As described in Thoughts from The Frontier: Jacob Lestschinsky, Demographer and Scholar, this essay – “The Fate of Six Million”, from July of 1938 – is the second of Lestschinsky’s six writings published in the Jewish Frontier from the late 1930s through 1948.
The previous essay is:
The Jews of Central Europe – June, 1938
The subsequent four essays are:
Jews in Baltic Lands – August, 1938
In Fascist Rumania – September, 1938
Terror in Polish Universities – April, 1939
Jewish Expressions in the U.S.S.R. – December, 1948
Being that this essay deals with the history of Polish Jewry, Dr. Ruth R. Wisse’s Mosaic essay from December of 2015 – Jews and Other Poles – is highly relevant, for it unflinchingly explores the complicated intersection between the past and the present.
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The above cited facts combine into a horrifying picture
of the hopeless future facing Polish Jewry.
The situation is such while theoretically they still enjoy equal rights.
No explicit anti-Jewish laws have been enacted yet
and the process of displacement has not yet been organized on a governmental scale.
The evil must therefore be recognized before it has attained its final growth.
Even the present economic displacement is better than complete economic expulsion
which would be tantamount to expulsion from the country.
______________________________
The Fate of Six Million
July, 1938
THE 3 ¼ MILLION Jews that live in Poland constitute one-fifth of the Jewish population of the world but culturally and nationally Polish Jewry is of even greater importance than its numerical strength would lead one to believe. Polish Jewry is today the greatest reservoir of organic, throbbing Jewish life; it not only preserves the heritage of the past but it also grows and becomes rejuvenated. Compared with the poverty of our national life in other parts of the globe, Polish Jewry is still – despite its economic deterioration – a fertile source of stimulation to Jews throughout the world.
The total population of Poland today is 34 ½ million. This figure marks an increase of 8 million people during the past 20 years. During the same period the population of Great Britain increased only by 3 million and British laborers earn on the average three times as much as Polish workers. In the past eight years the Polish population increased ten per cent while production in the country decreased 12% during the same time.
The poverty of the peasantry and the laboring masses in Poland is well known and even those fortunate enough to be officials find themselves in straitened circumstances. Most of the officials earn less than 30 zloty a week (six dollars) yet this salary is high when compared with the earnings of the workers and especially of craftsmen who work at home. The latter constitute a high percentage among the Jews and in Warsaw they make up 80% of the 75,000 Jewish workers of that city.
On the basis of information gleaned from various sources we obtain the following picture of the economic situation of Polish Jewry. 1,240,000 Jews (38%) are dependent on relief. These constitute the lowest stratum of the Jewish economic pyramid. About half of this number are totally dependent on relief while the other half earn only enough for some of the barest necessities and must fall back on outside help to obtain clothes and to pay for medical aid in case of sickness. These families never have enough food and during the winter they suffer from cold. Usually such families possess only one pair of shoes and one overcoat that is used alternately by all the children. Children of ten years help at home and in the store and children of 12 years already look for work. This section of the population provides cheap labor that can compete with coolies. The shops are crowded with children of from 12 to 15 years of age who depress the wage level and hinder the struggle for better working conditions.
The second stratum of Polish Jewish economic pyramid contains about one million Jews who barely eke out an existence. They do not require outside aid but they are unable to pay to the community council even the small annual tax of ten zloty (two dollars) and most of them only pay half that sum. Even minor economic dislocations make them dependent on relief. They live in inadequate houses and meat is a rare item in their diet. Often they require the assistance of loan societies. The younger people see no future for themselves and are anxious to leave their homes at the earliest opportunity. They provide the largest contingent of candidates for emigration. They are ready to migrate anywhere only to escape their hopeless situation. This youth provides the bulk of the Jewish Communists who are ready to risk their lives in the Polish prisons; the ranks of the Chalutzim who are ready to engage in the most difficult labor in preparation for a new, even though difficult and dangerous, life in Palestine are also recruited from this element. An aim in life and useful work is uppermost in their minds. Sons of artisans and store keepers, these young people are not so hungry but that they still have energy left to participate in political parties and to plan for the future, but they are desperate enough to risk their lives for a higher purpose in life. This group therefore provides many idealists and people ready for self sacrifice.
The upper economic stratum contains about one million Jews who are well situated. About fifty thousand of these can be considered wealthy and they enjoy a comfortable and even luxurious life.
The distribution of the Jewish population in Poland in the various economic pursuits can give us an insight into their prospects for the future. One million Jews engage in commerce. Half of these are peddlers and small store keepers; 250,000 are employed in commercial establishments and the remaining 250,000 operate medium and large scale business enterprises.
