Poland - only for Poles
As you know, in 1918, a new revived state of Poland appeared on the map of Europe, in which the national interests of the indigenous Polish population were placed at the forefront. At the same time, the rest a priori found themselves in a secondary position, which, in particular, resulted in a series of Jewish pogroms, the bloodiest of which occurred in Pinsk and Lvov. These were large-scale actions. In 1919, the American Jewish Congress tried at the Paris Peace Conference to call on the world community to influence the Polish leadership in connection with outbreaks of violent anti-Semitism. This did not produce any effect, but only strengthened the faith of the Poles in the world Zionist conspiracy. In fairness, it should be noted that the dissatisfaction of the Polish population was caused, among other things, by the excessive exactingness of the Jews. They tried to obtain special rights in Poland: exemption from military service, payment of taxes, the creation of special Jewish courts and schools. As a result, the spontaneous wave of anti-Semitism of 1919-1920 was curbed by the Polish leadership, while at the same time it received an excellent tool to influence the creation of Poles. It turned out that intolerance towards Jews and nationalism find a lively response in the hearts of the radical part of the Polish population.
There have always been many Jews in Poland. From 1921 to 1931 the number of Jews increased from 2.85 million to 3.31 million. On average, the share of this people in the country's population was 10%, which was one of the highest rates in the world. Until 1930, it was relatively safe for Polish Jews to be in the country, despite the fact that the representatives of the nation were not allowed into the civil service, as well as the positions of teachers and university professors. All Jewish schools receiving government funding were taught exclusively in Polish. In the 1920s and 1930s, Polish officials gradually whipped up public hysteria regarding the importance of the Jews. It is important to understand one thing here: from that time on, the Polish leadership began to systematically accuse the Jews of practically all the troubles of the country and the people. They were charged with corruption, contamination of the Polish primordial culture and education, as well as subversive activities against the country and the people, cooperation with enemy Germany and the USSR. The Poles began to reach the highest temperatures of anti-Semitic hysteria since 1935, when the country was covered by the economic crisis. It turned out to be very convenient to declare Jews to be the culprits of all troubles. In 1936, Prime Minister Felitsian Slavoy-Skladkovsky very clearly formulated the government's goals regarding the Jewish population:
"Economic war against the Jews by all means, but without the use of force."
Obviously, he was afraid of the reaction of the United States to possible pogroms.
In addition to his anti-Semitism, Felician went down in the history of the country as an ardent champion of sanitary control. During his reign, latrines were painted white, which is why they were called "Slavoiks". The official government line regarding the Jews was adhered to by the Catholic Church, as well as the overwhelming majority of political associations with the exception of the Polish Socialist Party. And when Hitler came to power in Germany, the Polish Germans, obsessed with the idea of revenge and revenge for defeat in the world war, added fuel to the fire of anti-Semitism.
Black Bloody Palm Sunday
Yesterday, on Palm Sunday, local Jewry organized an orgy against Germany and everything German. After a gathering in a cinema, about 500 Poles, bribed by Jews, armed themselves with sticks and poles and rushed to smash the editorial office of Lodzer Zeitung … They were stopped by the police. Then the Jew who led them ordered to move to the editorial office of "Freie Presse" …
This is how the foreign policy department of the National Socialist German Workers' Party assessed the reasons for the German-Jewish confrontation that took place in Lodz on April 9, 1933. Allegedly, the Polish-Jewish Committee called on:
“The Prussian Hydra … is ready for new crimes … for its own German gangster culture! We call on the entire Polish population to boycott the enemy! Not a single Polish zloty should go to Germany! Let's put an end to the German editions that provoke our national feelings! Let's transform Lodz into a city of Polish interests and Polish statehood."
