[263] All other properties that had been confiscated by the Nazi regime were deemed "abandoned"; however, as Yechiel Weizman notes, the fact most of Poland's Jewry had died, in conjunction with the fact that only Jewish property was officially confiscated by the Nazis, suggest "abandoned property" was equivalent to "Jewish property". The fight against informers was organized by the Armia Krajowa (the Underground State's military arm), with the death sentence being meted out on a scale unknown in the occupied countries of Western Europe.[222]. Their religious beliefs spanned the range from Orthodox Hasidic Judaism to Liberal Judaism. Union of Jewish Religious Communities - 1795 (2020) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 1657 (2020) . Some 300 Jews were found hiding in the ruins in the Polish part of the city (see: Wladyslaw Szpilman). [64] Eight years later, triggered by the Confederation of Bar against Russian influence and the pro-Russian king, the outlying provinces of Poland were overrun from all sides by different military forces and divided for the first time by the three neighboring empires, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. [citation needed], The decade from the Khmelnytsky Uprising until after the Deluge (16481658) left a deep and lasting impression not only on the social life of the Polish-Lithuanian Jews, but on their spiritual life as well. Jewish communities responded to this violence by reporting the violence to the Ministry of Public Administration, but were granted little assistance. They made up about 50%, and in some cases even 70% of the population of smaller towns, especially in Eastern Poland. [286][287], The vast majority of the 40,000 Jews in Poland by the late 1960s were completely assimilated into the broader society. [26][253], After the war ended, Poland's Communist government enacted a broad program of nationalization and land reform, taking over large numbers of properties, both Polish- and Jewish-owned. When we invaded the Ghetto for the first time wrote SS commander Jrgen Stroop the Jews and the Polish bandits succeeded in repelling the participating units, including tanks and armored cars, by a well-prepared concentration of fire.
Polish citizenship by descent made easy The environment of the Polish Commonwealth, according to Hundert, profoundly affected Jews due to genuinely positive encounter with the Christian culture across the many cities and towns owned by the Polish aristocracy. The Kociuszko Insurrection (1794), November Insurrection (183031), January Insurrection (1863) and Revolutionary Movement of 1905 all saw significant Jewish involvement in the cause of Polish independence. [29][30] Most of the remaining Jews left Poland in late 1968 as the result of the "anti-Zionist" campaign. [180] Whatever initial enthusiasm for the Soviet occupation Jews might have felt was soon dissipated upon feeling the impact of the suppression of Jewish societal modes of life by the occupiers. A relic of Kazimierz's Golden Age", Szwedzi w Krakowie (The Swedes in Krakow), "Zrodla do badan przemian przestrzennych zachodnich przedmiesc Krakowa", "Timeline: Jewish life in Poland from 1098", When Nationalism Began to Hate: Imagining Modern Politics in Nineteenth-Century Poland. In 1530 a Torah was printed in Krakw; and at the end of the century the Jewish printing houses of that city and Lublin issued a large number of Jewish books, mainly of a religious character. But Polish Jews who wish to reclaim their Polish citizenship can do so by applying for the restoration of lost citizenship. In 1947, a military training camp for young Jewish volunteers to Hagana was established in Bolkw, Poland. Leonid Hurwicz was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics. Just after the end of World War I, the West became alarmed by reports about alleged massive pogroms in Poland against Jews. In 1923 the Jewish students constituted 62.9% of all students of stomatology, 34% of medical sciences, 29.2% of philosophy, 24.9% of chemistry and 22.1% of law (26% by 1929) at all Polish universities. A foreigner can apply to become a Polish citizen by applying for a presidential grant. Jewish printing establishments came into existence in the first quarter of the 16th century. +1 833 973
[email protected] About Benefits Requirements Procedure Passport Contact 0 Items Start Here Citizenship Checklist Citizenship Test Select Page Polish Citizenship by Descent Such schools were officially known as gymnasia, and their rabbi principals as rectors. In the 1881 outbreak, pogroms were primarily limited to Russia, although in a riot in Warsaw two Jews were killed, 24 others were wounded, women were raped and over two million rubles worth of property was destroyed. [240][bettersourceneeded] A developed network of bunkers and fortifications were formed. Beit Krakw Wstp do Judaizmu (Introduction to Judaism): "Korzenie" (Roots). [261][bettersourceneeded] The debate in Poland continues about the involvement of regular troops in the killings, and possible Soviet influences. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 800,000 Polish Jews survived the war, out of which between 50,000 and 100,000 were survivors from occupied Poland, and the remainder, survivors who made it abroad (mostly to the Soviet Union). Dia-Pozytyw: People, Biographical Profiles, "Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp Advice from a Tour Guide", "Emigration of Jewish people from Poland in 19451967", Patterns Of Anti-Jewish Violence In Poland, 19441946, Poland's Century: War, Communism and Anti-Semitism, "The Kielce pogrom as told by the eyewitness", The Plunder of Jewish Property during the Holocaust, "The polish debate on the holocaust and the restitution of property", "Restitution of Private Property in Postwar Poland: The Unfinished Legacy of the Second World War and Communism", Searching for Justice After the Holocaust: Fulfilling the Terezin Declaration and Immovable Property Restitution, "Poland's reclaimed properties create scars across Warsaw", The Chief Rabbi's View on Jews and Poland Michael Schudrich, "Jakub Berman's Papers Received at the Hoover Institution Archives", "Helena Wolinska-Brus: 19192008. The mass deportation of Jews from ghettos to these camps, such as happened at the Warsaw Ghetto, soon followed, and more than 1.7 million Jews were killed at the Aktion Reinhard camps by October 1943 alone. Hand-picked by Joseph Stalin, prominent Jews held posts in the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' Party including Jakub Berman, head of state security apparatus Urzd Bezpieczestwa (UB),[284] and Hilary Minc responsible for establishing a Communist-style economy.
Poles and Jews Before WWII Strategic Culture [300] As of 2019 another museum, the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, is under construction and is intended to open in 2023. [63], Yeshivot were established, under the direction of the rabbis, in the more prominent communities. [258] The incidents ranged from individual attacks to pogroms. See for example, the following works, which discuss Jewish life and culture, as well as Jewish-Christian relations during that period: M. Rosman, "In 1937, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs viewed the, Elusive Alliance: The German Occupation of Poland in World War I page 176 Jesse Kauffman 2015, A Deadly Legacy: German Jews and the Great War [248] Jews who escaped to eastern Poland from areas occupied by Germany in 1939 were numbering at around 198,000. [44] Under the rule of Wadysaw II, Polish Jews had increased in numbers and attained prosperity. "[266], For a variety of reasons, the vast majority of returning Jewish survivors left Poland soon after the war ended. [195][196] Rabbis were humiliated in "spectacles organised by the German soldiers and police" who used their rifle butts "to make these men dance in their praying shawls. [citation needed] The bulk of Jewish workers were organized in the Jewish trade unions under the influence of the Jewish socialists who split in 1923 to join the Communist Party of Poland and the Second International. There's a gotcha: if he naturalized as a US citizen before January 1951, his Polish citizenship would have been automatically revoked . The Litvaks, or Lithuanian Jews, have descended from the Germanic group of Ashkenazi Jews. According to the Moses Schorr Centre, there are 100,000 Jews living in Poland who don't actively practice Judaism and do not list "Jewish" as their nationality. Further disorder and anarchy reigned supreme in Poland during the second half of the 18th century, from the accession to the throne of its last king, Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski in 1764. 9.XII 1931 r. Mieszkania i gospodarstwa domowe ludno". After 1967's Six-Day War, in which the Soviet Union supported the Arab side, the Polish communist party adopted an anti-Jewish course of action which in the years 19681969 provoked the last mass migration of Jews from Poland. The Jewish fighters also received support from the Polish Underground (Armia Krajowa). The d Ghetto was the second largest, holding about 160,000 prisoners. religion, national origin, alienage, citizenship . More important were crafts for the needs of both their fellow Jews and the Christian population (fur making, tanning, tailoring).[34]. Others wanted to go to British Mandate of Palestine soon to be the new state of Israel, especially after General Marian Spychalski signed a decree allowing Jews to leave Poland without visas or exit permits. ", "The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland of 19671968. [118], While the average per capita income of Polish Jews in 1929 was 40% above the national average which was very low compared to England or Germany they were a very heterogeneous community, some poor, some wealthy. The German general Jrgen Stroop in his report stated that his troops had killed 6,065 Jewish fighters during the battle. Under penalty of death, he prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children for the purpose of enforced Christian baptism. In 1938 there were approximately 50,000 