A historical and cultural outline of Jewish collaboration with the occupying forces

The Second World War - Historical and Cultural background

Why did the Jews collaborate with Nazi Germany and the Soviet Communist government?

Representatives of the Zionist parties, the elite of the pre-war Jewish community, the rabbis, not only supported the emigration of Jews from Europe to Palestine before the war, but also tried to create Jewish autonomies in European countries. Completely unsuccessfully. They were also denied this by Poland, although it was the only country in Europe which not only welcomed the Jews in the 11th century as friendly as possible, but even regulated their status by granting them partial autonomy through, among other things, their own judiciary, ensuring personal freedom, security, the right to choose a profession and freedom of travel.

Before the Second World War, due to the outbreak of pogroms in Russia, Jews flocked to Poland, settling mainly in Warsaw, Łódź and the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie. At this time, a growing sense of unity between the Polish and Jewish intelligentsia could be observed. Anti-Semitism in Warsaw did not have many supporters and was not welcomed.

The split and the beginnings of Polish anti-Semitism were due to the fact that young Jews (especially) were joining en masse the ranks of communist, Zionist groups and the socialist Jewish party Bund. Jews, who at the time made up as much as 9.5% of the Polish population, were thus becoming, in general opinion, a threat to the state, which operated on the basis of completely different values. Support for radical Russian socialist movements, which had their origins in student strikes in Tsarist Russia, added fuel to the fire. Jews accused Poles of anti-Semitism, which they in turn explained by the reluctance of Jews to recognise the Polish national interest. The manifestations of anti-Semitism varied. In the 1930s, segregation and enrolment quotas began at universities in Lviv. There were anti-Jewish excesses and shop boycotts. Even some politicians expressed the opinion that Jews should emigrate to Madagascar, for example.

Third Reich

A real chance for the creation of a real and completely independent autonomy appeared at the beginning of the Second World War, and it was provided by Nazi Germany. After the occupation of Poland, not only were the richest Jews allowed to leave for Palestine, but above all - finally - the creation of Jewish autonomies (ghettos) was made possible, in which Jews were given rights that they had never had anywhere before: their own power structure and administration, a budget, the right to levy taxes by a Judenrat or mayor, Jewish schools, a post office, a rabbinate and their own cultural institutions. In Crakov and Lodz the ghettos published their own newspapers. It is worth noting that Jews did not start being deported to concentration camps until the spring of 1942. German authorities sent mainly Poles to the camps. There were known cases where Poles deliberately wore a Star of David on their arm to avoid arrest.

Jewish autonomies began to emerge throughout occupied Europe. Jewish elites, at the price of peace and a relatively normal life, were soon to pay for it with hundreds of thousands of lives of the poorest Jews. The Judenrats prepared lists of Jews by their names along with their property, and the German occupier - completely sure of the loyalty of the Jews - inflicted death on the Jews with Jewish hands!

Soviet Russia

A similar approach to Soviet occupation was on the eastern side of Poland. The Jewish communities were not only happy about the defeat of Poland, but also welcomed the Red Army with joy, putting up with other villagers triumphal gates for bolsheviks, greeted with flowers and even music. Many accounts of these events have been recorded, here are some of them:

The Jews were very exultant, so much so that many of them came up to the advancing tanks and kissed the iron, raised shouts of "let the read army live ling, we wew waiting for you 22 years".
Jews greeted them with Soviet banners and flowers, clinging to machines.
Welcome gate for the Red Army in the village of Grudziewicze
(...) The entire Jewish community, as well as many non-Jews, came out to welcome the Soviet saviours (...). Our joy had no limits(...). Almost the days of the Messiah.
People kissed the soldiers' dusty boots. Children ran to the park, picked autumn flowers and threw them at the soldiers. Red flags were visible in plain sight and the whole town was drowning in red.

In Miedzyrzec Koretski, the same Jewish kehillah welcomed not only the Soviets but also the Germans when they entered the city in 1941:

I was in the market again and I saw with what enthusiasm the Jews greeted the Germans. Those turned pale, were surprised and furious. Officers began to beat on their faces and kick Jewish elders, and soldiers began to overturn prepared tables. There was a great lament - ay vay, Satan has come - could be heard from the crowd of fleeing Jews.
—from the memoirs of a borderlander, Julian Jamroz, a resident of Miedzyrzec Korecki

The reason for this was the material situation of poor Jews, which had clearly deteriorated in the last years of the Polish Second Republic. Among those celebrating the 'liberating' Red Army, definitely dominated the youth, the poor, representatives of the social margins and communists, as well as refugees from the lands already occupied by the Germans. The first group - the poor - seeing no chance of improving their material existence in Poland, saw an opportunity for themselves in communism. The latter, on the other hand, had experienced German brutality first-hand. They therefore treated the Red Army as liberators and defenders against the Third Reich, which would also provide them with security against assaults from bandits degenerated by the war.

The older, better educated and wealthy people, who remembered the behaviour of the Bolsheviks during the 1919-1921 war, were negative towards the new Soviet power. And they were not wrong. The army, which was supposed to prove to be the salvation of the Jews from Polish anti-Semitism, quickly set about expropriating the Jews, liquidating private trade, closing down synagogues and schools with the Hebrew language or deporting them to Siberia.

I for one thank them for such a liberation and ask that this be the last time.
—Mendel Srul, milkman from Lutsk

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