“ a Jew from Poland is not and never was simply Polish. … it was clear to Jews and Poles alike

Contrary to Werner Sombart’s claim that Jews were the first to be committed to the “spirit of capitalism" and the principles of free trade, monopolistic practices and ethnic protectionism were as yet unquestioned in Polish Jewish society. Age-old communal ordinances forbade Jews to compete with and outbid fellow Jews (with limited success, as we shall see), while other ordinances attempted to protect the Jewish community from external competition “lest money fall into non-Jewish hands.” …

The same ethnic protectionism increasingly prevailed in the liquor trade. … While resorting to a curse [against would-be Polish competitors] may seem extreme, the increase in non-Jewish competitiveness was perceived as an act of aggression against the Jewish community, suggesting an economic aspect to the emerging traditionalism.⁴²⁶

Thus the slogan pushed by Polish nationalists, “Buy from Poles,”⁴²⁷ had an ingrained and longstanding counterpart in the way Jews had managed their business affairs for centuries,⁴²⁸ as well as in ongoing communal propaganda. According to a non-Polish author, “About 1907 they [Jews] began a boycotting policy against Poles, forbidding their countrymen, for instance, to consult Polish doctors, and in 1909 when the Poles proclaimed a boycott of German products in Poland, the boycott failed because the Jews lent their support to German commerce.”⁴²⁹ In June 1912, the populist Yiddish-language newspaper in Łódź, Lodzher togblat, renewed calls of previous years for exclusively “Jewish factories.”⁴³⁰ An appeal issued by a Jewish Farmers’ Cooperative (probably in the early 1920s) reads: “It is also necessary to point out that by buying our dairy products marketed under the name of khema [‘butter’ in Hebrew] you are supporting the productive Jewish farmers and are performing a national duty by helping the Jewish farmers to keep their land.”⁴³¹ Other minorities, such as the Ukrainians, also set up ethnic-based cooperatives and conducted economic boycotts that entailed setting up checkpoints at Jewish shops, smashing Jewish stores and plundering of property.⁴³² It is not surprising, therefore, that Poles did likewise, given their weak position in commerce, trade and industry. As Vladimir Jabotinsky points out, the cooperative phenomenon “has little to do with any conscious will to harm the Jews qua Jews, but is rather inherent in the very nature of the development. It would oust the rural shopkeeper as surely as if he were an American or a China-man; but he happens to be Jew, who has nowhere to go.”⁴³³ Jabotinsky does not view the economic rivalry of the interwar period solely in racist terms either: “there was no other way out: ‘it’s either my son or the Jew’s son, for there is only one loaf.’” Jabotinsky adds, “Apart from the hooligan element, there was little actual hatred of Jews in Polish society.”⁴³⁴

Needless to add, there was no pervasive boycott of Jewish businesses by Poles as otherwise most Jewish businesses would have folded. Conditions on the ground cast matters in a rather different light than that pushed in Jewish nationalist literature. Most Poles shopped at Jewish stores and most farmers traded with Jews, and in many localities the boycott had no impact on Jewish businesses.⁴³⁵ As survivors from Wierzbnik noted, “since virtually all the stores were owned by Jews, Poles had nowhere else to shop and the economic impact was thus mitigated.”⁴³⁶ The boycott promoted by the National Democrats was even boycotted by those who organized rallies in support of it. The following example is not atypical:

To generate support for the peasant leaders’ policies huge rallies were organized in the marketplace of Kolbuszowa … What provided at least some small comfort to us was the fact that the leaders used my father’s store as their headquarters on days when rallies were scheduled. Also they continued to purchase boycotted goods from my father for distribution to the peasants, making certain that these transactions were kept secret.⁴³⁷
Moreover, Polish farmers and workers were known to attack those who stood in front of Jewish shops and did not want to let Poles go in.⁴³⁸

One should, therefore, not be surprised by the failure of Poles to gain significant economic ground. As Jan Peczkis put it,

