''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'' is a 2013 book about the

Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust in Poland was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in German-occupied Poland. During the genocide, three million Polish Jews were murdered, half of all Jews murdered during the Holocaust. ...

Jan Grabowski Jan Grabowski (born 1962) is a Polish-Canadian professor of history at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Jewish–Polish relations in German-occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust in Poland. and was in turn followed by a 2016 Hebrew edition.Ofer Aderet, "'Orgy of Murder': The Poles Who 'Hunted' Jews and Turned Them Over to the Nazis"
''

Ha'aretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner ...

'', 11 February 2017. The book describes the ''

Judenjagd Judenjagd (German: “Hunt for Jews”) were German-conducted searches, beginning in 1942, for Jews who were in hiding in German-occupied Poland. The term was introduced by Christopher R. Browning. Targeted in the searches were Jews concealed a ...

'' (German: "Jew hunt") from 1942 onwards, focusing on Dąbrowa Tarnowska County, a rural area in southeastern Poland. The ''Judenjagd'' was the German search for Jews who had escaped from the German-liquidated ghettos in Poland and tried to hide among the non-Jewish population. Grabowski asserts that most of the Jews in hiding perished due to betrayal by local Poles, either via denunciation to German authorities or after being taken captive and being delivered by locals to the German gendarmerie or German-run "Polish police". The book sparked a heated public debate, particularly when first published in Poland in 2011.

The book describes the ''

'' (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

for "Jew hunt") that began in 1942 and focuses on Dąbrowa, a former rural county in southeastern Poland (till 1939; later part of a German-administered ''Kreishauptmannschaft Tarnów'').Holocaust writer Grabowski faces Polish fury
''Jewish Chronicle'', 18 Oct. 2013. Grabowski describes an entire system set up by the Germans to extirpate Jews: According to Grabowski, Poles were responsible, directly or indirectly, for the deaths of more than 200,000 Jews during the Holocaust. He held this estimate to be very conservative, as he did not include victims of the Polish Blue Police. "The great majority of Jews in hiding perished as a consequence of betrayal. They were denounced or simply seized, tied up and delivered by locals to the nearest station of the Polish police, or to the German gendarmerie." In a later, 17 March 2018, interview in the Polish daily newspaper ''

Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of "real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the g ...

'' – in connection with the 2018 publication of '' Dalej jest noc'', a two-volume study co-edited with

Barbara Engelking Barbara Engelking (born 22 April 1962) is a Polish sociologist specializing in Holocaust studies. The founder and director of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research in Warsaw, she is the author or editor of several works on the Holocaust in P ...

and now covering ten counties (''Hunt for the Jews'' had covered one county) – Grabowski said that, while he did believe 200,000 Jews died while in hiding, he was unable to determine the exact percentage of that number who perished, directly or indirectly, due to acts by Poles; and that his claim that Poles were responsible for the deaths of over 200,000 Jews was a "research hypothesis", though he continued to believe that Poles were responsible for the majority of that number. Nevertheless, in the same interview Grabowski said that the limited number (ten) of Polish counties covered in the research newly published in 2018 might lead other scholars to conclude that the research cannot be used to draw general conclusions. The 2013 English edition was based on the 2011 Polish edition, but improved and augmented with additional evidence, cases, and discoveries.

Reception

Awards and public debate

In 2014 ''Hunt for the Jews'' was awarded the

Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research The Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research is an annual award by Yad Vashem in recognition of high scholarly research and writing on the Holocaust or its antecedents and aftermath published two years preceding the year of the aw ...

."''Hunt for the Jews'' snags Yad Vashem book prize"
''Times of Israel'' (JTA), 8 December 2014. The book sparked a heated public debate, particularly when first published in Poland in 2011, especially for its assertion that Poles were either directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of 200,000 Jews during the Holocaust. Grabowski had received death threats.Tzur, Nissan (18 October 2013)
"Holocaust writer Grabowski faces Polish fury"
''Jewish Chronicle''."Canadian historian joins uproar in Israel over Polish Holocaust law"
CBC, 20 Feb. 2018.

