Polacy - Żydzi: wojna – zagłada – Polska – komunizm
Poles - Jews: WWII – Holocaust – Poland - Communism

Summary/Abstract: The article explores the complex history of Polish-Jewish relations in Poland in the immediate aftermath of WWII. It examines one of the most difficult topics in Polish history, largely dominated by emotions and stereotypes. It discusses the factors which shaped mutual perceptions of Poles and Jews after WWII. Among the most important were: the experience of war as well as the post-war situation in Poland (with particular emphasis placed on the introduction of the communist regime in Poland after 1944). The influence of a supposed “Jewish policy” on the part of the Communists in Poland is discussed separately as is the attitude of the anti-communist opposition and the Catholic Church regarding the Jewish issue after WWII. What Poles and Jews worked out in the mutual relations after WWII and how they used to think about each other was subsequently buried and untouched in the following decades owing to the lack of independent discussions as well as the treatment of the post-war Jewish issue as a “taboo subject” in communist Poland.

• Details
• Contents