Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–46

The anti-Jewish violence in Poland from 1944 to 1946 refers to a series of violent incidents in Poland that immediately followed the end of World War II in Europe and influenced the postwar history of the Jews as well as Polish-Jewish relations. The exact number of Jewish victims is a subject of debate with 327 documented cases, and the range, estimated by different writers, from 1,000 to 2,000 (an undocumented minority view). Jews constituted between 2% and 3% of the total number of victims of postwar violence in the country, including the Polish Jews who managed to escape the Holocaust on territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. The incidents ranged from individual attacks to pogroms. Reports of political repressions by the communist forces in Poland and the wave of political murders by the security forces under Soviet control were mounting. The United States ambassador to Poland, Arthur Bliss Lane, was troubled by the mass arrests of Polish non-communists, and their terrorization by the security police. The wave of state-sponsored terror and large-scale deportations was followed by the nationalization decree of January 1946. In response to his protests, Bierut told Lane to "mind its own business."

Jewish emigration from Poland surged partly as a result of this violence, but also because Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to allow free Jewish emigration (aliyah) to Mandate Palestine. Many Jews did not wish to remain where their previously large communities in Poland had been decimated by the German occupation; many fled Soviet-backed communism which persecuted the bourgeoisie and religion, including Judaism; many aimed to pursue the Zionist objectives in Palestine. Uninterrupted traffic across the Polish borders intensified with many Jews passing through on their way west. In January 1946, there were 86,000 survivors registered with the Central Committee of Polish Jews (CKŻP). By the end of summer, the number had risen to about 205,000–210,000 (with 240,000 registrations and over 30,000 duplicates). About 180,000 Jewish refugees came from the Soviet Union after the repatriation agreement. Most left without visas or exit permits thanks to a decree of General Marian Spychalski. A group of 435 Jews returned from Palestine to Poland in 1946, believing that the latter was actually safer, wrote Gazeta Ludowa of the Polish People's Party (PSL) on October 1, 1946. By the spring of 1947 only 90,000 Jews resided in Poland.

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