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{{Short description|2006 book by Jan T. Gross}}
'''''Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz''''' is a book by ], published by ] in 2006. It is an expansion of themes from his 2001 book ''].'' In ''Fear,'' Gross explores the question of post-war Polish-Jewish relations, with particular focus on the ]. The book received international attention with reviews in major newspapers, but has also been a subject of much criticism from Polish historians.
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'''''Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz: An Essay in Historical Interpretation''''', is a book by ], published by ] and ] in 2006. An edited ] version was published in 2008 by ] in ] as ''Strach: antysemityzm w Polsce tuż po wojnie: historia moralnej zapaści'' (''Fear: Antisemitism in Poland shortly after the war: the history of a moral fall''). In the book, Gross explores the issues concerning incidents of ], with particular focus on the 1946 ]. ''Fear'' has received international attention and reviews in major newspapers; receiving both praise and criticism.


==Content== ==Content==
In the English version of the book, Gross begins with a Chapter illustrating ] suffered by ] during ] including ] between ] and ], the subsequent ] and the ] of Polish army officers by the ]; the ] of 1944, as well as the Soviet decision to postpone their advance until the German army had defeated the Polish ], which resulted in the destruction of Warsaw "reduced to a pile of rubble." And finally, ] knowingly consigned to half a century of Soviet ] domination by Britain and America at the ]. Gross begins the English version of ''Fear'' with a chapter summarizing ] of ] during ], including the physical ]; ] between ] and ]; the subsequent ]; the ] of Polish Army officers by the ]; the ] of 1944; the Soviet decision to postpone their advance until the German Army had defeated the Polish ], which resulted in the total destruction of ], and finally, the ] by the ] at the ], knowingly consigning it to Soviet ] domination.


Gross estimates that 250,000 Polish Jews returned home at the end of the war. Often, they would find their property occupied by the homeless or taken over by the ] government ] much of the Polish economy. He discusses the alienation, hostile atmosphere and even violence experienced by some Jews and the inability of Polish elites to prevent it.<ref name="esummary"></ref> Gross makes additional claims about ] (see article for a more balanced analysis) arguing that the pogrom was initiated not by a mob, but by the police, and involved people from every walk of life except the highest level of government officials in the city (Fear, pp. 83-166). Gross estimates that approximately 250,000 ] returned home at the end of the war. In his chapter "The Unwelcoming of Jewish Survivors," Gross describes how returning Polish Jews were subjected to a wave of violence and hostility, with up to 1500 murdered either individually or in pogroms.<ref name=Margolick>David Margolick. '']'', July 23, 2006</ref> Often they would find their property occupied by non-Jewish Poles or taken over by the ] government, which ] much of the Polish economy. According to Gross, the expropriation of Jewish property continued a trend that occurred throughout the war years, with non-Jewish Poles acquiring the property of ] who were sent off to ], and in some instances, carrying out the killings themselves. Gross describes how the looting of property extended to digging through the ashes of ] for gold fillings.<ref name=Margolick/> He discusses the alienation, hostile atmosphere, and violence experienced by some Jews and the inability of Polish elites to prevent it.<ref name="esummary">{{cite web|url=http://fear.piastinstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=32&Itemid=55 |title=Symposium: Analysis of Fear - Summary of the Essay |publisher=Fear.piastinstitute.org |access-date=2013-06-27}}</ref> Gross makes additional claims about the ], arguing that the crime was initiated not by a mob, but by the police, and that it involved people from every walk of life except the highest level of government officials in the city.<ref>''Fear'', pp. 83-166</ref>


Gross concludes with the controversial claim that the cause of postwar ] in Poland was the presumed wartime participation of selected Poles, especially in rural areas, in the Nazi effort to annihilate and despoil the Jews. The fear of punishment for their own crimes, according to Gross, was what drove them to continue attacking Jews after the war (hence the title of the book).<ref name="esummary"/><ref name="Gont"/> According to a ] online summary,<ref name="esummary"/> Gross concludes by writing that some Poles, especially in rural areas, participated in the Nazi wartime effort to annihilate and despoil the Jews, which was the cause of postwar ]. The fear of punishment for their own crimes, according to Gross, was what drove them to continue attacking Jews after the war.<ref name="Gont"/><ref>David M. Crowe. Westview Press, 2008.</ref> Historian ] describes the following quote as a "summation of basic thesis:"


