelson, "W Polsce Zwanej Ludow ą," in Najnowsze Dzieje Żydów w Polsce w Zarysie do 1950 Roku , ed. Jerzy Tomaszewski (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1993). Also microhistory allows an analysis beyond a mega-narrative of postwar antisemitism. See Szyja Bronsztejn, Z Dziejów Ludno ści Żydowskiej na Dolnym Śląsku po II Wojnie Światowej , Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis, 1542 (Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 1993); Ewa Waszkiewicz, Kongregacja Wyznania Moj żeszowego na Dolnym Śląsku na Tle Polityki Wyznaniowej Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej 1945-1968 , Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis, 2171 (Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 1999); Bo żena Szaynok, Ludno ść Żydowska na Dolnym Śląsku, 1945-1950 , Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis, 2257 (Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 2000).; Janusz Mieczkowski, Żydzi, Niemcy i Ukrai ńcy na Pomorzu Zachodnim w Latach 1945-1956: Liczba, Poło żenie i Działalno ść Polityczna , Rozprawy i Studia, 175 (Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczeci ńskiego, 1994); Janusz Mieczkowski, " Życie Religijne Mniejszo ści Narodowych na Pomorzu Zachodnim w Latach 1945-1956," Przegl ąd Zachodniopomorski 10, no. 1 (1995); Julian Kwiek, Żydzi, Łemkowie, Słowacy w Województwie Krakowskim w Latach 1945-1949/50