Without Jews? Studies in Jewish Civilization in Poland edited by Michał Galas Institute of Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University In previous decades, studies on history and culture of Polish Jews and Polish-Jew- ish relations have developed in Poland, Israel, the US as well as several other coun­ tries. The series, “Studies in Jewish Civilization in Poland”, has been established by the Jagiellonian University Press to promote achievements in these fields of research. One very important issue is also to introduce research of Polish scholars to the in­ ternational academic world. This series is supported by the The Marcell and Maria Roth Center for the History and Culture of Polish Jews and Polish-Jewish Relations at the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Jagiellonian University. vol. 1: A Romantic Polish-Jew. Rabbi Ozjasz Thon from Various Perspectives. Edited by Michał Galas, Shoshana Ronen Magdalena Ruta Without Jews? Yiddish literature in the People's Republic of Poland on the Holocaust, Poland and Communism Edited by Jessica Taylor-Kucia JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY PRESS Series: Studies in Jewish Civilization in Poland, edited by Michał Galas, vol. 2 Reviewer Prof. dr hab. Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska Cover design Barbara Widłak The paper edition subsidised by the Dean of the Faculty of History, Jagiellonian University, and the Marcell and Maria Roth Center for the History and Culture of Polish Jews and Polish-Jewish Relations at the Institute of Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University The work has been funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education within National Program for the Humanities for years 2014–2017 © Copyright for English edition by Magdalena Ruta & Jagiellonian University Press First English edition, Kraków 2017 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any eletronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers ISBN 978-83-233-4348-6 ISBN 978-83-233-9491-4 (e-book) doi 10.4467/K9491.15/e/16.16.4500 www.wuj.pl Jagiellonian University Press Editorial Offices: Michałowskiego 9/2, 31-126 Kraków Phone: +48 12 663 23 80, +48 12 663 23 82, Fax: +48 12 663 23 83 Distribution: Phone: +48 12 631 01 97, Fax: +48 12 631 01 98 Cell Phone: + 48 506 006 674, e-mail: [email protected] Bank: PEKAO SA, IBAN PL 80 1240 4722 1111 0000 4856 3325 CONTENTS PREFACE ................................................................................................................ 7 Chapter I RESPONSE TO THE HOLOCAUST ................................................................. 33 The survivors — brethren of Job ................................................................... 33 In Stalin’s arms ................................................................................................. 42 My mother in the ghetto ................................................................................ 60 Here, the stones speak .................................................................................... 72 Thus the Jews return to Europe ..................................................................... 76 Pour out your anger ........................................................................................ 89 The legacy ......................................................................................................... 101 The reckoning .................................................................................................. 118 Chapter II THE IMAGE OF POLES AND POLISH–JEWISH RELATIONS ................ 121 The image of the non-Jew in the Yiddish literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries .................................................................................. 121 The last road ..................................................................................................... 127 The Lipshits family goes into the ghetto ...................................................... 134 Kielce ................................................................................................................. 147 Against the Jews I am prepared to assist any authority .............................. 156 You dislike me openly and covertly .............................................................. 162 They found a common language ................................................................... 168 Yetsiyes Poyln? .................................................................................................. 172 Polish spectres ................................................................................................. 182 6 Contents Chapter III POLAND AS A JEWISH HOMELAND ........................................................... 185 The homeland of the Polish Jews................................................................... 185 On the edge of the desert ............................................................................... 194 Buy this piece of land, good neighbours ...................................................... 203 My Republic ..................................................................................................... 212 By the banks of the Vistula ............................................................................. 224 The story of the murdered shtetl ................................................................... 230 The farewell ...................................................................................................... 245 Poland, Poland ................................................................................................. 252 Chapter IV THE IDENTITY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNIST ....................................... 255 Nusekh Poyln and the ‘new Jewish man’ ...................................................... 255 My blood will not be silent... ......................................................................... 266 With the new generation ................................................................................ 278 Liberated ........................................................................................................... 285 Sunny days ....................................................................................................... 293 My song has been shamed ............................................................................. 308 The poet was led out to death ........................................................................ 320 Memory contrite ............................................................................................. 323 Chapter V THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY OF THE SURVIVORS ........ 327 Being a Jew after the Holocaust ..................................................................... 327 You were in Russia but I was here ................................................................. 331 Michał or Mikhael? ......................................................................................... 340 Set apart from people by graveyards... .......................................................... 344 Who is Amnestis? ............................................................................................ 357 In Thee, my Nation.......................................................................................... 363 An understated language ................................................................................ 364 You invented us, Sholem Aleykhem ............................................................. 375 On the market square in Berdychiv .............................................................. 386 The journey of my heart ................................................................................. 394 One link will unite the centuries ................................................................... 402 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 405 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 413 INDEX OF PEOPLE ............................................................................................. 441 PREFACE Like a last great man at prayer All that remains is My repentant memory Which flicking aimlessly through the years granted by prayer Through all that has gone Cannot even find Itself there Any more. David Sfard, 19721 Literature in Yiddish has an almost millennial history. A major, if not the de- finitive caesura in its evolution was the outbreak of World War II, during which, of the approximately 11 million Jews who used Yiddish in their day- to-day affairs, over half perished. Yiddish literature emerged from the war severely crippled, weakened by the deaths of its writers and readers. But for many years after the war those who survived made immense efforts, in var- ious places across the globe, to revive and foster culture in their mother tongue.2 After the Holocaust the major centres of literary life shifted to West- ern Europe, the United States, and Israel. It is widely believed that, outside the Soviet Union, there was little activity in Eastern Europe after the war.3 But 1 D. Sfard, ‘Der letster funk,’ in idem, Brenedike bleter (1972), p. 11. 2 See, for instance, J. Sherman, ed., Yiddish after the Holocaust (2004). 3 For more on the subject of Soviet Yiddish culture see, for instance, the chapter entitled ‘Yiddish in the Soviet Union,’