Jews with Polish citizenship living in Germany. Michael Perlmutter, 44, is an exception. [221] The extortionists were condemned by the Polish Underground State. The Germans closed off the Ghetto from the outside world, building a wall around it by 16 November 1940. His brother Israel Joshua Singer was also a writer. Champions of Haskalah, the Maskilim, pushed for assimilation and integration into Russian culture. Polish Jewry found its views of life shaped by the spirit of Talmudic and rabbinical literature, whose influence was felt in the home, in school, and in the synagogue. Post-war labor certificates contained markings distinguishing Jews from non-Jews. A national movement to prevent the Jews from kosher slaughter of animals, with animal rights as the stated motivation, was also organized. Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, "Poland made many appeals on this matter in the. The Pale of Settlement (Russian: , chert osdlosti, Yiddish: -, tkhum-ha-moyshv, Hebrew: , tm ha-moshv) was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited. There, it was reinforced by a considerable number of Polish bandits. Scholars and historical institutions from around the world are coming to the defense of a Polish researcher who is under fire from her country's authorities after claiming that Poles could have done more to help Jews during the Holocaust. [153] One hundred thirty thousand soldiers of Jewish descent, including Boruch Steinberg, Chief Rabbi of the Polish Military, served in the Polish Army at the outbreak of the Second World War,[154] thus being among the first to launch armed resistance against Nazi Germany. It took the Germans twenty-seven days to put down the uprising, after some very heavy fighting. In Majdanek, after another screening for ability to work, they were transported to the Poniatowa, Blizyn, or Auschwitz camps. [290], There were several outcomes of the March 1968 events. [242] Many died from hunger, starvation, disease, torture or by pseudo-medical experiments. [234] During the next fifty-two days (until 12 September 1942) about 300,000 people were transported by freight train to the Treblinka extermination camp. Yet another Jewish official, Jzef wiato, after escaping to the West in 1953, exposed through Radio Free Europe the interrogation methods used the UB which led to its restructuring in 1954. [101][102][97], Besides the persistent effects of the Great Depression, the strengthening of antisemitism in Polish society was also a consequence of the influence of Nazi Germany. Accusations of blood libel by another fanatic priest led to the riots in Krakw in 1407, although the royal guard hastened to the rescue. Polish citizenship by descent in 10 steps. Stara Synagoga ("Old Synagogue") in Krakw, which hosts a Jewish museum, was built in the early 15th century and is the oldest synagogue in Poland. Remember that children over 16 must first consent to the acquisition of Polish citizenship. [123] In 1937 the Catholic trade unions of Polish doctors and lawyers restricted their new members to Christian Poles. A Polish-Jewish footballer, Jzef Klotz, scored the first ever goal for the Poland national football team. Tremendous Polish tourism (and income) is from Jews who come to see what once existed and was wiped out in five years. [64] The Commonwealth lost 30% of its land during the annexations of 1772, and even more of its peoples. [235] The OB had more than 750 fighters, but lacked weapons; they had only 9 rifles, 59 pistols and several grenades. The Fate of the European Jews, 19391945: Continuity Or Contingency? [166][unreliable source? The lawyers claim that the general public. Anti-Jewish riots spread across Poland. A number of Jewish soldiers died also when liberating Bologna. [citation needed], In this time of mysticism and overly formal Rabbinism came the teachings of Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or BeShT, (16981760), which had a profound effect on the Jews of Eastern Europe and Poland in particular. [170][176] Other historians have indicated that the level of Jewish collaboration could well have been less than suggested. This was the only example in modern Europe before the French Revolution of tolerance and broadmindedness in dealing with the Jewish question. At the same time, the Kabbalah had become entrenched under the protection of Rabbinism; and such scholars as Mordecai Jaffe and Yoel Sirkis devoted themselves to its study. [280], Between 1945 and 1948, 100,000120,000 Jews left Poland. Scientist Leopold Infeld, mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, Alfred Tarski, and professor Adam Ulam contributed to the world of science. Those deemed fit to work were sent to the Majdanek camp. There are also several Jewish publications although most of them are in Polish. Their departure was largely organized by the Zionist activists including Adolf Berman and Icchak Cukierman, under the umbrella of a semi-clandestine Berihah ("Flight") organization. [137] Violence was also frequently aimed at Jewish stores, and many of them were looted.
The expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany | Holocaust Herschel Grynszpan - Wikipedia Poles and Jews in the struggle for independence, 1918 - 1948 [214], The German Nazis established six extermination camps throughout occupied Poland by 1942. [226] In this way Germans applied the principle of collective responsibility whose purpose was to encourage neighbors to inform on each other in order to avoid punishment. The majority of Polish Jewish survivors were individuals who were able to find refuge in the territories of Soviet Union that were not overrun by Germans and thus safe from the Holocaust. [51] By 1551, Jews were given permission to choose their own Chief Rabbi. Both organizations resisted, with arms, German attempts for additional deportations to Auschwitz and Treblinka. German forces and local police auxiliaries surrounded the ghetto and began to round up Jews systematically for deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp. In July 1939 the pro-government Gazeta Polska wrote, "The fact that our relations with the Reich are worsening does not in the least deactivate our program in the Jewish questionthere is not and cannot be any common ground between our internal Jewish problem and Poland's relations with the Hitlerite Reich. The Warsaw Ghetto Memorial was unveiled on 19 April 1948the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw ghetto Uprising. Indeed, with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Poland became the recognized haven for exiles from Western Europe; and the resulting accession to the ranks of Polish Jewry made it the cultural and spiritual center of the Jewish people. [281] Berihah was also responsible for the organized Aliyah emigration of Jews from Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Poland, totaling 250,000 survivors. [235][239] The ZW (Jewish Military Union) was the better supplied in arms. Pogroms continued until 1884, with at least tacit government approval. The birth can be either within Poland or outside of Poland. By the time World War II began, Poland had the largest concentration of Jews in Europe although many Polish Jews had a separate culture and ethnic identity from Catholic Poles. [189] Rabbis were forced to dance and sing in public with their beards shorn off. Since the Nazi terror reigned throughout the Aryan districts, the chances of remaining successfully hidden depended on a fluent knowledge of the language and on having close ties with the community. The intellectual output of the Jews of Poland was reduced. For example, Wolczko of Drohobycz, King Ladislaus Jagieo's broker, was the owner of several villages in the Ruthenian voivodship and the soltys (administrator) of the village of Werbiz. One-fifth of the Polish population perished during World War II; the 3,000,000 Polish Jews murdered in the Holocaust, who constituted 90% of Polish Jewry, made up half of all Poles killed during the war. Additionally, it has been noted that some ethnic Poles were as prominent as Jews in filling civil and police positions in the occupation administration, and that Jews, both civilians and in the Polish military, suffered equally at the hands of the Soviet occupiers. "Jewish Responses to Antisemitism in Poland, 19441947. One of the largest of these parties was the Bund, which was strongest in Warsaw and Lodz. All of these at Chemno (Kulmhof), Beec, Sobibr, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz (Owicim) were located near the rail network so that the victims could be easily transported. [122], Although many Jews were educated, they were almost completely excluded from government jobs; as a result, the proportion of unemployed Jewish salary earners was approximately four times as great in 1929 as the proportion of unemployed non-Jewish salary earners, a situation compounded by the fact that almost no Jews were on government support. There are three ways of acquiring Polish citizenship: 1. His election was bought by Catherine the Great for 2.5 million rubles, with the Russian army stationing only 5 kilometres (3mi) away from Warsaw. The Soviet ruble of little value was immediately equalized to the much higher Polish zloty and by the end of 1939, zloty was abolished. These developments contributed to a greater support among the Jewish community for Zionist and socialist ideas. [188], In 1939 several hundred synagogues were blown up or burned by the Germans, who sometimes forced the Jews to do it themselves. [167][170], While most eastern Poles consolidated themselves around the anti-Soviet sentiments,[171] a portion of the Jewish population, along with the ethnic Belarusian and Ukrainian activists had welcomed invading Soviet forces as their protectors. He inflicted heavy punishment for the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. With funds from the city of Warsaw and the Polish government ($26 million total) a Museum of the History of Polish Jews is being built in Warsaw. The process of seeking Polish citizenship involves the collection of many documents through digital archives, dusted-off family documents, and municipal registries.
