Heirs to a long tradition of antisemitism, many Poles collaborated with the Nazis, betraying their Jewish friends and neighbors.
Others feared the Nazi death sentence levied against any who hid Jews. Antisemitic attitudes had taken on a new cast in 1918 to 1920, when Poland struggled for independence from Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and began to establish a capitalist economy. The combination of nationalism and economic ambition cast Jews not merely as outsiders, but as competitors. In the years leading up to World War II, then, Polish Jews grew increasingly marginalized. Here, a Pole in the town of Swierze literally carries a Jewish woman to the Gestapo.
Photo: Ita Spiller / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
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