The Pogrom As an Act of Social Control Springfield 1908 - Poland 1945-46

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Joanna Tokarska-BakirPolish Academy of Sciences

The Pogrom As an Act of Social ControlSpringfield 1908 - Poland 1945-46

Springfield, Illinois, 1908

The summer of 1908 saw a wave of riots sweep throughSpringfield, Illinois - the hometown of Abraham Lincoln.The riots were sparked by accusations made against twoAfrican-Americans, who had allegedly raped white women.When a crowd shouting:

"Curse the day Lincoln freed the slaves!","Lincoln freed you, we'll show you where you belong"(de la Roche 1990, II),"Abe Lincoln brought them to Springfield and we willrun them out!" (ibid.29),

began to gather next to the jail where the African-Americans were being detained, the local sheriff, who hadalready experienced such situations in Ohio, managed tobring the arestees to a different city. Then, the rage ofthe crowd turned against the black districts ofSpringfield. Unexpectedly, the first objects of this ragewere Jewish shops and workshps including Reuben Fishman'spawnshop, which was looted as its owner was said to be a"nigger lover" (ibid. 33). Called for help, the statemilitia unit, not numerous enough to put an end to theriots, remained withdrawn presenting an attitude somewitnesses described as "criminal indifference" [...thatthey were criminally indifferent"]. The followingtestimony bears evidence of the millitiamen's behavior:

"As we stood there in that milling crowd, there was apoliceman immediately in front of us. (...) He wascomplacent. Immediately in front of the policeman wasa boy, I would say of eighteen years, who had dug abrick out of the pavement and was attempting to throwit into the plate glass. The denseness of the crowdprevented the swing of his arm. His arm moved

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backward into the stomach of the policeman. Thepoliceman pushed backward to give the boy room forthe swing of his arm... The policeman was quiteamicable. And the boy threw the brick. The policemandid not remonstrate" (ibid. 29).

Many houses of African-Americans were set on fire and sowere the houses of whites accused of having relationswith the blacks (ibid.37). The firefighters wereprevented from extinguishing the fires by having theirhoses cut. Masses of Sprinfield's residents were fleeingthe town or seeking shelter in the building of the StateArsenal, where they would have been protected by themilitia, who eventually managed to regain control of thesituation. However, before they did, a fifty six year-old, prosperous African-American barber by the name ofScott Burton was lynched and hanged right in front of hishouse, while his corpse was shot at. The day after sawthe lynch of yet another person- William Donnegan, whowas more than seventy years of age and married to a whitewoman - daughter to German immigrants, with whom he had a child. As the owner of a house and a number of otherproperties, Donnegan was one of the richest blacks intown. The lynches commited on African-Americans changedthe attitude of the militia, who now decided to use arms.

The Saturday newspapers wrote:

"For months, yes, years, past, it has been predictedthat such an outburst of popular fury would sometimecome in Springfield. (...) The implication is clearthat conditions, not the populace, were to blame andmany good citizens could find no other remedy thanthat applied by the mob. It was not the fact of thewhites' hatred toward negroes, but of the negroes'own misconduct, general inferiority or unfitness forfree institutions that were at fault" (ibid. 42).

The papers that came out after the second lynch tookplace, changed the way such incidents were written about.

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While they still lacked compassion for the victims of themassacre, who were being accused of being the ones toblame, the change that took place concerned the judgementof those who perpetrated the massacres: "The element thatcreated such infernal havoc on Friday and Saturday, is nomore representative to the real citizenry of Springfieldthan a rotten and foul smelling fruit is representativeof true vegetation" (ibid. 47). William English Walling,a journalist and reformer, who stayed in town on the daythe riots broke out, noted that the town public initiallyviewed the riots as: "regrettable but effective «reform«measure: the removal of «bad Negroes« and their dives«might produce a safer, purer, more moral Springfield"(ibid. 85). However, it was soon acknowledged that therioters constitute a part of the problem themselves. Richand influential white residents of the town not onlyshared the outrage shown by the organizers of thisviolence, but even encouraged it in the name of "reform"and not in the name of "pogrom". Confronted with thenumber of victims and the extent of damage, they tried todistance themselves from the "riffraff" and "scums of thecommunity", who made Lincoln's town infamous, whiletrying to save their own face. They even reinitiated thepreparations to celebrate the 100th birthday of the GreatEmancipator, which had been interrupted by the pogrom andeventually took place next year. Not a single blackcitizen of Springfield was invited though. (ibid. II)

Following the Springfield massacre 80 people were broughtto court. Apart from white rioters (none of whom wereeventually sentenced), charges were presented against 4patrolmen for "negligence and failure to supress riots"and several policemen, "whose conduct had brought a blushof shame to every law abiding citizen of the city".According to the indictment some of the officers "notonly failed to use a club, handle a pistol or raise avoice against the mob, but some of them [were] shown tohave assisted by act and word in doing the work that hasbrought destruction" (ibid. 159, foot note no. 5). Thejury suggested the local police should thoroughlyinvestigate into the Springfield massacre, however thisrecommendation was ignored.

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The pogrom as a form of social controlHistorians, psychologists and sociologists advocating thetheory of general social strain in explaining for collectiveviolence, are inclined to account for occurences as theone that took place in Springfield with a cummulation ofburdens characteristic for a period that preceeds orresults from war or economic depression (ibid. 3.). Inhis book The Nature of Prejudice (1954) the psychologist GordonW.Allport supplemented this set of circumstances with a"rapid change in the prevaling social situation", "blackresidental 'invasion' " and a rapid increase of immigrantpopulation (Senechal de la Roche 1990, footnote no. 3).The sociologist Allen Grismhaw (1965) developed theargumentation, adding disorders in the «classicaccomodative pattern of superordination-subordination«(Grimshaw, 1965), in which whites, the dominant group,have expected «deference, obedience and complicity«(Grimshaw, 1965) from their black inferiors" (Senechal dela Roche 1990) to the list of incriminating factors.Grimshaw wrote that "the most intense conflict hasresulted when the subordinate group has attempted todisrupt the status quo or when the superordinate grouphas defined the situation as one in which such an attemptis being made". Thus the notion of threat was for the firsttime differentiated from that of the perceived threat.

