The Polish political scene vis‐à‐vis acts of mass anti‐Semitic violence in the interwar period: Reconnaissance (1918–1939)

• Published date: 01 December 2024
• Author: Grzegorz Krzywiec
• Date: 01 December 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21447

RESEARCH ARTICLE

The Polish political scene vis-à-vis acts of mass

anti-Semitic violence in the interwar period:

Reconnaissance (1918–1939)

Grzegorz Krzywiec

Institute of History, Polish Academy of

Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

Correspondence

Grzegorz Krzywiec, Institute of History,

Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw,

Poland

Email: gkrzywiec@ihpan.edu.pl

ABSTRACT

The article provides a qualitative analysis of the politi-

cal discourse in highly polarized political environment

and the role of political divisions in shaping the collec-

tive violence. The paper will summarize attitudes

toward pogrom violence of key political parties in pre

WW2 Poland.

1|INTRODUCTION

Poland's regaining of independence in the autumn of 1918 coincided with outbreaks of several

waves of collective anti-Jewish violence. The first major wave occurred immediately at the turn of

October and November 1918. The second came with the outbreak of the Polish-Bolshevik War in

the spring of 1919. These storms had the character of spontaneous attacks on the Jewish popula-

tion. At the same time, in the first wave, they took place in the larger cities, in the case of the sec-

ond wave, the epicenter was in the Polish provinces, with such a region as Western Galicia in the

first place. However, the second wave of anti-Semitic violence, against the backdrop of the Polish-

Bolshevik war, was preceded by a hurricane attack of propaganda from both state institutions

(e.g. the propaganda apparatus) and the political world (here primarily the mass press and popu-

lar culture). These experiences strongly influenced the attitudes of the Jewish population toward

the Polish state and also significantly determined the relations of Jewswith non-Jewish Poles.

This article aims to show how the dominant political forces on the Polish scene have dealt

with anti-Semitic violence; for example, to demonstrate how an ethno-nationalist discourse spe-

cific to the largest right-wing group is beginning to hegemonize the entire public discourse,

why its opponents are unable to find an effective response to it, why alert visions of civic citi-

zenship are failing and to what extent the Polish debate on violence against Jews is an exchange

of various angles of nationalism and even fascism.

The first public discussions around the anti-Jewish violence revealed that the ethnocentric

language of the largest grouping on the political scene, the National Democracy (Narodowa

Demokracja,ND), full of stereotypical references, clichés, and anti-Semitic relics, dominated not

Received: 5 January 2023 Revised: 8 December 2023 Accepted: 13 August 2024

DOI: 10.1002/crq.21447

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