<blockquote>We must seek the reasons for the novel, virulent quality of postwar anti-Semitism in Poland not in collective hallucinations nor in prewar attitudes, but in actual experiences acquired during the war years.... Living Jews embodied the massive failure of character and reason on the part of their Polish neighbors and constituted by mere presence both a reminder and a threat that they might need to account for themselves.<ref name="Engel">{{cite journal |first=David |last=Engel |title=On Continuity and Discontinuity in Polish-Jewish Relations: Observations on ''Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz—An Essay in Historical Interpretation'' by Jan T. Gross. New York: Random House, 2006 |journal=] |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=534–548 |year=2007 |doi=10.1177/0888325407303795 |s2cid=143285987 }}</ref></blockquote>
===Differences between the Polish and English edition===

The Polish version was different because Gross assumed that his Polish readers were familiar with the tragic history of wartime Poland. The English-version first chapter was replaced by a chapter documenting Polish awareness of the Nazi genocide of the Jews. In particular, Gross makes his Polish readers aware that the ] rounded up Jewish men, women and children and committed mass murders in "full view" of the Polish population.{{Fact|date=May 2008}} In a dialogue with ] at ] on May 8, 2008, Gross stated that he now feels that he should have made a different decision about what to include in the Polish edition.{{Fact|date=May 2008}}
The ] version of ''Fear'' differed from its English original because Gross assumed that his Polish readers were familiar with the tragic history of wartime Poland. The first chapter of the English version was replaced by a chapter documenting Polish awareness of the genocide of the Jews. ''Fear'' includes several photographs taken by ].


==Reception== ==Reception==
===United States===
], a Polish-American think tank, has carried out an analysis of the reception of ''Fear''. It has concluded that "the reviewers in major newspapers such as the ], ] and the ], none of whom has any expertise in Polish or East Central European history, have reacted to the book and its thesis with uncritical acclaim and considerable ] rhetoric."<ref name="intro"></ref> "The thesis of the book is highly controversial and many Poles and others also find it unfair and tendentious".<ref name="purpose"></ref> According to the Piast Institute, some of the reviews in popular press were highly emotional and "even libelous", and might have damaged ].<ref name="intro"/><ref name="purpose"/>
''Fear'' received positive reviews in several American magazines and newspapers, including '']'', '']'', the '']'', and ''].''<ref>]. . The Boston Globe, July 02, 2006</ref>


], writing in '']'', took issue with Gross' thesis that the murders of Jews in post-war Poland was inspired by feelings of guilt on the part of Poles, positing instead that perhaps "through their own state-of-the-art anti-Semitism, the Germans emboldened many Poles to act upon what they had always felt," taking as credible "Nazi accounts of Judenjagd, or 'Jew hunts,' detailed how Poles pitched in to find any stray Jews the Germans somehow managed to miss."<ref name=Margolick/>
''Fear'' has caused much controversy in Poland (where it was published in 2008).<ref name=Whitlock/> It got mixed media reception nevertheless it contributed to a debate about the incidents of antisemitism in post war Poland.<ref name=Whitlock>Craig Whitlock, , Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, January 18, 2008; Page A14</ref> It has been criticized by historians such as ],<ref name=Whitlock/> ],<ref name="Gont"/> ],<ref name="TRad"></ref> ],<ref name="Kurtyka"/> ]<ref name="Stola">Dariusz Stolam Review of Fear, in The English Historical Review 2007 CXXII(499):1460-1463; doi:10.1093/ehr/cem344 </ref> and ];<ref name="Choda"/><ref name=Whitlock/> accusing Gross of imperfect ],<ref name="Choda"/><ref name="Gont"/> generalizations,<ref name="Choda"/><ref name="Stola"/> stereotyping,<ref name="Choda"/> ignoring works which did not confirm his views,<ref name="Gont"/> neglecting the wider context of the events (Jews were not a unique subject of persecution and banditry which occurred throughout postwar Europe<ref name=Whitlock/><ref name="Choda"/>, they were also participants in it<ref name="Morel"></ref>), misinterpreting or distorting data<ref name="Gont"/><ref name="Stola"/>, relying mostly on Jewish sources,<ref name="Gont"/> using inflammatory and emotional language<ref name=Whitlock/><ref name="Gont"/><ref name="TRad"/> and drawing unsubstantiated conclusions.<ref name="Stola"/><ref name="TRad"/><ref name=Whitlock/><ref name="Choda">]: , ], January 11, 2008 {{en icon}}</ref><ref name="Gont">Piotr Gontarczyk, , ], January 12, 2008 {{en icon}}</ref> Polish historians from the ] pointed out that due to its serious ] errors including the use of ] the book does not stand a chance of being accepted (even conditionally) in the historical community.<ref name="Kurtyka">{{pl icon}} Konrad Piasecki, , RMF FM, ] ]</ref>


