Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Anti-Jewish Violence: Rethinking the Pogrom in East European History, by Jonathan Dekel-Chen (Editor), David Gaunt (Editor), Natan M. Meir (Editor), Israel Bartal (Editor). 2010

Pogrom is an Orwellian Term. Not Only Jews Died in Deadly Ethnic Riots! Poles Did Too (Nobody Talks About THAT)

I focus on a few items of lasting interest in this so-so book.

BUZZWORDS: POGROM IS AN ORWELLIAN TERM

David Engel accuses the Polish government of avoiding the term pogrom in order that violent acts against Jews (around 1918) “smell less foul.” (p. 21). Yet, by his own admission, the term pogrom is an amorphous term that encompasses everything from the murder of thousands of Jews to a handful of vandalized Jewish properties with no fatalities! Engel should know better. He fails to mention the fact that fantastic accusations were leveled about 30,000 Jews in Poland killed by Poles. (This was off by a factor of only 100). Finally, if anything, Engel can be turned around: Perhaps the term pogrom was invented to make violence against a Jew (by a goy, that is) seem more special and more awful than violence against a goy.

So why should the Polish government play into the propaganda directed against it by necessarily using an emotive and misleading (not to mention Orwellian) term like pogrom? In addition, we must ask why Jewish violence against other Jews is never called a pogrom.

Clearly, the term pogrom is a club to exaggerate and awfulize something small done to Jews, and made into something profound and terrible–for nefarious purposes.

NOT ONLY JEWS DIED: POLES DID TOO

The pogrom can be put in the broader context of the “deadly ethnic riot.” (pp. 6-7). Jews were not the only victims of such disturbances. For instance, David Engel mentions the factory strike in Lodz in May 1892: “…the strikers killed three Jews while 140 Polish workers were shot by strike-breaking police…” (p. 22). But–guess what–only the three Jews will go down in history as the victims of a pogrom.

THE TSARIST AUTHORITIES DID NOT INCITE POGROMS

The authors support the view that the early pogroms in tsarist Russia (such as those of 1881-1882) were not, as earlier believed, incited by the government. (p. 4, 7, 138). Pogroms during tsarist rule varied in severity by regions. They were rare in Belorussia, Lithuania, southern Ukraine, and Crimea. Later pogroms, as during the Russian revolution were, however, organized by both Reds and Whites.

THE CUSTOMARY LACK OF CANDOR ABOUT JEWISH CONDUCT

Traditional explanations are given for pogroms. Jews are presented as object of perception, and not as flesh-and-blood individuals. For instance, Jews were accused of such things as siding with the enemy (or helping both sides) and profiteering during wartime. No attempt is made to substantiate or refute these accusations.

A factor in the pogroms in tsarist Russia was the growing prominence of Jews in industry, the professions, and intellectual life. (p. 125). The pogroms of 1881-1882 were motivated by the perception that Jews were exploiting the people, while, in contrast, the pogroms of 1905 occurred in an atmosphere of social unrest as well as the role of Jews as revolutionaries who were assaulting the state. (p. 125).