Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, (ed.) Deutsche Polen Juden. lhre Beziehungen von den Anfiingen bis ins 20. Jaharhundert. Beitriige zu einer Tagung by Heinz-Dietrich Lowe

Summary

This book is the result of two conferences held in Warsaw and Berlin under the auspices of the Jewish Historical Institute and the Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, the Evangelische Akademie in Berlin and the Historische Kommission zu Berlin. The complicated triangular relationship between Jews, Poles and Germans, which stretched over nearly 900 years, is treated expertly in this relatively slender volume. A broad range of topics is covered, and - to the credit of everybody involved - it must be stated that the contents have a genuine unity of theme. Contributions range from the beginnings of Jewish migration to the east and into Poland to a discussion of the law cases in the Federal Republic against those involved in the Endlösung, both as a source for historians and as an exercise in political education.

The introductory essay by Wolfgang Wippermann sets out, from a German perspective, the horizon of the historical and political problems involved and poses the questions to be asked in further research. He starts with the fact that the Jewish component in this triangular relationship is too often neglected and that, therefore, the fact that German anti-semitism and anti-slavism fed on each other is overlooked. He points out that denominational divisions tended to aggravate relationships as well. He discusses the methodological problems inherent in different approaches to German-Polish-] ewish relationships and - concentrating on the 19th and 20th - century the development of racialism and the theory of German Kulturträgertum in this web of contacts. Unfortunately, though, Wippermann identifies anti-semitism with racialism too easily and treats them as synonymous in earlier periods when this was not the case.

The succeeding articles deal with the eastward migration of Jews and Germans (Winfried Schich), the economic activities of the Jews (Maurycy Horn) and the reactions of the respective nationalities to the competition of others, the activities of Jewish communal self-government (Anatol Leszczyński) and the minorities’ position in Poland-Lithuania in general Gacob Goldberg). There are also pieces on the impact of the Reformation on the mutal relationship of the three communities Ganusz Tazbir), the Jews in the cities between Poland and Prussia (Felix Escher), the emancipation of Jews in the Polish lands (Artur Eisenbach) and the Jewish population of Upper Silesia during the first half of the 19th century (Stefi Jersch-Wenzel).