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The November Pogrom and Its Aftermath

Marion A. Kaplan

in Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany

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 ... More

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

Friends and Allies

Michael Stenton

in Radio London and Resistance in Occupied Europe: British Political Warfare 1939-1943

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 ... More

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

Polish Jews Meet German Jews: The Refugees Elsewhere in the Empire

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This chapter assesses the meetings of the Polish Jewish refugees with the German Jews on the ground in the communities of the Holy Roman Empire. It begins by examining the chapbook Di bashraybung fun ... More

This chapter assesses the meetings of the Polish Jewish refugees with the German Jews on the ground in the communities of the Holy Roman Empire. It begins by examining the chapbook Di bashraybung fun Ashkenaz un Polak (The Description of a German and a Polish Jew). Published in Prague sometime in the second half of the seventeenth century, it provides a satirical look at the interaction of the Polish Jewish refugees with the German Jews they met on their travels in the empire. The satirical poem presents this in two large blocks: the first gives the point of view of the Polish Jew and his complaints about his reception in the empire; the second brings the perspective of the German Jew and his opinions of the indigent refugees with whom he is faced. The chapter then determines the extent to which the chapbook was an accurate portrayal of the mid-seventeenth-century reality, considering the Jewish refugees in Frankfurt a.M. and Hamburg, as well as in Vienna.Less

The Role of Italian Jewry

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This chapter studies the role of Italian Jewry in ransoming Polish Jewish captives. In truth, the most important use for the pidyon shevuyim money as far as Italian Jewry was concerned had nothing to ... More

This chapter studies the role of Italian Jewry in ransoming Polish Jewish captives. In truth, the most important use for the pidyon shevuyim money as far as Italian Jewry was concerned had nothing to do with Polish Jews and their problems. Instead, ransom money was used primarily to redeem Jewish maritime merchants and travelers who were preyed on by pirates, particularly the Knights of St. John on Malta. This desire to prioritize the needs of the captives on Malta did not mean, however, that Venice totally ignored all other causes. Moreover, the Italian communities in general, though they seem to have understood the benefits of having Venice manage the ransoming on Malta, were not willing entirely to give up their autonomy in how they used their philanthropic funds. This was good news for Polish Jews because it improved their chances of receiving financial support from Italian Jewry. Their requests for that can be divided into two main groups. The first were made by individuals, asking for help with their personal issues. The second were requests for larger groups, most often communities in Poland–Lithuania that were struggling with the costs of recovering from the war or communities outside eastern Europe that were dealing with an influx of Polish Jewish refugees.Less

Background: German Jews and Polish Jews Before 1648

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This chapter presents a background of the relationship between German Jews and Polish Jews before 1648. Polish Jews were well aware that their ancestors had originated in the German lands and, long ... More

This chapter presents a background of the relationship between German Jews and Polish Jews before 1648. Polish Jews were well aware that their ancestors had originated in the German lands and, long before the refugee crisis brought large numbers of them back there, knew a great deal about Jewish society in the empire. Much of what they knew came from meetings with German Jews, often in pursuit of trade, or from the stories of those who had traveled the relatively short distance to the German lands. Though there was much that separated them, both groups understood that they also had a great deal in common in cultural and religious terms. The meeting of Polish and German Jews in the mid-seventeenth century, for all its economic, social, and religious difficulties, was undoubtedly colored by this sense of kinship and belonging. To understand its significance, the chapter looks at the history of the connections between the two groups of Jews and the ways in which those connections were perceived by each side. In the years after 1648, this history of the connection between German and Polish Jews seems to have created a range of expectations on the part not only of the refugees but also of those in the empire who were to take them in.Less

The Second Wave of Wars

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This chapter investigates how the events of the second round of wars caused further waves of Jewish refugees, this time not just within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth but across Europe and Asia. ... More

This chapter investigates how the events of the second round of wars caused further waves of Jewish refugees, this time not just within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth but across Europe and Asia. On one level, it could be said that Poland–Lithuania successfully weathered the storm that began with Khmelnytsky in 1648 and ended in the Peace of Andrusów some nineteen years later. However, the price it had paid for the years of war was incredibly high, so getting the country back on its feet was a very complex operation. Poland–Lithuania's Jews, too, had suffered huge losses during the wars, not the least of which was the number of Jews who had been uprooted from their homes and forced to start new lives elsewhere, often in difficult—not to say traumatic—conditions. Beyond that, many of the refugees displaced by this second wave of wars left the Commonwealth never to come back. The chapter then details the experience of these people. It looks first at the refugees in the parts of Lithuania under Russian occupation, then at those in the westerly regions where the Swedish and Polish armies fought it out in the second half of the 1650s.Less

Introduction

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the refugee crisis that occurred in the mid-seventeenth century, when a huge wave of Jewish refugees and forced migrants from eastern Europe spread ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the refugee crisis that occurred in the mid-seventeenth century, when a huge wave of Jewish refugees and forced migrants from eastern Europe spread across the Jewish communities of Europe and Asia. Destitute, often traumatized by their experiences, and lacking any means of support, these refugees posed a huge social, economic, and ethical challenge to the Jewish world of their day. Communities across that world, touched by the crisis, answered this challenge in unprecedented ways and, both individually and jointly, began to organize relief for the Polish–Lithuanian Jews wherever they now found themselves. This book examines this refugee crisis in detail. At its heart are three major questions. The first asks how Jewish society reacted to the persecution and violence suffered by the Jews of Poland–Lithuania. The second question asks about the character of the relationship between the various Jewish communities that cooperated to help the refugees. The third question deals with how the nature of the refugee crisis in the seventeenth century may have something to contribute to the ways in which people understand the history of refugee issues in general.Less

