Jewish Life in Cracow, 1918-1939, Sean Martin (London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2004), xviii + 276 pp., cloth $69.95, pbk. $29.95. After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II, Jan Chodakiewicz Marek (Boulder: Social Science Monographs [distributed by Columbia University Press], 2003), 265 pp., cloth $40.50. Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947, Jan Chodakiewicz Marek

Abstract

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...