Table of Contents

Introduction: Poland and Anti-Semitism
Adam Michnik and Agnieszka Marczyk

I. Prologue: 1900-1936

Jews - the 1920s
Czeslaw Milosz


II. 1936-1939: The Mustard Gas of Racism

The Przytyk Market Stands
Ksawery Pruszynski

Annual Shame
Maria Dabrowska


III. 1939-1945: On Both Sides of The Wall

Jews and Polish Commerce
Kazimierz Wyka

We, Polish Jews
Julian Tuwim

The Orchestration of Rage
Michal M. Borwicz


IV. 1945-1947: The Power of Ignorance

The Power of Ignorance
Mieczyslaw Jastrun

The Problem of Polish Anti-Semitism
Jerzy Andrzejewski

With Kielce in the Background
Stanislaw Ossowski

Our Part (A Pessimist's Voice)
Witold Kula


V. 1956-1957: The Anti-Semitism of Kind and Gentle People

Anti-Semites: Five Familiar Theses and a Warning
Leszek Kolakowski

From National Democrats to Stalinists
Konstanty A. Jelenski

Anti-Semitism
Jerzy Turowicz

The Anti-Semitism of Kind and Gentle People
Tadeusz Mazowiecki


VI. 1967-1969: Expulsion from Poland

March 1968 and the So-Called Jewish Question in Poland after World War II
Krystyna Kersten


VII. 1970-1989: The Poor Poles Look At The Ghetto

Jews as a Polish Problem
Aleksander Smolar

The Poor Poles Look at the Ghetto
Jan Blonski


VIII. After 1989: Toward Description and Diagnosis

Polish-Jewish Relations 30 Years after the Publication of the "Nostra Aetate" Conciliar Declaration
Rev. Archbishop Henryk Muszynski

The Disgrace of Indifference
Hanna Swida-Ziemba

The Holocaust
Maria Janion


IX. 2001-2009: Against the Conformity of Silence

The Burning Barn and I
Waldemar Kuczynski

Helplessness
Jerzy Jedlicki

About the Author

Adam Michnik is a historian and editor-in-chief of Poland's largest daily, Gazeta Wyborcza. He was a leader of the student antigovernment protests in 1968, a Solidarity activist in the 1980s, and a negotiator at the Round Table Talks in 1989. His books include Letters from Prison and In Search of Lost Meaning: The New Eastern Europe.

Agnieszka Marczyk is a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where her work focuses on democratic citizenship and historical thinking skills. She is co-editor of Does Democracy Matter? The United States and Global Democracy Support.

Reviews

"It is an important, thought-provoking, and very timely publication, masterfully translated by Agnieszka Marczyk. Against Anti-Semitism is a powerful contribution to the ongoing debate about the dangers of antisemitism, and the under-lying reasons for its persistence."--Jan Grabowski, Antisemitism Studies
"A collectively significant and seminal work of simply outstanding scholarship, 'Against Anti-Semitism: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Polish Writings' is a critically important and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic library collections."--The Midwest Book Review
"To understand anti-Semitism is to see its world history and to perceive it around us. To oppose it is to learn from others who have done so before us, in perhaps more challenging times and places than our own. This collection of important essays by opponents of anti-Semitism in Poland was, in its Polish edition, a generous gesture by Mr. Michnik towards his nation. In its English translation, it is a distant mirror that can help us see ourselves." --Timothy
Snyder, Levin Professor of History, Yale University, and author of Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning
"This volume brings together the most enlightened voices of Polish intellectuals - poets, writers, priests, professors - speaking up in dark times against intolerance. Judiciously chosen and introduced by Agnieszka Marczyk and Adam Michnik (himself one of our most distinguished public intellectuals) it is indispensable reading for our time, when populism, xenophobia, and narrow-minded nationalism are again in ascendance." --Jan Gross, author of Neighbors: The
Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, and Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz
"Against Anti-Semitism offers powerful testimony to the courage of those Polish writers and intellectuals who over the decades have dared to confront one of the most pernicious ideologies of our time, while also providing evidence of its endurance from one generation to the next. Given the recent rise of radical nationalism in Poland (and elsewhere in the world), this book will be a beacon for those who see the threat and want to confront it." --Jan Grabowski,
University of Ottawa
"This comprehensive account of anti-Semitism and its opponents in Poland is essential reading for all those in the history of Europe in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries." --Anthony Polonsky, Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University