English-language reviews

Glenn R. Sharfman, a professor at

Oglethorpe University Oglethorpe University is a private college in Brookhaven, Georgia. It was chartered in 1835 and named in honor of General James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia. History Oglethorpe University was chartered in 1834 in Mid ...

in Atlanta, wrote that Grabowski's book complemented recent works by

Jan T. Gross Jan Tomasz Gross (born 1947) is a Polish-American sociologist and historian. He is the Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 Professor of War and Society, emeritus, and Professor of History, emeritus, at Princeton University. Gross is the author o ...

about murders of Jews away from the primary killing centers, providing evidence of the important role of Poles in aiding the Nazis. Sharfman wrote that any student of the Holocaust will find the testimonies and excerpts in the text useful, but readers with little background might require more context. He noted that Grabowski jumps from testimony to testimony without analysis. According to Sharfman, while most Poles were victims of Nazi aggression and have wanted to see themselves as purely its victims, Grabowski shows how some Poles played an official or unofficial role in the murder of tens of thousands, if not more, of Jews. Przemysław Różański, a professor of history at the

University of Gdańsk The University of Gdańsk ( pl, Uniwersytet Gdański) is a public research university located in Gdańsk, Poland. It is one of the top 10 universities in Poland and is also an important centre for the studies of the Kashubian language. History ...

, reviewed the 2011 edition of the book and had a number of reservations, including Grabowski's presentation of forced participation of peasants as "cooperation", and his disregard, in relation to paid rescue of Jews, of the harsh economic conditions faced by Poles. He notes that drastically poor and often starving villagers couldn't be expected to risk death sentence to provide refugee for the Jews, and that high number of people lending such help questions Grabowski's claims of collaboration of the villagers. While agreeing on the nature of prewar antisemitism in Poland, he disagreed with Grabowski's suggestion of a causal relation between that and the events described in the book, instead explaining it as a result of Nazi propaganda. Różański concludes that, despite his reservations, the book is a "valuable and useful work" which " llustrates thechanges in local pathology taking place under German occupation in... the Generalgouvernement".

Timothy Snyder Timothy David Snyder (born August 18, 1969) is an American historian specializing in the modern history of Central and Eastern Europe. He is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute f ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

called ''Judenjagd'' "the most important in the recent Polish debates about Polish responsibility for the Holocaust", and wrote that Grabowski and Barbara Engelking had recorded the "undeniable fact that most of he Polish Jews who had escaped from the ghettos and campswere murdered as well, perhaps half of them by Poles (following German policy and law) rather than by Germans." Historian Shimon Redlich, writing about the book in ''

Slavic Review The ''Slavic Review'' is a major peer-reviewed academic journal publishing scholarly studies, book and film reviews, and review essays in all disciplines concerned with Russia, Central Eurasia, and Eastern and Central Europe. The journal's title ...

'', criticized the book's structure, in particular the lengthy quotations and appendix, the careless "claim of 'hundreds of thousands' of Jews seeking shelter among the Polish populace", which according to Redlich cannot be extrapolated to the whole country based on one single area, as well as language that at times betrayed emotional involvement. However, Redlich said the book "should become required reading for scholars and students of Polish-Jewish relations".Redlich, Shimon, "''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'', by Grabowski, Jan. Bloomington:

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

, 2013", ''

'', 73.3 (2014), pp. 652-53. Sociologist Larry Ray's review of Grabowski's book called it "a highly systematic and scholarly study of atrocities and collaboration", and "an essential contribution to knowledge of the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish relations". Following the book's publication in Israel in 2016, Grzegorz Berendt, professor of history at the

and historian for the Polish government's

Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...

, wrote in ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

'', in February 2017, that, in contrast to several other European countries, Poland's elite groups, in the underground or in exile, opposed Germany's policies toward the Jews, and expressed and acted on this opposition repeatedly. Anyone holding an official position inside occupied Poland, including the police, was obliged to follow German orders or face harsh punishment, which might be a beating or public execution. Conversely, prizes, including property plundered from Jews, were awarded for compliance. German-induced poverty in Poland—rationing of 400–700 calories per person, leading to black-market food at exorbitant prices—meant that "thousands of people discarded moral constraints and decided to assist the Germans in rounding up Jews for economic reasons". Berendt referred to Grabowski's statement in ''Hunt for the Jews'' that "the number of victims n Polandof the ''Judenjagd'' could reach 200,000" as "hot air", in that it substantially exceeds, he wrote, the approximately 50,000 Jews thought to have escaped from the ghettos in occupied Poland. The following month, Grabowski responded in ''Hararetz'' that, until recently, Poles who were made

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

often asked

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

to allow them to remain anonymous, so fearful were they of their fellow Poles' reaction. He argued that, although the

Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...

(which was based in London from 1940 until 1990) had indeed spoken out on behalf of the Jews during the Holocaust, they were not supported in this by the Polish resistance or the general population in Poland. Key members of the Polish resistance had referred to the "Jewish problem" or "Jewish question": Grabowski quoted one prominent member of the underground: "The mass murder of Jews in Poland carried out by the Germans will diminish the Jewish problem but it will not remove it altogether." As for the estimate that up to 200,000 Jews were killed by Poles, Grabowski defended the figure, claiming that it derives from careful research conducted by the Polish historian Szymon Datner. Datner, however, wrote that 200,000 was the total number of Jews who had escaped from the ghettos, of whom about half subsequently died from various causes. Grabowski later admitted in a subsequent interview that Szymon Datner had not made the claim he attributed to him. Reviewing the book in April 2016, Michael Fleming, a British historian specializing in Polish history, wrote in support of Grabowski, describing the criticism as attempts to "reinstitute the old, discredited heroic narrative of unimpeachable Polish conduct". Arguing that these tales of heroism are common in Europe, he wrote that Grabowski's book is part of a "growing body of corrective scholarship" that discusses the indifference or complicity of European populations. He continued that Grabowski highlights the courage of the rescuers in Dąbrowa County, while demonstrating that "those who were complicit in genocide were more successful than those who sought to shelter their Jewish co-citizens." But this observation also applies to populations beyond Poland's borders. Fleming warned readers and reviewers not to "reinforce orientalist narratives about 'Eastern' Europe" or the idea that only populations close to the genocide could stop it, which he calls "fetishiz ngspatial proximity". Historian

Jack Fischel Jack R. Fischel is an American academic. Fischel was a professor of history at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, where he lectured for 37 years. Education Fischel graduated from Hunter College (now of the City University of New York) with a ...

in a

Jewish Book Council The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.Samuel Kassow Samuel D. Kassow (born 1946) is an American historian of the history of Ashkenazi Jewry. Early life Kassow was born in a displaced persons' camp in Stuttgart, Germany. His mother survived because a classmate hid her and her sister in a dug-ou ...

, in a review essay in ''Yad Vashem Studies'', wrote, of Grabowski's book and those of three other scholars ( Alina Skibinska,

, and

Dariusz Libionka Dariusz Marian Libionka (born on 25 June 1963 in Bielsko-Biała) is a Polish historian affiliated with the Institute of National Remembrance in Lublin. Libionka graduated from the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) and the School for Social Scie ...

), that they "are a historical achievement of the first order." He described them as undermining "the self-serving myths about Polish-Jewish relations in World War II", and as being works of careful and objective scholarship. Rosa Lehmann, writing in ''

The American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...

