Fear and Paranoia in the Shtetl. Jews Visiting Jewish Spaces in Communist Poland

• In Event: Jewish Travel and Tourism in the Modern Era

Abstract

This paper focuses on the phenomenon of Jews visiting and exploring abandoned Jewish sites in their ancestral Polish hometowns during the 1960s-1980s. For many Jews around the world, both first- and second-generation Holocaust survivors, the appearance of decayed and disintegrating Jewish heritage incarnated the almost total devastation of Jewish culture, and they were traveling to Communist Poland on emotional journeys of remembrance to salvage the desolate and obliterated sites of their forefathers. Drawing on documents of state and municipal authorities in the Polish People’s Republic, as well as files of the secret security services, this paper shows how these visits strengthened the suspicious and dubious atmosphere surrounding Jewish spaces, evoking old concerns and insecurities among the local population. As I demonstrate, these visits also generated real policy changes at the highest levels of governance, often leading to international interventions that was met by the cautious and defensive attitude of state and local officials, who were becoming convinced that demonstrating a willingness to protect Jewish sites corresponded to Polish interests.

Author

• Yechiel Weizman, Bar Ilan University, Israel