The sense of the majority being threatened by theminority can relate to the circumstances of livingtogether, employment, politics, education, using leisureinfrastructure such as parks, restaurants, cinemas oramusement parks and also to public transport. Accordingto the theory of social strain, the Springfield riotsconstituted an instance of relieving the tensionconnected with the increasing affluence and socialvisibility of blacks. In his observation concerning therace riots in United States in the years 1820-1960,Robert Maxwell Brown noticed that since similar factorsdid not occur in all cities where the riots took place,the violence of whites against the blacks must have beentriggered "by the perceived threat rather than the acts of

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violence" (Brown 1975, as quoted in Senechal de la Roche1990). There were also voices that the dictionarydescribing these acts of violence needs to be revised,since becoming affluent has nothing to do withaggressiveness and more with the way this process isperceived by the rivals.

Roberta Senechal de la Roche wrote a book about theevents that took place in Springfield entitled In Lincoln'sShadow. Judging by the response it provoked, the bookproves one of the most inspiring works on pogroms overthe recent decades. Senechal de la Roche analyzeselements of Springfield's social background such as theincrease of affluence, prestige and political influenceof the blacks (also when it comes to trading votes) aswell as the increase of their vocational visibility(policemen and firefighters) and political effectiveness(protests and anti-discrimination charges brought intocourt). The author writes that "the rioters viewedSpringfield's blacks as a danger to their sense ofdignity and status. Any signs of black success, power andupward mobility may have angered them (...) The twolynching victims were very successful black men. Also,recall that William English Walling felt that many of thewhites he interviewed said that they were angry becausethe city's blacks behaved as if they were «as good as thecity's whites«" (Senechal de la Roche 1990, 148). On thebasis of a thorough analysis of the economic situation inSpringfield including the residential and working patterns, theauthor argues that what the working-class rioters couldlose in their competition with blacks were not jobs,homes or clients. The values in danger were the physicalseparation and segregation, physical distance from thedespised group as well as the right to demonstratesuperiority and show contempt for this group. Senechal dela Roche concludes that the Springfield violence can beunderstood as a normative, moralistic reaction to acondemned form of deviant behavior paradoxicallyrepresented by "black progress" which changed thesituation of whites in social hierarchy (ibid. 151).

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On the basis of her experiences from stuyding series ofsimilar riots, Senechal de la Roche formulated asignificant theory of collective violence as a form ofsocial control, based on earlier Donald Black's conceptof the later. Social control is a process, whichconstitutes a response to "deviant behavior" (Black1972:2, as quoted in Senechal de la Roche 2004, 214).Social control expresses greviance, reacts to conductdeemed wrong, or undesireable, or involves a pursuit ofjustice. Social control may assume the form of avoidance,negotiations or seeking an arbitrator. When it takes onthe form of one-sided, collective aggression, socialcontrol is termed as violent self-help (Black 1990: 44-49). Violence becomes more plausible when:

1. a sense of unjust loss or harm in the status andpower in favor of the «threatened« group exists,

2. recourse to law and order is impossible or hasfailed,

3. the states fails to take on preventive and reactiveaction to penalize the self help (Bergmann 2003, 360).

The theory by de la Roche reverses the traditional logic,since it is usually violence that is called a deviantbehavior. However the author rightly underlines themoralistic motivation underlying collective pogromviolence. In this sense, the violence proves a"moralistic reaction to the deviant behavior. Andtherefore it is often aptly called a popular justice"(Senechal de la Roche 1990, 97-98). While the violenceoften tends to prove the opposite of justice, it tries toremain faithful and ready to make sacrifices for aspecific system of values. The theory of collectiveviolence as a form of social control also explains whythe participants of this violence usually show noremorse.

Pogrom self-help becomes more likely when the stakesinclude a set of factors forming something Senechal de laRoche calls the "social geometry" of a pogroms:

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1. considerable relational distance i.e. the «degree inwhich people participate in one another's life«(Black 1990) measured by the nature and amount ofsocial ties exists between the group engaged in theconflict (Senechal de la Roche 1990),

2. also cultural distance: language, religion,clothing,

3. the level of functional independence of both groupsis high ("functional inderdependence is the degreeto which people cooperate and depend upon oneanother for the survival or well-being"),

4. inequality of status in wealth, respectability,conventionability is also high (Senechal 2004, 216-17).

Polarization between groups helps the group perceived asa threat to become subject to collective attributing and collectiveliability (Senechal de la Roche 2004, 2015). Once the "pogromspark" appears, that is when news of profanation, rape or"ritual murder" spread, the density of communication(rumors) rapidly increases what results in theacquisition of a «critical mass« of people prepared toparticipate in colletive action. (Bergmann 2003, 362)

WiN archives about Jews in pre-war Poland

Formulated by Senechal de la Roche, the theory of pogromas an act of social control, makes it possible to look atanti-Jewish violence in Poland after the end of World WarII from this perspective.