], reviewing the book in ''The Washington Post'', rejected the notion of collective guilt but noted that Gross' book impels Poland to confront its past.<ref name=Wiesel>Elie Wiesel. . ''The Washington Post'', June 25, 2006.</ref> In response to Wiesel's review, Polish-Jewish journalist ] wrote in a leading Polish daily, '']'' (of which he is editor-in-chief), that "Wiesel's review conveys the image of a country unable to confront the plague of anti-Semitism... Anyone who writes about anti-Semitism in Poland and ignores those facts, falsifies — even if unintentionally — the truth about Poland."<ref name=Reiter/> ''The Washington Post'' printed a letter to the editor by ], the Polish ambassador to the United States, who cited Michnik.<ref name=Reiter>Janusz Reiter, , '']'' July 9, 2006.</ref>
Polish ] have reviewed the accusations that the book is slanderous against the Polish nation, but rejected the claim, refusing to launch an investigation. This has become the subject of some additional media controversy. The article of the ] that allowed the case to be made in the first place has been criticized by some as infringing upon the right to ] and will be reviewed by the ].<ref>{{pl icon}} Wprost 24</ref>


] wrote in the ''Los Angeles Times'' that the book "should inspire a national reflection on why there are scarcely any Jews left in Poland.<ref name="LAT">Thane Rosenbaum, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070421115204/http://fear.piastinstitute.org/pdf/Rosenbaum.pdf |date=2007-04-21 }} (pdf), book review of ''Fear'', '']'', June 25, 2006.</ref> According to ], Gross built "a meticulous case."<ref>, '']'', 29 May 2006</ref> ] wrote that, unlike Gross' earlier work '']'' (2001), in which Gross posited a continuity in the actions of a community of people over generations, in ''Fear'' "Gross himself appears to have bracketed off the Nazi era from the longer course of Polish history and by doing so to have altered the terms for reflecting on transgenerational Polish responsibility for past deeds that he set forth in his earlier work." Engel wrote that Gross now sees World War II as a radical break in the history of Polish behavior towards Jews.<ref name="Engel" />
==Collective guilt==
Reviewing ''Fear'' in the ''Los Angeles Times'', novelist and law professor Thane Rosenbaum, a son of Holocaust survivors, writes that Poland "is a nation cursed by absence. Gross' "Fear" should inspire a national reflection on why there are scarcely any Jews left in Poland. It's never too late to mourn. The soul of the country depends on it. alleges that "Gross' ''Fear'' should inspire a national reflection on why there are scarcely any Jews left in Poland. It's never too late to mourn. The soul of the country depends on it."<ref>Thane Rosenbaum. Review of Fear Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz — An Essay in Historical Interpretation. ''Los Angeles Times'', June 25, 2006.</ref>


=== United Kingdom ===
Scholar ] refute the idea of Polish collective guilt. "This is no doubt directly connected to the experience of her parents" wrote Rochelle G. Ruthchild from ] who doesn't rely on international press or their blurbs as Princeton University Press does. They "owed their survival to Christians who risked their lives to harbor them (in German-occupied Poland, where hiding Jews was punishable by death). Hoffman's belief in the courage and decency of ordinary people in the face of the venality, brutality, and racism too often displayed by Christians during the Holocaust, serves as a counterpoint to Jan Gross' account."<ref name="Ruthchild">Rochelle G. Ruthchild, Wellesley College Book Review, Excerpt from a review of ''After Such Knowledge: Memory, History, and the Legacy of the Holocaust'' written by Eva Hoffman in 2004.</ref>
], Professor in International History at the London School for Economics, has described the debate over Gross' book in Poland as "driven by historians with a nationalist agenda that they have pursued since the end of Communism," an agenda in which Jews are portrayed as antagonistic to the existence and interests of the Polish nation and in which their claims to a Polish identity are negated in order to portray communism as an alien creed.<ref>A. J. Prazmowska. The Institute of Historical Research, 2007. Date accessed: 11 August 2008.</ref>

===Poland===
In Poland ''Fear'' caused controversy and what the German magazine '']'' described as a "right wing backlash," with the book coming under strong criticism by Polish nationalists, the country's conservative establishment as well as some historians.

