Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz

No time to do this justice, alas, but the current TNR has a long review of Jan Gross's new book: Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz From this review, I have learned that a monsterous pogrom was conducted against the Jews of Kielce on July 4, 1946(!) Scores of Jews were killed and hundreds injured in a day-long city-wide bloodbath. As Gross concludes, after documenting the atrocities: "Evidently the moral economy of Polish society after the war allowed for the murdering of Jews."

More later, I hope, but for now the question is this: Why? What was it about Polish society and Polish culture that made it so anti-Semitic? Was it something in their water or in their bread, or perhaps something in the songs they sang and the sermons they heard...

No comments: