Conclusion: Beyond Idealisation and Condemnation

Abstract

Antony Polonsky asks us to go beyond ‘condemnation, apologetics and apologies’ when studying Polish-Jewish relations in the first half of the twentieth century.¹ He rejects any simplifications in presenting historical research and stresses the complexities of Polish-Jewish relations during the Holocaust. There have been several intensive debates on the theme, especially in relation to books by Jan T. Gross. Similar debates have further stimulated historical research and modern Polish-Jewish history belongs to well-documented areas of Jewish studies. This is particularly clear in comparison with modern Czechoslovak-Jewish history, and especially Czech historiography. The lack of any scholarly debate has contributed to the superficiality of our understanding of the pre-1948 Czechoslovak attitude towards the Jews. The truth is that in comparison with the Communist anti-Zionist, in reality anti-Semitic campaign in the early 1950s (the Slánský trial), the situation in Masaryk’s and Beneš’s Czechoslovakia from the Jewish perspective must appear much brighter. We can indeed argue that besides radical pro-Zionist historiography that condemns the situation in Europe as such, Czechoslovakia is still presented as an ideal country that respected the Jews. When the Czechoslovak pre-1948 record is questioned, the situation is explained in terms of the general moral decadence of the Second World War and as a bitter legacy of Nazi rule in Europe.