The book elicited responses from the modern Polish Jewish community. Polish rabbi ], quoted in ''Der Spiegel'', said he welcomed the debate ''Fear'' had begun, but described the book as unfairly depicting the country as anti-Semitic thus "harming our goal of reconciliation."<ref name="economist"> ''The Economist'', January 31, 2008.</ref><ref name=Dowling>Siobhán Dowling. ''Spiegel International''. January 18, 2008.</ref><ref name=Whitlock>Craig Whitlock, , Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, January 18, 2008; Page A14</ref> ], a Jewish leader of the ] against the Nazis, responded to the book by stating that "everything Gross writes about is true" but that postwar violence against Jews was "not about anti-Semitism... Murdering Jews was pure banditry, and I wouldn't explain it as anti-Semitism... It was contempt for man, for human life, plain meanness. A bandit doesn't attack someone who is stronger, like military troops, but where he sees weakness."<ref>{{cite web|last=Lucas |first=Ryan |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-01-24-3040464218_x.htm |title=Book on Polish anti-Semitism sparks fury |publisher=Usatoday.Com |date=2008-01-24 |access-date=2013-06-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.gazetawyborcza.pl/1,76498,4851306.html |access-date=31 October 2020 |title=Archived copy |archive-date=22 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080122063518/http://www.gazetawyborcza.pl/1,76498,4851306.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Edelman: Wszystko, o czym pisze Gross, to prawda |trans-title=Edelman: Everything Gross writes about is true|url=https://wyborcza.pl/1,75398,4851465.html |access-date=31 October 2020 |work=] |date=19 January 2008|language=pl}}</ref>

In a letter to the Polish publishers of ''Fear'', ], Cardinal ], secretary to Pope ], said Gross' book "awakened the demon" of antisemitism. A Znak spokesperson responded to the complaint by asserting that the issues should be talked about. Znak spokesman Tomasz Miedzik told '']'' "We have the freedom to ask difficult questions about our history and we should do that."<ref name="economist"/><ref name=Dowling/>

In a televised discussion with Gross, historian ] expressed his discomfort about the speed with which Gross makes generalizations. "Memory and history are two different things," Paczkowski said. "Memory is black and white while history is about shades of gray."<ref>TVN24 2008, , 2008-19-1, TVN24, PAP</ref>

''Fear'' has been criticized by historians such as ],<ref name=Whitlock/> ],<ref name="Gont"/> ],<ref name="TRad">{{cite web|url=http://fear.piastinstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=54 |title=Thaddeus Radzilowski, Review Of Fear |publisher=Fear.piastinstitute.org |access-date=2013-06-27}}</ref> ],<ref name="Kurtyka"/> ],<ref name="Stola">Dariusz Stolam Review of Fear, in ''The English Historical Review'' 2007 CXXII(499):1460-1463; {{doi|10.1093/ehr/cem344}} </ref> ]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2008-01-18|title=Jan Żaryn: Polacy w "Strachu" - recenzja książki J. T. Grossa|url=https://info.wiara.pl/doc/172507.Jan-Zaryn-Polacy-w-Strachu-recenzja-ksiazki-J-T-Grossa|access-date=2021-06-11|website=info.wiara.pl}}</ref> and ].<ref name=Whitlock/><ref name="Choda"/> These authors accused Gross of using imperfect ],<ref name="Gont"/><ref name="Choda"/> making generalizations,<ref name="Stola"/><ref name="Choda"/> stereotyping,<ref name="Choda"/> ignoring works which did not confirm his views,<ref name="Gont"/><ref name=":0" /> neglecting the wider context of the events in that Jews were not a unique subject of persecution and banditry which occurred throughout postwar Europe,<ref name=Whitlock/> misinterpreting or distorting data,<ref name="Gont"/><ref name="Stola"/> relying mostly on Jewish sources,<ref name="Gont"/> using inflammatory and emotional language,<ref name="Gont"/><ref name=Whitlock/><ref name="TRad"/><ref name=":0" /> and drawing unsubstantiated conclusions.<ref name="Gont">Piotr Gontarczyk, {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718022718/http://www.rp.pl/artykul/86847.html |date=2011-07-18 }}, ], January 12, 2008 {{in lang|en}}</ref><ref name=Whitlock/><ref name="TRad"/><ref name="Stola"/><ref name="Choda">]: {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718022728/http://www.rp.pl/artykul/86375.html |date=2011-07-18 }}, ], January 11, 2008 {{in lang|en}}</ref> The book quotes alleged ]' diary, fabricated by Communist activist and journalist Władysław Machejek.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tygodnik.onet.pl/1,6945,druk.html |title=Maciej Korkuć about Józef Kuraś |publisher=Tygodnik.onet.pl |date=2008-02-27 |access-date=2013-06-27}}</ref>

