From: sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal)
Subject: Re: Nazi camps
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 03:49:51 GMT

In article <dobo.715275757@swalwell>, dobo@cs.UAlberta.CA (W. Dobosiewicz) writes:
> sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal) writes:
> 
> [...]
> >Stan can surely speak for himself, but I would like to remind
> >the Polish participants here, that long before Hitler invaded
> >Poland, in the 30's the Polish government had banned Jews from working
> >in many professions, was conducting boycotts of Jewish businesses,
> >etc.  The boycott was effective enough among Catholic Poles to drive
> 
> The government organised nothing of the kind. The "shop Christian"
> campaign was organised by political parties that-by accident, maybe-were
> in opposition to the government of the time. The campaign (and many other
> antisemitic motions) had considerable success. The government did nothing
> for or against it. Check your sources.
> 

You may be right and it was not government sponsored, but it
hardly speaks well for anti-semitism in Poland.

> >many Jews out of business (and perhaps fortunately out of Poland
> >too).  This caused lots of suffering among the Jews.  If you get
> 
> In all fairness, this was the great depression. Many businesses closed
> down and I have yet to see a statistic showing that the number of closures
> was higher among Jewish shops than, say, Polish.
> 

Unfortunately Jews were mostly independent businessmen,
middle men for agricultural produce, and small shop-keepers.
A professional class had developed in the late 19th century.
Since farmers became reluctant to do business with Jewish
middle men, housewives with market salesmen, and non-Jews
with small shops, lots of Jews went broke not because of
the bad economy, but because of the shift of customers
away from them.

> >Roman Vishniac's photo-essay about the pre-war years in Poland
> >you will be struck by how many Jews in Warsaw or Lodz for instance
> >had to become baggage porters or rag sellers, or how many Jewish
> 
> This is most interesting. What was their profession before they became
> porters? And who was doing the porting before Jews "had to become
> porters"? Reading your posting one might get the impression that before
> the Polish government started discriminating against Jews, they were all
> affluent.
> 

No but they could make a living.  Take a look at Vishniac's book,
he got to know some of the subjects he photographed.

> >non tolerandus Judaius status.  Similar to Cracow where the
> >decision was forced on the city when it expanded to include
> >the Jewish town Kazimierce that was built to accomodate Jewish
> >merchants to the medieval fairs and markets, since Cracow also was
> >banned to Jews.  Jews lived in Kazimierce since at least the 13th
> 
> The place is called Kazimierz and was founded in the 14th century, to
> be exact. Have you not heard about the Jewish "queen" of Poland (Esther)?
> By the way, Kazimierz is a place to visit for the judaica enthusiast.
> 

I have heard of the Jewish King for a day, Saul der Wahl (Katzenellenbogen).

> >century, but in Cracow only since about 1800.
> 
> On the other hand, Jews were never expelled from Poland, as they were from,
> say, England (Hungary, ...).
> 

This is true.

I understand young Poles are beginning to look towards the
Yiddish Polish culture with a bit more curiousity and interest,
since it is intimately bound up with their own history.
Too bad it is too late.

> Salutations,
> 
> W. Dobosiewicz

Seth Rosenthal

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own, not my employers'.