In the period between the two world wars, Poland's Jewish community was second only in size to that of the United States, and was the laboratory in which the ideological orientations which dominated the Jewish world - Zionism, Bundism, Neo-Orthodoxy, Assimilation - were tested. There has been much disagreement as to the character and strength of anitsemitism in Poland at that time, and the extent to which the experience of the Jews aided the Nazis in carrying out their genocidal plans. This latest volume of Polin includes contributions from Poland, western Europe, Israel, and North America, which together provide a clearer understanding of the issues which have in the past proved so divisive. It also includes a number of personal testimonies from people who experienced the interwar period at first hand. The result is a book that will be essential reading for all those interested in modern Jewish history and in the problems of ethnic minorities in post-Versailles Europe.

About the Author
Antony Polonsky is Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University, and Chief Historian of the Global Educational Outreach Project at the Museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Warsaw (2010) and the Jagiellonian University (2014), and in 2011 was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of Polonia Restituta and the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of Independent Lithuania. His many publications include The Jews in Poland and Russia, 3 vols. (Littman Library, 2010-12), which in 2012 was awarded the Pro Historia Polonorum prize of the Polish Senate for the best book on the history of Poland in a non-Polish language written in the previous five years. Jerzy Tomaszewski is Professor of History in the Institute of Political Science at the University of Warsaw, and Director of the Mordecai Anieliewicz Centre for the Study of the History and Culture of Polish Jews. Ezra Mendelsohn is Professor in the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Jewry, and the Department of Russian Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Reviews
'The volume contains too many riches for a brief review to do them justice ... It is instructive to see how the subject of antisemitism is reflected in the pages of this volume, especially because of the number of contributions by Polish scholars, some of them young, to a field that only a few years ago was virtually taboo in Poland.' Abraham Brumberg, Times Literary Supplement



Book Information
ISBN 9781904113225
Author Antony Polonsky
Format Paperback
Page Count 480
Imprint The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
Publisher Liverpool University Press
Weight(grams) 668g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 24mm