The economic playing field, between Poles and Jews, was very, very far from level. Jewish economic privilege, having lasted so many centuries, had become so entrenched, so variegated, so versatile, and so sophisticated, that it was almost impossible for Poles to even put a dent into it. Poles could hardly ever compete successfully with Jews, and to start businesses.
Historian Rosa Lehmann traces the Poles’ economic efforts, with their very modest successes, in Jaśliska near Krosno, Galicia, beginning with some business initiatives, and half-hearted boycotts of Jews, in the 1890s, and then proceeding through the 1930s. She writes,
The limited involvement of Poles in the local and regional market, apart from the activities of the rural co-operative, which from 1918 were heavily protected by the Roman Catholic Church and the Polish national authorities, can be traced to the lack of a Polish trade network to realize an efficient supply and distribution of merchandise and information. One major advantage of the Jewish merchant was that he had access to such contacts and information, and that, as a rule, he knew his customers. The extent and importance of the local Jewish networks is clear from the accounts of Jewish informants. First, through marriage bonds Jews were able to activate a family network that reached far beyond the confines of the local community. Jewish informants gave examples of how, in setting up one business or another, within or outside Jaśliska, mostly relatives were consulted or involved in some other way. Secondly, generations of experience in trade laid the foundation for numerous contacts in the professions and with the main trading centers; hence, for example, the large number of Jewish companies that specialized in exploitation of local forests and that were run by local Jews with expert contacts outside the region, in Kraków, and even outside the country, in Slovakia.

It should be noted that during the inter-war years Poles also entered the sector of moneylending. Mortgage deeds in the real-estate registers show that debtors and creditors were Poles as well as Jews. However, in contrast to Poles, who often were indebted to Jews (with debts sometimes exceeding 200 złotys), the Jews themselves were rarely indebted to Poles as richer relatives or co-religionists were quick to help them out.⁴³⁹

One often encounters bald claims like the following in Jewish memorial books as well as many Jewish memoirs: “The [Polish] Government levied heavy taxes upon the Jews and decreed harsh laws against them.”⁴⁴⁰ “I later discovered that podatki were in fact punitive tax demands, levied arbitrarily by the tax authorities against Jewish concerns.”⁴⁴¹ There is no truth to the claim that the Polish authorities enacted anti-Jewish laws, imposed harsh, arbitrary or punitive taxes on Jewish businesses, or waged an economic war on the Jews.⁴⁴² (The latter is something that the British have historically excelled at in relation to “colonials” and Americans in relation to their Native and Black populations.⁴⁴³) Indeed, many Jewish firms received lucrative government contracts,⁴⁴⁴ contrary to the claim of Western historians who allege “a government-backed boycott of all Jewish business establishments.”⁴⁴⁵ A resident of the border town of Łunin, in Polesia, where there was a large military base, recalled: “Jewish craftspeople, tradespeople and storekeepers made their income catering to the Polish officers and their families.”⁴⁴⁶ A Jew whose parents owned a grocery near a military base in Chełm states that “the entire clientele was mostly military families.” He added, “All of my friends … were Poles. There were few Jews where we lived.”⁴⁴⁷ In Bolesławiec, a small town near the German border: “My father’s business was cap making. … A lot of the caps were made to order as part of uniforms for fraternal organizations, the military, police and firemen.”⁴⁴⁸

On the other hand, Jewish businessmen would band together to thwart new Polish businesses from springing up. Jewish glaziers in Łódź and suburban Dobra banned together to drive the newcomer Polish glaziers out of business.⁴⁴⁹ Pressure was exerted by the Jewish community in Dubno, Volhynia, on a Jewish proprietor to renege on the lease of his business premises to a Polish milk co-operative which wanted to operate their own store. It was explained to him that business was the exclusive domain of the Jews, and that the community did not welcome Christian intruders in this near monopoly on local trade.⁴⁵⁰ A Christian shopkeeper recalled asking a Jewish wholesaler from whom she acquired merchandise for a rebate on the goods he supplied to her: the Jewish merchant replied categorically that he gave rebates only to Jews.⁴⁵¹ It must be noted, however, that even among Jewish businessmen, cutthroat practices were used frequently. Thugs were hired to block the entrance to competitors’ shops and shops of competitors’ were demolished. Fishmongers got together to form a cartel to illegally raise the price of herring, and paid “damages” to producers who closed down their smokehouses.⁴⁵²

