Abstract
Abstract Singling out Polish-Jewish relations as the major problem has come quite late in the millennium or so of Polish history. The present essay approaches Polish history from a different angle, considering its very nature as well as some important yet inconvenient facts that have been forgotten or displaced. What actually constitutes Polish history is presented as problematic. The historic divide between the nobility (Sarmatians) and the numerous peasantry (Roman Catholic Slavophones, the ancestors of most of today’s Poles) is shown to be a central problem that needed to be papered over, were a modern Polish nation to embrace the entirety of Polish speakers. In the nineteenth century, the two groups’ shared Roman Catholic faith was perceived as a bridge to unity. The subsequent weaponization of anti-Semitism by integral nationalists and Roman Dmowski’s creation of the category of “half-Poles” to label those who opposed him have repercussions to this day.
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