], the president of the ], in an interview with journalist {{Interlanguage link multi|Konrad Piasecki|pl}}, stated that ''Fear'' has serious ] errors and omissions and that it makes emotive use of political ], and therefore will not be accepted — even conditionally — in the historical community.<ref name="Kurtyka">{{cite web |language=pl |first= Konrad |last=Piasecki |url=http://www.rmf.fm/fakty/?id=129925&temat=75 |title=Gross to wampir historiografii - interview with historian Janusz Kurtyka |publisher= RMF FM|date= 10 January 2008}}</ref>

], a historian at ], described ''Fear'' as an important publication. Zaremba told '']'' radio that he "agree with argument that Poles had their share in the Holocaust," and that "anti-Semitism was a kind of cultural code which Poles used at that time, and that Jews were not responsible for the introduction of communist rule in Poland",<ref>Michael Kubicki. Network Europe, January 18, 2008.</ref> however, he also said that Gross often "can't see the forest for the trees", i.e. the hunger, Soviet brutality, and the wartime fear in the hearts of all Polish nationals regardless of faith. In 2012 Zaremba published a book about the years 1944-1947 in Poland (''Wielka trwoga''), in which he opposed some opinions of Gross.<ref>{{cite web |first=Marcin |last=Zaremba |date=September 18, 2012 |url=http://tygodnik.onet.pl/1,78033,druk.html |title=Polak wszystko przetrzyma |trans-title=A Pole can take on anything (In conversation with Marcin Ł. Makowski) |publisher=] |access-date= November 9, 2012}}</ref>

In response to the coverage of ''Fear'' in the Polish daily '']'', {{Interlanguage link multi|Marek Beylin|pl}}, a columnist for the competing daily '']'', called for a "sincere debate about the dark secrets of the Polish past."<ref name="Dowling"/><ref name="Beylin">{{cite web |first=Marek |last=Beylin |url=http://wyborcza.pl/1,86871,4833288.html |title=Jews, Poles, Fear |publisher= Gazeta Wyborcza |date= January 13, 2008}}</ref>

], head of Warsaw's ], criticized Gross for being more of a judge than an analyst, neglecting the impact of the post-war collapse of state institutions, and selectively using facts to support his thesis. Tych also said that "after book, it is no longer possible to escape from the question why there were killings of Jews after the war, and that is his undeniable achievement."<ref>{{cite news |author=Beats Pasek |url= http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1706315,00.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080127125533/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1706315,00.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= January 27, 2008 |title=Confronting Poland's Anti-Semitic Demons |publisher= ] |date=January 23, 2008}}</ref>

Polish ] reviewed accusations that ''Fear'' is slanderous against the Polish nation, but rejected the claims and refused to launch an investigation. The fact that such requests were made became the subject of additional media controversy. The article of the ] that allowed the case to be made in the first place has been criticized by some as infringing upon the right to ],<ref>{{in lang|pl}} Wprost 24</ref> and in 2008, the ] struck down that provision as unconstitutional.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Borkowska|first1=Edyta|last2=Krawczyk|first2=Iwona|date=2008-09-19|title=TK: karanie za "pomówienie narodu" - niekonstytucyjne|url=https://www.rp.pl/artykul/193048-TK--karanie-za--pomowienie-narodu----niekonstytucyjne.html|access-date=2021-06-11|website=]|language=pl}}</ref>


==See also== ==See also==
*] *]
*] *]
*] *]
*]


==Citations== ==Citations==
{{reflist}} {{reflist|30em}}


==Further reading== ==Further reading==
*David Engel, ''On Continuity and Discontinuity in Polish-Jewish Relations: Observations on Fear: Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz—An Essay in Historical Interpretation by Jan T. Gross. New York: Random House, 2006'', East European Politics & Societies, Vol. 21, No. 3, 534-548 (2007), *{{cite journal |first=David |last=Engel |title=On Continuity and Discontinuity in Polish-Jewish Relations: Observations on ''Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz—An Essay in Historical Interpretation'' by Jan T. Gross. New York: Random House, 2006 |journal=] |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=534–548 |year=2007 |doi=10.1177/0888325407303795 |s2cid=143285987 }}

==Externa links==
*, Review of Fear, Washington Post
* H-Net review of Fear
*


==External links==
]
* ''USA Today'', January 24, 2008.
]
* ''H-Net'' review of ''Fear''
]
* ''European Jewish Press''
]
* Siobhán Dowling, ''Spiegel International'', January 18, 2008.


