_The Mendele Review_: Yiddish Literature and Language (A Companion to _MENDELE_) ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 01.018 1 September 1997 1) Yiddish Matters: From the Editor (Leonard Prager) 2) Review of Michael Steinlauf, _Bondage to the Dead_: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust_ (Samuel Kassow) [Yiddish and English] 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 01 Sep 1997 From: Leonard Prager Subject: Yiddish Matters: Mendele Bookmart --Mendele Bookmart "Dos yidish vort" is at the center of Yiddish culture and there is good reason for concern at the present condition of Yiddish publishing, printing, bookselling, bookbuying, and book collecting. For centuries Hebrew books were sold by the system of _prenumerantn_, pre-publication subscriptions. An indigent author would visit the elite of a town or village and, with luck, garner one or two subscriptions (see the monumental work by the late Berl Kagan, _Seyfer haprenumerantn; vegvayzer tsu prenumerirte hebreishe sforim un zeyere khoysmim fun 8,767 kehiles in eyrope un tsofn-amerike_ Nyu-York: Bibliotek fun Yidish-Teologishn Seminar, 1975). Yiddish authors have for generations scrounged for subsidies from cultural and political organizations or paid for their books from their own pockets. Today many Yiddish books continue to be published at their authors's expense or with private, communal and institutional subsidies. There continue somehow to be Yiddish authors; there continue somehow to be Yiddish publishers and printers (desktop publishing has in many ways simplified Yiddish publishing). A farmhouse in Wales astonishes us periodically with the stunning appearance of its Yiddish publications. Yiddish, indeed, has more lives than a cat. All this has to do with the making of new Yiddish books. Once made how do they reach their readers? And who are their readers? With regard to both new and used books, one truth is manifest: there are no efficient channels to bring the Yiddish book to the Yiddish reader. We are actually ignorant about this (phantom?) being -- the Yiddish reader. The National Yiddish Book Center makes large collections available to university libraries. The Yiddish chairs at Trier and Dusseldorf order virtually everything published by the Y.-L. Perets Bibliotek. But where are the solitary readers of Yiddish books? Apparently there are still such creatures spread around the world. How do they find Yiddish books? Young students of Yiddish come to New York, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Paris, London eager to explore "the Yiddish bookstores." But alas the Yiddish bookstores are no more. In Israel they face the further disappointment that there are hardly _any_ bookstores that merit the name. Eighty percent of Israelis who buy books buy them in outdoor fairs during the week-long Book Week; moreover the books they buy are mainly children's books, cook books and the like. Fifteen percent of all books sold in Israel are sold during Book Week. Aside from M. Pollak's in Tel Aviv there is no true antiquarian bookshop anywhere in Israel. The used book stores of Israel are dreary places. People of _the_ Book, yes, but not people of books. If lovers of the Yiddish book now turn to cyberspace, it is because the bookstore of our desires does not exist anywhere. There are of course a lot of books at the National Yiddish Book Center, but it is not an easily accessible browsable _bookstore_. It is no problem to acquire any book in English on a Yiddish-related subject. Amazon of Seattle claims to have two and a half million titles on line and they don't appear to be exaggerating; Barnes and Noble are not far behind. Ira Krakow (at www1.shore.net/~ikrakow/yiddish.html) confidently declares "Buy Any Book About Yiddish in Print." But what about the _Yiddish_ book? Will the NYBC with its reputed million or so Yiddish books (fifty thousand titles? less?) become the Yiddish Amazon, supplying books by electronic order to all the world? Will the recently announced D-book company (a lame play on _Dybbuk_ and _the book_) for Hebrew books on the Hebrew-language internet sell any but the relatively few Israeli university Yiddish items? Where will the peripatetic visitor linger over a curious title? In the great Yiddish libraries (Jerusalem, Yivo, New York Public, Library of Congress, Klau in Cincinnati) you need to know what you want before you order it. Where will the young Yiddish student see Yiddish books? Only in university libraries? Happily, more and more Judaica book dealers throughout the world are discovering that there is a demand for Yiddish books. Many of these dealers work out of their homes, which can be visited by special arrangement. Established Judaica bookstores (e.g. Hollander of San Francisco) and auction houses (e.g Bloomsbury in London) are also carrying more and more Yiddish titles. This is a positive development for the Yiddish book. A bookstore such as Y.-L. Perets in Tel-Aviv (which is also a publisher) with an almost exclusively Yiddish stock is today a rarity. The stout-hearted individuals who manage the Y.-L. Perets Bibliotek, now open five mornings a week, are volunteers in their eighties. This bookstore's future is not secure. The Mendele Bookmart turns to all publishers, booksellers, book collectors, librarians and assorted book people who have a connection to the Yiddish book. Publishers (of records, cds, cassettes, books, magazines, newspapers) are invited to make informational announcements. Individuals, companies and institutions with Yiddish books to sell are invited to publish their names, addresses and titles of catalogs or lists. Individuals, companies and institutions may advertise the sale of new or used books in Yiddish or new and used books in any language related to the field of Yiddish. Want lists will be accepted for books _not found_ at the most prominent of the Yiddish booksellers (the National Yiddish Book Center, the Workman's Circle in New York and Y.-L. Perets in Tel Aviv). _The Mendele Review_ thus offers itself as an international bulletin board for listing _hard-to-find_ Yiddish books. Such listing can help to determine the scarcity -- and therefore the price -- of many Yiddish books. The increasingly greater number of Judaica bookdealers selling Yiddish items need guidance. Helping them improve their service means furthering trade in Yiddish books. The Bookmart will occasionally publish bibliophilic items of the sort one sees in _AB_ (_Antiquarian Bookman_) -- without in any way attempting to compete with that remarkable publication. It is very much in the interests of Yiddish booklovers to make Yiddish books commercially viable objects. While prepared -- at least experimentally -- to publish Yiddish want lists, the _TMR_ will not list individual items for sale unless they are thought to be scarce or difficult to find. Moreover, the following statement will appear in every issue featuring the Mendele Bookmart: "_The Mendele Review_ cannot engage in or be responsible for any commercial transactions based upon information posted in this electronic journal. Nor can _The Mendele Review_ check information posted here." I do not see how Yiddish cultural life can be sustained without efficient instruments for distributing new and used Yiddish books. Perhaps this frankly experimental "Mendele Bookmart" feature of _The Mendele Review_ can be of some help. Readers' suggestions are welcome. --Introducing Samuel Kassow In this issue of _TMR_ Professor Samuel Kassow of Trinity College, Hartford, reviews, in Yiddish and in English, Michael Steinlauf's new book on the Polish response to the Shoa. Professor Kassow is the author of _Students, Professors and the State in Tsarist Russia_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), and together with Edith W. Clowes and James L. West, edited _Quest for Public Identity in Late Imperial Russia_ (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991). He is currently writing a book on Emanuel Ringelblum. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Sep 1997 From: Samuel Kassow Subject: Review of Michael Steinlauf, _Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust_. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997 [Modern Jewish History Series, Henry L. Feingold, Series Editor] Shmuel Kasov [Samuel Kassow] [The Yiddish and English reviews below are similar, but one is not an exact translation of the other.] Retsenzye fun Mikhoel Shteynloyfs _In farshklafung tsu di umgekumene: Poyln un der zikorn funem khurbm_, Sirakyuz: Farlag fun Sirakyuzer Universitet, 1997. [Dershinen in gerem fun der serye fun der moderner yidisher geshikhte, Henri Fayngold, redaktor]. Es iz shver tsu gefinen a teme vos ruft aroys mer broygez un farbiterung vi di ongeveytikte geshikhte fun di poylish-yidishe batsiungen. Tsum shverstns bakumt zikh di diskusye fun der khurbm tkufe, ober heyse debates kumen for oykh benegeye andere temes: lemoshl, der mehus fun dem poylishn antisemitizm, di lage fun di yidn in der tkufe tsvishn di beyde velt milkhomes, un der shoyderlekher keltser pogrom fun 1946. (Nokh der milkhome zaynen in Poyln derharget gevorn arum 1500 yidn.) A sakh yidn bikhlal, un di sheyres-hapleyte bifrat, viln zikh nisht araynlozn in velkhe es iz "obyektive diskusyes": tsulib farshtendlekhe sibes viln zey keyne zkhusim oyf di polyakn nisht gefinen: S'rov yidn vos hobn amol gelebt in Poyln haltn az di polyakn hobn zey faynt gehat: a raye dertsu, zogn zey, iz der fakt vos gor veynik polyakn hobn zikh ongenumen far zeyere yidishe mitbirgers. Di sheyres-hapleyte shtraykht unter di negative momentn fun dem poylish-yidish tsuzamenlebn: vi azoy di polyakn flegn zikh fun zey opkern in an eys-tsore, vi azoy zey flegn zey farfolgn. Di faktn zaynen gut bakant. Far der milkhome hobn farsheydene poylishe regirungen gefirt a "kaltn pogrom" kegn di ekonomishe pozitsyes fun der yidisher bafelkerung. In di 30er yorn zaynen onfaln oyf yidn in di universitetn un in di merk gevorn an ofte dershaynung. S'rov yidn vos hobn ibergelebt di milkhome haltn az tsum merstn teyl zaynen di polyakn geven glaykhgiltik tsu zeyere laydn un hobn afile gehat a farborgene hanoe derfun, vos a dank Hitlern hobn zey gekont poter vern fun zeyere farhaste shkheynim. A plog fun shmaltsovnikes ['blackmailers'] hobn nokhgeyogt di yidn vos hobn zikh vi es iz oysbehaltn un ot di shantazhistn hobn zikh nisht gedarft shrekn, az di AK, di Poylishe Untererdishe Armey, vet zey shtrofn. Vos an emes hot di AK yo kondamnirt etlekhe shantazhistn, ober dos iz shoyn geven tsu shpet tsu hobn a mamoshesdikn badayt. Vos an emes zaynen yo geven polyakn vos hobn zikh ayngeshtelt far di geroydefte yidn un hobn zey oysbahaltn. Ober a sakh lebn geblibene yidn dermonen zikh, az ot di polyakn hobn moyre gehat, tomer zeyere shkheynim veln zikh dervisn vegen dem -- afile nokh der milkhome! Un mit vos ken men derklern di merderayen un pogromen vos zaynen forgekumen nokh der milkhome? Un di megile shlept zikh adayem: 1968; der sikhsekh vegn dem karmelitn konvent in Oyshvits; un azoy vayter un azoy vayter. Un dokh, tsvishn ale ranglenishn un sikhsukhim kumt oykh for a shtiler, men ken afile zogn a benimesdiker dialog tsvishn poylishe un yidishe gelernte.. In di letste yorn zaynen forgekumen etlekhe konferentsn; es dershaynen zhurnaln oyf a hoykhn visnshaftlekhn nivo, lemoshl _Polin_ un _Gal-Ed_ vos gibn zikh op mit der geshikhte un mit der kultur fun di poylishe yidn. Men ken dortn oykh gefinen a shlal mit artiklen vos bashraybn nisht nor di negative momentn nor oykh di ofte faln ven yidn hobn zikh take tsuzamegehoftn mit der poylisher kultur. In Poyln gufe hobn zikh in di letste yorn bavizn naye forsher (Aline Tsale, Eygenye Prokovpovne Yanyets) [Alina Cala, Eugenia Prokowpowna Janiec] un andere, velkhe hobn shoyn aroysgegebn gor vikhtike un vegvayzerishe bikher vegn azelkhe temes vi der yidisher asimilatsye in 19tn yorhundert un vegn der yidisher literatur oyf der poylisher shprakh vos hot zikh azoy hastik antviklt in di yorn tsvishn di beyde velt milkhomes. Farshteyt zikh az s'rov yidishe gelernte adayem zaynen noyte untertsushtraykhn di negative aspetkn fun di poylish-yidishe batsiungen. Ober mit a por yor tsurik hot eyner fun di ongezeenste yisroeldike spetsialistn in dem gebit, Profesor Ezre Mendelson [Professor Ezra Mendelsohn], oysgedrikt di meynung, az men darf iberklern di ongenumene meynung az di geshikhte fun yidn in Poyln bashteyt nor fun "laydn un trern." Itst zet men befeyresh, nemendik in akht di fil-minike natsyonale sikhsukhim vos hobn zikh tseflakert in mizrekh-Eyrope in di letste yorn, az di shtraytn tsvishn polyakn un yidn zaynen gor nisht geven azoy eygnartik, azoy yokhidbeminedik. Mendelson hot dermont zayne tsuherer, az s'iz vikhtik tsu farshteyn di kompleksn un di gefiln fun dem poylishn tsad; nokh dem tkhies-hameysim fun der zelbstshtendiker poylisher melukhe hobn di polyakn take gekukt zeyer krum oyf dem masivn yidishn yesh in di shtet un shtetlekh, in dem ekonomishn lebn. Far zey, di polyakn, iz dos geven an ernster psikhologisher un politisher problem vos me tor dos nisht avekmakhn mit der hant. Me darf gedenken, hot Mendelson gezogt, az s'iz faran a gevise shpanung, a gevise stire tsvishn dem bagrif fun demokratye un dem bagrif fun a natsyonaler medine, vos shtelt zikh for far a tsil di farteydigung un di antviklung fun a gevisn folk. Tsi ken men take opleykenen dem fakt az yidishe birger in Yisroel hobn bakumen a sakh mer shtitse mitsad der regirung far bildung un shtotishe anshtaltn vi arabishe birger, apshite ven di medine hot nor gehat zeyer bagrenetste finantsyele mitlen? Un nokh a zakh. In di yorn tsvishn di velt milkhomes hot zikht bamerkt a shtarke netiye tsu "akulturizatsye" bay dem yungn dor, dos heyst a shtarke netiye oystsulebn zikh in der poylisher shprakh. Yo, di poylish-yidishe batsiungen zaynen take gevorn vos a mol erger, ober trots dem hobn zeyer a sakh yidn lib gehat, un lib bakumen, di poylishe shprakh un di poylishe kultur. (Un men tor oykh nisht fargesn dem gvaldikn badayt fun der yidisher prese oyf der poylisher shprakh.) Bekitser, men ken nisht zogn az yidishe gelernte veln maskim zayn mit Profesor Normen Deyvis [Professor Norman Davies], velkher hot kimat ingantsn gemakht tsu kleyngelt dem poylishn antisemitizm. Ober fun der ander tsad bamerkt zikh a naye shtimung in der akademisher velt. Tsubislekh heybt men on oystsuhern vos der ander tsad hot tsu zogn. I yidn, I polyakn, zeen ayn, az alts iz nisht shvarts oyf vays. Un dokh iz nokh alts shver, zeyer shver, tsu firn a dialog vegn dem khurbm. Un derfar iz take Mikhoel Shteynloyfs nay bukh, _In farshklafung tsu di umgekumene: Poyln un der zikorn funem khurbm_ [_Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust_], a vikhtiker visnshaftlekher oyftu. S'iz a groyse mayle vos Shteynloyf ken gut i di poylishe i di yidishe geshikhte. A bahavnter forsher, vayzt er aroys a sakh empatishkayt un zayn stil iz klor un getokt. Far dem yidishn leyener vet dos bukh derklern nisht nor dos vos di yidn hobn durkhgemakht nor oykh tseglidern di faktorn vos hobn bavirkt un oysgefuremt di shtelung fun di polyakn. Oyfn smakh fun Shteynloyfs forshung ken der yidisher leyener beser farshteyn voser hashpoe dos gedekhenish funem khurbm ibt oys in Poyln adayem un oyf vi vayt di geyarshnte kompleksn fun der khurbm tkufe bavirkn di haynttsaytike poylishe kultur. Dos iz a gelungener pruv tsu baloykhtn komplitsirte un paynlekhe temes. Der mekhaber barekhtikt nisht dem poylishn antisemitizm beshas der milkhome, ober er derklert etlekhe sibes un faktorn vos hobn zikh shtark opgerufn oyf di poylish-yidishe batsiungen. Men tor nisht farglaykhn di laydn fun di polyakn mit dem genem vos di yidn hobn durkhgemakht. Ober leman haemes muz men gedenken az di polyakn hobn yo gelitn in tsayt fun der milkhome, un gelitn hobn zey gor a sakh, i fun di daytshn, i fun di rusn. Di yidn, farshteyt zikh, zaynen geven tsufridn ven di sovetn zaynen arayn in mizrekh-Poyln dem 17n September 