'', found Grabowski's work to be outstanding and firmly grounded in solid research. According to Lehmann, the book illuminates the struggle of survival and circumstances of death of the some 10 percent of the 2.5 million Polish-Jews who attempted to seek refuge on the "Aryan" side among hostile peasant gentiles. According to Lehmann, Grabowski shows how this created a dichotomy between Jewish and gentile perceptions of the Holocaust, Jews holding Polish peasants responsible for Jewish suffering and death, while Polish accounts trivialize the Polish involvement and paradoxically stress the "helping phenomenon" in wartime Poland. Lehmann writes that the evidence in the book shows that the category of "bystander" should be reevaluated, as the attitudes of the local population had fundamental and existential importance for escaping Jews. Lehmann finds interesting Grabowski's conclusion that the murder of some 700 Jews in incidents and

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

s in post-war Poland are an inherent continuation of the wartime practice of ''Judenjagd''. Lehmann concludes by recommending the book for those interested in Polish-Jewish relations and Holocaust studies.JAN GRABOWSKI. ''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'' (review)
Rosa Lehmann, ''

'', vol. 121, issue 4 (1 October 2016), pp. 1382–83. Historian Joshua D. Zimmerman's review in ''

The Journal of Modern History ''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from appro ...

'' found Grabowski's work to be a "weighty, superbly researched study" that punctuated the myth of Polish innocence during the Holocaust. According to Zimmerman, Grabowski's study was not about defaming or glorifying Poland, but rather about the evidence.''Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland'', by Jan Grabowski (review)
Joshua D. Zimmerman, ''

'', vol. 88, no. 1, March 2016. Historian John-Paul Himka's review in the ''East European Jewish Affairs'' journal, found "Grabowski's exploration of how the moral climate in rural Poland became fatally skewed during the Nazi occupation" to be innovative and enlightening. Himka noted that the young Polish men of the '' Baudienst yunaki'' took part in Jew hunts with particular relish, Grabowski recording the atrocities in chilling detail. Himka concluded: "This is a well-written, well-researched, highly illuminating study that takes us deep into the mechanisms of the Holocaust in rural Poland. In short: a brilliant book, and a harrowing read."Himka, John-Paul. "Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland.", East European Jewish Affairs, (2014): 271-273.
/ref> Historian

William W. Hagen William W. Hagen (born 1942) is a historian and professor of history at the University of California-Davis. Hagen's focus is on modern European history, primarily in relation to Germany and Eastern Europe. He obtained his B.A. from Harvard Unive ...

's review notes that Grabowski was harshly attacked by the Polish right-wing media. According to Hagen as with the "pre-Holocaust explanations for the incontrovertible existence of aggressive, violent, and criminal antisemites in Poland", historians who promote a view of "fundamental national innocence" portray Polish collaborators as "scum", unconnected to mainstream society. Grabowski's study which portrays normative Poles viewing the harboring of Jews as a crime or sin challenged Polish self-understanding. Hagen notes that Grabowski "pushes beyond historiographical frontiers" and that his book is a "radical revision" on views regarding hiding Jewish fugitives. Hagen concludes by noting that the book is a landmark work, filled with somber and honest reckoning. Tomasz Frydel reviewed and reassessed the perpetrator role of ordinary Poles, discussed in ''Hunt for the Jews''. Frydel described the whole Nazi German terror system that was directed not only against Jews but also against Soviet

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

, the

Polish underground The Polish Underground State ( pl, Polskie Państwo Podziemne, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Gover ...

, even any newcomers. German police in Poland used sting operations to find and kill rescuers of the Germans' quarries.

