The Generation: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Communists of Poland (Societies and Culture in East-Central Europe, No 5) Summary and Reviews

The Generation: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Communists of Poland (Societies and Culture in East-Central Europe, No 5)
by Jaff Schatz

The Generation: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Communists of Poland (Societies and Culture in East-Central Europe, No 5)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Jaff Schatz
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1991-06-25
ISBN: 0520071360
Number of pages: 426
Publisher: University of California Press

Book Reviews of The Generation: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Communists of Poland (Societies and Culture in East-Central Europe, No 5)

Book Review: A rebuttal to Mr. Peczkis
Summary: 3 Stars

This review is largely a rebuttal, of sorts, to the review already posted. It is quite obvious from Mr. Peczkis's tone that he identifies with many Poles who were incensed by Jan Blonski's much-needed 1987 article "The Poor Poles Look at the Ghetto" and by Jan Tomasz Gross's monumental work, Neighbors. Apparently Mr. Peczkis would like to pin all of Poland's communist-era woes on the handful of Jewish party members who possessed real power, without acknowledging the fact that by the 1960s Polish Jews suffered enormous repression at the hands of the Polish Communist govt., including loss of power within the party, and that by and large the history of Polish communism is that of a state governed--and, yes, supported--by ethnic Poles. Iy hardly needs be mentioned that Gomulka, Gierek, Moczar,and Jaruzelski were all proud members of the Polish nation, or that the quite blatantly antisemitic "anti-Zionist" campaign of the 1960s belies the reality of so-called Polish Jewish Zydokomuna.
Mr. Peczkis even goes so far as to anglicize Jan Tomasz Gross's middle name to Thomas, perhaps as a subtle (or not, but puerile nonetheless) method of questioning Gross's Polishness. Surely it is a sorry sign that Amazon allows such antisemitic rhetoric, dressed up in the guise of objective criticism, to appear on its website.

As for the merits of the above book, it is competent and made good use of the sources which were available at the time, but is somehwat dry in its prose, and perhaps in an effort to be objective does not make stronger, more conclusive arguments of the kind scholars look for, but if read in conjunction with Marci Shore's new monograph Caviar and Ashes: A Warsaw Generation's Life and Death in Marxism, 1918-1968, the reader is treated to an enlightening narrative as to the reasons why a small group of Polish Jewish intellectuals found in Marxism a key to a better life. That they were sorely disappointed later, and indeed in many cases were broken by the beast they helped to create, is one of the twentieth century's more bitter ironies.

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