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Latest revision as of 21:46, 12 December 2024

2006 book by Jan T. Gross
Fear
AuthorJan T. Gross
Original titleFear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz: An Essay in Historical Interpretation
SubjectPost-war anti-Jewish violence in Poland
GenreHistory
Set inRepublic of Poland
PublisherRandom House, Princeton University Press
Publication date2006
Media typeBook
Preceded by Neighbors 
Followed by Golden Harvest 

Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz: An Essay in Historical Interpretation, is a book by Jan T. Gross, published by Random House and Princeton University Press in 2006. An edited Polish version was published in 2008 by Znak Publishers in Kraków as Strach: antysemityzm w Polsce tuż po wojnie: historia moralnej zapaści (Fear: Antisemitism in Poland shortly after the war: the history of a moral fall). In the book, Gross explores the issues concerning incidents of post-war anti-Jewish violence in Poland, with particular focus on the 1946 Kielce pogrom. Fear has received international attention and reviews in major newspapers; receiving both praise and criticism.

Content

Gross begins the English version of Fear with a chapter summarizing the devastation of Poland during World War II, including the physical destruction of Poland's Jews; the initial partition of the country between Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler; the subsequent Nazi crimes; the Katyn massacre of Polish Army officers by the Soviets; the Warsaw uprising of 1944; the Soviet decision to postpone their advance until the German Army had defeated the Polish Armia Krajowa, which resulted in the total destruction of Warsaw, and finally, the abandonment of Poland by the Western Allies at the Yalta Conference, knowingly consigning it to Soviet communist domination.

Gross estimates that approximately 250,000 Polish Jews returned home at the end of the war. In his chapter "The Unwelcoming of Jewish Survivors," Gross describes how returning Polish Jews were subjected to a wave of violence and hostility, with up to 1500 murdered either individually or in pogroms. Often they would find their property occupied by non-Jewish Poles or taken over by the communist government, which nationalized much of the Polish economy. According to Gross, the expropriation of Jewish property continued a trend that occurred throughout the war years, with non-Jewish Poles acquiring the property of Polish Jews who were sent off to extermination camps, and in some instances, carrying out the killings themselves. Gross describes how the looting of property extended to digging through the ashes of Treblinka for gold fillings. He discusses the alienation, hostile atmosphere, and violence experienced by some Jews and the inability of Polish elites to prevent it. Gross makes additional claims about the Kielce pogrom, arguing that the crime was initiated not by a mob, but by the police, and that it involved people from every walk of life except the highest level of government officials in the city.

According to a Piast Institute online summary, Gross concludes by writing that some Poles, especially in rural areas, participated in the Nazi wartime effort to annihilate and despoil the Jews, which was the cause of postwar antisemitism in Poland. The fear of punishment for their own crimes, according to Gross, was what drove them to continue attacking Jews after the war. Historian David Engel describes the following quote as a "summation of basic thesis:"

We must seek the reasons for the novel, virulent quality of postwar anti-Semitism in Poland not in collective hallucinations nor in prewar attitudes, but in actual experiences acquired during the war years.... Living Jews embodied the massive failure of character and reason on the part of their Polish neighbors and constituted by mere presence both a reminder and a threat that they might need to account for themselves.

The Polish version of Fear differed from its English original because Gross assumed that his Polish readers were familiar with the tragic history of wartime Poland. The first chapter of the English version was replaced by a chapter documenting Polish awareness of the genocide of the Jews. Fear includes several photographs taken by Julia Pirotte.

Reception

United States

Fear received positive reviews in several American magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

David Margolick, writing in The New York Times Book Review, took issue with Gross' thesis that the murders of Jews in post-war Poland was inspired by feelings of guilt on the part of Poles, positing instead that perhaps "through their own state-of-the-art anti-Semitism, the Germans emboldened many Poles to act upon what they had always felt," taking as credible "Nazi accounts of Judenjagd, or 'Jew hunts,' detailed how Poles pitched in to find any stray Jews the Germans somehow managed to miss."

Elie Wiesel, reviewing the book in The Washington Post, rejected the notion of collective guilt but noted that Gross' book impels Poland to confront its past. In response to Wiesel's review, Polish-Jewish journalist Adam Michnik wrote in a leading Polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza (of which he is editor-in-chief), that "Wiesel's review conveys the image of a country unable to confront the plague of anti-Semitism... Anyone who writes about anti-Semitism in Poland and ignores those facts, falsifies — even if unintentionally — the truth about Poland." The Washington Post printed a letter to the editor by Janusz Reiter, the Polish ambassador to the United States, who cited Michnik.

