May 2016 Traditional Jewish Attitudes Toward Poles

, Chapter 2. Wacław Iglicki (then Szul Steinhendler) from Żelechów near Warsaw recalled: “I used to go to a public school. It was an elementary school. … When there was Polish religion [a lesson of Roman-Catholic religion] for the Polish youth, we would go to a different classroom, a teacher would come to us and teach us Yiddish religion [Jewish religion]. Other than that there were no segregations, and there were also no problems.” See the testimony of Waclaw Iglicki, September 2005, Internet: . Henryk Prajs from Góra Kalwaria near Warsaw recalled: “There were three Polish and three Jewish families in our yard. We got on with each other very well, like a family. There was no anti-Semitism, none at all. … My friends were mostly Poles … I went to a Polish elementary school at the age of seven. From 7am to 1 or 2pm I was at school, and after that I went to the cheder. … Jews and Poles studied together, but the Jews were fewer. … I was very popular at the school, I liked the teachers. … There was an Endeks organization … but they used to go rumble somewhere else, not in our town. Mayor Dziejko and Police Chief Boleslaw [Bolesław] Janica wouldn’t allow it.” See the testimony of Henryk Prajs, January 2005, Internet: . See also the testimony of Abraham Warszaw (Alec Ward) regarding Magnuszew near Góra Kalwaria: David Onnie, “Alec Ward’s Story,” The ’45 Aid Society Journal, no. 32 (2008). In Przedecz, near Koło, there was reportedly “no ethnic hatred whatsoever,” even though the Jewish middle class “was very pro-German.” See the testimony of Alina Fiszgrund, March–August 2005, Internet: . For additional examples see Annamaria Orla-Bukowska, “Shtetl Communities: Another Image,” in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, vol. 8 (1994): 103–12.

The same held true in Poland’s Eastern Borderlands. In Kopaczówka, a village near Rożyszcze, in Volhynia, “The relations between the Jews and the local Gentile population, which was mostly Polish, had been very good until the outbreak of the war.” See Gershon Zik, ed., Rożyszcze: My Old Home [Rożyszcze Memorial Book] (Tel Aviv: The Rozhishcher Committee in Israel, 1976), 45. For a similar account from Kołki, a small town near Łuck, also in Volhynia, see Daniel Kac, Koncert grany żywym (Warsaw: Tu, 1998), 153: “Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians lived alongside each other peaceably, without conflict. When Jews celebrated their holy days, the Polish and Ukrainian streets felt and respected that.” In Powursk, Volhynia, “The relations between the Jews, the Poles and the Ukrainians were correct, even friendly.” See Alexander Agas, “Povursk: The Town’s Jews,” in Yehuda Merin, ed., Memorial Book: The Jewish Communities of Manyevitz, Horodok, Lishnivka, Troyanuvka, Povursk and Kolki (Wolyn Region) (Tel Aviv: Shlomo Levy, 2004), 418. Sara Najter from Ostróg, in Volhynia, recalled that relations with their Christian neigbours were cordial and that everyone helped one another when in need. See her account in Michał Grynberg and Maria Kotowska, comp. and eds., Życie i zagłada Żydów polskich 1939–1945: Relacje świadków (Warsaw: Oficyna Naukowa, 2003), 592. William Ungar, from Krasne near Skałat, recalled: “Both Father Hankiewicz and Father Leszczynski [Leszczyński] mainly preached the loving kindness of God. Because of the priests’ behavior, the peasants didn’t bear a grudge against Jews. … The result was … growing up without either hatred or fear. My playmates were Polish and Ukrainian children and no one ever insulted me or tried to beat me up. … Of course, they knew I was Jewish … But they considered me one of theirs.” See William Ungar and David Chanoff, Destined to Live (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2000), 66–67. In Łunin (Lenin), in predominantly Belorussian Polesia, a Jewish memoir stresses: “Jews and gentiles lived in harmony with their neighbours. … there was an acceptance and understanding between Jew and Christian, at least on a personal level.” See Faye Schulman, A Partisan’s Memoir: Woman of the Holocaust (Toronto: Second Story Press, 1995), 24. In Nieśwież, “for the most part, at least in my town, gentiles and Jews lived side by side peacefully.” See Michael Kutz, If, By Miracle (Toronto: Azrieli Foundation, 2013), 11. In Brasław, a mixed Polish-Belorussian area in the northeast corner of Poland: “On the whole relations between the Braslaw Jews and the peasants were normal, even friendly.” See Ariel Machnes and Rina Klinov, eds., Darkness and Desolation: In Memory of the Communities of Braslaw, Dubene, Jaisi, Jod, Kislowszczizna, Okmienic, Opsa, Plusy, Rimszan, Slobodka, Zamosz, Zaracz (Tel Aviv: Association of Braslaw and Surroundings in Israel and America, and Ghetto Fighters’ House and Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House, 1986), 615. A resident of Dołhinów, in the Wilno region, stated: “We did not feel anti-Semitism on the part of the Christian population.” See the testimony of Jofe Gerszon, June 20, 1959, Yad Vashem Archives, 03/1293. In Olkieniki, in the Wilno region, where many Jews played on the local soccer team, “Relations between the Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors were generally correct. Friendly relations developed with some of the peasants in the nearby villages.” See Shmuel Spector, ed., Lost Jewish Worlds: The Communities of Grodno, Lida, Olkieniki, Vishay (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1996), 232. In Marcinkańce, a small town near the Lithuanian border, which was inhabited mostly by Poles and Jews, “By and large, the economic life of the Jews was prosperous. … The attitude of the Christian population towards their Jewish neighbors was friendly.” See L. Koniuchowsky, “The Liquidation of the Jews of Marcinkonis: A Collective Report,” YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science 8 (1953): 206, 208. In Oszmiana, “Jewish farms and villages were scattered like tiny islands in the sea of the native peasants. Yet between the two communities there were good neighbourly relations, there was even friendliness towards each other.” See Moshea Becker (Ra’Anana), “Jewish Farmers in Oshmana”, in M. Gelbart, ed, Sefer Zikaron le-kehilat Oshmana (Tel Aviv: Oshmaner Organization and the Oshmaner Society in the U.S.A., 1969), 22 (English translation posted on the Internet at ). In Dowgieliszki, a small rural community near Raduń inhabited mostly by Jews: “The road from Radun to Dowgalishok ran through villages and estates owned by Poles. Normally the way was peaceful, and when I was alone with my brother, there was almost no antgonism towards us. … the people were not hostile. Sometimes we would get a lift from a farmer with a wagon going towards Dowgalishok and back. Many farmers of the neighborhood knew us as the children of the blacksmith, and they would invite us to join them on their wagons.” See Avraham Aviel, A Village Named Dowgalishok: The Massacre at Radun and Eishishok (London and Portland, Oregon: Vallentine Mitchell, 2006), 18–19. In Zdzięcioł, “we were living mixed with them [Christians]. And we we were always, always friendly and so did they. … In our little town, I would say [there was no anti-Semitism] because we had actions [dealings] with the Polish priest. He was very, very good to us … he never let anything to with the anti-semitism or whatever. Sure there was, you know, but basically as a whole we had none. I didn’t feel it.” See Interview with Sonia Heidocovsky Zissman, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, May 25, 1995, 2. In Szereszów near Prużana, Jews attended Christian weddings and did not experience any problems due to the Christian population. See the interview with Fania Krawczyk, Internet: