Marion A. Kaplan
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195130928
- eISBN:
- 9780199854486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195130928.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The chapter discusses the implementation of the pogrom by the Nazis and the destruction it brought upon the Jews. In early 1938, the Nazi government intensified its campaign of discrimination against ...
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The chapter discusses the implementation of the pogrom by the Nazis and the destruction it brought upon the Jews. In early 1938, the Nazi government intensified its campaign of discrimination against the Jews through the enactment of several laws that essentially stripped them of any social, economic, or political rights. The series of events leading up to the violent pogrom of November 1938 are related, beginning with the expulsion of “foreign” Jews — including Soviet and Polish Jews — until the fateful shooting of a German diplomat by one Herschel Grynszpan. Instances of brutality and violence towards all Jews, regardless of age or sex, are recounted. A section is also devoted to the reactions of the Germans, which seemed to be contradictory due to stories of random acts of kindness amidst the violence and persecution. The actions and reactions of Jewish women are also presented, along with the obstacles to emigration.Less
The chapter discusses the implementation of the pogrom by the Nazis and the destruction it brought upon the Jews. In early 1938, the Nazi government intensified its campaign of discrimination against the Jews through the enactment of several laws that essentially stripped them of any social, economic, or political rights. The series of events leading up to the violent pogrom of November 1938 are related, beginning with the expulsion of “foreign” Jews — including Soviet and Polish Jews — until the fateful shooting of a German diplomat by one Herschel Grynszpan. Instances of brutality and violence towards all Jews, regardless of age or sex, are recounted. A section is also devoted to the reactions of the Germans, which seemed to be contradictory due to stories of random acts of kindness amidst the violence and persecution. The actions and reactions of Jewish women are also presented, along with the obstacles to emigration.
Michael Stenton
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208433
- eISBN:
- 9780191678004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208433.003.0025
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
In July 1941 Moscow acknowledged a vested British interest in Poland. If Polish soldiers were not pressed into Soviet service or placed under Soviet political discipline, Moscow would feel the lack ...
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In July 1941 Moscow acknowledged a vested British interest in Poland. If Polish soldiers were not pressed into Soviet service or placed under Soviet political discipline, Moscow would feel the lack of Polish tools. The Polish Embassy threw a social security net across the USSR to catch tens of thousands of Poles who were released from camps and prisons in Siberia and Kazakhstan. The Anders army was indiscreet, anti-Soviet, and immune to political reorientation; the soldiers had been drawn back from a lost world, and they were difficult to intimidate; their Polish nonchalance was flourished under the noses of the NKVD. Stalin's attitude to the London Poles was at best ambiguous. The Polish Embassy was never allowed contact with Jewish citizens from eastern Poland, but the Russians sent a surprising number of Polish Jews to Polish army recruitment centres.Less
In July 1941 Moscow acknowledged a vested British interest in Poland. If Polish soldiers were not pressed into Soviet service or placed under Soviet political discipline, Moscow would feel the lack of Polish tools. The Polish Embassy threw a social security net across the USSR to catch tens of thousands of Poles who were released from camps and prisons in Siberia and Kazakhstan. The Anders army was indiscreet, anti-Soviet, and immune to political reorientation; the soldiers had been drawn back from a lost world, and they were difficult to intimidate; their Polish nonchalance was flourished under the noses of the NKVD. Stalin's attitude to the London Poles was at best ambiguous. The Polish Embassy was never allowed contact with Jewish citizens from eastern Poland, but the Russians sent a surprising number of Polish Jews to Polish army recruitment centres.
Daniel Kupfert Heller
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691174754
- eISBN:
- 9781400888627
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174754.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
By the late 1930s, as many as fifty thousand Polish Jews belonged to Betar, a youth movement known for its support of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of right-wing Zionism. Poland was not only home ...
