Wojsko Polskie i formacje sojusznicze wobec ludności żydowskiej w czasie wojen o wschodnie granice Rzeczypospolitej 1918–1921

The attitude of The Polish Army and allied formations towards the Jewish population during the wars over the eastern borders of Poland 1918–1921Mass acts of violence against the Jewish population took place during the wars for independence and the eastern borders of the reborn Republic (1918–1921). Many of those were committed individually or collectively by troops of the Polish Army and the allied formations. At least 280 Jews were killed in pogroms, excesses, and individual acts of violence, albeit the estimated total number of deaths may have been twice as large. Pogroms, crimes, excesses, and other manifestations of anti-Semitism were conditioned by a complex array of factors. Even though these acts of violence had been unequivocally condemned by the political and military authorities, and the perpetrators had been prosecuted, it should be noted that the anti-Semitic tendencies displayed at times by the Poles were in part provoked by the fact that the proletariat and left-wing-oriented Jewish intelligentsia were en-tangled in the Bolshevik movement, and the activities of the Soviet Russia against the Polish state. Furthermore, the lack of empathy towards the Jewry displayed by the Polish society had economic reasons, that is, the increasing role of the Jewry communities in industry and banking. The analysis of military documents clearly shows that each and every crime committed against the Jewish population was vigorously prosecuted. Unfortunately, those crimes which were committed by troops of the allied Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian and Caucasian formations were beyond the scope of police and judicial power. Proper research on the diffi-cult and complicated Polish-Jewish relations at the dawn of independence neces-sarily has to take into account the documents of the Polish military commands and the military judicial system, which shed new light on seemingly well-examined events such as the Pińsk pogrom of 1919