Żydokomuna

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Żydokomuna (Polish for "Judeo-Communism" or "Judeo-Bolshevism") is a pejorative term that has been used to express an antisemitic stereotype that blamed Jews for having advocated, introduced and run Communism in Poland.[1]

Contents

[edit] Origins

The expression "Żydokomuna" was coined in 1817 by the Polish Enlightenment writer and political activist Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz in his dystopia, The Year 3333, or the Incredible Dream (Rok 3333 czyli Sen niesłychany).[2] The novel presented a fantastic vision in which a Communist Poland would be run by assimilated Jews. It described a Warsaw of the future, renamed Moshkopolis (in the Polish, Moszkopolis) after its Jewish ruler Moshko (in the Polish, Moszko),[2] and was published during the period of European Jewish history known as the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah).

The expression "Żydokomuna" was rediscovered and popularized during the Bolshevik revolution. "Many Poles felt directly threatened both by the prospect of revolution and by Russian imperialism in a new guise, which they saw embodied in the Soviet regime."[2]

The expression was used once more during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-21, when Jews were blamed for having supported the Soviets.[3] In fact the Polish explanation, by their military, for the Pinsk massacre was that their actions were based as a result of strong bolshevik sympathies in the town.

During World War II, "Żydokomuna" was applied to resemble the "Jewish-Bolshevism" rhetoric of Nazi Germany, wartime Romania[4] and other war-torn countries of Central and Eastern Europe.[5]

[edit] History

[edit] Polish Communist Party (1918 - 1938)

The Polish Communist Party (KPP, 1918–1938) had a very strong power base among the Jews[citation needed]. In Polish court proceedings against communists between 1927 and 1936, 90% of the accused were Jews. Out of fifteen leaders of the KPP central administration in 1936, eight were Jews. Jews constituted 53% of the "active members" (aktyw) of the KPP, 75% of its "publication apparatus," 90% of the "international department for help to revolutionaries" and 100% of the "technical apparatus" of the Home Secretariat. In terms of membership, before its dissolution in 1938, 25% of KPP members were Jews; most urban KPP members were Jews[6]—a substantial number, given an 8.7% Jewish minority in prewar Poland. Nonetheless, research on voting patterns in Poland's parliamentary elections in the 1920s has shown that Jewish support for the communists was proportionally less than their representation in the total population;[7] based on 1928 elections data, it can be estimated that only 5% of Jews were sympathetic enough to the communist cause to vote for the KPP.[6] In the end, while most Jews were neither communists nor communist sympathizers, a substantial and quite visible portion of Polish Communists in the interwar period were Jews. This disproportionately large participation of Jews in the communist movement led to the spread of the Żydokomuna myth, which in the late 1930s was widely used in the propaganda of the National Democrats, who after Józef Piłsudski's death in 1935 hoped to take power.[8]

[edit] Soviet invasion of Poland

Following the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, compared to the Poles, a substantial percentage of Jews were sympathetic to the Soviets. While most Poles saw the Soviets as invaders, many Jews saw them as what they claimed to be – protectors from the Nazis.[9] Large numbers of Jews welcomed the Soviet invasion, implanting in the Polish collective memory the image of Jewish crowds greeting the invading Red Army as liberators.[10] Many Jews declared, by their words and deeds, disdain for the Poles and the Polish state,[citation needed] and their loyalty to the Soviet Union. In return, many local Jews were rewarded with positions of authority by the Soviet government.[10] What Poles saw as occupation and betrayal, many Jews saw as an opportunity for revolution or retribution.[10] This worsened Polish-Jewish relations, leading to increased tensions.[10]

Though Jews reaped some benefits from their collaboration with the Soviets, the Soviet terror soon began to strike at the Jewish population as well; independent Jewish organizations were abolished and activists were arrested; paradoxically, this, combined with censorship, led many Jews to seek a haven in German-occupied Poland.[10] After Operation Barbarossa and the beginning of Nazi terror in the former Polish eastern territories, many Jews joined Soviet guerilla groups, which increasingly clashed with Polish guerillas; this contributed to yet another argument that the Jews worked with the Soviets against the Poles.[10]

[edit] Post World War II

Immediately after World War II, most Jewish organizations were pro-communist; they saw communists as the force that could bring security and stabi­lization. To be a Jew was sometimes an advantage for those ready to make careers in the emerging communist system.

Some Jews in post-war Poland tried to punish those guilty of murder of their families. The most dramatic example is provided by the story of Solomon Morel, sadistic head of a concentration camp for Germans in Poland, immediately after World War II.