Many established business practices followed by Jews were foreign to or disrespectful of Poles, or had a prejudicial impact on them, and this further complicated interaction.⁴⁵³ Peasants in particular were considered to be easy prey for sharp trade practices.
There were also several horse traders in Działoszyce. … At the end of the summer, when the harvest was over, the farmers tried to dispose of their aging horses rather than having to feed them all winter long, knowing they would not be able to do much work in the spring. The horse traders bought these aging horses, too. More than once it happened that they bought back a horse that they had sold the farmer a few months earlier, its teeth having been sharpened, and its coat groomed to make the animal appear younger. These horses, everyone agreed, were not suitable for work, and would be killed off before long. The unfortunate animals, frail and limp, were led to a valley near Działoszyce, where they were killed and then skinned. As it turns out, the dealers made a handsome profit on their carcasses.⁴⁵⁴
The exploitative nature of Jewish-Polish commercial relations is illustrated by the following account concerning Rabbi Moshe Mendel Walden, an author and bookseller in Kielce:
It once happened that a Polish priest entered his store. He wanted to purchase a Hebrew bible from him. At first Mosze Mendel was frightened: “what did a priest want with his shop?” he said to himself, and his heart pounded in his chest as in the “Gazlan”. He was probably there as part of a plot. However, it became clear immediately clear that the “heathen” had come to do business, and harbored no bad thoughts. The word “biblia” which came from the priest’s mouth frequently calmed him and the fear left him entirely.

Via a small window that connected to the kitchen, he called his wife Sara. She wiped her dirty hands on her apron and appeared before the priest. The women usually know the national language more than the men do. In the market, they come into contact with the peasant women who bring their produce to the city and the Jewish women learn their language from them.

She understood the priest’s desire without any delays. In a pile of old books that were heaped out of order in a corner of the shop, she found the “biblia” and handed it to the priest. In answer to the priest’s question the woman mentioned a round sum: a silver ruble. The priest did not bargain, paid the ruble, took the book and went on his way voicing a parting to the couple who stood astounded in the shop.

It had never happened that a buyer had given them the entire price that they asked of him; a price—by nature went continually down until it reached a level from which it was not possible to lower it any further. And who was the innocent who would pay the full price?

From that time, Mosze Mendel understood a principle in life. He had always been troubled by a serious question: “why do the Jews choose to dwell among the gentiles? Why don’t they pack up their things and move to the land of Israel, the land that has only Jews?” Now he found the answer: a Jew cannot make a living except from “Goyim”.

From then on, whenever a Jew entered his shop to buy a prayer book for daily or holiday use or such things and took a long time to bargain, Reb’ Mosze Mendel would say: “Oy Va’voi for me and my wares if my customers were only Jews; happily there are gentiles among my customers as well; priests come to my shop! Say what you will, but I will tell you, you can’t make a living from Jews, bounty and income come from the heathens!”⁴⁵⁵

Historian Richard Lukas notes that, as they had done for centuries, Jews did business with each other and distrusted Jews who developed relationships with Polish Gentiles.⁴⁵⁶ A Jew from Kraków recollected:
“It is true that the Poles did have the government on their side, which sometimes made things difficult for us. On the other hand, we had tradition on our side. In the big cities Jews tended to have significant trading advantages for the simple reason that they had been at it longer. …

“It is also true that though my father was assimilated, all the executives in his factory and ninety percent of his workers were Jewish. I remember once my mother, who was something of an intellectual, challenging him about this, telling him that he was being discriminatory. He said he felt easier working with Jews and that was all there was to it.”⁴⁵⁷