Polish-language reviews

Dariusz Stola Dariusz Stola (born 11 December 1963 in Warsaw, Poland) is a professor of history at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...

system set up by the Germans in the countryside, relying on personal and communal solidarity to galvanize communities against Jewish refugees: "this diabolical mechanism explains to some degree ... the hostility, observed in many rural communities, to those who harbored Jews: they could bring disaster not only on themselves, but also on others." Stola states that "the ąbrowa Tarnowskacounty was not distinct from any similar rural county before or during the war... and yet rabowski'sfindings have a more general significance - statistically as well." Reviewing some of the data Grabowski used, he writes that "these numbers show how important this book is s a source onthe occupation period in Polish history. It's not a huge part f Poland's Jewry- it concerns, as the author speculates, around 10% of Poland's Jews; its disproportionate significance is n showing thatthe survival of these Jews depended first and foremost on the reactions they got from their environment... without thers'help their chances of survival were slim." Stola has two reservations regarding the book: first, that Grabowski accepts an older estimate by Szymon Datner for the number of Jews in hiding, which he states is more a "

guesstimate ''Guesstimate'' is an informal English portmanteau of ''guess'' and ''estimate'', first used by American statisticians in 1934 or 1935.estimate Estimation (or estimating) is the process of finding an estimate or approximation, which is a value that is usable for some purpose even if input data may be incomplete, uncertain, or unstable. The value is nonetheless usable because it is der ...

". Second, that there is a general lack of knowledge about Jews in hiding who did not survive, whose deaths are not documented in government records. Stola notes that "''Judenjagd'' speaks not only about the killing but also about the sheltering of Jews (sometimes by the same persons), about various kinds of aid given o Jews about... disinterested rescuers who risked their own lives to save people who were hunted like animals." Finally, Stola writes that Grabowski's narrative is "muted" and unemotional, but that the book as a whole is shocking; he recommends reading the book, "but not before bedtime."

Bogdan Musial Bogdan or Bohdan (Cyrillic: Богдан) is a Slavic masculine name that appears in all Slavic countries as well as Romania and Moldova. It is derived from the Slavic words '' Bog/Boh'' (Cyrillic: Бог), meaning "god", and ''dan'' (Cyrillic: ...

criticized the 2011 edition as improperly sourced, lacking in witness statements, archival documents, and German statements; and as improperly generalizing the antisemitic attitudes of the perpetrators to the local populace. He also wrote that Grabowski ignored the economic hardships and deportations suffered by Poles, which he believes affected their attitudes toward Jews. Musial wrote that, while the book elaborated on some Poles' prewar antisemitism, it devoted only three sentences to the Germans' antisemitic campaign. He further wrote that the book underestimated the number of Jewish survivors, while inflating the number of Poles complicit in German crimes. Musial noted that Grabowksi did not question statements from Jewish witnesses, but did take issue with those made by Poles. Grabowski rejected Musial's critique, writing that it was an attempt to disparage serious historical research on the basis of its subject matter and conclusions and that it failed to address the quality of the research methodology. Krystyna Samsonowska of the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

wrote in her review that the book provides "a serious basis for more detailed research", and that its descriptions of the "Judenjagd" phenomena are "extensive, interesting and quite insightful." However, she criticized Grabowski for not using all available resources – for example, not trying to contact families of Jewish survivors from

Dąbrowa Tarnowska Dąbrowa Tarnowska ( yi, Dombrov) is a town in Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, about north of Tarnów. It is the capital of Dąbrowa County. Before reorganization (in 1999) Dąbrowa Tarnowska was part of Tarnów Voivodeship (1975–1998) ...

, or the Poles who hid them. Samsonowska, using other sources, was able identify 90 Jews who had survived the war in hiding in

Dąbrowa County __NOTOC__ Dąbrowa County ( pl, powiat dąbrowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 as a result of the Polish local government refo ...

, as opposed to the 51 cited by Grabowski. She also states that Grabowski understated by half the number of

from the county. Łukasz Męczykowski, in a ''histmag.org'' review of the 2011 book, wrote that, while some historians try to seek truth calmly and impartially, others prefer passing condemnatory judgments, and Grabowski had chosen the latter path: Grabowski largely focused on finding those supposedly guilty of collaboration, and was averse to acknowledging those who had shown commendable behavior. Męczykowski wrote that Grabowski incorrectly accused Poland's

(IPN) of trying to inflate the number of Polish citizens who helped Jews. Męczykowski wrote that Grabowski contradicted himself on certain points. Also that Grabowski, in calling upon Poles to admit their guilt, seemed unaware that there had long since been an ongoing debate in Poland, including educational programs prepared by Poland's IPN, about Polish participation in atrocities against Jews, which contradicts Grabowski's derogatory assertions about the institute.

