May 2016 Traditional Jewish Attitudes Toward Poles

. In Podwołoczyska, in Tarnopol province, “The Jews of the town lived harmoniously with their Polish neighbors. There were no quarrels or fights between them or public outbursts of anti-Semitism.” On the other hand, “The relationship with the Ukrainians in the town was non-existent. There certainly were no friendly relations between them.” See Dr. Y. Gilson, “Podwoloczyska, Part IV,” in Podwoloczyska and Its Surroundings (Internet: Sefer Podwoloczyska ve-ha-sevivah (Haifa: Podwoloczyska Community in Israel, 1988). Two Jews from Drohobycz, Alfred Schreyer and Abraham Schwartz, attest to very cordial relations between Poles and Jews in that city, as well as with the Polish Catholic clergy. In their state high school, where there were Jewish and Ukrainian teachers as well as Polish ones, Polish and Jewish children got along splendidly: they formed many friendships, played together, and even visited each other’s places of worship. See Agata Tuszyńska, “Uczniowie Schulza,” Kultura (Paris), no. 4 (1993): 33, 39; Wiesław Budzyński, Miasto Schulza (Warsaw: Prószyński i S-ka, 200), 352.

Jews and Poles enjoyed good relations in many larger towns (small and medium-sized cities) as well. Christine Damski (née Rozen) from the city of Zamość recalled: “I always knew I was Jewish; our family observed Passover and other holidays. In Zamosc everyone accepted us as equals. Growing up, my girlfriends were both Polish and Jewish. At my Polish high school about ten of the girls in my class were Jewish, but I was the only one in the entire class to get ‘Excellent’ in Polish language; no Polish girl received that grade. Really, I didn’t feel different while I was in high school.” See Ellen Land Weber, To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), 277–78. Melita Huppert, a Jewish woman from Wadowice, the home town of Pope John Paul II, recalls: “It was a very nice relationship between Jews and Christians. It was a peaceful co-existence.” See Laurie Goodstein, “How Boyhood Friend Aided Pope With Israel,” New York Times, March 29, 1998. Several biographies of the Pontiff detail friendly Polish-Jewish relations in Wadowice, for example, D’Arcy O’Brien, The Hidden Pope: The Untold Story of a Lifelong Friendship That Is Changing the Relationship between Catholics and Jews (New York: Daybreak Books/Rodale, 1998), 51–54. According to Felicia Haberfeld, from nearby Oświęcim, where the Germans would later build their infamous concentration and death camp known as Auschwitz, Jews and Gentiles also got along well: “It was a very special town.” See Abigail Goldman, “Elderly widow dreams of ‘house for humanity,’” Toronto Star, April 2, 1998 (reprint from the Los Angeles Times). Another resident of Oświęcim agrees with that assessment: “But non-Jews and Jews had a good relationship. You didn’t see any graffiti …” See Jake Geldwert, From Auschwitz to Ithaca: The Transnational Journey of Jake Geldwert (Bethesda, Maryland: CDL Press, 2002), 5. Joseph Nichthauser, who hails from Andrychów, recalled very friendly relations with local Poles and no displays of anti-Semitism. See Aldona Zaorska, “Gdzie ten antysemityzm polski?” Warszawska Gazeta, November 18, 2011. Oswald Rufeisen, who grew up in Bielsko-Biała and attended a Polish state high school in Żywiec, did not remember feeling discriminated against or being abused. He was fond of his classmates and thinks they reciprocated in kind. In this school the Jewish and Catholic children were taught religion separately, by a rabbi and a priest. See Nechama Tec, In the Lion’s Den: The Life of Oswald Rufeien (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 10. Calel Perechodnik, who grew up in Otwock near Warsaw, where he belonged to a Zionist organization, states: “I want it clearly understood that I personally did not come into contact with anti-Semitism.” See Calel Perechodnik, Am I a Murderer? Testament of a Jewish Ghetto Policeman (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1996), xxii. Sol Pluda, a Jew from Pułtusk, writes: “We had Polish-Christian neighbors, friends, and customers, and relations between the Jewish and Christian citizens of Pultusk were not strained.” See Carole Garbuny Vogel, ed., We Shall Not Forget!: Memories of the Holocaust, Second edition (Lexington, Massachusetts: Temple Isaiah, 1995), 376. A memoir from Zduńska Wola, near Łódź, states: “Although my hometown was not paradise, there was mostly peace among Jews, ethnic Germans, and Poles. I don’t remember much overt anti-Semitism … I remember the Polish and German leaders of the town reassuring us that nothing could possibly happen in Zdunska Wola. ‘Our people live and work together,’ they said. ‘Why should things be disturbed? No one would benefit from that.’” See Isaac Neuman with Michael Palencia-Roth, The Narrow Bridge: Beyond the Holocaust (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), 15–17. Gizela Fudem (née Grunberg) recalls friendly relations with her Polish neighbours in Tarnów: “I don’t remember any anti-Semitic incidents. Both groups—Jewish and Christian—lived separately, and aside from trade or meetings of the intelligentsia, there were no other contacts. We kept in touch with some non-Jewish neighbors. We had one neighbor above us, who every Sunday morning, before she went to church, came by, kneeled in the middle of the kitchen, and asked whether she looked good, whether her stockings fit her well, if she had put her skirt on correctly. That was Mrs. Dankowa. We had a good relationship with her. On the ground floor there were neighbors who had boys my age, and they always invited us over for Christmas and for Easter, that real Easter. And we used to get a chocolate egg or something like that.” See Interview with Gizela Fudem, December 2004, Internet: .

True, incidents did occur, especially in the larger centres, but even there they were not the norm in day-to-day dealings between Poles and Jews. Most Jews who lived in predominantly Polish or mixed neighbourhoods got along well with their Christian neighbours. Manya Reich Mandelbaum, for example, reports “a good relationship between the Poles and Jews in Kraków.” See her testimony in Joseph J. Preil, ed., Holocaust Testimonies: European Survivors and American Liberators in New Jersey (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2001), 88. Helena Ziemba, who grew up in Kalinowszczyzna, a suburb of Lublin, recalls that her family got on well with their Polish neighbours and did not encounter anti-Semitism. See Helena Ziemba, “W getcie i kryjówce w Lublinie,” in Jerzy Jacek Bojarski, ed., Ścieżki pamięci: Żydowskie miasto w Lublinie—losy, miejsca, historia (Lublin and Rishon LeZion: Norbertinum, Ośrodek “Brama Grodzka–Teatr NN,” Towarzystwo Przyjaźni Polsko-Izraelskiej w Lublinie, Stowarzyszenie Środkowoeuropejskie “Dziedzictwo i Współczesność,” 2002), 27. Regina Winograd, from a middle-class family, also recalled that relations between Poles and Jews in their apartment building in Lublin were amicable and that all the children played together in the courtyard. See Regina Winograd, “Na Lublin patrzę oczami trzynastoletniej dziewczynki,” in ibid., 39–40. Mosze Opatowski’s testimony is similar. See Mosze Opatowski, “Zapamiętajcie, co przeżyłem,” in ibid., 74. Sally Tuchklaper, who grew up in a mixed neighbourhood in Radom, stated that Jews did not experience anti-Semitism in her neighbourhood and that she had Gentile friends. See the interview of Sally Tuchklaper, March 2, 1983, Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Internet: