Jewish life in Poland | DW Documentary

The Nazis murdered 90 percent of Poland's Jews in the death camps. Seventy-five years after the end of World War Two, life is returning to the Jewish community in Poland.

Jewish cultural festivals, kosher restaurants, klezmer bands and Jewish schools have returned to the Poland of today - the country that was once the location of the Nazi German Auschwitz extermination camp. The growth of the new, vital Jewish community is in part thank to the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich. Visits to Auschwitz and other camp locations in Poland are for him simply part and parcel of the country's history. Schudrich grew up on New York's Upper West Side. As a student, he traveled to what was then Communist Poland for the first time. His grandparents had emigrated to the US from Eastern Europe. At the end of the 1970s and later in the 1980s, many Jews looked for their families' roots in Poland. There were only a few left - among them were the Polish Jews who were closely linked to the Solidarity movement. They founded the "Flying Jewish University" at this time. A loose network of Jewish intellectuals even back then already believed that Jewish religious life would again find a place in Poland. The idea must have germinated in Schudrich's mind quickly. He decided to dedicate his life to rebuilding Jewish religious life in Poland. The concept was one he shared with billionaire Ronald S. Lauder, a key patron of Jewish religious projects around the globe who today is president of the World Jewish Congress.
Thirty years ago, after the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of Communism, Michael Schudrich made his way to Warsaw. Here the son of a New York rabbi with a congregation in the Bronx became a chief rabbi. In the 1990s, he encouraged many more Poles to rediscover their Jewish roots. Several hundred learned the basics of Jewish religious life in the then newly established Jewish school in Warsaw, leading them to become conscious of their long-suppressed Jewish identity. Now the Jewish communities in Poland have as many as 12,000 members who live according to the rules set out in the Torah.

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[stantheman]

The film ignores the period of 1945 to 1968 when there was Jewish life in Poland. We were openly Jewish, went to a Jewish school in Lodz, sung Jewish songs, went to Jewish summer camps. So with all due respect the current "revival" is not accurately portrayed.

[loxloxington]

There is so much debating about Polish involvement in despicable acts against Polish citizens of Jewish origin and how it weighs against the very heroic acts of saving them from death .
Rarely if ever are these debates initiated by Poles . Poles usually find themselves being on the defensive .
How come ?
Assuming if Poland were a horrible place to be, then can anybody explain to me the following :

80 % of 16th century European Jews found their home in ...Poland
Prewar Jewish community constituted 10% of the Poland's population .
Poland was the only country under German occupation where an instance of aiding Jews carried a death sentence for the entire family ( go figure )
The highest number of Righteous Among The Nations belongs to ....Polish nationals .

Final thought ...
So how does the so called "Polish anti-Semitism " stand up against other European countries ?

Still not good enough ?

[voyageur]

The citizens of Poland have the world's highest count of individuals who have been recognized by Yad Vashem of Jerusalem as the Polish Righteous Among the Nations, for saving Jews from extermination during the Holocaust in World War II. There are 7, 112 (as of 1 January 2020) Polish men and women recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, over a quarter of the 27, 712 recognized by Yad Vashem in total.

[nina-ciara]

I found this hilariously, ludicrously indecent that Poland is called anti-semitic. In UK, when I am based, Jewish politicians were being driven out of the political party, just because they were Jewish. They are being abused to the level of absurd. Schools and synagogues are being guarded by privately-hired guards, so the children and observants are feeling safe there.. Anti-semitic incidents are a daily occurrence. The casual diner-conversation revolving around "jewish problem". It seems to me that there is a diabolic agenda behind calling Poland anti-Semitic. What could this be? Follow the

[EzraB]

I'm Jewish and I love Poland and the Polish people.

[aneta]

I am born and raised in Warsaw, over the past decade or so I am so happy to see the return of Jewish culture in my city.

[annecohen]

I will never understand why my mom didn't want to go to visit Poland even though her extended families were killed by the nazis. My brother visited Poland and he liked it. I never went there because I don't know the language that well, and its expensive to travel to Warsaw, especially where my mom was from. The only way to experience life in Poland is to go on you tube. I will remember the Polish cakes my maternal grandmother brought from the little Polish community in New York City. Before she passed away, she was always telling me how her father led the Polish Army as they fought against the Russians. My grandfather who was supposed to be a surgeon, ended up in dentistry instead. I feel miserable by not visiting Poland, and the fact that my mom never really understood her country.

[karinstevens]

This is so well done. Beautiful, compliments to the people that made this video!

[JJ-gwew]

DW should do a document about german-jewish relationship, I have heard there is lots to say.

[HistoryonYouTube]

I was one of the first members of the reform (liberal) community in Warsaw more than twenty years ago. Whereas nearly everyone initially was an expat - mainly from the US. However within a short time, the majority of people were locals. I think that the support given from the Lauder Foundation, which financially supports the orthodox shown here, was essential in creating a reform synagogue.

[bezkolana]

The majority of Jews in prewar Europe resided in eastern Europe. The largest Jewish communities in this area were in Poland, with about 3, 000, 000 Jews (9.5%); the European part of the Soviet Union, with 2, 525, 000 (3.4%); and Romania, with 756, 000 (4.2%). The Jewish population in the three Baltic states totaled 255, 000: 95, 600 in Latvia, 155, 000 in Lithuania, and 4, 560 in Estonia. Here, Jews comprised 4.9%, 7.6%, and 0.4% of each country's population, respectively, and 5% of the region's total population
Central Europe
In prewar central Europe, the largest Jewish community was in Germany, with about 525, 000 members (0.75% of the total German population). This was followed by Hungary with 445, 000 (5.1%), Czechoslovakia with 357, 000 (2.4%), and Austria with 191, 000, most of whom resided in the capital city of Vienna (2.8%).

[tezja]

Wow! Deutsche Welle didint write that these camps were polish. I see a progress
, good job!

[kitarvin]

The Rabbi often plays a vital role in ensuring the community continues to practice the Jewish norms and values.

The Jewish community in Kaifeng, China has gradually lost touch with its cultural and religious identities after the last Rabbi retired from his work in the mid of the 19th century.

[magdaciwis]

In this movie few times guys mentioned, how Jewish were saved, hiding somewhere (where?), taken by someone (by whom?). Who do you think was helping them despite the death penalty for any simple help to Jews? This video gives a lot of awful unjust. Polish are not saints, communist destroyed a lot... (BTW thanks USA and UK for selling us for another occupation yeah, it was great!) but gosh, their words are hurting me. I have never said anything bad about Jewish and Jewish culture. I love them and I am happy that they are in Poland, it makes my country more colourful. But, everything in this video is very harsh. Is it made like that on purpose so people all over the world would be thinking about us as resist and Anti-semites...?

[PeterKruchowski]

My family hid they were Jewish. Left Poland before WWII. But nobody would hire a Polish accountant. So, my grandfather advertised his Jewishness, they would hire a Jewish accountant.

[JacquesCukierkorn]

One may wonder: Is the rabbi really this nice or is he playing to the camera? I met Rabbi Shudrick in Warsaw and can attest that he is truly a wonderful person and religious leader.
This is a great documentary that does justice to the rabbi and all he has accomplished!

[agsi]

If jewish people were not happy In Poland they will not live here for centures.During war not only jewish people have been killled, although everyone talks only about jews.Polish people were taken to Syberia by russians, killed by germans.During communism we were occupied, we were not free for next 40 years after the war, we were sold by all our allies to Russia.Our solgiers were taken to prison by russians, tortured And killed.We dont need to be saints, In every nation there are some bad people.But after the war jewish people were helped by West And Poland was sold by the West to Russia.

[willsofer]

This is an excellent documentary. Well done!
Honestly, I'm surprised that you haven't turned off the comments... Either you have excellent moderators, or I should have more faith in people to be civil, than I usually do.

[JerzyFeliksKlein]

I found the documentary slightly misleading. Not necessarily intentionally but giving a slightly inaccurate picture.
1. There have been Jews living in Poland, observing their holidays and living their religious life, even if in private. It's not like Polish Jews lived in a limbo before Rabbi Michael Schudrich arrived. There is book by a Polish Jew Henryk Grynberg called Refugees where he mentions some of the life of Polish Jewry at around 60's, early 70's.
2. Poland, or the area of former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which covered much greater area than modern day Poland, which included Lithuania, parts of Belarus and Ukraine was a place where 80% of all Jewry worldwide lived. Jews have settled there because they were less persecuted there than anywhere else. Chances are if you're Jewish you have some Polish roots.
3. There is fascism on the rise in Poland but I don't know how much it affects the Jews. When I recently spoke to a friend in Paris she mentioned that over there there is police guarding synagogues where you don't see that level of protection in Poland - at least in the past there was no need for it.
4. If you're interested in the post war history and culture of Polish Jews I strongly recommend reading one of Henryk Gryndberg's boos.

[Accordion]

It was a Jewish woman ( Ruth) that sponsored my Polish grandmother to come to America. The relationship between Jews and Poles was probably most tainted during the Nazi occupation of Poland. While some Poles collaborated with the Germans other Poles risked their lives to shelter Jews from Nazi persecution. Sadly there was not always a more balanced revelation of Polish- Jewish relations during this occupation. Shalom