Anti-Semitism in Poland: survey results and a qualitative study of Catholic communities

Abstract

After first outlining the notion of anti-Semitism, the predominant survey method used for researching it, and the history of the presence and the current (near) absence of Jews in Poland, this article gives the results of different surveys of various kinds of anti-Semitism in this country, including the authors' own, and discusses the findings of their qualitative study – focus group interviews with members of three different Catholic communities from three different cities. The qualitative study confirmed the hypothesis that imagined and stereotypical rather than real Jews are the objects of modern anti-Semitism in Poland, while real historical and stereotypically perceived Jews are the objects of its religious and post-Holocaust variants. The roots of religious anti-Semitism lie in the not entirely absorbed teachings of the Catholic Church on the Jewish deicide charge. Religious anti-Semitism supports modern and post-Holocaust kinds of anti-Semitism. Modern anti-Semitism is rooted in poor education, lack of interest in the Jewish history of Poland, lack of inter-group contact, and persisting stereotypes of Jews. Among the various Catholic communities of Poles, there are considerable differences in attitudes to Jews. The qualitative study also revealed a methodological deficiency in the standard survey questions intended to measure anti-Semitism, which are sometimes understood as questions about facts rather than about opinions.

Keywords:

• anti-Semitism
• Jews
• Poland
• Catholic Church
• surveys
• group interviews

Acknowledgements

The findings concerning Auschwitz are discussed by Kucia (2013) and Kucia, Duch-Dyngosz, and Magierowski (2013). The general results of the project were first reported in Polish by Kucia (2011) and Kucia, Duch-Dyngosz, and Magierowski (2011). The authors thank Antoni Sułek and two anonymous reviewers from Nationalities Papers for helpful suggestions and critical comments on earlier drafts of this article and Ben Koschalka for translating their 2011 report from Polish into English and proofreading this article.

This article and the own research that it discusses were financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education from the resources for science in 2009–2014 as the research project “Auschwitz in the social consciousness of Poles, 2010 A.D.” [grant number NN116445837], as well as the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków from its funds for statutory activity, project no. K/ZDS/003562.

Notes

1 According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “the word antisemitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews” (USHMM 2012). For the Anti-Defamation League, it is “the belief or behavior hostile toward Jews” (ADL 2001). The US Department of State (2005) considers anti-Semitism to be “hatred toward Jews”. The Department's report provided to the US Congress (US Department of State 2008) adapts the most elaborate “Working definition of Antisemitism” developed in 2005 by the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia that since 2007 has been used by its successor, the European Union Agency of Fundamental Rights, as well as other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The definition contends: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities” (EUMC 2005). This definition is followed by various examples of anti-Semitism.

2 Stankowski and Weiser (2011, 15, 31, 38) quote the following estimates of the demographic results of the Holocaust of the Polish Jews: at least 2.7 million perished, at least 300,000 were saved in the USSR, 80,000–120,000 survived in occupied Poland, including 30,000–60,000 in hiding among Poles, 20,000–40,000 in camps, and 10,000–15,000 in forests or with partisans. Friszke (2003, 42) gives the following estimates: 3 million Polish Jews perished (including 1.8 million in death camps, 500,000 in ghettos and labor camps, and 200,000 in executions), 400,000 were saved in the USSR, and 100,000 survived in occupied Poland. He does not account for the loss of 500,000 Jews. Żbikowski (2011) gives a conservative estimate of the Jewish survivors among the Poles and in the forests – no more than 50,000 – and believes that about 150,000–250,000 Jews must have been murdered or denounced by the Poles. On the fate of the Jews among the Poles, see Engelking and Grabowski (2011) and Sitarek, Trębacz, and Wiatr (2012).

3 Poland boasts the highest number of “Righteous Among the Nations” – the non-Jews recognized by the State of Israel for risking their lives to save the Jews during the Holocaust: 6394 of 24,811 (Yad Vashem 2013). On the other hand, the number of Poles charged and sentenced by the Polish courts for crimes against the Jews was approximately 6000–7000 (cf. Engelking and Grabowski 2011, 12). Both figures, especially the latter, underestimate the actual numbers of rescuers and perpetrators or accomplices, given the numbers of and proportion between the Jews who survived and those who lost their lives due to the Poles.