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By the late 1930s, as many as fifty thousand Polish Jews belonged to Betar, a youth movement known for its support of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of right-wing Zionism. Poland was not only home to Jabotinsky's largest following. The country also served as an inspiration and incubator for the development of right-wing Zionist ideas. This book draws on a wealth of rare archival material to uncover how the young people in Betar were instrumental in shaping right-wing Zionist attitudes about the roles that authoritarianism and military force could play in the quest to build and maintain a Jewish state. Recovering the voices of ordinary Betar members, the book paints a vivid portrait of young Polish Jews and their turbulent lives on the eve of the Holocaust. Rather than define Jabotinsky as a firebrand fascist or steadfast democrat, the book instead reveals how he deliberately delivered multiple and contradictory messages to his young followers, leaving it to them to interpret him as they saw fit. Tracing Betar's surprising relationship with interwar Poland's authoritarian government, the book overturns popular misconceptions about Polish–Jewish relations between the two world wars and captures the fervent efforts of Poland's Jewish youth to determine, on their own terms, who they were, where they belonged, and what their future held in store. Shedding critical light on a vital yet neglected chapter in the history of Zionism, the book provides invaluable perspective on the origins of right-wing Zionist beliefs and their enduring allure in Israel today.Less
By the late 1930s, as many as fifty thousand Polish Jews belonged to Betar, a youth movement known for its support of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of right-wing Zionism. Poland was not only home to Jabotinsky's largest following. The country also served as an inspiration and incubator for the development of right-wing Zionist ideas. This book draws on a wealth of rare archival material to uncover how the young people in Betar were instrumental in shaping right-wing Zionist attitudes about the roles that authoritarianism and military force could play in the quest to build and maintain a Jewish state. Recovering the voices of ordinary Betar members, the book paints a vivid portrait of young Polish Jews and their turbulent lives on the eve of the Holocaust. Rather than define Jabotinsky as a firebrand fascist or steadfast democrat, the book instead reveals how he deliberately delivered multiple and contradictory messages to his young followers, leaving it to them to interpret him as they saw fit. Tracing Betar's surprising relationship with interwar Poland's authoritarian government, the book overturns popular misconceptions about Polish–Jewish relations between the two world wars and captures the fervent efforts of Poland's Jewish youth to determine, on their own terms, who they were, where they belonged, and what their future held in store. Shedding critical light on a vital yet neglected chapter in the history of Zionism, the book provides invaluable perspective on the origins of right-wing Zionist beliefs and their enduring allure in Israel today.
Adam Teller
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780804798440
- eISBN:
- 9780804799874
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804798440.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This study demonstrates how Jewish economic activity on the magnate estates in the eighteenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth enriched, empowered, and reshaped Jewish—and ...
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This study demonstrates how Jewish economic activity on the magnate estates in the eighteenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth enriched, empowered, and reshaped Jewish—and Polish-Lithuanian—society. The analysis follows the New institutional economics (NIE) approach to detail Jews’ roles in the estates’ economic institutions—especially the markets, often overlooked in studying the feudal economy. It examines the economic roles played by Jews on the estates of the Radziwiłł magnate dynasty. This was a late feudal economy, so its study demonstrates how Jews formed part of a pre-capitalist system—a highly beneficial setting for them. Jewish businessmen formed the majority of merchants on the estates and also dominated the leasing of the monopoly on alcohol sales—a crucial way of marketing surplus grain. This economic niche became an ethnic economy, giving Jews market superiority. Their social status improved dramatically since they enjoyed Radziwiłł support and acted as their unofficial agents in various contexts. A new Jewish socioeconomic elite appeared, wielding power and authority over all groups on the estates. Based on the rich archival record, the study focuses on the Radziwiłł family’s Lithuanian holdings, the heart of its estates. It shows that the Jews’ integration into the estate economy was at the family’s invitation, in order to increase revenues. The Jews’ success in doing this allowed the Radziwiłłs, like similar magnate families, to become the most powerful force in Poland-Lithuania. Jewish economic activity, therefore, helped shape the Commonwealth’s eighteenth-century political system.Less
This study demonstrates how Jewish economic activity on the magnate estates in the eighteenth-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth enriched, empowered, and reshaped Jewish—and Polish-Lithuanian—society. The analysis follows the New institutional economics (NIE) approach to detail Jews’ roles in the estates’ economic institutions—especially the markets, often overlooked in studying the feudal economy. It examines the economic roles played by Jews on the estates of the Radziwiłł magnate dynasty. This was a late feudal economy, so its study demonstrates how Jews formed part of a pre-capitalist system—a highly beneficial setting for them. Jewish businessmen formed the majority of merchants on the estates and also dominated the leasing of the monopoly on alcohol sales—a crucial way of marketing surplus grain. This economic niche became an ethnic economy, giving Jews market superiority. Their social status improved dramatically since they enjoyed Radziwiłł support and acted as their unofficial agents in various contexts. A new Jewish socioeconomic elite appeared, wielding power and authority over all groups on the estates. Based on the rich archival record, the study focuses on the Radziwiłł family’s Lithuanian holdings, the heart of its estates. It shows that the Jews’ integration into the estate economy was at the family’s invitation, in order to increase revenues. The Jews’ success in doing this allowed the Radziwiłłs, like similar magnate families, to become the most powerful force in Poland-Lithuania. Jewish economic activity, therefore, helped shape the Commonwealth’s eighteenth-century political system.