Return and Reconstruction

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This chapter explores the complex process of returning home after spending time as a Jewish refugee. The chaos of wartime conditions meant that there was a constant stream of Jewish refugees, often ... More

This chapter explores the complex process of returning home after spending time as a Jewish refugee. The chaos of wartime conditions meant that there was a constant stream of Jewish refugees, often in the thousands, moving from place to place within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In such conditions, the idea of returning home at the earliest opportunity must have seemed an attractive option. Once they had decided to go back, however, the returnees faced the problem of actually gaining entrance into town. Once the Jews were back in town, they then had to reconstitute Jewish society. The third challenge facing the returning refugees was resuming their economic life. Ultimately, in social, economic, religious, legal, and possibly even psychological terms, the Jewish survivors, rebuilding their shattered lives, helped create a very solid foundation for the future growth of their communities. This was a process not without tensions and difficulties, and there was much suffering along the way. Still, as the 1650s progressed and made way for the 1660s, the Jews of Poland–Lithuania were able to position themselves for future growth and development.Less

The End of the Crisis

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This chapter explains that it is hard to say when the influx of Jewish refugees to the Holy Roman Empire from the mid-seventeenth-century wars in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth actually came to ... More

This chapter explains that it is hard to say when the influx of Jewish refugees to the Holy Roman Empire from the mid-seventeenth-century wars in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth actually came to an end. The movement of Polish Jews into the empire never really stopped; it just changed character. The large wave of refugees that began to appear around 1655 seems to have continued for about a decade, particularly if the internal migration of refugees within the empire is also taken into account. These Polish Jews were fleeing not only the violence itself but also its aftermath—poverty, disease, and intensified hostility on the part of their non-Jewish neighbors. However, at some point, perhaps in the later 1660s, the waves of refugees began to be replaced by a movement of economic migration. With their country at peace and processes of reconstruction under way, Polish Jews left the Commonwealth not under duress but in the hope of bettering themselves in the burgeoning economies of the empire.Less

Irith Cherniavsky, Be’or shineihem: ’al ’aliyatam shel yehudei polin lifnei hashoah (In the Last Moment: Jewish Immigration from Poland in the 1930s). Tel Aviv: Resling, 2015. 277 pp.

Richard I. Cohen (ed.)

in Place in Modern Jewish Culture 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 ... More

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

David Carcassoni’s Mission to Europe: The Sephardi Philanthropic Network

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This chapter focuses on the mission of a young rabbinic scholar, David ben Natan'el Carcassoni, to visit the major Sephardi communities of Europe in person and raise the funds needed to ransom the ... More

This chapter focuses on the mission of a young rabbinic scholar, David ben Natan'el Carcassoni, to visit the major Sephardi communities of Europe in person and raise the funds needed to ransom the Jewish captives from eastern Europe. David Carcassoni's mission plunged him into the complex world of Mediterranean Jewish philanthropy that raised money for a number of different purposes, which formally did not include the needs of the Istanbul Jewish community. In order to succeed, Carcassoni needed to access the general pidyon shevuyim funds collected by most communities and ensure that as much as possible was sent back home to help the ransoming effort. He faced two major problems. First, he was by no means the only person traveling around the Jewish communities asking for money to help relieve the suffering of the Polish Jews. Second, the Jewish communities of Venice were the controlling force of the Jewish Mediterranean philanthropic network; they were the clearing house to which most funds were sent, and one of their roles was to determine where the money was most needed and to send it there. Without Venetian support, Carcassoni would find it very difficult to raise the sums he needed.Less

Introduction

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This chapter provides an overview of the Polish–Lithuanian Jews' flight westward after 1648. Three major issues underlie the discussion as a whole. First is the nature of Jewish solidarity in those ... More

This chapter provides an overview of the Polish–Lithuanian Jews' flight westward after 1648. Three major issues underlie the discussion as a whole. First is the nature of Jewish solidarity in those years and the fate of the Jewish refugees outside Poland–Lithuania when the religious imperative to ransom captives was not a relevant issue. Second is the policies adopted by the states of the Holy Roman Empire toward the refugees and their impact on the refugees themselves as they tried to rebuild their lives on German lands. Third is the new social and cultural formations created by the encounter of “eastern” and “western” Ashkenazim in the wake of the refugee crisis and their consequences for the development of German Jewry in both the short and long term.Less

Introduction

Adam Teller

in Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

This chapter provides an overview of the Polish–Lithuanian Jews who were taken captive to be ransomed or sold into slavery. Once captured, these Jewish women and men found themselves trapped in two ... More

This chapter provides an overview of the Polish–Lithuanian Jews who were taken captive to be ransomed or sold into slavery. Once captured, these Jewish women and men found themselves trapped in two major international economic systems of the period. The first was the international trade in Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and Circassian captives carried out by the Crimean Tatars with the support of the Ottoman Empire. The second economic system was piracy in the Mediterranean. Two major issues are at the heart of the discussion on the fates of these Jewish captives. The first concerns the slave trade itself and how its market conditions shaped the fate of the captured Jews. The second deals with the effort to ransom the Jewish captives from eastern Europe and is focused on the transregional Jewish philanthropic networks that raised huge sums and transported them the long distances to the slave market, examining them in terms of both their form and their function.Less

Introduction Solomon Maimon

in The Radical Enlightenment of Solomon Maimon: Judaism, Heresy, and Philosophy

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 ... More

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