Anti-Semitism In Poland After Auschwitz: Book Review

A Gross Realization: The Presence of Anti-Semitism After Auschwitz Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, Poland was liberated by the communist Soviet Union. However, the communist regime significantly impacted the postwar legacy of Poland and the treatment of the surviving Jewish population. By the conclusion of the Second Word War and collapse of Nazism, an estimated five million victims from Polish descent were killed (168). However, violence against the Jews did not conclude with the Second World War but led to persecution and pogroms. In Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz (2006), Jan T. Ross confronted Poland’s postwar anti-semitism and violence against the Jews after the Holocaust of the European Jewry. He argues that Polish anti-semitism was an
Published in 2006 by Princeton University Press, the same university where Gross teaches as a history professor, and Random House, Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz was engulfed by controversy. The historian’s scholarly work did not censor nor glorify the brutality endured by the Jews at the hands of the Poles. Instead, Gross incorporated various testimonies, primary documents and secondary scholars to exemplify the present of anti-semitism in Poland after the collapse of Nazi Germany. Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz gained critical acclaimed from North American scholars while it received mixed reviews from the Polish nation. The historian even noted the outrage and sense of betrayal expressed in Poland once the Kielce pogrom became international news (185). By incorporating primary documents and secondary materials of the Kielce pogrom with Poland’s postwar history, Gross confronted the continuous ill-treatment of Jews and factually proved its