About half a million Jews engaging in commerce and threatened with economic ruin. No less than 50,000 small stores and open air stands were opened by Poles during the past five years. The number of Jewish stores in the villages is decreasing, and from some villages they were banished altogether. Jews were murdered in more than forty Polish villages during the past two years and in such instances the remaining Jews flee the village. In some villages the peasants showed their kindness to their Jewish neighbors by helping them to load their possessions on wagons and then escorting them – with a hail of stones.
An investigation conducted in thirty villages in eastern Galicia disclosed the following situation: 134 Jewish families lived in these villages in 1932; only 77 families remained in 1937. In 1932 Jews owned 62 stores but they owned only 16 stores in 1937. Poles increased the number of their stores from 14 in 1932 to 112 in 1937. In place of the 46 Jewish stores that were closed there appeared 65 stores owned by Poles. These figures are illuminating in that they indicate that there has appeared an element in the Polish villages which is forced to turn to commerce despite the decline in business.
It has been pointed out before that an estimated 8 million Polish villages are forced to turn to urban trades and to commerce. Only a small number of these turn to commerce but the Polis merchants receive credits from government and municipal banks. The boycott committees picketing the Jewish stores also aid the Polish store keepers to dislodge their competitors. The constant riots primarily affect the Jewish peddlers and small business men. We will admit, however, that even without pogroms and boycott pickets Jews would be displaced from business although at a much slower pace. The situation of the small merchants is desperate and the day is not far off when even the medium and wholesale Jewish dealers will be affected.
The younger generation of the business class has despaired of commerce and is dreaming of emigration, of factory work and even of difficult unskilled work. Of course we should not bemoan this tendency to leave trade for labor but the fact remains that of those displaced from commerce not more than one out of ten succeeds in finding employment. In the coming decade additional tens of thousands of Jews will probably be displaced from business without being able to gain a foothold in other economic fields in Poland. Other hundreds of thousands will remain in their small stores without earning a livelihood. These masses will seek come escape, for their children if not for themselves. This fact is becoming clear to everyone who looks at the situation and who realizes the process of pauperization and displacement to which the Polish Jews are subjected.
About 1,250,000 Jews engages in handicrafts, factory work and unskilled labor. Although they too suffer from anti-Jewish laws whose aim it is to replace them with Poles, their position is never the less superior to that of the merchants. The process of displacement is more difficult in the trades due to the fact that years must pass before new men can acquire the necessary skill. Petty industry, most of which is in Jewish hands, constitutes an involved economic field. One who engages in it must be able to obtain some capital and then to find a market for his products. The danger to the Jews in this economic field is therefore small, and it is a fact that the number of Jews engaged in petty industrial production has increased. But the number of those seeking a foothold in this field is ten fold the number of those that can be absorbed. Competition increases and assumes pathological forms. The market is flooded with boys and girls who earn about $1.50 a week. The number of Jewish workers has greatly increased during recent years but I doubt whether their total earnings exceed the earnings of the Jewish workers of ten years ago when their number was much smaller. If there were possibilities for the emigration of tens of thousands of workers, then the conditions in this field would improve and it could absorb new workers although it could never satisfy the needs of all the masses of Jews who are being displaced from other economic pursuits. We must bear in mind, however, that in the Polish villages Jewish artisans as well as businessmen are displaced. Poles have learned to sew the clothes of the peasants and the government is encouraging this movement through the establishment of trade schools to train Poles.
The situation in the professions is tragic. Jewish lawyers suffer hunger and many of them leave their professions for common labor after years of struggle. Some Jewish doctors in Lodz charge no more than 40 cents a visit. All hope and prospects in the professions is gone. The number of Jewish students has decreased from 10,000 to 5,000 during the past decade while the number of non-Jewish students has increased by 12,000. Most of the Jewish engineers are unemployed while the Jewish journalists, authors and poets are literally starving. No Polish newspaper will employ a Jew and recently the most widely read Polish newspaper discharged all its Jewish employees. No Jew has an opportunity to engage in scientific work nor may he receive the title of professor in Poland. Those who engage in Jewish research work do not earn enough for their sustenance. All branches of the sciences and arts are closed to the Jews of Poland.
The above cited facts combine into a horrifying picture of the hopeless future facing Polish Jewry. The situation is such while theoretically they still enjoy equal rights. No explicit anti-Jewish laws have been enacted yet and the process of displacement has not yet been organized on a governmental scale. The evil must therefore be recognized before it has attained its final growth. Even the present economic displacement is better than complete economic expulsion which would be tantamount to expulsion from the country.