Stored in the National Archives in Kraków, the archivesof the underground organization "Wolność i Niezawisłość"("Freedom and Independence") prove an excellent source inthis respect. Although the organization was establishedin the fall of 1945, the collected archvies apart from

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the Kielce pogrom, thoroughly document the earlierpogroms in Rzeszów and Kraków as well as the ripple effect(Bergmann 2003, 362) that followed the first of thementioned pogroms in form of the incidents in Tarnów(National Archives in Kraków, WiN, file 42, 3727), Radom(WiN 5, 3557) and Rabka (WiN 43, 3717). My goal, however,will not be to determine the course of any of thementioned incidents.What I indend is to learn the socialviews of the authors, whose statements and reports makeup the collection archived in WiN. I quote the reports compiled by some of the authors e.g."Informer no. 2", who were present during the proceedingsconducted by the military and militia on August 11th andAugust 12th 1945 in Kraków in the appendix to this paper(WiN 43, 3717-3720). What were they afraid of? What didoutrage them? How did they view the norms governingrelations between the dominant ethnic group and Jewishminority after the Shoah? Which norms did they believe tobe threatened and by whom were they to be threatened?What was the hierarchy of these norms? Who was supposedto defend them and who perceived as the deviant, againstwhom self-help was organized due to the indolence of thestate? Today, after the opening of Communist archives aboutpost-war pogroms, we already know quite a lot. We knowfor example, referring to Peter Brass' terminology, thatalmost everywhere accusations of ritual murder proved tobe the pogrom spark. What remains to be settled is thequestion what character had the tinder (Bergmann 2003, 364;Brass 1996, 6) that caught the mentioned spark.

Aristotle defines fear as a "painful or troubled feelingcaused by the impression of an imminent evil that causesdestruction or pain"1. Following the affectivebreakthrough, researchers of collective violence focusedon the meaning of the word "causes", which plays the roleof a linking word in the definition. Fear does not workautomatically following the "stimulant-reaction" pattern,1 Transl. in Anthony Bale, Feeling Persecuted. Christians, Jews and Images of Violence in the Middle Ages, Reaktion Books, London 2010, p.12

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as it is always filtered by the overlearned cognitive habit(Reddy 2001) i.e. a set of diverse cognitive habitsinterpreting signals according to a system ofexpectations introduced by a gien culture. This meansthat when studying collective violence, one should movethe emphasis from the threat to the threat perception, sinceone and the same thing may be once interpreted asdangerous and another time as neutral. Thanks to takingindividual perception into consideration, it becomespossible to question common-sense interpretation whereinthe authenticity of things of determined with theomission of historical subjects.

The WiN archives constitute a valuable source for thestudy of "overlearned cognitive habits" within the groupof WiN's informers in the period 1945-1946. In thepresent text, I deal with the way the informers wereperceived by the Jews, especially in the context ofpogroms. The most important threats connected with theJews behavior can be grouped around the following sixfactors:

A. fear of Communism, which due to the active clicheeof the "żydokomuna", is collectively impersoned byJews in the eyes of the authors of the reports,

B. fear of upward mobility of the Jews after positionsunattainable for them in pre-war Poland becameaccessible in Lublin Poland, which was something thedominant group received as humiliation and violationof the social contract providing for thesubordination of the subordinated,

C. fear of Jewish plot articulated as "the Masonicconspiracy" or "Jewish world government",

D. demographic panic connected with the return/influxof Jews from the territory of the USSR and the fearsthat they would like to claim their property takenover by the Poles,

E. fear of disgrace, connected with the mass-scale ofmixed marriages and "deforming influence" of Jewry,perceived exluding/erasing Polishness,

F. fear of ritual murder.

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What proves striking in the reports about the JewishPoles compiled by WiN, is the language of descriptiondevoid of any civic categories. The language constitutesan anti-thesis of the expression "Jews citizens" or"Polish citizens of Jewish origins" present in thedocuments of the government of Lublin Poland. Applied inthe WiN documentation is the separable and dichotomousterminology: "Poles-Jews" signalling a polarization pre-disposing a pogrom (Bergmann 2003, 357). Polarization facilitates collective attribution and liability oftransgression (Bergmann 2003, 357). Present in the WiNarchives, the declaration on the organization's attitudetowards national minorities states that: "The Polishstate secures equal civil rights to all nationalminorities in Poland", however it does condition it onwhether a minority "takes a friendly stance towards thestate" and atones for its offences:

"All organizations, individuals or national groups,who to harmed the Polish Nation, must be justlypubished" (WiN 10, 3278).

Considering the context of declarations that justifycollective responsibility in advance, the conditions ofentering the Polish nation imposed on the Jews, couldhave proved difficult to be met. A. Fear of Communism personified by Jews

The reports compiled by WiN in 1945 describe Jews withthe use of universal quantifiers:

"The society's attitude towards the Government ofNational Unity is unanimous. We all share the opinionthat the people in charge of the govenrment have beenmostly send by Russia and obey orders sent fromMoscow. Nobody, except for the Polish Worker's Partyrecognizes the Government of National Unity. All thePoles know that this country is ruled by Jews and theNKWD" (WiN 5, 3558)."

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"Jews: their anti-state activity aimed against thePolish state and society" (WiN 5, 2705)."

"Almost all of them [Jews] are informers for theSoviets and the Office of Public Security" (WiN 7,3655).

"In the present democracy, they play a special role.Without exaggeration, you can say that every Jewishman or woman you come across is a member is a member of the NKGB or NKWD" (WiN 5, 2704).

However detailed reports present a different picture:

"Jews can be divided into two groups. a) One fractionaims at assimilating itself with the Poles as fast aspossible. The group pursues its goals with all sortsof means: converting to Christianity, marriages,changing their last names (commonly). This groupstays in Poland. b) The second fraction leaves Polandand goes abroad: to Palestine, and in most cases tothe areas occupied by the British. This groupincludes mostly poor and simple people" (WiN 5,3570).

Another report, possibly compiled by a person employeedat the office of the Military Censorship, notes that "inthe letters sent abroad, Jews always ask their relativesto enable them to leave Poland" (WiN 42, 5262).

B. Fear of upward mobility of the Jews

The reports notoriously express an anxiety about thesocial and professional activity of Jews, who not longago were deprived of their rights and were now enteringdomains that were reserved for ethnic Poles before thewar. The following is a characteristic from October 1945:

"Jews always stay united and do not disperse.However, nowadays they play a prominent role in our

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political life. Wee see them in all significantpolitical positions: in the local government, inthe military, in the industry, etc., although theytry not to stand out, even though they assumePolish names to conceal their nationality. The restof the Jewish society is aware that they haveplayed «a very beautiful role« in our national lifeand seem to be waiting for an opportunity toemigrate from Poland" (WiN 2, 3560).

" Jews are stuck in functions and positionsevenrywhere throughout Poland. Even in the militarythey did nothing to ease the repressions" (WiN 1,2369).

Ethnic profiling present in the reports compiled by WiNrelates exlusively to Jews and Russians. The following isa typical report related to this issue:

"A large percent of Jewish Communiststs, who came toPoland had been trained in Russia are now beinginstalled as ethnic Poles in the central government,the Office of Public Security, the military, theindustry, the commerce, the press, the propaganda,the radio and in the Polish Worker's Party" (WiN 7,3730).

The author of the report feels hurt that Jews impersonatePoles, which (next to "denying their Jewish origins")forms a conversational script of a society, in whichcivic identity categories are not applicable.Assimilative tendencies are interpreted as a method ofmaking their way to positions the author is convinced tobe reserved for ethnic Poles only. Although not all Jewswere viewed as striving for prominent positions, this didnot make their reputation any better. We notice this inthe conspirational press text: Na jakim koniu jadą żydzi w Polsce?(What horse do the Jews in Poland ride?)

"Jews aim at capturing all the public life and bringit unter their control. They do not force their wayinto executive and representative positions and prefer

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to form the so called second and third garment. Theyconceal their origins and assume Polish names. Theywant to seize the propaganda (Borejsza) with its mostimportant departments: the press, film, radio, in orderto form opinions and outlooks. In the military theyseize all political, economic and intelligence

functions. When it comes to the ministries, theyprimarily try to install themselves in the Ministryof Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Security,

Ministry of Treasury, Ministry of Industry. (...)The rule they follow is to control everything whilesitting behind the Poles' backs!!!" (WiN 10, 3265).

C. Fear of Jewish conspiracy

The above suggestion is elaborated on in the study aboutthe "Jewish World Government" published nearly two yearslater, which is supposed to express the striving of "allthe world Jewry [for] conquering the world" (WiN 7,3797). This trend, mentioned in the WiN archives includesin the first place the typescript Conquering the Psychosphereof the Goy Nation, which elaborates on the thread of peoplebeing deceitfully captivated by the propagnada. However,the above proves to a fragment of the Protocols of the Elders ofZion (WiN 42, 5609)2. As it turns out, the message of thisrather insane text, including its detailed theses, doesnot give rise to any concern on the part of the authorsof documents it is referred by e.g. the proclamation ofthe "Polish Independence Movement and the Leadership ofthe Polish Nation" entitled To the Jews in Poland. The textbegins with a historical outline, contrasting the Polishvirtues with Jewish faults:

"Throughout its entire history, the Polish nationdisplayed the most sympathy towards Jews. Already intimes of the Middle-Age inquisition, Poland extended

2 According to the translation by Bolesław Rudzki editedby Janusz Tazbir, pages no. .... are the pages inquestion. See Tazbir 2004. For information on the Polishchapter of the Protocols see Moras 2004, 108-109

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its hospitality and protection to Jews banished fromWestern Europe, mainly from Spain. For the secondtime, Poland granted asylum to Jews banished from NaziGermany before World War II, even though many of theseJews had collaborated with the German intelligence tothe ruin of Poland. In the times of torment caused bythe German occupation, thousands of Polish familieswere murdered, oftentimes burned alive with theirhouses for hiding or helping Jews- something for whichPoles were executed unlike in any other countryoccupied country. Jewes received help, although almostall the Jews, even those found accidentaly, denouncedtheir benefactors when facing imminent death (...).Meahwhile, the Jews in Poland, who in many cases owetheir survival to the Poles- from the first momentafter the Germans' retreat and seizing real power inPoland on behalf of the Soviet Union- started a systemof governent worthy of the methods used by the Gestapo(WiN 1, 2396).

The authors of the proclamation take the existence of the"Jewish world government" for granted, and accuse "Jewishcircles" of advocating a "mafialike-elitist imperialism".However they express a hope that these uncontrollableambitions can be somehow reconciled with the idea ofsurvival of the Polish nation:

"Even considering the aspiration of the Jewish worldgovernment to conquer the world, the course ofdestroying and exploiting the Polish Nation- bothbiologically and economically- provesincomprehensible. Under no circumstances is the Polishnation dangarous for the Jews. The Polish nation didnot and does not display any imperialist properties.This is why we call upon the Poles, not only in theinterest of the Polish, but also of the Jewish nation,to change their adventurous plans, which could cause anew disaster- a one that this time would be blamed onthe Jews (WiN 10, 3235-3239).

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Hence, the reports prepared by WiN echo traditionalmotives of anti-Semite violence. They even contain Germanpropaganda materials such as a pocket-size agenda withentries in Polish, containing a set of anti-Semitecaricatures from the Nazi newspaper: Der Stürmer. The maintopic of these caricatures is the "żydokomuna"stereotype, which depicts the agents of a Judeo-Communistcabal as cynical fatsos smoking cigarettes, walking handin hand with Trocki-like faced Bolsheviks. The followingare captitions found next to the caricatures:

"Jews came to Poland as beggars, crawling and fawningon others, behaving insincirely, pretending to behumble. After a few generations passed by, the Jewspossessed 83 % of the nation's assets." "Theftcommited on non-Jews is viewed as an act dear to God,even according to the «most decent« Jews". "Trade andindustry are the key for Jews to build their mightand wealth. Their arrogance towards non-Jews keeps ongrowing". "Jews embody selfishness full brutality,cruelty and a lust for ruling. Mercilesly they throwold and ill workers out to the streets". "Jewspretend to be honest tradesmen, but in reality spreaddiscord, instigate the people to commit murders,spark fires, terror, revolution and fratricidalwars". "Jews are masterful when it comes toinstigating the people and sparking fratricidal wars.By demoralizing lower social classes, they turn theminto passive, weak-willed tools of achieving theirshady goals". "With the use of Marxists, Communistsand Jewish masonry, Jews systematically work onundermining the foundations of the nation and theChurch". [illustration to "Communist paradise" byKarl Marx] "Jews promise workers to respect theirdignity, promise them a life among beauty, but whatthe Jews really give the workers are hunger, povertyand death". "Woe to a nation that trusts the Jews andbelieves in their promises. The fate of this nationwill be horrible". [illustration of an executioncarried out with a hammer and sickle] "This is howthe slogans «freedom, equality and fraternity reallylook like«. Jews use these slogans in their

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revolutionary aspirations". "The Jewish paradiseunder the sign of the hammer and sickle" (WiN 36,4802-4826).

