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Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: July 27, 2020 at 6:59:31 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Judaic]: Zavadivker on Kopstein and Wittenberg, > 'Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Jeffrey S. Kopstein, Jason Wittenberg. Intimate Violence: > Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust. Ithaca Cornell > University Press, 2018. Maps, graphs. 192 pp. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN > 978-1-5017-1525-9. > > Reviewed by Polly Zavadivker (University of Delaware) > Published on H-Judaic (July, 2020) > Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz > > When it was published in 2001, Jan Gross's _Neighbors_ cast a glaring > spotlight on the town of Jedwabne, where on July 10, 1941, Polish > residents massacred several hundreds of their Jewish neighbors. The > book launched a flurry of scholarship and heated debates both in > Poland and abroad. And yet even before its appearance, it was widely > known that Poles and Ukrainians had carried out hundreds of other > anti-Jewish pogroms throughout eastern Poland at roughly the same > time. > > The political scientists Jeffrey Kopstein and Jason Wittenberg make > two major contributions in this concise volume: first, they are the > first English-speaking scholars to attempt to locate the Jedwabne > pogrom in its temporal and regional context. Their subject is the > wave of "intimate violence" from June to August 1941, when Polish and > Ukrainian residents killed their Jewish neighbors in the streets, > homes, and buildings of the towns they shared, using readily handy > kitchen and gardening tools as weapons. The book leaves no room for > doubt that what happened in Jedwabne happened in hundreds of other > places, or that the hundreds of Jewish victims there numbered among > tens of thousands elsewhere in eastern Poland. > > Second, the book offers an initial attempt to not only describe what > happened during the pogroms but to explain why it happened. As > political scientists they attempt to model the process of ethnic > violence: they measure the relative significance of preexisting > conditions as well as immediate triggers and identify the factor that > they believe decisively predicted the outcome of pogroms. The study > is not without significant flaws, of which more below, but these two > contributions alone represent important strides for both the social > sciences and Holocaust studies. > > In chapter 1 we are introduced to the study's key question, > theoretical framework, data, and findings. Pogroms occurred in some > 227 cities throughout six voivodships (administrative regions) of > eastern Poland, over roughly six weeks from late June to early August > 1941. That number seems enormous in absolute terms, but actually > represents only 9 percent of cities with sizeable Jewish communities > for the region as a whole. The overwhelming majority of places where > Jews lived alongside Poles and Ukrainians did not experience a > pogrom. Why did pogroms break out in those places where they did, and > not in others? > > Kopstein and Wittenberg handily put aside previous explanations, > pointing first to what they think _did not_ cause the violence. Poles > were _not_ following German orders, as some argued, but rather, acted > with total agency. The timing was all-important: the Soviet > occupation of eastern Poland had already collapsed and German forces > had entered, but not yet established a state regime. The presence > alone of the SS provided an opportune moment for Poles to freely act > on their desires without fear of punishment or retribution. The > authors also address previously posited motives of revenge, > antisemitism, and greed. Yes, they argue, desire to avenge the Jews' > alleged collaboration with Soviet occupiers played some part in > fueling the violence and helped to "set the stage" for > neighbor-on-neighbor violence, but was not its driving cause (p. 42). > Similarly, Poles' greed for Jewish property, with theft widely > documented during and after the pogroms, should be read as a symptom > and not cause of the pogrom. Finally, they reject the "antisemitism > hypothesis," arguing that if timeless, or "ubiquitous hatred" for > Jews had existed among Poles from time immemorial, then one would > expect far more pogroms than actually occurred (p. 10). > > Having cleared the way of what factors did _not_ cause the pogroms, > the authors explain: "Poles that turned against their Jewish > neighbors were motivated less by hatred, revenge, or avarice than by > a perception of a threat to their political dominance" (p. 58). > Wherever Poles felt that sense of threat, they "were more likely to > give into the temptation to commit violence, more tolerant of others > committing violence, and less likely to come to the aid of the > victims" (p. 71). > > They draw here on "power threat theory," developed by the sociologist > Hubert M. Blalock to analyze the dynamics of race relations in > postbellum United States.[1] Blalock argued that wherever southern > whites perceived acute threat from blacks to their continued racial > dominance (the presence of large black populations combined with > strong influence of racially inclusive political parties), they > carried out "vigilante justice" with intent to preserve the racial > status quo: from supporting electoral disenfranchisement and Jim Crow > laws to the perpetration of widespread lynching, the counterpart of > which Kopstein and Wittenberg find in the pogroms. > > Chapters 2 and 3 provide a historical and demographic overview of the > region. In order to measure the "perception of threat" to which Poles > reacted with violence in 1941, the authors attempt to quantify three > factors, all rooted in the prewar period: first, voting patterns, > records of which exist for parliamentary elections of 1922 and 1928. > In cities where pogroms took place, they found that Jews voted in > high numbers for Jewish nationalist parties, and specifically the > General Zionists, who as part of the Minorities Bloc issued > aggressive and unequivocal demands for Jewish political autonomy and > full equality. Conversely, in cities that saw violence, majorities of > Poles supported the right-wing nationalist party (the National > Democrats, or "Endecja"), which advocated a platform of fanatical > patriotism, religiosity, opposition to full equality for non-Polish > minorities; in a telling detail, we are told that some of its members > viewed the Zionist leader Yitzhak Grunbaum as "fundamentally > anti-Polish" in outlook (p. 63). Second, pogroms were likelier in > cities with large Jewish populations (Jews were 10 percent of the > total population in eastern Poland but about half of all urban > dwellers), suggesting that Poles turned on their neighbors in places > where they felt outnumbered. Finally, the authors factor in the > existence of Jewish Free Loan Societies in cities where pogroms > occurred, hypothesizing that Poles would have perceived credit aid to > Jewish businesses as posing an unfair, and hence threatening > advantage. > > Chapter 4, "Beyond Jedwabne," is the literal and conceptual center of > the book, where the statistical method is explained and applied to > local histories. With forceful clarity we see that in locations where > Zionists dominated Jewish politics and the Endejca had > majority-Polish support, violence erupted in 1941. In Radzilow, the > site of one of the most deadly and brutal pogroms in the region, > "virtually every eligible Jewish voter voted for Jewish parties in > 1928 and 42 percent of the Polish electorate supported the Endecja in > the same election" (p. 78). Conversely in Bia_ł_ystok, there was no > pogrom, for despite a sizeable Jewish population and history of > Christian antisemitism, Jews had voted in large numbers for > minority-friendly Polish parties in 1928. > > The most important point Kopstein and Wittenberg make in this central > chapter, I believe, is to suggest that political behavior spills over > into subjective experience. How one votes has consequences insofar as > it suggests a mentality and worldview, in this case regarding the > role of the state, economic redistribution, and the limits of > minority rights. They do not suggest that Polish pogrom perpetrators > had a "precise electoral calculation in mind," but rather that that > the social distance between Poles and Jews had grown so great over > the previous two decades that "even the bare minimum of solidarity > between the two communities was absent" (p. 78). While political > integration did not necessarily equate with the "thick solidarity of > a nation," it may have provided at the local level "just enough > communal cohesion, the bare minimum, to prevent the worst sort of > depredations when all other factors pointed in that direction" (p. > 78). What the gradual process of political polarization produced, > most fatefully, in their view, was _indifference_ among a majority of > Poles toward the lives and fates of their Jewish neighbors once the > pogrom began. The survivor narratives they cite confirm this with > chilling effect. > > Initially the authors' use of data struck me as implausible. Could an > ethnic group's voting patterns in 1928 really be used to predict > whether they would brutalize (or conversely, fall victim to) their > neighbors thirteen years later, under the "right" set of > circumstances? This is one question that animated a book forum > discussion among a group of historians and political scientists in > the _Journal of Genocide Research_ earlier this year.[2] In the > interest of drawing on that important exchange, I will transition > here from review to meta-review. > > If a consensus might be gleaned from among the forum's scholars, it > is that the Kopstein and Wittenberg asked the right questions but > were unable to adequately answer them with the existing data. The > historian Kamil Kijek of the University of Wroclaw took the strongest > exception to their use of data. He found especially problematic the > authors' definition of antisemitism, which they understand as a > practice rooted in political behavior, ignoring the long history and > psycho-cultural dimensions of Polish-Jewish relations to which > historians more generally attend. Kijek was morally troubled, too, by > the argument that the Jews' turn to nationalism in the 20s and 30s > played a causative role in the violence they suffered in 1941. By > making this claim, "the authors attribute the main causes of violence > to the Jews themselves."[3] While I agree that the discussion of > antisemitism is thin in this study, the latter charge is not entirely > fair. The authors explicitly rebuke the notion that any blame for > political polarization lies with Jews; rather, they claim it > represents "the failure of the Polish state to integrate its Jewish > citizens" (p. 83). > > Yet while they do not fault Jews for choosing nationalist politics in > interwar Poland, the authors do suggest in a concluding chapter that > minorities can do their part to avert "intimate violence" by > practicing political integration and communal cohesion--specifically > by tempering their demands of the state and working toward shared, > common interests with majority populations. As a counterpoint to this > suggestion, Evgeny Finkel suggests that the prospect of political > integration for Jews depended on geography. While in the northern > part of the region (e.g., Białystok province) Jews could "achieve a > degree of local acceptance by moderating their claims and supporting > the Polish state-building project," in the south, where the brutal > Radivilov pogrom occurred, and where Jews lived among Poles and > Ukrainians, Jews simply could not make friends without simultaneously > making enemies. Jewish support for either Poles or Ukrainians > "inevitably alienated the other; neutrality was seen by both as > treason," and thus, "Jewish communities were placed between the > Polish rock and the Ukrainian hard place and suffered as a > result."[4] > > As a final and perhaps minor point I would add that the style and > tone of this book can be alienating at times. To cite just one > grievous example: early in the book the authors explain that they > chose to study the 1941 pogroms because they offered examples of true > unbridled popular violence, at a time when political conditions > allowed for Polish civilians to attack Jews in the absence of > restraint. These pogroms, they write, are thus "_ideal circumstances_ > under which to examine the structural characteristics of localities > where pogroms occur" (p. 17, emphasis added). This begs to be > rephrased with attention to the insensitive choice of adjective. > > It has been pointed out that Raul Hilberg, a pioneering Holocaust > researcher in the 1950s, was a political scientist; one could add > that his contemporary Hannah Arendt approached this history as a > political thinker. As it were, Kopstein and Wittenberg have helped to > launch a second and now burgeoning wave of social scientific studies > of the Holocaust. It is hoped that future scholars who build on their > pioneering work will more sensitively attend to the "thick" culture > and history of Slavic-Jewish relations, and without sacrificing > feeling for rigor. > > Citation: Polly Zavadivker. Review of Kopstein, Jeffrey S.; > Wittenberg, Jason, _Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve > of the Holocaust_. H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews. July, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54544 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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