How Poland's Jewish Community Is Emerging from the Shadow of its - Time According to Irgun activists, the Polish state supplied the organisation with 25,000 rifles, additional material and weapons, and by summer 1939 Irgun's Warsaw warehouses held 5,000 rifles and 1,000 machine guns. He was equally successful in his battles against the Russians. Jewish Cemetery, d is one of the largest Jewish burial grounds in Europe, and preserved historic sites include those located in Gra Kalwaria and Leajsk (Elimelech's of Lizhensk ohel). [34] The first permanent Jewish community is mentioned in 1085 by a Jewish scholar Jehuda ha-Kohen in the city of Przemyl. The assassination prompted a large-scale wave of anti-Jewish riots, called pogroms (Russian: ;) throughout 18811884. The Judaica Foundation in Krakw has sponsored a wide range of cultural and educational programs on Jewish themes for a predominantly Polish audience. . Confirmation of Polish citizenship occurs after the Polish government issues a decision on your behalf. Under the Polish Citizenship Act, Polish citizens of Jewish descent who emigrated to Israel and acquired Israeli citizenship by the Law of Return between 1958 and 1984, lost their Polish citizenship automatically. [60] By 1764, there were about 750,000 Jews in the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth. You can then apply for your Polish passport. According to Jewish survivors, ethnic Poles did not participate in the pogrom and instead sheltered Jewish families.[74]. The population of the ghetto reached 380,000 people by the end of 1940, about 30% of the population of Warsaw. As a result, according to the 1931 census, 79% of the Jews declared Yiddish as their first language, and only 12% listed Polish, with the remaining 9% being Hebrew. Further information on the Garrison schools for male children: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: 15721795, The development of Judaism in Poland and the Commonwealth, Jews of Poland within the Russian Empire (17951918), Polish Jews and the struggle for Poland's independence, Between antisemitism and support for Zionism and Jewish state in Palestine, World War II and the destruction of Polish Jewry (193945), Territories annexed by the USSR (19391941), The March 1968 events and their aftermath, Historical core Jewish population (using current borders) with Jews as a% of the total Polish population. During the school year of 19371938 there were 226 elementary schools [98] and twelve high schools as well as fourteen vocational schools with either Yiddish or Hebrew as the instructional language. If despite this a Jew should be accused of murdering a Christian child, such charge must be sustained by testimony of three Christians and three Jews. Jews came to form the backbone of the Polish economy. Following the investigation, the local police commander was found guilty of inaction. The Polish government permitted the Rabbinate to grow in power, to use it for tax collection purposes. In 2013, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews opened. Polish authors and scholars have published many works about the history of Jews in Poland.
