Against Anti-Semitism: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Writings by Adam Michnik & Agnieszka Marczyk

Author:Adam Michnik & Agnieszka Marczyk [Michnik, Adam & Marczyk, Agnieszka]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, Jewish, Europe, Poland, Social Science, Discrimination
ISBN: 9780190624514
Google: cBBADwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-11-15T00:30:49.324551+00:00

I have to admit that I was initially seized by doubts when the initiative to discuss this problem was proposed. Isn’t it pointless to discuss anti-Semitism in Poland today—or worse—aren’t the effects the opposite of what one intends? In a word, I worried if this might not be a way of fomenting trouble, of unintentionally arousing passions that, in this case as in no other, should finally fall silent.

After all, this problem appears to be quite different in Poland today than it was in the interwar years. And this is the first general claim that is impossible to ignore when setting out to analyze this issue. The phenomenon of open, militant anti-Semitism has disappeared from the surface of our life. There are no organizations that programmatically proclaim racism and anti-Semitism. The state has taken a different stance and treats both these ideologies as hostile to humanity and forbidden by law. The social situation looks different. We have the experience of war behind us. We have also done much authentic educational work, which had direct or indirect effects on a deeper, nonmechanical transformation of human attitudes.

But, though the situation is different in every respect, one cannot run away from taking up this problem—because the problem exists. There is no open, militant anti-Semitism, but there is still anti-Semitism that enters the battlefield with its face concealed. Its reach and meanings are different, but it has not disappeared altogether. And, most important, a subtle anti-Semitism exists and is still prevalent in our society—as disdain preserved at the bottom of one’s heart, or simply an anti-Jewish myth, which, like a flickering ember, is not that difficult to rekindle, and is sustained by many newly accumulated complexes.

The process of surmounting anti-Semitism thus remains incomplete. Not long ago, we were reminded of this in a very drastic way. Rudolf Buchała published in Więź an article about neo-fascist centers throughout the world, discussing, among other things, the problem of well-known anti-Semitic brawls that recently took place in West Germany and other countries. The article was based on a talk he gave in the Club of Catholic Intellectuals (KIK) in Warsaw, and it was at that discussion that the audience suggested an initiative to explore the problem of anti-Semitism. A few days after the publication of Buchała’s article, the editors of Więź received a letter, signed with a cryptonym and resembling old, most unsophisticated anti-Semitic enunciations. The author of the letter blames Jews for all the evil in the world and in Poland; in his opinion Więź brought eternal shame upon itself by publishing an article that fights anti-Semitism.

One could shrug one’s shoulders and say: here is a person who hasn’t been cured, a crypto-fascist. And yet, are the arguments he uses not still in circulation? There is, of course, no point in having a discussion with a man who burns with the desire to cut off Jewish heads. But let us not reduce the problem to the statement that there are still some fanatics who have not been cured in Poland, people always ready to turn their dreams about pogroms into reality.

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