Mick Hartley

The release of a new report from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (discussed by Jonathan Sacerdoti at Harry's Place) brings back into focus the old old story of anti-Semitism in Europe – a story that never seems to go away.

I'm currently reading Keith Lowe's book on the aftermath of World War 2, Savage Continent, and one of the most striking points so far (I'm just over halfway through) concerns the fate of the Jews immediately after the German surrender. Of course I was aware that things were not easy: that a continent only just made aware of the appalling crimes against the Jewish people committed by the Nazis, and generally in not much better than a state of lawless anarchy, was in no hurry to make amends. But the sheer continuing extent and virulence of anti-Semitic attacks still takes the breath away. It was this, almost as much as the Holocaust itself, which made so many of the surviving Jews decide to head either for the US or, even more, to Palestine, in the belief that their future in Europe would never be secure. 

In Poland – perhaps the worst but by non means the only case – the Jews had suffered most, and yet after the war the word quickly spread to those Polish Jews who'd survived the camps: don't go back. Don't even think of going back. The Kielce pogrom was perhaps the best known, but such a brutal anti-Semitic outrage by the local population was just one of many. The barbarism of the previous years had allowed the ancient hatreds to rise to the surface.

Here's the relevant section at Amazon. Roman Halter's account of his experience as an eighteen-year-old returnee gives a flavour of the times. For the rest, well – read the book.