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

Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers, by Christopher R. Browning. 2000. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York

Some Captive Polish Jews Spared By the Germans. Timing of the Final Solution

The author, a historian, provides many details on the WWII German occupation of Poland, focusing almost entirely on the Jews. I discuss some salient points.

NO SIMPLE, UNILATERAL NAZI DECISION TO KILL THE JEWS

“First, most historians agree that there was no ‘big bang’ theory for the origins of the Final Solution, predicated on a single decision made at a single moment in time. It is generally accepted that the decision-making process was prolonged and incremental.” (p. 28).

THE THIRD REICH STOPS SHORT OF KILLING ALL POLISH JEWS IN GERMAN CAPTIVITY

In 1942, the Germans killed the vast majority of Poland’s 3.3 million Jews. The remaining Jews in German captivity were diverted to forced labor. Browning describes the subsequent murder of most, but not all, of these Jewish laborers. He writes:

“In March 1943 before Himmler’s assault on the work ghettos and labor camps, more than 300,000 Jews had been temporarily spared as ‘work Jews’ in these regions. At the end of November 1943, perhaps 25,000 were still alive…November 1943 was a turning point, however. The work camps at Plaszow, the Radom district, and East Upper Silesia were not liquidated in turn.” (p. 86).

A large fraction of these remaining Polish Jews, in German captivity, were not subsequently killed by the Nazis. For instance, 4,700 Jews of Radom survived the war. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/jewish-survivorship-through-labor-for-nazis-diner/

Browning does not explain why these Jews, in German captivity, were left alive if Hitler was out to exterminate all Jews down to the last person. Browning makes this revealing comment, “It was also unclear to what extent the Final Solution was to be a wartime or postwar project.” (p. 171). The total planned extermination of Jews is speculation, not fact. This puts the Holocaust and the Polokaust on the same footing. Not all Poles were targeted for annihilation, and neither were all Jews. In addition, if finishing off the Jews was to be a postwar project, then so was finishing off the Poles!

DID THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING PROVOKE A MORE DRASTIC NAZI GERMAN KILLING OF POLAND’S JEWS?

Let us go back to March 1943, when 300,000 Polish Jews in German captivity were still alive, and then arrive at the endpoint of November 1943, when only 25,000 of these captive Jews were alive. Browning comments, “The ongoing drive to liquidate the ‘work ghettos’ and vastly reduce the number of Jewish workers left alive traced clearly to Himmler, though with declining support from his key SS men in Poland. Indeed, a new factor now weighed on Himmler that made him even more determined. The Warsaw ghetto uprising that began in April 1943 clearly shook Himmler.” (p. 82). Would many more Polish Jews have survived the Nazis were it not for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising?

For more on the possibility that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising drove the Germans to kill Jews that they did not necessarily intend to kill, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2021/01/05/jew-killing-wwii-by-poles-by-home-army-from-security-threats-warsaw-ghetto-uprising-myth-zychowicz1/

Browning’s last quoted statement is telling in another way. It reminds us that the Nazis were not a monolith. Many key SS men were opposed to the almost-unlimited killing of Jews.

NAZI GERMAN AUTHORITIES ATTEMPT TO INCITE POLISH HATRED OF JEWS

In describing the situation at Starachowice, Browning writes, “The most memorable killing in the early period was not of Jews but rather the public hanging of 16 or 17 Polish hostages in the town square in June 1941…This carefully planned ‘theatrical’ event took place on a Sunday morning in the sealed-off main square, and Poles leaving church were forced to watch. The bodies were left hanging for several days, and in a transparent attempt to stir up Polish hatred against the Jews, the Germans had forced the Jewish council to provide young Jewish men wearing masks to serve as hangmen…At least 24 witnesses described this event…” (p. 93).