The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945

The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945 examines one of the central problems in the history of Polish-Jewish relations: the attitude and the behavior of the Polish Underground - the resistance organization loyal to the Polish government-in-exile - toward the Jews during World War II. Using a variety of archival documents, testimonies, and memoirs, Zimmerman offers a careful, dispassionate narrative, arguing that the reaction of the Polish Underground to the catastrophe that befell European Jewry was immensely varied, ranging from aggressive aid to acts of murder. By analyzing the military, civilian, and political wings of the Polish Underground and offering portraits of the organization's main leaders, this book is the first full-length scholarly monograph in any language to provide a thorough examination of the Polish Underground's attitude and behavior towards the Jews during the entire period of World War II. 'This is a superb history of one of the oddest episodes of World War II. Zimmerman has emerged as one of the best experts on the history of the controversial Polish-Jewish relations. His matter-of-fact style further dramatizes the Polish-Jewish affairs during World War II when the Polish underground army heroically fought against the Nazis, sometimes killing and sometimes helping the Jews who also participated in the anti-Nazi struggle. A shocking drama and a wonderfully researched, documented and written book - a real page-turner.' Ivan T. Berend, Distinguished Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles 'Joshua D. Zimmerman has chosen to deal with an extremely controversial topic. He has carried out his task with great sensitivity and intelligence. The attitude of the Home Army to Jews was complicated, varying from time to time and also from place to place. On the basis of original sources, Zimmerman demonstrates how difficult it is to make generalizations about aspects of Polish-Jewish relations. This is an exciting and important book.' Peter Kenez, Emeritus Professor of History, University of California, Santa Cruz 'This well-researched and clearly written monograph deals with a very important but inadequately investigated topic - the reaction of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) ... to the mass murder of the Jews carried out by Nazi Germany in Poland. Although the topic has aroused considerable controversy ... it has never been subject to a full scholarly investigation, making use of the large archival resources now available in Poland and abroad. This has now been accomplished by Professor Zimmerman. His approach is balanced and dispassionate and he consistently allows the documents to speak for themselves and to show all sides of a complex story. His book will, in my view, become the definitive account of the subject, which is crucial for an understanding the larger problem of the attitude of Polish society to the mass murder of Polish Jews carried out on Polish soil.' Antony Polonsky, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University, and Chief Historian, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw 'Joshua Zimmerman's [book] is not only the most recent addition to the growing field of historical study of Polish-Jewish relations in World War II, but is also certainly the most complete in current literature. Brilliantly combining the divergent perspective of the Polish underground leadership and of the Jewish resistance, and accounting for their internal diversity, Zimmerman presents the stark choices each actor had to face, and why what was best to one was often seen as detrimental to the other. Skilfully combining analyses of pre-war and wartime Polish politics, military choices, anti-Semitism, the impact of the German genocide, and the perspective of liberation/occupation at the hands of the Soviets, as well as personal world-views of the individual commanders, the monograph explains why not enough help was forthcoming from the Polish side, and why Jews were perceived, and sometimes perceived themselves, as no longer being part of it.' Konstanty Gebert, Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw 'Zimmerman's book is a masterpiece. Zimmerman joins the ranks of other great Jewish historians who have published outstanding works on Polish-Jewish wartime relations free of prejudice.' Filip Mazurczak, Visegrad InsightIntroduction; Part I. The Polish Underground and the Jews under the German-Soviet Partition, 1939-41: 1. Polish politics and the 'Jewish question', 1936-9; 2. Formation of the Polish resistance movement, September 1939-June 1941; 3. The Polish Underground and the Jews, October 1939-June 1941; 4. From ghettoization to mass murder, June-December 1941: the Polish Underground and the prelude to the Nazi Final Solution; 5. The Polish Underground's initial response to the Nazi Final Solution, December 1941-July 1942; Part II. The Polish Underground and the Jews under Nazi Rule, 1941-5: 6. The Great Deportations from the Warsaw ghetto and their aftermath, July-December 1942; 7. Transformation of the Polish Underground policies towards the Jews, November 1942-April 1943; 8. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Polish Underground, April 19-May 15, 1943; 9. In the aftermath of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, May-November 1943; 10. When the Home Army turned its guns on the Jews; 11. When the Polish Underground helped the Jews: institutional aid; 12. When the Polish Underground helped the Jews: individual aid; 13. The Polish Underground and the Jews, Fall 1943-July 1944; 14. The Polish Underground and the Jews from the Warsaw Uprising to the dissolution of the Home Army, August 1944-January 1945; Conclusion.