Accusations of Masonic conspiration- the fundamentalthread from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion- reoccur severaltimes in underground reports and reports stored in theWiN archives:

"It has been established in the Kraków area that theJewish Committee stays in contact the American Jews.The Kraków Jews admitted that international Masonicunions do exist and said their activity [is] strongerthab before the war" (WiN 2, 3601).

"International Communism, socialism and fascism aswell as the greatest powers- international Masoneryand Jewry- all these powers threaten each Catholicnation separately and all of them together" (WiN 39,5109).

In a famous statement made by priamate August Hlond afterthe Kielce pogrom, quoted in the WiN archives on thebasis of a typescript signed by Kraków Curia, theassesment of the pogrom is based on similar premises. Theprimate's opinion, according to which: "the course ofthese unfortunate and deplorable incidents in Kielceshows that they cannot be attributed to racism" (WiN 38,5007), proves similar to the stand adopted by theSpringfield press, which stated that it was not the factof the whites' hatred towards negroes, but of thenegroes' own terrible misconduct" was the reason why the1908 massacre took place. Primate Hlond evaluates thewartime Polish-Jewish relations as good the best exampleof which being the aid given by Poles to Jews during thewar.

"The fact that these good relations aredeteriorating, is to a great extent to be blamed onthe Jews, who hold the leading positions in publiclife and strive for imposing a system of government

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on a nation that in its majority does not want them.This is a harmful game which gives rise to dangeroustensions. The fatal armed clashes on the politicalfront in Poland bring death not just to the Jewsthemselves, but unfortunately for as many Poles"(WiN 38, 5007).

One of the reports by WiN broadened the above statementwith a remark about the "outrageous percent of Jewspresent in positions related to public safety andjustice" (WiN 11, 3256). Attatched to the information wasthe following comment: "This was the first time somebodypaid attention to the composition of our Isra-ellitte (...)now the cat is out of the bag and everybody knows thatthey are all Jews!!!" (WiN 11, 3259). Intended by theauthor of the report to expose the Polish Army as non-Polish, the language, the utterances as well as thePolish allegedly spoken by the ellites with a strong Jewish accent (Sygit, The Polish Army) reveal thepremises behind the way he thinks about the role of Jewsin the society. The author claims his right to showcontempt. He feels outraged with the introduction ofpenalties for "looking disrecepectfully at Jews" inLublin Poland (WiN 10, 3256). Oblivious of the fact he iscalling for a restoration of numerus clausus, the author ofthe report follows primate Hlond and openly criticizesgranting Jews an access to military and judiciarycareers:

"Not us Poles should be called upon to renounceracism and anti-Semitism, but the nation that deemsitself the people chosen to lead the world ofcountries, nations and all possible centres of life,into which they force themselves against anyarthmetical logic, against the will of nations,against the postulate of an equal start in life foreverybody and against the equal distribution ofgoods.

The nation from which mercenaries are commonlyrecruited, the nation that hires itself to every

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enemy as traitors and torturers, the nation thatprofesses not universal ethics, but the ethics of theTalmud- such a nation cannot call upon otehrs torenounce racism, while cultivating it themselves.Members of this nation cannot aspire to the role ofsole judges, security guards and edcucators of thenation they live within and prey on. What gave them aright to do so? Is it all about their numbers? Butthis is such an obviously striking absurd! Is this anissue about the heights of ethnics and morality? Thisquestion is discussed above. Maybe this is about somespecial abilities? So that is a racially-dominantnation. The Herrenvolk were the people chosen to ruleand to judge, to take the most profitable positionsin the state hierarchy, economic life, the judiciary,the military (except for frontline troops) andnaturally also in public security organiztions" (WiN2, 2486).

Here, Jews are being repproached for their promotion inthe name of democratic values; "the postulate of an equalstart in life for evedybody and an equal distribution ofgoods". They are being accused of procrastination,particularism, cowardy, greed, megalomania, but also ofbeing ungrateful towards the Poles, who had been savingtheir lives throughout the war.

Considering the last contexts, it is worth to quote anearly testimony from December 1945 about an initiativeundertaken by the Kraków Jews, who wanted to commemoratePoles, who had saved their lives during the war. Aquestion that arises here is that concerning theintensions of WiN, which wanted to get to know the maesof the Righteous Among Nations.

"The Kraków Jews prepared a petition addressed to thePolish government under Berman, signed by about 100people [figures are not reliable, since exceed themargins) for honoring the Poles, who came to the Jews'aid during the times of German occupation. In oder toensure their petition would be accepted, the Kraków Jewsalso addressed a petition to the American Jews asking

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them to intervene in their case within the Polishgovernment. Out of the total number of Poles to beawarded, 8 people e.g. Karol Świerczewski- a propagandainstructor for the Polish Worker's Party (PPR)- had sofar been identified. Most of the candidates to theRighteous Among Nations award is said to be living inWarsaw" (WiN 7, 3570).

