Polish military pay book

[huddyhuddy]

Thank you very much, a big help here!
I know the holder of the papers immigrated in 1936 to Palestyna.

Neil.

[mr dogtag]

In some articles I have read in the past there was mentioning that antisemitism was on the rise in Poland, after Hitler came to power. I am trying to find information on this, and if it was so, how did it effect Jews serving in the Polish army?

What you have is an extremly scarce and beautiful example of paybook of a Polish Jew.
However - you should definitely choose better the sources you read.
The fact that Hitler came to power had nothing to do with any rise of anti-semitism in Poland. Actually Poland was and remained during the war an only occupied country without a nazi colaborationist goverment or party. Actually there was a huge Jewish migration to Poland in late 30-ties due to Nazi terror in Germany. You should learn that Poland was an only ocupied state where German nazis would sentence to death any Pole and his whole closest family helping/hiding Jews. Still out of all european nations Poles are the biggest group among those awarded with "The Righteous Among the Nations "awarded to those who helped Jews out of holocaust by Yad Vashem Institute. Considering this speaking about "Polish antisemitism" and linking this with Hitlers nazis is very bad tasted and allow me to say ignorant from the historical point of view. Don't get me wrong. For sure one would find cases of anti-semitism in pre-war Poland as he would in any other country in pre-war (or even current) Europe. Still this originated from economical competition between Polish and Jewish peasants rather than any racial philosophy.

http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/yadvashem.htm
Rgds
Al

[JazzKatDaddy]

Bravo Al!
I was thinking about jumping into this discussion, but I think you stated what needed to be said very nicely.
Regards, Henry

[huddyhuddy]

Hi,
Many thanks for the great reply, it is all enlightening.

Not to be rude or insulting, but growing up as a young child in Israel, most of the Polish Holocaust survivors have only bitter memories of growing up in Poland and from the war.They have nothing positive to say about their fellow Polish Christian neighbors, who most of them helped the Germans in finding and giving up Jews. Yes, there are cases of amazing people helping the Jews, but this was not the majority. I can only recall on what we where tolled many years ago. My neighbors today, though young and my age, are in some cases from Polish decent, either arriving to Palestine before or after the war. I would also imagine that today many in Poland would like to see things differently and not be pictured as collaborators when it came to hunting the Jews.
I do not know what is the case today and what do the Polish people feel about Jews today, but I can only go by what we where raised by and tolled, years ago.
The hatred of the Jews goes back may centuries climaxing with the war, and I do not believe it has all of a sudden gone away. But, like many modern Jews say, some things belong to the past, to history.
I do not mean to offend anyone with this reply. I am pleased to share a common hobby here with everyone. Thanks for the nice replies.

Neil.
China & Israel.

[IvanPutski]

They have nothing positive to say about their fellow Polish Christian neighbors, who most of them helped the Germans in finding and giving up Jews.

This may say more about their own prejudices than it does about historical fact.

That being said, this is a collector's forum and I suggest we stick to that topic.

Respectfully,
Ivan P.

[mr dogtag]

My dear friend,
I can understand these bitter stories. War is terrible and most of the stories dependless on who are telling them are bitter. However it would be good to back it up with some proven historical sources, documents etc. Generalizing is never good, and in this very sensitive case it's even worse.
I don't really think if the "majority of Polish christians" would hunt for Jews. If that would be so, perhaps very few of them would survive the war. Don't get me wrong - there surely were cases like that due to the fact that any help to Jews was under death threat. There were many cases that due to the fact someone was hiding a Jewish person the whole house of several families would be immediately executed. The second reason was obviously economical. The third ( on the theritiories occupied in 1939-1941 period) would be legal or political revenge. Perhaps no one told you that but during that time Jewish communists were strongly supporting Soviets also, and very commonly, by giving away Polish intelectuals, teachers, officers, policemen, lawyers etc.

Perhaps you aren't aware of this but the most bitter truth is that the most of the bad job was done by Jewish ghetto police and Judenraten - local Jewish authorities colaborating with German Nazis.
I guess a story of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, chef of Litzmannstadt/Łódź Ghetto is a very good example.

Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It was them who often refused any co-operation with Polish underground and it was them who were preparing the transport lists to concentration camps. Poles had nothing to do with that. You should know that all Polish Jews were treaten by Polish Goverment in Exile and Polish underground as Polish Citizens. Giving away a Jew to Germans would be treaten as a war crime and an individual who did it would be sentenced to death and shot. I can give you many examples of such cases.
Don't get me wrong I'm not acusing or excusing anybody. War is a horror and total chaos. We Poles have suffered a lot oursleves don't feel any worse in our suffering to our Jewish brothers. Many Poles sacrificed their lives to help Jews and the generalizations are very painful especially if rare individual cases shall blame the whole nation.
Rgds
Al
p.s. Have you ever heard any bitter story about British anti-semitism during IIWW? Perhaps not as all Jews who were caught by English bobbies ( policemen) on the first day of occupation of the Channel Islands were handed over to Germans and murdered. There was no one left to tell the bitter stories.

[huddyhuddy]

Well, let's leave it, as said above, to collecting topics only.

Neil.

[mr dogtag]

Sticking to collector character of this forum the only thing I can add to this topic is that most probably the owner of your paybook was a member of zionist movement which was very lively and supported by Polish goverment in Poland before the war.
This very much explains why he would leave Poland in mid-30'ties
Contrary to socialist members of Bund and communists, zionists choosen Palestine as their new home/promised land. Was that Gods will or just a good choice I don't know. Surely saved life of many Polish/ European Jews just few years later.
Rgds
Al