Tomasz Szarota Tomasz Marceli Szarota (born 2 January 1940 in Warsaw) is a Polish historian and publicist. As a historian, his areas of expertise relate to history of World War II, and everyday life in occupied Poland, in particular, in occupied Warsaw and oth ...

, former director of the Department of Research into the History of Post-1945 Poland, at the Institute of History,

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

, contrasted Grabowski's narrow focus with that of German historian Daniel Brewing: “While these authors .e., Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelkingblame

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and greed for lucre for causing Poles to join in the hunt for Jews, Brewing attributes a causative role to the occupation authorities' efforts to use Polish peasants to fight all forms of resistance. In his opinion, several factors stood behind this ‘cooperation’ with the occupier: submission to repeated calls from the Nazi authorities, the use of coercion, rewards offered for denouncing hidden Jews, and fear of punishment for failing to follow the occupier's orders.”

German-language reviews

Yad Vashem historian Witold Mędykowski reviewed ''Judenjagd'' by Grabowski, ''It Was Such a Beautiful Sunny Day'' by

, and ''Golden Harvest'' by

. Mędykowski notes that Grabowski concentrates on a specific geographical area in attempting to trace the fates of Jews, which Mędykowski thinks is important as it permits statistical analysis of a demarcated set of persons. Mędykowski writes that a heated debate has taken place in Polish historiography about the rescuing of Jews, but that both sides have relied not on statistical analysis but on illustrative examples that are easily manipulated. Mędykowski writes that this debate has been ongoing for decades despite the limited validity of casting the Poles in a positive light. According to Mędykowski, being a victim of Nazi occupation does not exclude complicity in the deaths of Jews. Mędykowski writes that historian

, who according to Mędykowski is a native of Dąbrowa Tarnowska County, responded harshly to the book, which provides a different picture than that conveyed in his parents' home. Mędykowski writes that Holocaust survivors

Shevah Weiss Shevah Weiss ( he, שבח וייס; born 5 July 1935), is an Israeli political scientist and former politician. Biography Weiss was born in Borysław, Poland (since 1945 Boryslav, Ukraine) into a Polish Jewish family to Gienia and Meir Wolf Wei ...

and

Samuel Willenberg Samuel Willenberg, ''nom de guerre'' Igo (16 February 1923 – 19 February 2016), was a Polish Holocaust survivor, artist, and writer. He was a ''Sonderkommando'' at the Treblinka extermination camp and participated in the unit's planned revol ...

confirm the negative attitudes toward Jews, which are well known to historians involved in Holocaust research. Mędykowski concludes that a "shock therapy" to demolish myths about the rescuing of Jews is due. Jagiellonian University associate professor Piotr Weiser reviewed ''Hunt for the Jews'' by Grabowski, ''It Was Such a Beautiful Sunny Day'' by

, and ''Golden Harvest'' by

. Weiser writes that the Polish debate on the Holocaust seldom went beyond a simple dichotomy – the Jews, of course, suffered unspeakably, but the Poles no less. Weiser contrasts Grabowski and Engelking with Gross, saying the former employ a strictly scientific approaching writing monographs, not essays. Weiser describes Grabowski's approach as positivist, taking the seat of a neutral observer, and notes that Grabowski's ability to read German sources is rare among young Polish researchers, understanding what

Jean Améry Jean Améry (31 October 191217 October 1978), born Hanns Chaim Mayer, was an Austrian-born essayist whose work was often informed by his experiences during World War II. His most celebrated work, ''At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survi ...