A well-to-do resident of Stołpce, in northeastern Poland, recalled:
My father’s loyalty to the Jewish community carried over into the way he ran his business. The managers of my father’s factories were always Jews. The workers were drawn from the local Polish population. … In every one of the factories, there was a little provisions store that sold the basics … Shopping at this factory store saved them a trip into town, but the prices were high. My father made a considerable profit from these stores. So he was making money on anything and everything. And he paid very little in official taxes. If you had connections with the right Polish officials—and bribed them heavily enough—you were basically taken care of.⁴⁵⁸
When Christians and Jews did try to break down the barriers that separated them, the outcome was not always a happy one, as Józef Lewandowski relates. Around 1934, his father, an upholsterer in Konin, went into partnership with a Polish upholsterer, his friend Mr. Bogusławski:
“… the worthy gentlemen failed to take account of social considerations. Father became unacceptable to the Orthodox Jews, Bogulawski non-kosher to some of his Catholic customers. Both went beyond the limits imposed by unwritten but harshly binding statutes. Rich folk such as landowners and industrialists could join forces, but not the poor masses. After a few years they split up.”⁴⁵⁹
Such isolation generally enjoyed the support of Jewish society, as is evident in its press and the attitudes of its communal organizations and rabbis. When a Jewish shopkeeper in Ejszyszki hired a Pole to transport his goods by truck, thus bypassing the more inefficient and costly Jewish wagon drivers, an open “revolt” broke out against this “traitor” which gained the support of the rabbi.
So what was the revolt? They couldn’t force him! On shabbes, everybody came to synagogue. They used to block the aron kodesh [the “Holy Ark” where the Torah scrolls are kept in the synagogue—M.P.] and they wouldn’t let you take out the Torah to read the Torah. And right away they came up on the bimbah [pulpit] and said: “We are not going to let you read the Torah because this, this, this and this. We have a family to support! I worked for him three, four, five, ten years. I have four, five kids to support. All of a sudden he hires a goy? That’s not right!”

So then the rabbi was mixed up in it, and he’d talk to them, you know: “That’s not right, you shouldn’t do it, he has a point” … And that was the problem solved.⁴⁶⁰

On the economic front, a network of free loan societies (gmiles khesed kases) sprang up all over Poland, developed by the Joint Distribution Committee and supported by Jewish communities in America. Interest-free loans were made available to “just about anyone who needed money to get through a particularly difficult time. Hundreds of loans … were made at one time or another to tailors, cobblers, carpenters, butchers, peddlers, farmers, labourers, and especially storekeepers.”⁴⁶¹ As long as they weren’t non-Jews, that is Poles.⁴⁶² In the assessment of one historian, these free loan societies, which were to be found in practically every Jewish settlement in Poland, “had am impact far out of proportion to the small loans they were able to give.”⁴⁶³ They more than compensated for any any ill-effects suffered by Polish boycotts. But there was more. The Jewish Economic Committee in the province of Lublin urged Jewish bankers not to extend credit to Polish businesses, Jewish property owners to refuse to lease premises to Christian merchants, and Jewish employers to hire Jews first and foremost and to lay off Polish workers.⁴⁶⁴

Another widespread phenomenon among Jews was avoiding military service.⁴⁶⁵ According to one Jewish testimony, “The poor Jews were in the army, because they were not able to pay their way out. Wealthier Jews were always bribing.”⁴⁶⁶ Mark Verstandig describes another strategy: self-imposed starvation.

Jews had a negative attitude to military service in the Polish army … To get out of military service, many 21-year-olds underwent a regime of self-inflicted torture. For months they hardly slept or ate, so that when they stood before the commission they were “skin and bone”. The morning before the call-up they drank several capfuls of freshly roasted coffee, specially brewed at four to five times the normal strength, so that when they appeared before the doctor their hearts were pounding as if they had been running a marathon. With their emaciated appearance, their abnormal heartbeat gave them a chance of being excused from military service, especially if an intermediary had previously slipped the doctor one or two hundred US dollars. … Conscription indicated that the family had insufficient means to pay for exemption. In our circles it also attracted general censure because the army was regarded as a rough, corrupting environment.⁴⁶⁷
Avoiding military draft by leaving the country was another widespread practice. Aharon Leib Shteinman fled to Switzerland from Kamieniec, a small town near Brześć, with two other yeshiva students when they reached draft age.⁴⁶⁸