This was an example of one of the first and last anti-fascist actions of the Jewish population of Poland against the Germans sympathizing with the Third Reich. On April 9, 1933, anti-German actions took place in Lodz and several cities of Central Poland, the result of which was the incitement of even greater hatred of the country's Jewish population. The most important that day were the demonstrative desecration of Nazi symbols right outside the German consulate in Lodz, the storming of a German gymnasium, a publishing house and several newspaper offices. Until now, it is not known about the losses on both sides, but the epithet "bloody" that Palm Sunday was not accidentally received. The leader of the Lodz German People's Party, August Utts, blamed this primarily on the head of the Zionist organization Rosenblatt, although representatives of the Polish radical organization for the Defense of the Western Borders (Związek Obrony Kresów Zachodnich) were among the main instigators. The result of this confrontation turned out to be the same: the Germans hated the Jews living next door in Poland even more and later found more and more support in this from the radical Poles. So, a German from Lodz Bernard, reporting on a trip to his hometown in January 1934, emphasized:
“Jews have much more rights in Poland than Germans. On the train, I heard stories that Pilsudski is married to a Jew, so the Jews call him "our father-in-law." I told this to my old friend in Lodz, and he confirmed that such rumors have been circulating here for a long time."
The German consulate in Lodz writes in one of its reports after Bloody Sunday:
"Jews form 17-18 millionth hydra of cancerous tumor on the body of Christianity."
And in November 1938, the Nazi ambassador in Warsaw reflects on the Jewish pogroms in his homeland:
"The action of retaliation against Jewry carried out in Germany was received by the Polish press and Polish society absolutely calmly."
Madagascar Plan
The first plans to oust Jews from Poland date back to 1926, when the country's leadership seriously thought about transporting all the unwanted to Madagascar. Then it was a French colony, and the Polish ambassador in Paris, Count Khlopovsky, even asked the political leaders of France to transport a thousand peasants to the African island. In the conversation, the French made it clear that the living conditions in Madagascar are very difficult and, in order to avoid the genocide of the Jews, the Poles will have to spend money on the maintenance of such a mass of people away from home. At that moment, the solution of the "Jewish question" in Poland was postponed - the French actually refused to their Eastern European friends.
The idea of resettlement of more than three million Jewish population to Africa was reborn in 1937. Warsaw then received permission from Paris to work on the island for a special commission, the purpose of which was to prepare the territory for emigration. It is noteworthy that the Jews in Poland were already so badly and they were so afraid of the growing Nazism that the commission included representatives of Zionist organizations - lawyer Leon Alter and agricultural engineer Solomon Duc. From the Polish government, the commission included Mieczyslaw Lepiecki, former adjutant of Józef Pilsudski. Then the slogan "Jews to Madagascar!" Was popular in a nationalist country. ("Żydzi na Madagaskar") - anti-Semitic Poles were eager to send the first 50-60 thousand Jews to a semi-wild African island as soon as possible.
Naturally, according to the results of the expedition, Lepetskiy was most positively disposed - he even proposed to resettle the first Jews (about 25-35 thousand) to the Ankaizan region in the north of the island. Solomon Duc was opposed to the Ankaizan region, whom he proposed to transport to the central part of Madagascar a total of no more than 100 people. Lawyer Leon Alter also did not like the island - he allowed no more than 2 thousand Jews to emigrate to it. However, by and large, this whole operation seems to be nothing more than a demonstrative farce, since the Polish government, in principle, did not have the financial ability to carry out such a massive resettlement. Perhaps one of the adherents of the "Madagascar Plan", Polish Foreign Minister Jozef, hoped to "throw off" the whole anti-Semitic Europe for the emigration of Jews?
Be that as it may, this theater was watched with pleasure by the Nazis. Hitler told Ambassador Józef Lipski that by joint efforts they would be able to resettle Jews to Madagascar or to some other remote colony. It remains only to persuade England and France. Actually, for the implementation of the "Madagascar Plan" by the hands of the Nazis, Lipsky promised to erect a monument to Hitler in Warsaw during his lifetime.
The very idea of resettlement of the Jewish population of Europe to Madagascar first came to the mind of the Germans at the end of the 19th century, but its implementation was prevented by the disappointing results of the First World War for Germany. Already during the Second World War in 1940, the Germans planned to resettle one million Jews to the island annually. Here they were already prevented by the employment of the Navy in the confrontation with Britain, and in 1942 the Allies occupied Madagascar. Many historians, by the way, suggest that the failure of the German "Madagascar Plan" pushed the Nazis towards the Holocaust.
