The monograph by Marek Jan Chodkiewicz constitutes the utmost important supplement to the contemporary knowledge about the Polish – Jewish relations after the Second World War. The author picked up on the subject, (also approached by the newest publication by Jan T. Gross – “Fear”) in an innovative and nuanced manner. Chodakiewicz’s book, became the first outspoken voice in the scholarly dispute in America about the Polish-Jewish postwar relations. The author, resting his case on the various, little known sources, researched and described the viable examples of hostility and conflict between the Poles and the Jews. His greatest merit, revolves around the fact that he was able to carry out an sincere analysis of these ruthless times, at the same time rejecting the predominantly stereotypical anachronisms. He clearly demonstrated, that in the complex and tragic situation that Poland had found itself in after the war, shaped by essentially determining factors such as: the presence of Soviet occupational forces, the laxity in actions of the new, Moscow originated government, the self-defense of the independence underground, the mass expulsions of civilians, or the ever-present plague of crime, in the midst of which, the Polish-Jewish conflict was in fact one of a marginal character.
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (born 1962) is a history professor and an academic dean at The Institute of World Politics in Washington. He got his Ph.D. at Columbia University in New York. In the year 2005, the President of the United States of America appointed him as the member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He is an author of multiple publications, both in English as well as in Polish.
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