After the Second World War Polish Jews again were blamed for their active participation in the new Polish Communists organizations, particularly the secret police and Ministry of Public Security of Poland (also known as Służba Bezpieczeństwa). According to Teresa Torańska, “all or nearly all of the directors (of the Ministry of Security) were Jewish”.[11] This allegation was denied by official sources which claimed that the Ministry of Security employed only one Jewish officer, presumably the head of the Ministry, Jakub Berman.[12] Nonetheless recent study carried by Polish Institute of National Remembrance showed that out of 450 people in director positions in the Ministry (from 1944 to 1954), 167 (37.1%) were of Jewish ethnicity – a significant number, when compared to approximately 1% of Polish post-war population composed of Jews.[13] However, Szwagrzyk also quoted Jan T. Gross, who argued that many Jews who worked for the communist party cut their ties with their – Jewish, Polish or Russian – culture, and tried to represent the interests of international communism only, or at least that of the local communist government.[13] Nonetheless this contributed to the post-war stereotype of Jews as agents of the secret police.[10] Because Jews were also overrepresented in the ranks of other Polish Communist organizations,[10] this further fed the 'Żydokomuna' theory.

[edit] 1950s

In 1950s one of the most known employees of the Polish secret police was the Polish Jew Józef Światło, who defected to the West, and whose story was popularized in Poland by Radio Free Europe.[14]

Chodakiewicz argued that after the Soviet takeover of Poland in 1945 violence had developed amid postwar retribution and counter-retribution, exacerbated by the breakdown of law and order and a Polish anti-Communist insurgency.[15] Some Jewish avengers endeavored in extracting justice from the Poles who harmed Jews during the War and in some cases Jews attempted to reclaim property confiscated by the Nazis. These phenomena further reinforced the stereotype of Żydokomuna, a Jewish-Communist conspiracy in post-war Poland. Chodakiewicz claims that after World War Two, the Jews were not only victims, but also aggressors. He recalls numerous cases in which Jews cooperated with the Urzad Bezpieczenstwa, denouncing Poles, members of the Home Army. According to him, some 3500 to 6500 Poles died in late 1940s because of Jewish denounciations or were killed by Jews themselves.[16]

The numbers of Jews in communist structures gradually fell. Urząd Bezpieczeństwa was liquidated. With time, more Poles joined the communist party. Additionally, Mieczysław Moczar's "anti-Zionist" faction became increasingly influential in the communist party, leading to the March 1968 events, which resulted in most remaining Jews leaving Poland.

After the collapse of the People's Republic of Poland in the late 20th century, the term lost its original meaning. It is now used almost exclusively by fringe nationalists associated with Radio Maryja, usually in reference to former communist party members and to "liberals" who have supported capitalist reforms, globalization and European integration. Organizations referred to as "Żydokomuna" have included the SLD and UW political parties, and Gazeta Wyborcza, whose editor-in-chief, Adam Michnik (born Aaron Szechter[17]), is a Jew.[18]

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Antony Polonsky and Joanna B. Michlic (2003). The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11306-8.  p.469
  2. ^ a b c Antony Polonsky, Poles, Jews and the Problems of a Divided Memory, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, page: 20 (PDF file: 208 KB)
  3. ^ (English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide.... McFarland & Company, pp. 41-42. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. 
  4. ^ George Voicu (4/2004). The Notion of “Judeo-Bolshevism” in Romanian Wartime Press. Studia Hebraica.  p.55-68
  5. ^ A. Gerrits (1995). Anti-Semitism and Anti-Communism: The Myth of 'Judeo-Communism' in Eastern Europe. East European Jewish Affairs.  25,1,49-72
  6. ^ a b (English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide.... McFarland & Company, p. 36-37. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. 
  7. ^ Robert Blobaum (1983). Antisemitism and Its Opponents In Modern Poland. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-691-11306-8.  p. 97.
  8. ^ Joseph Marcus (2003). The Social and Political History of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN ISBN 9027932395.  p. 362.
  9. ^ The Death of Chaimke Yizkor Book Project, JewishGen: The Home of Jewish Genealogy
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h (English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide.... McFarland & Company, p. 49-65. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. 
  11. ^ Teresa Torańska, Them: Stalin's Polish Puppets, Harper & Row, New York 1987, ISBN 0060156570
  12. ^ Norman Davies, "God’s Playground – A History of Poland (revised edition), Columbia University Press, New York 2005, ISBN 0-231-12819-3
  13. ^ a b Krzysztof Szwagrzyk Żydzi w kierownictwie UB. Stereotyp czy rzeczywistość? (Jews in the authorities of the Polish Secret Security. Stereotype or Reality?), Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance (11/2005), p. 37-42, online article, entire issue
  14. ^ The defection of Jozef Swiatlo and the Search for Jewish Scapegoats in the Polish United Workers' Party, 1953-1954 (PDF). Fourth Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities. Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New York City (April 15-17, 1999). Retrieved on 2006-10-26.
  15. ^ Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, "After the Holocaust Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II", Columbia University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-88033-511-4
  16. ^ http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/1671921,11,chodakiewicz_medialny_strach_i_niemedialna_prawda,item.html
  17. ^ Henryk Pająk, Piąty rozbiór Polski 1990–2000, Wydawnitcwo Retro, 1998, p.92
  18. ^ Pająk, op.cit., p.76

[edit] Further reading

  • (Polish) August Grabski, "Działalność komunistów wśród Żydów w Polsce (1944-1949)", Trio, Warszawa 2004, ISBN 8388542877