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

From Lwow to Parma: A Young Woman’s Escape from Nazi-Occupied Poland, by Klara Rosenfeld. 2005

1939-1941 Zydokomuna Was Not Marginal. It Was Huge

The 1939 war caught Rosenfeld by surprise. She was in Lwow (Lviv) and found herself in a series of Luftwaffe bombing raids. In common with countless other eyewitnesses, Rosenfeld observed the Luftwaffe’s indiscriminate strafing of defenseless civilians. (p. 2). Poland was partitioned by the conquering Germans and Soviets, and Lwow ended up in the Soviet zone.

CONTRARY TO EXCULPATIONS, THE ZYDOKOMUNA WAS VERY LARGE

The author focuses on the persecution of Jews by the Communists, and omits discussion of the Zydokomuna (Jewish-Soviet collaboration), with the exception of the following allusion. Consider what happened as the Soviets were evacuating Lwow at the start of the unexpected June 1941 attack by their erstwhile German ally: “They [the Soviet officials] were joined by some 10,000 Jews, mainly young people affiliated with leftist circles, army officers, and those whom the regime considered essential. Jews who attempted to follow them into the Soviet Union were sent back to the German-held territories.” (Bella Gutterman, p. xiii). The fact of hard-core Jewish-Soviet collaborators numbering at 10,000, and that from Lwow alone, adds refutation to the commonly-voiced Zydokomuna-was-small argument.

DO NOT BLAME POLES FOR “NOT SAVING MORE JEWS”. SOME JEWS REFUSED HELP

During the Nazi occupation of Lwow, some Jews went into hiding. Rabbi Ezekiel Levin, the spiritual leader of the Progressive Jewish congregation in Lwow, turned down an offer to hide in a convent, and was murdered by the Germans soon thereafter. (p. 159).

DOES NOT DISPARAGE THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY

While in wartime Italy, Rosenfeld was, for a time, stationed in a convent. She describes her experiences with the nuns, and characterizes Catholic priests as follows: “They were not only God’s ministers, I decided; some of them were very clever people who knew a great deal of psychology. They understood people as individuals, had special insights into people’s problems, and gave them comfort.” (pp. 146-147).