Polish Influences on British Policy Regarding Jewish Rescue Efforts in Poland 1939–1945

Abstract

This chapter explores to what extent Polish policies and attitudes helped shape British policy on the Jewish question during the Second World War. It particularly focuses on Britain's policy regarding the question of Jewish rescue in Poland. At the root of all discussion of the Jewish problem between the British and Polish governments before and during the Second World War was the emphatically and repeatedly voiced Polish desire to secure mass emigration of Jews from Poland on a scale sufficient to reduce the Jewish proportion of the general population and to diminish alleged Jewish preponderance in certain branches of the Polish economy, culture, and society. Such attitudes, commonplace in Poland in the period, reflected the widespread tendency to regard Jews as outsiders and aliens rather than as members of the Polish nation and society. The trend was noted by British observers and officials, some of whom indeed sympathized with the Polish desire to rid Poland of what was seen as its ‘excessive’ Jewish population. And of course this notion of ‘excess’ was certainly not limited to antisemites; some Jews themselves, particularly Polish Zionists, shared it. Ultimately, the Polish desire to stimulate large-scale Jewish emigration from the country was a significant element in Anglo-Polish relations in the pre-war years.