Thane Rosenbaum wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the book "should inspire a national reflection on why there are scarcely any Jews left in Poland. According to Deborah E. Lipstadt, Gross built "a meticulous case." David Engel wrote that, unlike Gross' earlier work Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (2001), in which Gross posited a continuity in the actions of a community of people over generations, in Fear "Gross himself appears to have bracketed off the Nazi era from the longer course of Polish history and by doing so to have altered the terms for reflecting on transgenerational Polish responsibility for past deeds that he set forth in his earlier work." Engel wrote that Gross now sees World War II as a radical break in the history of Polish behavior towards Jews.

United Kingdom

Anita J. Prazmowska, Professor in International History at the London School for Economics, has described the debate over Gross' book in Poland as "driven by historians with a nationalist agenda that they have pursued since the end of Communism," an agenda in which Jews are portrayed as antagonistic to the existence and interests of the Polish nation and in which their claims to a Polish identity are negated in order to portray communism as an alien creed.

Poland

In Poland Fear caused controversy and what the German magazine Der Spiegel described as a "right wing backlash," with the book coming under strong criticism by Polish nationalists, the country's conservative establishment as well as some historians.

The book elicited responses from the modern Polish Jewish community. Polish rabbi Burt Schuman, quoted in Der Spiegel, said he welcomed the debate Fear had begun, but described the book as unfairly depicting the country as anti-Semitic thus "harming our goal of reconciliation." Marek Edelman, a Jewish leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis, responded to the book by stating that "everything Gross writes about is true" but that postwar violence against Jews was "not about anti-Semitism... Murdering Jews was pure banditry, and I wouldn't explain it as anti-Semitism... It was contempt for man, for human life, plain meanness. A bandit doesn't attack someone who is stronger, like military troops, but where he sees weakness."

In a letter to the Polish publishers of Fear, Znak, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, secretary to Pope John Paul II, said Gross' book "awakened the demon" of antisemitism. A Znak spokesperson responded to the complaint by asserting that the issues should be talked about. Znak spokesman Tomasz Miedzik told Der Spiegel "We have the freedom to ask difficult questions about our history and we should do that."

In a televised discussion with Gross, historian Andrzej Paczkowski expressed his discomfort about the speed with which Gross makes generalizations. "Memory and history are two different things," Paczkowski said. "Memory is black and white while history is about shades of gray."

Fear has been criticized by historians such as Paweł Machcewicz, Piotr Gontarczyk, Thaddeus Radzilowski, Janusz Kurtyka, Dariusz Stola, Jan Żaryn and Marek Jan Chodakiewicz. These authors accused Gross of using imperfect methodology, making generalizations, stereotyping, ignoring works which did not confirm his views, neglecting the wider context of the events in that Jews were not a unique subject of persecution and banditry which occurred throughout postwar Europe, misinterpreting or distorting data, relying mostly on Jewish sources, using inflammatory and emotional language, and drawing unsubstantiated conclusions. The book quotes alleged Józef Kuraś' diary, fabricated by Communist activist and journalist Władysław Machejek.

Janusz Kurtyka, the president of the Institute of National Remembrance, in an interview with journalist Konrad Piasecki [pl], stated that Fear has serious methodological errors and omissions and that it makes emotive use of political epithets, and therefore will not be accepted — even conditionally — in the historical community.

Marcin Zaremba, a historian at Warsaw University, described Fear as an important publication. Zaremba told Network Europe radio that he "agree with argument that Poles had their share in the Holocaust," and that "anti-Semitism was a kind of cultural code which Poles used at that time, and that Jews were not responsible for the introduction of communist rule in Poland", however, he also said that Gross often "can't see the forest for the trees", i.e. the hunger, Soviet brutality, and the wartime fear in the hearts of all Polish nationals regardless of faith. In 2012 Zaremba published a book about the years 1944-1947 in Poland (Wielka trwoga), in which he opposed some opinions of Gross.

In response to the coverage of Fear in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, Marek Beylin [pl], a columnist for the competing daily Gazeta Wyborcza, called for a "sincere debate about the dark secrets of the Polish past."

Feliks Tych, head of Warsaw's Jewish Historical Institute, criticized Gross for being more of a judge than an analyst, neglecting the impact of the post-war collapse of state institutions, and selectively using facts to support his thesis. Tych also said that "after book, it is no longer possible to escape from the question why there were killings of Jews after the war, and that is his undeniable achievement."

Polish prosecutors reviewed accusations that Fear is slanderous against the Polish nation, but rejected the claims and refused to launch an investigation. The fact that such requests were made became the subject of additional media controversy. The article of the Polish Penal Code that allowed the case to be made in the first place has been criticized by some as infringing upon the right to free speech, and in 2008, the Polish Constitutional Court struck down that provision as unconstitutional.