called the logic of annihilation, describing how the Germans rewarded antisemitism. Weiser concludes by saying that all three texts are important contributions to a counter-narrative that rivals the heroization of Poles in the context of the Holocaust. Ingo Loose reviewed Grabowski's ''Hunt for the Jews'',

's ''It Was Such a Beautiful Sunny Day'', and

's ''Golden Harvest''. Loose wrote that all three works relate to the open wound of Polish-Jewish relations during the Holocaust, a very sensitive point in Polish historical memory. Loose wrote that Grabowski's study is excellently written and more coherently structured than Gross's work. According to Loose, Grabowski's ''

pars pro toto ''Pars pro toto'' (, ), , is a figure of speech where the name of a ''portion'' of an object, place, or concept is used or taken to represent its entirety. It is distinct from a merism, which is a reference to a whole by an enumeration of parts; ...

'' study illustrates a theme whose tragic significance was pointed out by

Emanuel Ringelblum Emanuel Ringelblum (November 21, 1900 – March 10 (most likely), 1944) was a Polish historian, politician and social worker, known for his ''Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto'', ''Notes on the Refugees in Zbąszyn'' chronicling the deportation of Je ...

and emphasizes the effectiveness of the Germans' use of menace and rewards to persuade Poles to give up hidden Jews. Loose wrote that this aspect had previously been dismissed or marginalized, but that Grabowski's study showed it to have involved tens of thousands of escaped Jews. Loose noted that Polish critics have accused Grabowski of underestimating the Germans' intimidation campaign; however, Loose writes that, while it is true that hiding Jews was punishable with death, this was too often used in political debate in lieu of drawing a more complex picture of German-Polish cooperation or neutrality regarding Jews. Loose concluded that "Jewish property" and "German-Polish cooperation" are two fields with ample room for future research into a more complex model of the German occupation in the

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

. Historian Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe, writing in ''

H-Soz-Kult H-Soz-u-Kult (''Humanities – Sozial und Kulturgeschichte'') is an online information and communication platform for historians which disseminates academic news and publications. The project is committed to the principles of open access and commu ...

'', reviewed three books: ''Judenjagd'' by Grabowski, ''It Was Such a Beautiful Sunny Day'' by

, and ''Golden Harvest'' by

. He wrote that all three studies are noteworthy explorations of the Polish participation in the Holocaust, challenging both the German tendency to neglect non-German perpetrators and the Polish perspective of viewing Poles solely as victims. According to Rossoliński-Liebe, Grabowski demonstrates that a broad spectrum of Polish society took part in ''Judenjagd'' (hunts for the Jews). But Rossoliński-Liebe wrote that he did not think these 2011 works would trigger a new Holocaust debate, as had occurred following Gross's '' Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland'', a decade prior.Jagd auf Juden 1942-1945. Forschungen über die Geschichte eines Kreises
Warschau 2011 / Engelking, Barbara: Jest taki piekny słoneczny dzień…. Losy Żydów szukających ratunku na wsi polskiej 1942-1945 s ist so ein schöner sonniger Tag… Schicksale von Juden, die in polnischen Dörfern zwischen 1942 und 1945 Rettung suchten Warschau: 2011 / Gross, Jan Tomasz; Grudzińska-Gross, Irena (Hrsg.): Złote żniwa. Rzecz o tym, co się działo na obrzeżach zagłady Żydów oldene Ernte. Bericht darüber, was am Rande der Judenvernichtung geschah Krakau: 2011, in: H-Soz-Kult, 18.04.2012 (English Translation)], The American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, Translated by Bill Templer

References

{{reflist 2011 non-fiction books History books about the Holocaust Books about Jewish Polish history The Holocaust in Poland Polish collaborators with Nazi Germany

Contents

Reception

Awards and public debate

English-language reviews

Polish-language reviews

German-language reviews

See also

References