Essay On Jewish Discrimination In Poland

Jews are persecuted because they are a stateless people, because they do not have a country to call their own. Over thousands of years, Jews have been driven out of many countries, including France in 1182, Spain in 1492, and England in 1290. Many, after the expulsions, came to Poland, where life was generally better than most places in Europe at the time. There were no taxes on being Jewish, among other benefits. But even there, Jews were treated differently, and subjected to different laws. Over the centuries, as Poland was controlled by and divided among other ruling countries, each region was different, as they were not united. There was no Polish nation. But after World War I, Poland was reunited again, and nationalism abounded. Poles had their own country, and there was finally an “us”. And by default a “them”: the Jews. During times of great nationalism, Jews were viewed as not being a part of Poland- culturally, politically, and economically, and caring primarily for themselves. This caused the Polish people and government to discriminate against the Jews in many ways. When Jews first moved to Poland, they were kept separate from the Poles, in another social class. Because of this, they kept their own culture and customs, which were vastly different from polish customs. For example, they dressed differently, ate

One difference that affected everybody were jobs. Jews had different jobs, more often involved with finance and trade. So when something bad happened... “The cessation of commerce is particularly felt by the Jewish population” (“Fixes Blame”). This quote refers to a bad period in the polish economy, where prices doubled and Jews were blamed, because they were traders. This was unfair because it was not their fault. They suffered the most because most of the traders were Jews, not many were Poles, and they stopped making