The phenomenon has a long history. Nahum Goldmann describes a subterfuge used by Jews to avoid serving in the Tsarist Russian army. He noted that the authorities were “exempting only sons from military service, and in Jewish communities it was the rabbi who kept the birth register. So when a father had three sons they were each entered under a different name; in my family my grandfather was called Leibmann, my father Goldmann, and my uncle Szalkowitz!”⁴⁶⁹ Numerous memoirs refer to the widespread practice of efforts to avoid military service in the interwar period:

In 1937 I was called up. Many Jews dodged service at that time, but I went. It was what my father wanted, too. He said I would learn to fight, and that could prove useful later on in Palestine.⁴⁷⁰
To understand this properly, it should be pointed out that, before the war, Jews had an unwilling relationship with weapons. They all made efforts not to be drafted—they paid bribes, underwent special diets, in order to dodge military service.⁴⁷¹
The three-month period leading up to the mobilization of our town’s young men into the Polish army was called the “period of torment” in local slang. … And you realized [the young Jewish men] were determined to go from 150 pounds down to 100 in order to escape serving in the Polish army. … release from conscription was not necessarily won by those who had tormented themselves, but by the young men whose parents had paid off the official conscription committee’s doctor.⁴⁷²
When it came to enlisting in the Polish army, however, it was a different matter. Some of the eligible youth would starve and exhaust themselves in an effort to lose weight and escape recruitment.⁴⁷³
Every spring, the Polish government would dispatch two commissions to our town [Opatów]: one commission was a military veterinarian who inspected horses for remounts; the other selected eligible young conscripts. …

A small number of men would go to great lengths to avoid enlisting in the army. There were certain people in the town who specialized in disabling people so that they wouldn’t be accepted by the draft board. One man’s specialty was giving people a hernia; another man would chop off your index finger, the one used for pulling the trigger. Some people had their eardrum perforated. Others drank tea made from tobacco, because nicotine made the heart race or beat irregularly. … Of course, with such disabilities you were not accepted into the army.

Some of the young men chose to torture themselves to lose a lot of weight so they would look emaciated. They deprived themselves of sleep and food and caroused at night. They loved to play pranks when everyone else was sleeping. They turned the signs upside down or changed them around …⁴⁷⁴
This was the year [i.e., 1937] I was to be called to serve in the Polish army, a situation which created problems for my father. First of all, he had become dependent upon me, and second of all, being a smart man, my father predicted the oncoming war. He decided to do everything in his power to see that I avoid serving time in the army. He went to a special complex to lose weight and arrived at the stage in which he was unable to do any physical work. Then he went for a government medical examination which decided that he could not support his children. I thus became the only provider for our family. I realized later what a personal sacrifice my father had to make to accomplish the task of keeping me out of the army.⁴⁷⁵
… when Art was called up for his army service. He stopped eating regular food and consumed almost nothing but pumpkin seeds. To lose weight, he jogged for miles every day and stopped sleeping at night, so that in addition to looking emaciated, he would look anemic. Art did whatever he could to get a rejection. Before Art went to Pinczow [Pińczów], my father went to the Gerer Rebbe to pray that Art would not be accepted. … Luckily for Art, he was rejected.⁴⁷⁶
While some Jews joined the Polish Army, most did their best to avoid it. … Many who faced the draft … sought all kinds of devices to avoid military service. Some found ways to lose weight, others put sand in their eyes. I also had no interest in serving in the Polish Army. Already somewhat overweight, I aksed our doctor for advice. He suggested increasing my daily intake of food and recommended a certain diet. In addition, I went to a vaction resort known for helping people gain weight and it worked. When the army doctors examined me I was excused and told to come back in a year. When I returned, I had gained even more weight, so I was placed in the category known as “to be drafted only in case of war.”⁴⁷⁷