The Bund in Poland, 1935-1939

Summary

IDEOLOGICAL DECISIONS AND POLITICAL STRUGGLES

THE months of April and May 1935 were turning-points in the history of the Jewish community in Poland between the two world wars. At that time two events occurred that marked the beginning of the change. In April 1935 Poland received a new constitution, one that legitimized the existing autocratic regime by transferring broad powers of government from the Sejm to the president. The new constitution made the rights of citizenship for all citizens conditional on fufilment of their obligations to the state. In May 1935 Józef Pilsudski, who had led Poland through a critical period, died. His demise cleared the way for the rise of Fascist and explicitly antisemitic elements. The new constitution and Pilsudski's death were unfavourable portents for the civil and legal status of Polish Jewry, their sources of livelihood, and their relationships within Polish society. These events also influenced political forces within the Jewish community.

Even before the Nazis came to Poland there were segments of Polish society that regarded the Jews, who were a large, vibrant community, as an unwanted population that was not and could not be an organic part of the Polish nation. Extremist and moderate political elements from the government camp as well as the opposition Socialists and Endeks believed that mass emigration of the Jews from Poland was the most desirable solution to the Jewish question. In a country beset with severe economic and governmental problems, as well as political and social tensions, the Jewish problem became a focus for public discussion, whose effects were felt even outside Poland. In these insecure times Jews struggled for their daily bread in an economy large segments of which had been closed to them even before the second half of the 1930s. They defended themselves against violent attacks in the streets and searched for countries that would open their gates to the large numbers of Jews who wanted to emigrate. The Jewish political parties and movements took part in the struggle for existence and proposed various courses of action.

By the second half of 1933 the Jewish Workers’ Party, the Bund (Algemayner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Poyln), came to the end of a process of crystallization, reorganization, and ideological change that had begun in the early 1930s.