Permanent residence through "Polish origin" : r/poland - Reddit The existing status quo was shattered with the assassination of Alexander in 1881 an act falsely blamed upon the Jews. The growth of Talmudic scholarship in Poland was coincident with the greater prosperity of the Polish Jews; and because of their communal autonomy educational development was wholly one-sided and along Talmudic lines. Zionism became very popular with the advent of the Poale Zion socialist party as well as the religious Polish Mizrahi, and the increasingly popular General Zionists. [249] Over 150,000 of them were repatriated or expelled back to new communist Poland along with the Jewish men conscripted to the Red Army from Kresy in 19401941. Despite these terror tactics, attempts at escape from ghettos continued until their liquidation.[167]. Following the German-Polish non-aggression pact of 1934, the antisemitic tropes of Nazi propaganda had become more common in Polish politics, where they were echoed by the National Democratic movement. Only New York City had more Jewish residents than Warsaw. The nature of these policies was widely known and visibly publicized by the Nazis who sought to terrorize the Polish population. The training and support by Poland would allow the organisation to mobilise 30,000-40,000 men. We maintain and continue to grow a comprehensive online database of surviving records to preserve and share their contents with the global Jewish community tracing their family roots in Poland. "The Polish government was committed to the Zionist option in its own Jewish policy and maintained good relations with Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionist, rather than with the Majority Zionists. For example, they could maintain communal autonomy, and live according to their own laws. One of its founders and chief ideologue Roman Dmowski was obsessed with an international conspiracy of freemasons and Jews, and in his works linked Marxism with Judaism. [9][10][11] In the 16h and 17th centuries, Poland welcomed Jewish immigrants from Italy, as well as Sephardi Jews and Romaniote Jews migrating there from the Ottoman Empire. [83] In the Lww (Lviv) pogrom, which occurred in 1918 during the PolishUkrainian War of independence a day after the Poles captured Lviv from the Sich Riflemen the report concluded 64 Jews had been killed (other accounts put the number at 72). [116], With the influence of the Endecja (National Democracy) party growing, antisemitism gathered new momentum in Poland and was most felt in smaller towns and in spheres in which Jews came into direct contact with Poles, such as in Polish schools or on the sports field. [218] Many Jews tried to escape from the ghettos in the hope of finding a place to hide outside of it, or of joining the partisan units. Warsaw has an active synagogue, Beit Warszawa, affiliated with the Liberal-Progressive stream of Judaism. The following eight or nine decades of material prosperity and relative security experienced by Polish Jews wrote Professor Gershon Hundert witnessed the appearance of "a virtual galaxy of sparkling intellectual figures." [193] On the street, Jews had to lift their hat to passing Germans. In the summer of 965 or 966, Jacob made a trade and diplomatic journey from his native Toledo in Muslim Spain to the Holy Roman Empire and then to the Slavic countries. [145] Ultimately this proved impossible and illusory, as it lacked both general Jewish and international support. [247] At the end of 1944, the number of Polish Jews in the Soviet and the Soviet-controlled territories has been estimated at 250,000300,000 people. In this period Poland-Lithuania became the main center for Ashkenazi Jewry and its yeshivot achieved fame from the early 16th century. The leaders of the Communist party tried to stifle the ongoing protests and unrest by scapegoating the Jews. Initially, almost 140,000 Jews were moved into the ghetto from all parts of Warsaw. Indiana University Press, 1983. [220] Many Jews spoke Polish with a distinct Yiddish or Hebrew accent, used a different nonverbal language, different gestures and facial expressions. [34], In the 14th and 15th centuries, rich Jewish merchants and moneylenders leased the royal mint, salt mines and the collecting of customs and tolls.
How to get Polish citizenship by descent - Nomad Capitalist In the ghettos, the population was separated by putting the Poles into the "Aryan Side" and the Polish Jews into the "Jewish Side". [269], "Movable" property such as housewares, that was either given by Jews for safekeeping or taken during the war, was rarely returned willfully; oftentimes the only resort for a returnee looking for reappropriation was the courts. The boot-camp existed until the end of 1948. In 19671971 under economic, political and secret police pressure, over 14,000 Polish Jews chose to leave Poland and relinquish their Polish citizenship. [71][72] The new czar, Alexander III, blamed the Jews for the riots and issued a series of harsh restrictions on Jewish movements.
Does Poland love Jews? Restitution law implies no - opinion Estimating the population increase and the emigration from Poland between 1931 and 1939, there were probably 3,474,000 Jews in Poland as of 1 September 1939 (approximately 10% of the total population) primarily centered in large and smaller cities: 77% lived in cities and 23% in the villages. According to the British Embassy in Warsaw, in 1936 emigration was the only solution to the Jewish question that found wide support in all Polish political parties. Exceptions are recorded, however, where Jewish youth sought secular instruction in the European universities.
Confirming Polish citizenship or its loss - Poland in Israel [265] According to Dariusz Stola, the 1945 and 1946 laws governing restitution were enacted with the intention of restricting Jewish restitution claims as one of their main goals. Many of them survived thanks to the contacts they managed to establish with Poles outside the ghetto. The pogroms prompted a great wave of Jewish emigration to the United States.