1939; nisht azoy, farshteyt zikh, miahaves-Mortkhe vi misines-Homen. Ober di polyakn hobn dos batrakht vi a beyzvilike bgide. Men darf oykh gedenken az oysbahaltn yidn in tsayt fun der milkhome iz nisht geven fun di laykhtste zakhn. Far dem hobn goyim take getsolt mitn lebn. (Mayn mutter hot zikh oysbahaltn nayn monatn bay a poylisher mishpokhe. A shokhn hot zey farmasert, un der foter fun der mishpokhe iz derharget gevorn.) In gerem fun a kurtser retsenzye iz shver tsu gebn a geherike opshatsung fun aza verk. Der shrayber fun di shures halt az di originelste teyln funem bukh zaynen di kapitlen in velkhe Shteynloyf bashraybt un derklert dem shaykhes tsvishn der oysfuremung fun dem kolektiven poylishn zikorn funem khurbm, un der hashpoe fun a min "shuldkompleks," vos hot zikh, loyt dem mekhaber, genumen antviklen in same bren fun der milkhome. Mit vos derklert zikh der spetsifisher, eygnartiker poylisher "shuldkompleks"? Bekitser, a sakh polyakn hobn faynt gehat yidn un hobn gevolt poter vern fun zey. Un ot kumen di daytshn un rotn oys di poylishe yidn. Di polyakn tsien zikh arayn in di amolike yidishe dires, zey yarshenen dos yidishe hob un guts. Zey hobn tsugezen vi di daytshn hobn derharget di yidn un ekonomish hobn zey in a geviser mos genosn fun dem yidishn umglik. Un nokh der milkhome zaynen zey geven ibergetsaygt az s'iz beser on di yidn. Un dokh, loyt Shteynloyfn hobn zey zikh gefilt shuldik, meshunedik shuldik. Nisht zey hobn oysgerotn di yidn. Dos hobn di daytshn geton. Ober keyn mamshesdike hilf hobn zey di yidn nisht gegebn. Un nokh der milkhome hobn zikh di gefiln fun ambivalents un shuld laykht farvandlt in a min "antisemitizm on yidn." Di polyakn zaynen geven zeyer filevdik tsu di yidishe taynes az zey hobn oykh gehat a kheylek in dem umkum fun zeyere yidishe shkheynim. Tsulib dem vos der antisemitizm hot zikh take azoy ayngevortslt in dem poylishn lebn far der milkhome iz geven zeyer shver optsuvarfn ot di taynes. Derfar iz gevorn azoy populer a min kegnangrif: ir, yidn, helfn di komunistn. Ir zayt gevorn di hersher fun land un farfolgt undz. Ir hot khezhboynes mit undz. Un mir hobn khezhboynes mit aykh. Azelkhe taynes hobn gelindert di shuldkompleksn. Shteynloyfn git zikh ayn, in a vunderlekhn oyfn tsu bashraybn un derklern dem shaykhes tsvishn dem oyfbli fun der tsiviler gezelshaft in Poyln un dem oyfleb fun interes in yidn. Ot dos hot zikh boylet aroysgevizn in di 80er yorn, in gevise krayzn fun Solidarnosc un fun der katoylisher inteligents. Shteynloyf shildert di vikhtike debates vegn yidn un polyakn vos zaynen dershinen oyf di shpaltn fun _Tygodnik Powszechny_, _Gazeta Wyborcza_ un andere tsaytshriftn. Er bavayzt di enge tsuzamenheftung tsvishn der diskusye vegn yidn un der diskusye vegn der algemeyner rikhtung fun Poylns tsukunftiker antviklung. Shteynloyf hot farbrakht a sakh tsayt in Poyln. Er ken dos land, er ken dos folk. Un dos ruft zikh op oyfn nivo fun der diskusye. Der shrayber fun di shures iz nisht ingantsn maskim mit etlekhe oysfirn funem mekhaber. Etlekhe bahoyptungen rufn aroys kleyninke pshetlekh. In zayn diskusye vegn der batsiung fun polyakn tsu yidn volt ikh gevolt zen a mer protimdike tsegliderung fun dem shaykhes tsvishn dem nivo fun antisemitizm fun eyn zayt un klasnopshtam un regyonale faktorn fun der andererer zayt. Lemoshl, der mekhaber vent on Robert Liftons psikhologishe teoryes vegn "death guilt" in zayn diskusye vegn dem tamtses fun dem poylishn antisemitizm. Dos iz a stimulirndiker un gor interesanter tsugang vos bavayzt a sakh originalitet. Ober di diskusye volt geven beser ven der mekhaber volt zikh mer opgegebn mit sotsyologishe un regyonale faktorn. Di untershte shure: dos iz a gelungener, oysgetseykhenter bukh. Dem mekhaber kumt a hartsiker yasher-koyekh. [My thanks to Hugh Denman for help in proofreading this article. LP] ****** Review of Michael Steinlauf, _Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust_. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997 [Modern Jewish History Series, Henry L. Feingold, Series Editor] Few topics spark more anger and bitterness than that of Polish-Jewish relations. Within this compass, the Holocaust is the most sensitive subject, but debate also rages around issues such as Polish anti-Semitism, the position of the Jews in the interwar period, the 1946 Kielce pogrom -- according to Bernard Wasserstein (_Vanishing Diaspora_, p. 24) about 1500 Jews were killed in Poland between the end of the German occupation and mid 1947. For many Jews, especially Holocaust survivors (and that includes the parents of this reviewer), there is little to discuss and much to reject. The facts, they feel, speak for themselves. Most Poles, they stressed, hated Jews. For them the history of Polish-Jewish relations in the modern period was a depressing litany of persecution and rejection. It is a familiar litany. Before the war various Polish governments, with broad mass support, engineered a "cold pogrom" to destroy the Jews' economic base. By the 1930s violence against Jews in the universities and in the marketplace had become common. During the war, while three million Polish Jews were murdered, the vast majority of the Polish population, most survivors believe, ignored the victims' plight and even expressed silent satisfaction that Hitler was doing them a favor. Blackmailers preyed on Jews in hiding and had little reason to fear reprisals from the Polish Home Army. To be sure there were Poles who hid Jews but why did so many fear denunciation from their neighbors? And what can explain the murders and pogroms of the post-war period? And the sorry tale goes on: 1968, the Auschwits controversy, etc. etc etc. Amidst the anger and mutual recrimination, historians on both sides have been engaged in a quiet scholarly dialogue. There have been conferences, and journals such as _Polin_ and _Gal-ed_ have devoted themselves to the objective, scholarly study of Polish-Jewish history and Polish-Jewish relations. In Poland too, scholars such as Alina Cala and Eugenia Prokopowna have published pioneering studies of Jewish assimilation in the nineteenth century and the rise of a Jewish literature in the Polish language. Most Jewish scholars still stress the negative rather than the positive in Polish-Jewish relations. But at a conference a few years ago, one of the leading Israeli specialists in the subject, Ezra Mendelsohn, urged scholars to reconsider what he called the "lachrymose" view of Polish-Jewish history. In view of the entire sorry panorama of ethnic relations in Eastern Europe, tension between Poles and Jews did not seem to be such an anomaly. Jews had to understand, Mendelsohn emphasized, that for Poles, their massive economic and urban presence in a newly revived Polish state was indeed a problem. And if Jews had reason to complain of economic discrimination in the interwar republic, then the record of Israel itself demonstrates a certain unavoidable tension between the ideals of an ethnic nation state and the ideals of democracy. When Israel had limited economic resources, did it spend as much on Arab schools and services as it did on the Jewish sector? Other scholars stress the rapid rate of acculturation in the interwar period. Yes, Polish-Jewish relations were getting worse but that did not prevent the growing use of the Polish language and a genuine love of Polish culture among Polish Jews. In short, while no Jewish scholar will go as far as Norman Davies, who has minimized the whole issue of Polish anti-Semitism, there is a readiness on the part of historians on both sides to listen to each other. But polite listening requires great effort, especially when the subject is the Holocaust. Therefore Michael Steinlauf's new book, _Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust_, is essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in Polish-Jewish history. The strength of this book is Steinlauf's familiarity with Polish as well as with Polish-Jewish culture, about both of which he writes