Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz

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Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz is a book by Jan T. Gross, published by Random House in 2006. It is an expansion of themes from his 2001 book Neighbors. In Fear, Gross explores the question of post-war Polish-Jewish relations, with particular focus on the anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944-1946. The book received international attention with reviews in major newspapers, but has also been a subject of much criticism from Polish historians.

Content

In the English version of the book, Gross begins with a Chapter illustrating the horrors suffered by Poland during World War II including the initial partition of the country between Stalin and Hitler, the subsequent Nazi crimes and the Katyn massacre of Polish army officers by the Soviets; the Warsaw uprising of 1944, as well as the Soviet decision to postpone their advance until the German army had defeated the Polish Armia Krajowa, which resulted in the destruction of Warsaw "reduced to a pile of rubble." And finally, the abandonment of Poland knowingly consigned to half a century of Soviet communist domination by Britain and America at the Yalta Conference.

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 communist government nationalizing 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. Gross makes additional claims about Kielce pogrom (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 concludes with the controversial claim that the cause of postwar anti-Semitism 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).

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 Einsatzgruppen rounded up Jewish men, women and children and committed mass murders in "full view" of the Polish population. In a dialogue with Deborah Lipstadt at YIVO 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.

Reception

Piast Institute, 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 New York Times, The Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times, 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 anti-Polish rhetoric." "The thesis of the book is highly controversial and many Poles and others also find it unfair and tendentious". According to the Piast Institute, some of the reviews in popular press were highly emotional and "even libelous", and might have damaged Polish-Jewish relations.

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." and 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."

Eva Hoffman, a writer and academic, refutes the idea of Polish collective guilt. "This is no doubt directly connected to the experience of her parents" wrote Rochelle G. Ruthchild from Wellesley College, and stated that 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 during the Holocaust, serves as a counterpoint to Jan Gross' account."

Fear has caused much controversy in Poland (where it was published in 2008). It got mixed media reception nevertheless it contributed to a debate about the incidents of antisemitism in post war Poland. It has been criticized by historians such as Paweł Machcewicz, Piotr Gontarczyk, Thaddeus Radzilowski, Janusz Kurtyka, Dariusz Stola and Marek Jan Chodakiewicz; accusing Gross of imperfect methodology, generalizations, stereotyping, ignoring works which did not confirm his views, neglecting the wider context of the events (Jews were not a unique subject of persecution and banditry which occurred throughout postwar Europe, they were also participants in it), misinterpreting or distorting data, relying mostly on Jewish sources, using inflammatory and emotional language and drawing unsubstantiated conclusions. Polish historians from the Institute of National Remembrance felt that the book contained methodological errors that would keep it from being accepted (even conditionally) in the historical community.

Polish prosecutors 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 Polish law 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 will be reviewed by the Polish Constitutional Court.

Citations

^ Symposium: Analysis of Fear - Summary of the Essay
^ Piotr Gontarczyk, Far From Truth, Rzeczpospolita, January 12, 2008 Template:En icon
^ Symposium: Analysis of Fear - Introduction
^ Symposium: Analysis of Fear - Symposium's Purpose
Thane Rosenbaum. A lethal homecoming. Review of Fear Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz — An Essay in Historical Interpretation. Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2006.
Rochelle G. Ruthchild, Wellesley College Book Review, "In the aftermath of Holocaust" Excerpt from a review of After Such Knowledge: Memory, History, and the Legacy of the Holocaust written by Eva Hoffman in 2004.
^ Craig Whitlock, A Scholar's Legal Peril in Poland, Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, January 18, 2008; Page A14
^ THADDEUS RADZILOWSKI, Review of FEAR
^ Template:Pl icon Konrad Piasecki, "Gross to wampir historiografii," interview with historian Janusz Kurtyka, RMF FM, 10 January 2008
^ Dariusz Stolam Review of Fear, in The English Historical Review 2007 CXXII(499):1460-1463; doi:10.1093/ehr/cem344
^ Marek Jan Chodakiewicz: People’s past has to be reviewed critically on individual basis, Rzeczpospolita, January 11, 2008 Template:En icon
War crime suspect stays in Israel, BBC News 2005
Template:Pl icon Nie będzie śledztwa ws. książki Grossa Wprost 24

Externa links

The Killing After the Killing, Review of Fear, Washington Post
Chasing Away the Memory of Guilt: The End of Jewish Life in Poland H-Net review of Fear
"Polish criminal investigation into the book Fear" by European Jewish Press

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