4 Nazi Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. The Soviet Union followed suit on 17 September. The two aggressors partitioned the defeated country. After the Third Reich had invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the entire pre-war Poland came under German occupation. In 1944 the Soviet troops that were progressing westwards freed Poland from the Germans, but brought oppression to the country and helped establish the communist rule.

5 Materski and Szarota (2009, 30) provide the following breakdown of the 2.77 million (non-Jewish) Polish losses at the hands of the Germans: deaths in prisons and camps – 1.146 million; direct war losses – 553,000; murdered – 506,000; deaths outside of prisons and camps – 473,000; murdered in eastern regions – 100,000; deaths in other countries – 2000.

6 In the census in 2011, people who declared themselves as Polish ethnicity constituted 96.07% of the country's population (only Polish 93.88%, Polish and other 2.19%), other than Polish 3.65%, undetermined 1.07% (GUS 2012, 105).

7 In a survey in 2002, the question “How many Jews live in Poland?” received the following answers (in %): several million – 2.5, several hundred of thousand – 9.0, several tens of thousand – 16.9, several thousand – 24.2, one-two thousand – 6.1, not interested – 26.3, don't know – 15.0 (Krzemiński 2004b, 96). The answers to the question “Do many or few Jews live in Poland?” were the following (in %): very many and many – 27.5, few – 44.9, very few – 6.2, not interested – 13.8, don't know – 7.5 (Krzemiński 2004b, 96).

8 The results quoted in this article come from the surveys conducted through personal face-to-face or telephone interviews with random samples of 1000 or more respondents representative of Poland's or other countries' populations over the age of 15 or 18 years. The maximal statistical measurement error in this kind of surveys is ±3% for the estimate of 95%.

9 In our survey, the items about Jews and anti-Semitism followed the ones about the memory and meaning of Auschwitz (see Kucia 2013).

10 In our 2010 survey, out of 97% of the respondents over 15 years of age who declared themselves as believers (though not necessarily Catholic), 51% declared they practice regularly, 34% irregularly, and 12% do not practice. According to the Church's statistics, 41% of those obliged (i.e. all baptized into the Roman Catholic Church less children below seven years of age, the ill, and the elderly with limited mobility) attended the Holy Mass and 16.4% received to the Holy Communion on the Sunday the count was done in 2010 (ISKK 2010). Thus those attending the Holy Mass constituted 34% of all baptized and 29% of the entire population of the country while those receiving the Holy Communion counted 13.5% of the baptized and 12% of all Poles.

11 E.g. for the statement “Jews have too much influence in the world,” that was shared by 45.2% of the entire sample, the percentages of those agreeing with it in various categories were: regularly practising believers 47.3, irregularly practising believers 44.7, non-practising believers 38.5, and non-believers 40.7. Pearson's chi-square = 24.100, p = .02.

12 The biggest disparity between regions (62.3 percentage points) concerned agreement with the statement “The Jews in our country have too much influence on the press, radio and television,” the smallest (35.0 percentage points) concerned the opinion “The Jews in our country have too much influence on political life.” The average disparity was 48.5 percentage points.

13 In the 1990s and early 2000s in particular, the Polish episcopate launched several initiatives that served Catholic–Jewish and Polish–Jewish dialogue and reconciliation. In 1990 the bishops issued a pastoral letter on Catholic–Jewish relations for the 25th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate declaration. In the letter they condemned anti-Semitism. The letter was read in all churches in Poland. In 1991 the episcopate authorized the establishment of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews – the official forum of Catholic–Jewish dialogue and cooperation. In 1994 the bishops authorized the establishment of the Institute for Catholic–Jewish Dialogue at the then Warsaw Theological Academy. In 1997 the episcopate ordered the annual celebration of the Day of Judaism in the Catholic Church in Poland to commemorate the Jewish roots of Christianity. In 2000 the Polish bishops issued the mea culpa pronouncement for anti-Jewish prejudices and anti-Jewish actions on the part of the members of the Roman Catholic Community in the country. In 2001 the episcopate held the penitentiary Holy Mass in the Church of All Saints Warsaw to apologize for the crimes committed by the Poles on the Jews in Jedwabne and elsewhere.

