Dissertations@Portsmouth - Details for item no. 12881
Nicholls, Stephen Cameron Jalil (2011) The Jews of Leszno 1918-1939: the Polish-Jewish dilemma in the western borderlands. (unpublished MPhil dissertation), University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth
Additional files:
• Synopsis (.pdf 116 kb)
• Acknowledgements (.pdf 82 kb)
• Contents (.pdf 189 kb)
• Introduction (.pdf 257 kb)
• Chapter One (.pdf 351 kb)
• Chapter Two (.pdf 438 kb)
• Chapter Three (.pdf 345 kb)
• Chapter Four (.pdf 308 kb)
• Chapter Five (.pdf 255 kb)
• Summary and Conclusion (.pdf 202 kb)
• Bibliography (.pdf 275 kb)
Abstract
My thesis shows the enduring difficulty of acceptance of the Jews by the host nation during the inter-war years of the Second Polish Republic, shaped by the legacy of Imperial Germany, when political change and religious-national conflict in East Central Europe destroyed Leszno’s multi-ethnic population. The tide of Polish nationalism following Germany’s surrender in November 1918 swept aside any residue of harmony and co-existence in this now Polish town, the focus of my study. The resurgent Polish nation-state, politically and economically weak, insecure within
its borders and now fighting Russia, rode roughshod over its minorities. In the west, the Germans in their hundreds of thousands were the greater threat, and for this reason the Jews were the greater threat in the east. The German-Jewish exodus in Western Poland soon after the war occurred during a period of great political and economic instability. Gradually, the Jewish Community in Leszno County re-emerged, greatly depleted and vulnerable in this new, sensitive border area.
After peace with Russia, the ‘March Constitution’ of 1921, the introduction of the zÅ‚oty and the stabilisation plan, the Jews of Leszno re-established their economic and socio-cultural presence, while battling against an unrelenting and suspicious bureaucracy. The early years under PiÅ‚suski brought a temporary respite for Jews as the economy recovered, until the Great Depression of the 1930s halted the revival and anti-Jewish hatred intensified.
Following the authoritarian ‘April Constitution’ of 1935, the continuing anti-Jewish agitation by Dmowski’s Nationalists and widespread economic hardship, the Jews of Leszno maintained their way of life and their commitment to charity. Despite nation-wide economic boycotts, an antisemitic press and attacks on Jews, violence in Leszno remained limited. Whatever the setback, local Jews continued to show allegiance to
the Polish state. My thesis analyses local Polish-Jewish relations against this complex, hostile back-ground.
Additional Notes
Supervisors: Dr GavinSchaffer and Dr Mathias Seiter
Course: Master of Philosophy - MPhil
Date Deposited: 2017-05-12
URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis12881.html