D. Demographic panic

The demographic panic fed by leaflets, connected with theinflux of Jews from Russia proves an important source offears appearing in the reports from 1945. One of severalreports, alarming that "280 thousand" Jews would come toPoland (WiN 42, 5228), stated that the plans to bringJews to the Western Territories is part of a plan to"Sovietize" Poland (WiN 42, 5216). Commented in severalreports, the influx of Jews becomes a source of riftwithin the repressive-desciplinary apparatus, in whichthe attitude presented by the Citizen's Militia and thePolish Army (also called the "Żymierski Army") on the onehand and the UB political police on the other hand. A possible example of this rift is a letter filed by themilitia in Sosnowiec to the City Hall asking how to dealwith Jews, who were not paying taxes after moving intothe city. The letter contained information about "a rallyheld by superintendents, who petitioned the Polishauthorities saying they were being mercilesly exploitedand bullied in the tenement houses goerned by Jews" (WiN42, 5216). Jews who settled in tenement houses once ownedby Germans, were domestically perceived as landlords fromtime immemmorial, and thus had to be viewed as dangerousrivals by the Polish superintendents.

Another report prepared by WiN sees Polish militaryofficers on the one hand and an NKWD officer and UBofficer on the other hand enter the conflict arount theJews.

"The 11/18/1946 in Dębica saw a number of drunken sappersdrag a Jewsih woman out of her house and bully her withone of them even firing a shot just above her head.

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Passing by was cpt. Golodov from the NKWD, who saw thewhole scene and stood up for the woman, for which he wasbeaten up by the soldiers. He then called the Office forPublic Security, which arrested these 4 soldiers. Havinglearned of what happened, the soldiers from thosesappers' parent unit went to the UB building armed andready to fight (...) The soldiers threw a few grenades tothe street, fired shots at the building, shouting out:«you Soviet pushovers, Polish NKWD, Moscow's servants!«After long negotiations with the chief of the UB, thesoldiers were allowed to enter the building" (WiN 7,3634). The WiN report from 1945 (WiN 42, 5240) reads that: "Theanti-Jewish attitudes escalate because of the provocativebehavior of the Jews, particularly that presented byJewish officers." All this is described between a noteabout Jewish civilians executed for cooperating with theUB and a mention of anti-Jewish leaflets which appearedin Tarnów on August 11th (WiN 42, 5240) We do not knowwhat did the "provocative behavior of the Jewish officer"consist in, however we know that the reports contain moreimpressions of that kind.

E. Fear of disgrace

The author of one of the reports described undefinedJewish Poles as "well-fed, welldressed, crowding holidayand entertainment sites, doing their best to make thenatural growth as high as possible, which looks strikingwhen compared to a very tough life led by the Polishpeasants and workers" (WiN 42, 5228). The author is alsofull of anxiety when mentioning the effects of mixedmarriages, in which "typical Jewish features" in no waydisappear":

" according to opinions represented by Jewishfactors, crosbreeding the Jewish race with Poles andaccepting Christianity does not cause the loss of the

features of the Jewish race" (WiN 7, 3799).

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Considering the above sentence, it proves difficult notto notice a concealed fear of "race pollution", which inSpringfield realities was expressed with the question:"Can we assimilate the negro? The very question is pollution" (Senechalde la Roche 1990, 25).

In this context we come across several reports ofundeground segregation initiatives connected with Jewishand non-Jewish Poles:

" [the report from the summer of 1945] In Łódź theanti-Jewish action assumed a clearly defined character.Jews receive written warnings saying they should leavePoland or otherwise will be shot. The securityauthorities cannot identify the source of thesewarnings, but despite assurances saying they are safe,the Jews sell their workshops, buy foreign currencies and

go West. (...)

Captain Lec, a writer and director of the CDŻ inŁódź is currently investigating into the assasinationattempt and anonymous letter received by RyszardaŁatowa- a CDŻ employee. The letter contains anotification stating that «as a result of keeping inwith Jews, she is sentenced to death«. The letter issigned by «col. Ząb« and marked with a death's head.Similar letters are received by all the Jews. Łatowadoes not only keep in with the Jews, but also

collaborates with the NKWD" (WiN 42, 5221).

The idea of segregation did not end with postulatespresented by the Polish underground, however we know fromother reports that it was being implemented by some localauthorities:

"The National Municipal Council in Żywiec passed aresolution against allowing Jews to enter the town.A similar resolution was passed by the workscouncil at the Solali Factory in Żywiec [ŻywiecPaper Mill], which stated Jews should not beemployed in the factory" (WiN 4, 2625-27)

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The WiN archives contain many reports of murders commitedon Jews. The report from August 1946 contains anenigmatic estimate, according to which "2043 Jews werekilled since the Soviets seized power in Poland" (WiN 4,2583?- 2594?; WiN report 5, 2603: according to the PolishWorker's Party, "the National Armed Forces and the HomeArmy have killed about 2500 people so far"). The reportfrom May 26th 1946 concerns the so called train operation.Apart from the so called: "racial issues", the reportdoes not include any justification for the executioncarried out in the following way:

"A forrest unit wearning Polish uniforms stopped theevening traing on the railroad between Kamionka andPtaszowka. They entered a car with 5 Jews, who weretraelling on this train. After both sides started

a conversation in Russian and the Jews (convincedthey were dealing with Soviets dressed in Polishuniforms) admitted they were Jewish, they were takenout of the train and shot next railway enbankment" (WiN4, 2553).

F. Fear of ritual murder

Accusations of ritual murder play the greatest role inbuilding pogrom atosphere. They constitute the spark thatincited the Polish pogroms. Rumors about ritual murderare the counterpart of the American accusations of therape of a white woman that sparked the Springfieldmassacre.

Similar accusations are abundant in the WiN archives,appear in different versions and concern differentperiods. The report I quote in Appendix no. 1 consists ofaccounts from the year 1945. The Rzeszów pogrom from June1945 constitutes a terminus post quem of the doccuments collected in thearchives. One of the quoted fragments comes from theaccounts given in the Jewish Committee in Kraków on

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August 13th 1945- the following day after the Krakówpogrom (WiN 43, 3717-3720).