14 As in our survey, the first part of our qualitative study also concerned the memory and meaning of Auschwitz.

15 In the 2010 survey, those who declared themselves as believing and regularly practising counted 96.4% in the Rzeszów region (the country's high), 71.8% in the Kraków region (the second most in the country), and 56.7% in the Lublin region, while the overall country's result was 51.1%. According to the Church's statistics, the percentage of the obliged Catholics who attended the Holy Mass on the Sunday in 2010 when the count was done was 66.8% in the Rzeszów diocese (the second highest in the country), 52.3% in the Kraków diocese (the fourth highest), and 38.3% in the Lublin diocese, while the result for all Poland was 41.0%. The respective regions include the respective dioceses but are larger units.

16 We were helped in the recruitment of the Lublin group and the organization of the interview by Rev. Dr Stanisław Fel, associate professor at the Catholic University of Lublin and director of the Institute of Sociology there, for which we offer him our special thanks.

17 Józef and Wiktora Ulma were a Catholic Polish couple who concealed Jews in their house in the village of Markowa near Rzeszów and helped conceal others. In 1944, after denunciation, the Germans shot the Jews dead. They did likewise to the Ulmas as a punishment for concealing the Jews. The Germans also shot dead the Ulmas' children and several other villagers.

18 In Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, the picture of ritual murder was removed in the 1960s, on demand of then Archbishop Karol Wojtyła – Pope John Paul II. In Sandomierz, the picture has not been removed, despite severe criticism from various circles, including some Church ones.

19 In 1940, near the Russian village of Katyń and elsewhere, the “NKVD” Soviet secret police shot dead about 22,000 Polish nationals, mostly army and police officers whom the Soviet Union took prisoners during the 1939 invasion of Poland.

20 The noun “żydownik” derives from the verb “żydzić”, which may be translated in this context as “to spread Jewish ideas or influence”. Cf. the verb “zażydzić” discussed further in the context of the Rzeszów interview. “Tygodnik Powszechny” was self-mocking about this anti-Semitic label, issuing a special edition titled “Żydownik Powszechny” (2010) in Polish and English, which included important articles on Polish–Jewish relations that they have published.

21 Post-Holocaust anti-Semitism is contained in the statement “It's good that as a result of the Holocaust in Poland there are almost no Jews.” This statement is so horrifying that in constructing the question for the survey, which we later used in the group interviews, we were even scared to quote it without a certain mitigation, which thus explains the methodological error contained in the question as shown by the quantitative study.

22 On the morning of 31 May 2010, the Israeli navy halted on international waters a convoy of six ships under various flags sailing with humanitarian aid to Gaza, under an Israeli blockade. As a result of the skirmishes between the Israeli commandos and the passengers of one of the ships, pro-Palestinian activists from various countries, several activists were killed, and people were wounded on both sides.

23 Sułek designed three questions – two open-ended and one close-ended – that were asked one after another to samples representative of Poland's population of more than 15 years in surveys by TNS OBOP in 2002 (N = 1009) and 2010 (N = 1001): (1) What groups have too much influence on the affairs of our country?; (2) Does any of the national minorities living in Poland have too much influence on the affairs of our country?; and (3) How much influence on the affairs of our country do Jews who live in Poland have: too much, right amount, too little? Apart from using three questions, including two open-ended, Sułek's approach did not impose on respondents the sole opinion of “too much influence”, but asked instead about “too much or too little influence” in all three questions, and the “right amount” in the close-ended question. The results were the following: Q1 Jews (spontaneous) 2002 – 1%, 2010 – 2%; Q2 Jews (spontaneous) 2002 – 19%, 2010 – 6%; Q3 too much 2002 – 43%, 2010 – 22% (Sułek 2012a). This method (the last question) showed a lower level of anti-Semitic opinions in Poland in 2010 than our survey that used Krzemiński's questions.