clearly and empathetically. For Jewish readers (as this reviewer knows from experience), the book accomplishes a very difficult feat: it explains the Polish experience, what Poles suffered, how Poles see their history and the place of the Jews in it. Without in any way defending or justifying Polish anti-Semitism, Steinlauf puts painful issues in historical perspective. The Poles, of course, did not suffer as much as the Jews. But they suffered and by any measure except that of the Holocaust, they suffered terribly. For Jews, the Soviet Union was the "lesser of two evils" (to borrow Dov Levin's phrase). For Poles the USSR was as great an enemy as Nazi Germany. And Steinlauf reminds us that hiding Jews in wartime Poland was not a simple matter. The Germans did apply the death penalty for "Judenbegunstigung," ruthlessly and without pity. (A Pole saved the life of this reviewer's mother. The family was denounced and the father was executed.) It is impossible to do justice to this book in such a short review. While experts will already be familiar with many facts described by Steinlauf in its early chapters, the sections on the memory of the Holocaust in Poland are both stimulating and original. One of Steinlauf's major points is that Poles feel a complex sense of guilt about the Holocaust. Simply put, they knew that they did not like Jews. They resented the Jews' economic position and wished they would leave Poland. Then came the Germans, who killed the Jews. After the war (and also during the war), the Poles moved into the victims' homes and helped themselves to their property. They witnessed the Holocaust and, economically, benefited from it. They were convinced that Poland was better off without the Jews. BUT IT WAS THE GERMANS WHO MURDERED THE JEWS, NOT THE POLES. So the Poles felt ambivalent and guilty. They also were angered by Jewish accusations implying they shared German guilt. Putting the blame for the post-war communist regime on the Jews made it easier to live with the guilt. But there was an uneasiness about Jews that would not go away. Steinlauf skilfully describes the interplay between the revival of civil society in Poland and a revival, in certain quarters, of interest in the Jewish question. As Adam Michnik pointed out, attitudes toward the Jews were closely interwoven with the larger question of Poland's future character: Would Poland be cosmopolitan and European or inward-looking and chauvinistic? This linkage of anti-Semitism to wider issues of national identity receives good treatment in the book. In addition, Steinlauf summarizes key controversies such as the Blonski article in _Tygodnik Powszechny_, the Carmelite convent at Auschwits, the furor surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw insurrection of 1944, and others. One might disagree with some of Steinlauf's conclusions. This reviewer would have liked to see Polish attitudes analyzed according to social class and geography. This is particularly relevant to Steinlauf's intellectually daring attempt to apply Robert Lifton's insights on "death guilt" to the issue of Polish anti-Semitism. Steinlauf's method here needs more sociological underpinning. In sum, however, this well-written and well-documented book deserves the attention of anybody with a serious interest in Polish and Polish-Jewish history. **** ______________________________________________________ End of _The Mendele Review_ 01.018 Leonard Prager, editor Send articles to: lprager@research.haifa.ac.il The editor of _TMR_ can also be reached via _Mendele_'s homepage: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele/ Send change-of-status messages to: listproc@lists.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele mail postpone b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail ack c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele ****Getting back issues**** _The Mendele Review_ archives can be reached at: http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/TMR