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10,000 ISRAELIS READY TO CLAIM FOR POLISH CITIZENSHIP AND POLISH LAND! [628]
About why some Jews were attracted to communism: In the 19th and 20th century, all of eastern europe was developing national awareness, based on ethnicity. So Polish nationalism centered around the Polish ethnic group and Catholicism (Polska dla Polakow!). Ukrainian nationalism centered around the Ukrainian ethnic group and their religion, hungarians, lithuanians, etc the same. Jews were squeezed out by this. They had no specific territory to become independent in. The other nationalisms defined themselves in opposition to the Jews. That's why Jews in Austro-Hungary were patriotic for the empire because that framework gave them a chance for a decent life, while ethnic patriotism left them out. But in Czarist Russia the government was blatantly anti-Jewish so the Jews couldn't root for them. What framework could Jews hope for (except emigrating to the US)?
Some felt that the only hope was our own national home in the only territory we had ties to: Israel. Others fell for the dream of a Europe without nationalism, where the "working class" would unite all people regardless of ethnicity and bring equality and freedom. The Jews who joined this movement did so in an attempt to erase their "separateness" and be not Jewish both in the religions AND the ethnic sense. This turned out to be a fake dream because the leaders, Lenin, Stalin and their henchmen, were interested in power and were no less ruthless than the czar. Stalin especially used anti-semitism as a tool whenever it suited him.
Pretty soon, most Jews became disillusioned. But some became enthusiastic participants. Among their victims were the Zionists, the Jewish labor movement (the Bund) and the masses of religious Jews. It's ironic and unjust that the crimes of these communists are blamed on the nation that they attempted to escape from.
You say that to blame the Polish nation for the crimes of individuals would be unjust as well. That's true particularly if those crimes were done against the interests and the feelings of the Polish nation, like those who collaborated with the germans. But the crimes of some Polish groups, such as the Endec before the war and the AK during the war, who both targeted Jews, even while fighting the Germans, were done in the name of Polish patriotism. Was this what Poles really wanted? The massacre at Kielce after the war seemed to say that it was. So Jews got the impression that after all they and the Poles went through during the war, nothing had changed. It was still "Polska dla Polakow" and certainly not a place for Jews to remain. Even though a new generation has grown up meanwhile among both peoples, it's an impression that takes a long time to fade away.