Richard I. Cohen (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190912628
- eISBN:
- 9780190912659
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190912628.003.0039
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Religion and Society
This chapter reviews the book Be’or shineihem: ’al ’aliyatam shel yehudei polin lifnei hashoah (In the Last Moment: Jewish Immigration from Poland in the 1930s) (2015), by Irith Cherniavsky. In the ...
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This chapter reviews the book Be’or shineihem: ’al ’aliyatam shel yehudei polin lifnei hashoah (In the Last Moment: Jewish Immigration from Poland in the 1930s) (2015), by Irith Cherniavsky. In the Last Moment provides an overview of a mass migration that was critical to Polish Jewry and the Yishuv. More specifically, it explores Polish Jews’ immigration to Palestine during the Fifth Aliyah (1930–1939). During the 1930s, strict immigration quotas in the United States made Mandatory Palestine the main destination for Polish Jewish immigrants. Cherniavsky criticizes scholars who have tended to focus on Polish Jewish immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah (1924–1926), even though “immigrants from Poland also comprised the majority of the Fifth Aliyah, of which only fifteen percent were from Central Europe (Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia).”Less
This chapter reviews the book Be’or shineihem: ’al ’aliyatam shel yehudei polin lifnei hashoah (In the Last Moment: Jewish Immigration from Poland in the 1930s) (2015), by Irith Cherniavsky. In the Last Moment provides an overview of a mass migration that was critical to Polish Jewry and the Yishuv. More specifically, it explores Polish Jews’ immigration to Palestine during the Fifth Aliyah (1930–1939). During the 1930s, strict immigration quotas in the United States made Mandatory Palestine the main destination for Polish Jewish immigrants. Cherniavsky criticizes scholars who have tended to focus on Polish Jewish immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah (1924–1926), even though “immigrants from Poland also comprised the majority of the Fifth Aliyah, of which only fifteen percent were from Central Europe (Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia).”
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804751360
- eISBN:
- 9780804767682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804751360.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
In a letter to Immanuel Kant, Marcus Herz condescendingly described Solomon Maimon as having only recently been “one of the rawest of Polish Jews.” This condescension, bordering on contempt, is both ...
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In a letter to Immanuel Kant, Marcus Herz condescendingly described Solomon Maimon as having only recently been “one of the rawest of Polish Jews.” This condescension, bordering on contempt, is both endorsed and dismissed by Maimon in his autobiography. This book examines the extent to which Solomon Maimon must be understood in the context of the Jewish intellectual traditions and from the perspective of his late eighteenth-century contemporaries. It provides a historical overview of Maimon's life and work, from Jewish Lithuania to Enlightenment Berlin. It considers Maimon's philosophy in the philosophical and theological perfectionism first articulated in Hesheq Shelomo, his unpublished Hebrew manuscript, and discusses the significance of this perfectionism in understanding the thought of the early Haskala and its dialogue with Hasidism and the Mitnaged party of rabbinic traditionalism. It also looks at his revision of Kantian idealism and analyzes the untranslated allegory with which he ends his autobiography.Less
In a letter to Immanuel Kant, Marcus Herz condescendingly described Solomon Maimon as having only recently been “one of the rawest of Polish Jews.” This condescension, bordering on contempt, is both endorsed and dismissed by Maimon in his autobiography. This book examines the extent to which Solomon Maimon must be understood in the context of the Jewish intellectual traditions and from the perspective of his late eighteenth-century contemporaries. It provides a historical overview of Maimon's life and work, from Jewish Lithuania to Enlightenment Berlin. It considers Maimon's philosophy in the philosophical and theological perfectionism first articulated in Hesheq Shelomo, his unpublished Hebrew manuscript, and discusses the significance of this perfectionism in understanding the thought of the early Haskala and its dialogue with Hasidism and the Mitnaged party of rabbinic traditionalism. It also looks at his revision of Kantian idealism and analyzes the untranslated allegory with which he ends his autobiography.