"No matter how much understanding we would like tobe towards the Jews and how much is lies in ourinterest to fuel anti-Semitism, we cannot turn

a blind eye to the least honest things and to thedestructive attitude presented by the Jews in oursociety. During German occupation, Jews made up the

majority of G- po's [Gestapo's] informers. Today,Jews also made up the core of the informer service ofthe NKWD and its affilliate the Office of PublicSecurity (UBP), holding executive positions in both

organizations. Jews take up the filthiest ofjobs, work for our enemies, occupy lucrative

positions in the commerce and industry, ruin theeconomy, spread confusion and destruction in alldomains and even commit brutal murders since they are

confident the almighty NKWD will defend them" (WiN43, 3717).

The subsequent part of the text contains a detaileddescription of a ritual murder allegedly commited inRzeszów. What comes to the foreground in the belowfragment is the figure of the "rabbi dressed in a blood-stained kittel standing next to a dead girl hanging withher upside down" (WiN 42, 5243). The key fragment of thetext reads as follows:

"When they put the screws to the rabbi, he fellapart and confessed these were the remnants of 16children. Still he claimed that these were notritual murders, but the Jewish nation had sufferedgreat losses and thus many of its most renownedrepresentatives had to be fed with human bloodgained through ritual murder" (WiN 5244)

The summary has been written by an educated person, whois obviously struggling with a cognitive disonance. Thetext forms a report, which was blended together from ourof reports of diverse value. On the one hand, the authordoes not want to reject anything useful, but on the other

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he or she does not feel comfortable with using thearchaic form of the blood legend. All this resluts in acomprpmise, in which the myth becomes subject tomodernization expressed in the concept of "transfusionmurders". Nowhere does the author undermine thefeasibility of such a murder, and a few pages later he orshe notes that yet another murder called the name ofritual murder had been commited, and this time puhishedwith the death penalty. The author also states that suchmurders are used by the NKWD, which tries to confrim theabsurd nonsensabout ritual murders" (WiN 43, 3718-19):

"The accidental settling of transfusional murdersin Rzeszów, served the NKWD to use Jews toprovocations once again" (WiN 43, 3718-19).

A different version of interpreting the pogrom mechnismreads as follows: even of the Jews do not commit ritualmurders, such murders are commited by the NKWD in orderto disgrace Poland in the eyes of the world. Such a standreoccurs in the brochure Enough of Soviet Deceits, whichcompares the scenarios of two pogroms that took place in1945:

"On 6/11 this year in Rzeszów at Tannenbauma Street12 they found the body of 9 year-old Bronisław Mandoń,who died due to a leakage of blood drawn fortransfusion. The culprits (4 of them residing in Rzeszów,not registered anywhere but in NKWD files- were Jews),who were relased after a few days on demand of theNKWD. So if the NKWD had not known about the murder, ithad definitely approved. The case was stonewalled,while the public opinion was directed at the anti-Jewishincidents triggered by the murder" (WiN 42, 5605)."

The author believes that the country is witnessing adramatic reversal. Quoting the title of a book byStanisław Mikołajczyk (1948)- Poland "has been raped" andbled to death just as a slaughter animal. Justice lies inthe hands of the culprits: the Jews and the NKWD, whocaptured the country. In such conditions, the pogrombecomes an act of popular self-help aimed against

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deviants, who attack the most precious things anabandoned naiton has: freedom, independence, women andchildren. The syllogism: "Jews=NKWD" proves the key tothe "żydokomuna" myth describing a Judeo-Communist cabal(WiN 7, 3655), eases possible moral dilemmas. ClaudeLévi-Straus described the functioning of the myth as acontradiction-solving machine.

Nevertheless the context of the Kielce pogrom, possiblyinfluenced by the shock connected with the number ofcasualties, becomes an opportunity to develop a new kindof interpretation. The interpretation is visible in anarticle: Breaking News: Nothing new:

"Following the pogroms in Rzeszów, Kraków and theones in Silesia, a new pogrom in Kielce took place.Perpetrated by the same culprits in the same way,the pogrom began by the murder of a few children.One of them was released to the streets with itshands, legs and neck cut. In the same time, NKWDagens were explaining, the murder had been commitedby Jews. Outraged by the murder of innocentchildren, the mob attacked the Jews. (...) The anti-Jewish incidents were instigated by the NKWD fromthe very beginning till the end. (...) Everyoneknows that Russia had installed Jews into theexecutive positions in all the ministries. Jews wereused by Russia to destroy the Polish nation, howeverthey are not always aware that by doing what theyare, they shatter their hopes of staying in futurePoland once and for good. This is why they often donot execute the orders given them by Russia. Theywant to go along with the Poles. In order to prevetthis, make them more «militant« and convince them todestroy Polishness from time to time, the NKWDarranges anti-Jewish provocations or possibly evenassasinates citizens of Jewish origins under theguise of reaction" (WiN 10, 3266).

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Presented above, the version of pogrom violence thatabsolves Jews proves to be isolated. Changing thequantifier in the description of the attitude of Jewstowards the Communist authorities, is not reflected inthe tone of the WiN reports, which prove hostile just asthey had been so far.

Conclusion

The material presenting the mindset of WiN's informersshows extreme an polarization between Jewish and non-Jewish Poles. Legislation and social practice introducedby Lublin Poland, clash with the ideas of moral orderrepresented by the informers. The authors of the WiNarchives viewed granting equal rights to Jews, who tookactive part in the government of Lublin Poland includingits repressitve authorities, as a provocation aimedagainst the very essence of these ideas. The informersreacted to the provocation with humiliation andresentment. Acting in the underground with assymetricalinformation, these people were oriented towards gatheringinformation about the world, which was not supposed toknow anything about them. These people were installed inmilitary and local-government institutions and judging bytheir access to detailed information in administrativeand accountig offices, they did not take the risk ofverifying information they received and even if theywould so they would not contact Jews. Compiled on thebasis of the information gathered by the informers, thereports were sometimes criticiezed by informers'headquarters as being raw, excessively detailed and tooextensive, which in turn points at a deficite ofcognitive control in the conditions of a growingencirclement.

