1. Lecture 4 Interwar Anti-Semitism in Germany and Poland
Alexander Watson
Religion, Peace and Conflict
18 March 2014
Lecture 4 Interwar Anti-Semitism in Germany and Poland

2. Germany and Poland in the interwar period
Introduction
Roots of Anti-Semitism: National or Regional?
Poland & Germany – the economic / demographic context
Inter-war Polish anti-Semitism & Violence
The Nazis
Conclusion
Germany and Poland in the interwar period

3. The Roots of Anti-Semitism
Religious (traditional)
Racial (late 19th century)
Political
Economic
“Political anti-Semitism voiced the subjectively conceived interests of modernizing Christian middle-class elements striving for advancement in the emergent industrial-capitalist order.”
William Hagen (p. 352)
Polish Jews, 1939

4. Political Crisis Unstable Democracies Poland – Authoritarianism:
- Weimar Germany, 1933
Poland – Authoritarianism:
Piłsudski’s Sanacja regime
From 1935 ‘Rule of the Colonels’
Germany – National Socialist Dictatorship from 1933
Józef Piłsudski
Head of Polish State,
&

5. Economic Crisis Germany Poland Large industrial sector.
Hyperinflation
Great Depression,
- industrial production %
- GDP %
Poland
A predominantly agricultural land. 83% lived in villages.
High rate of population Increase (1.7% in )
Hyperinflation,
Great Depression,
- industrial production - 37%
- GDP Unknown
Germany and Poland suffered the 1st & 2nd greatest drops in industrial production in Europe in the depression years.

6. Jewish Populations Germany Poland Jews were less than 1% of population
Most Jews were assimilated.
- 1 mixed German-Jewish marriage for every 2 purely Jewish marriages (1927)
- They spoke German
Numerous in the professions (doctors, lawyers etc.) and in the media
Poland
Jews were 9.8% of population
- Just over 2 million (1921)
- 25.2% in 12 largest cities
Most Jews were Orthodox.
They spoke Yiddish
Jews paid 35-40% of taxes
Jews were 20.4% of Polish students in
1/3 Jews lived on charity

7. Anti-Semitic Politics in Poland
Roman Dmowksi and the National Democrats
1919 Minorities Protection Treaty (renounced Sept. 1934)
Polish Anti-Semitic Violence
- Pogroms in Lwów (Nov. 1918) - 72 dead & 443 wounded, Pinsk (April 1919) – 34 dead; Wilno – 54 dead
- Pogroms in Grodno (1935), Przytyk (1936), Częstochowa (1937)
Roman Dmowski, Leader of Endecja

8. Nazis / Colonels’ Regime
Poland
1936 – new prime minister endorses economic struggle
1937 – Catholic Church asks for Jewish children to be segregated
Restrictions on numbers of Jewish students & use of ‘ghetto benches’ from 1935
Promotion of Jewish emigration – ‘Madagascar Plan’
Germany
1 April 1933 – Anti-Jewish Boycott
7 April 1933 – Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
15 Sept – The Nuremburg Laws
14 Nov – Reich Citizenship Law Supplementary Decree
9-10 November 1938 – Night of Broken Glass

9. Conclusion Regional (East-Central European) Anti-Semitism
By the end of the 1930s, regimes in both Poland and Germany wished to exclude and remove their countries’ Jewish populations
Consistent and greater violence of Polish anti-Semitism before the Second World War
Greater radicalism of Nazi anti-Semitism, especially once war broke out