See also

Citations

  1. ^ David Margolick. Postwar Pogrom. The New York Times Book Review, July 23, 2006
  2. ^ "Symposium: Analysis of Fear - Summary of the Essay". Fear.piastinstitute.org. Retrieved 2013-06-27.
  3. Fear, pp. 83-166
  4. ^ Piotr Gontarczyk, Far From Truth Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine, Rzeczpospolita, January 12, 2008 (in English)
  5. David M. Crowe. The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath. Westview Press, 2008.
  6. ^ Engel, David (2007). "On Continuity and Discontinuity in Polish-Jewish Relations: Observations on Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz—An Essay in Historical Interpretation by Jan T. Gross. New York: Random House, 2006". East Eur. Polit. Soc. 21 (3): 534–548. doi:10.1177/0888325407303795. S2CID 143285987.
  7. Susan Rubin Suleiman. Aftershocks. The Boston Globe, July 02, 2006
  8. Elie Wiesel. The Killing After The Killing. The Washington Post, June 25, 2006.
  9. ^ Janusz Reiter, Anti-Semitism in Poland, The Washington Post July 9, 2006.
  10. Thane Rosenbaum, "A Lethal Homecoming" Archived 2007-04-21 at the Wayback Machine (pdf), book review of Fear, Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2006.
  11. Book review, Publishers Weekly, 29 May 2006
  12. A. J. Prazmowska. Review of: Jan T. Gross, Fear. Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz: An Essay in Historical Interpretation. The Institute of Historical Research, 2007. Date accessed: 11 August 2008.
  13. ^ Sleeping dogs that won't lie: book on Poland's anti-Semitic record triggers fierce controversy. The Economist, January 31, 2008.
  14. ^ Siobhán Dowling. Fear and Slander in Poland. Anti-Semitism Book Could Land Historian in Jail. Spiegel International. January 18, 2008.
  15. ^ Craig Whitlock, A Scholar's Legal Peril in Poland, Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, January 18, 2008; Page A14
  16. Lucas, Ryan (2008-01-24). "Book on Polish anti-Semitism sparks fury". Usatoday.Com. Retrieved 2013-06-27.
  17. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 January 2008. Retrieved 31 October 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. "Edelman: Wszystko, o czym pisze Gross, to prawda" [Edelman: Everything Gross writes about is true]. Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish). 19 January 2008. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  19. TVN24 2008, "Gross chce zmusić Polaków do zmiany świadomości", 2008-19-1, TVN24, PAP
  20. ^ "Thaddeus Radzilowski, Review Of Fear". Fear.piastinstitute.org. Retrieved 2013-06-27.
  21. ^ Piasecki, Konrad (10 January 2008). "Gross to wampir historiografii - interview with historian Janusz Kurtyka" (in Polish). RMF FM.
  22. ^ Dariusz Stolam Review of Fear, in The English Historical Review 2007 CXXII(499):1460-1463; doi:10.1093/ehr/cem344
  23. ^ "Jan Żaryn: Polacy w "Strachu" - recenzja książki J. T. Grossa". info.wiara.pl. 2008-01-18. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
  24. ^ Marek Jan Chodakiewicz: People's past has to be reviewed critically on individual basis Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine, Rzeczpospolita, January 11, 2008 (in English)
  25. "Maciej Korkuć about Józef Kuraś". Tygodnik.onet.pl. 2008-02-27. Retrieved 2013-06-27.
  26. Michael Kubicki. New books on afterwar Polish-Jewish relations provoke heated debate in Poland. Network Europe, January 18, 2008.
  27. Zaremba, Marcin (September 18, 2012). "Polak wszystko przetrzyma" [A Pole can take on anything (In conversation with Marcin Ł. Makowski)]. Tygodnik Powszechny. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
  28. Beylin, Marek (January 13, 2008). "Jews, Poles, Fear". Gazeta Wyborcza.
  29. Beats Pasek (January 23, 2008). "Confronting Poland's Anti-Semitic Demons". Time. Archived from the original on January 27, 2008.
  30. (in Polish) Nie będzie śledztwa ws. książki Grossa Wprost 24
  31. Borkowska, Edyta; Krawczyk, Iwona (2008-09-19). "TK: karanie za "pomówienie narodu" - niekonstytucyjne". Rzeczpospolita (in Polish). Retrieved 2021-06-11.

Further reading

  • Engel, David (2007). "On Continuity and Discontinuity in Polish-Jewish Relations: Observations on Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz—An Essay in Historical Interpretation by Jan T. Gross. New York: Random House, 2006". East Eur. Polit. Soc. 21 (3): 534–548. doi:10.1177/0888325407303795. S2CID 143285987.

External links

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