Jewish Life in Cracow, 1918-1939, and: After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II, and: Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947, and: The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland, and: Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland (review)

The four authors reviewed here all look back at Poland's Jewish history, focusing on developments before, during, and after the Nazi Judeocide. This period was marked by endless discourse on Poland's "Jewish question" or, as it was called later, the "Jewish theme" (tematyka żydowska). This theme was present in Polish history through all the ruptures—with all their brutal consequences for the Polish people—and through the sequence of extremist political regimes that shaped (East Central) European history in the first half of the twentieth century. The legacies of these political forces continue to influence postwar discussions of the national politics of commemoration.

In his study of Jewish life in Cracow during the interwar years, Sean Martin examines efforts to maintain Jewish cultural identity in a rapidly acculturating environment. These efforts gave rise to cultural and educational institutions, including daily and weekly newspapers in Polish and Yiddish, as well as to a number of registered societies. According to Martin, "the Jews of Cracow began to develop unique subcultures during the interwar period, distinguishable from traditional Jewish culture as well as from Polish culture" (p. 23).

The Cracow Jewish community, which was among the five largest in the Second Polish Republic, numbered about sixty thousand people, or one-quarter of the city's total population. The high degree of acculturation that characterized not only the cultural elite but also large segments of other well-to-do social groups distinguished it from Jewish communities elsewhere in Poland. Cracow thus exemplified a transitional stage of development, merging characteristics of the two basic types of European Jewish communities: the Western and Central European integrationist type, and the traditional East European model, in which the Jewish population led an existence that was in many respects separate from that of the majority population.

The question of what should be considered authentically Jewish in the context of Cracow's Jewish cultural life was never fully resolved. Diverse and partially contradictory initiatives ranged between two extremes: that of the assimilationist Polish-Jewish patriots, on the one hand, and that of the rather withdrawn, Yiddishist, and religiously Orthodox Jews on the other. "Out of necessity," Martin declares, "many leaders of Cracow Jewry accepted a broad definition of Jewish identity inclusive of many ideologically diverse Jewish groups" (p. 3). A modern Zionist elite set the tone, championing acculturation and advocating mutual understanding between the minority and majority populations. The Zionists' main vehicle was Nowy Dziennik, a newspaper founded in mid-1918 following an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence. It was the first significant daily produced by Jews for both Jews and Gentiles.¹ Martin focuses also on the achievements of the private Hebrew-language gymnasia. The examination of these two areas is supplemented by a treatment of the Yiddish press and a comparison with public schools. Martin's final chapter is dedicated to the activities of Jewish cultural societies.

The author has analyzed archival materials and the relevant press extensively. His monograph partially fills a gap in the current research.² However, Martin examines Jewish life strictly from the narrow...