The views presented by the authors of WiN's reports aboutJewish Poles had to be diversified. Most certainly, notall of them supported Roman Dmowski (WiN 1, 2291-2312)and not all were trustful readers of the Protocols of the Eldersof Zion. Still it were the Protocols that shaped the visionof Jewish intentions. The lack of similar issues incertain significant documents of WiN in the very

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beginnings of the organization, might lead us to aconclusion that the attitudes of the informers evolved asa result of political tensions i.e. the behavior of theJews themselves. This however, would be a conclusion inthe spirit of te general strain theory. Growing anti-Semitismvisible in the reports may aptly reflect the mentalcondition of the informers, who were being tracked downand were thus less numerous, but ideologically moredetermined. Another element indicating the informers weregrowing nervous, is the erratic punctuation of theirreports, which contained more and more exclamation marks.

Similarly to the mobility of blacks in Springfield, themobility of Jewish Poles in post-war Poland proved athreat that should have been controlled even moreurgently than Communism, since putting an end to "Jewishmurders" was easier than ending Soviet murders3. Since thesociety responded to attacks on deviants with pogroms, itwas logical that responsibility for the pogroms would bepushed on the deviants. (Senechal de la Roche 1996, 77)4.The pogrom belongs to the group of exclusionary ethnic violence(Hoffmann, Bergmann, Smith 2002). Since participants ofpogroms propagated ethnic preferences and ethnicparticularism, they have to create a narration of threatand need of self-defence.3 Literature on this subject calls a similar surrogateobject an unreal threat, Coser 1956, discussed in Bergmann2003, 359.4 For information on blaming Jews for provoking riots e.g.the riots in Koenitz see Hoffmann, Bergmann, Smith 2002,172: "Power relations have, as one aspect of theirreproduction, symbolic forms, in which they areinterpreted and understood. A collective assault on an ethnic minority within acommunity must be legitimized and prepared culturally,since it violates the fundamental norms of communal lifeand - particularly in pacified societies - violates thestate monopolly of power. This means that certain framesthat in-group has agreed upon and that defined the actionof the outgroup as «unjust« and «threatening« have to beaccepted by the public , as a the so called «injusticeframe«"

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Researchers studying exclusionary violence distinguish betweenstrucural (geometry discussed earlier) and direct reasonsof pogroms. They speak of the spark and the tinderwithout neglecting the role of leaders called ethnicenterpreneurs (Brass 1996), the press and organizationscontributing to outbreaks of violence. The WiN reportsgive no evidence that the organization was involved inany pogroms, however according to the brochures theypublished, their informers had to share and even shapethe views of possible pogrom participants. In order tonotice similarities between the worldviews represented byboth groups, it proves enough to compare the abovepresented material with the cries given by the pogrommobs from Kielce, Kraków and Rzeszów (Tokarska-Bakir2012). If the worldview expressed in the WiN reportscould be extrapoled on contemporary people, the pogromwave of 1945- 1946 could have been regarded, in thespirit of Senechal de la Roche's theory, as a sequence ofaggressive, mounting attemtps to control deviation, whichconstituted categories under which the rapid progress ofgranting equal rights to Jews in Lublin Poland. Attemptslike these were discriminative practices aimed against agroup deprived of civic rights developed during theSecond Polish Republic and consolidated in the times ofGerman occupaiton. In practical terms, the attemptstranslated into an assumption, according to which"independence" meant the right of the majority todiscriminate the minotiry. The attempts were alsoexpressed in the rejection of granting Jews an access tooffices unregulated with any quotas as well as in thepostulates of introducing numerus clausus. The aboveexpectations became a filter for fears kindled bychanges. This is precisely why, the mentioneddiscriminative habits may looked into as structuralreasons of post-war pogroms.

Bibliography

Allport G. W, The Nature of Prejudice, Addison-WesleyPubl., Reading, MA 1954

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Bergmann W., Pogroms, in: Heitmeyer W.Hagan J.[eds.],International Handbook of Violence Research, Kluver Academics2003, 371-367

Black D., The Behavior of Law, New York 1976 BlackD., The elementary forms of conflict management, [in:]

New Directions in the Study of Justice, Law and Social Control, NewYork 1990, pp. 43-69

Brass Peter [ed.], Riots and Pogroms, New York 1996 Brown M.R., Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American

Violence and Vigilantism, Oxford 1975 Coser Lewis A., The Functions of Siocial Conflict, New York

1956 Grimshaw A.D., Changing patterns of racial violence in the United

States, "Notre Dame Lawyer", 6- (Symposium, 1965),539-40

Hoffmann C., Bergmann W., Smith H.W. (red.),Exclusionary Violence. Antisemitic Riots in Modern German History,ed. by University of Michigan Press 2002

Mikołajczyk S., The Rape of Poland: The Pattern of SovietAggression, Sampson Low, Martson & Co.,LTD., London1948

Modras Ronald, Kościł katolicki i antysemityzm w Polsce w latach1933-1939, Kraków 2004

Reddy Wi M., Navigation of Feeling. A Framework for the History ofEmotions, Cambridge 2001

Senechal de la Roche, Roberta In Lincoln's Shadow: the 1908Race Riot in Springfield, Illinois, Southern IllinoisUniversity Press, Carbonale 1990

Senechal de La Roche Roberta, Collective violence as socialcontrol, “Sociological Forum”, Vol. 11, No. 1 (March1996), pp. 97-128

Senechal de la Roche, Roberta, Modern Lynching, w:Violence: From Theory to Research, Zahn M., Brownstein H.,Jackson S. (ed.), Anderson Publ. 2004, s. 213-226

Tazbir J. (ed.), Protokoły mędrców Syjonu, Warszawa 2004 Tokarska-Bakir J., Okrzyki pogromowe. Szkice z antropologii

historycznej Polski lat 1939-1946, Wołowiec 2012

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