History of Jews in Poland

There has been much written in an attempt to show Polish/Jewish history in a negative light.  The following outlines the positive side of Jewish history in Poland rather than focusing on the relatively minor critical side which is often connected to foreign powers involvement.

 

09?? The first Jews arrived in the territory of modern Poland in the 10th century.

1085 The first permanent Jewish community is mentioned in 1085 in writings in the city of Przemyśl

1096 Encouraged by the tolerant regime of Bolesław III Wrymouth, Jews start arriving in Poland in numbers

1098 Persecution of Jews in Western Europe results in the first large migration of Jews to Poland

1264 The General Charter of Jewish Liberties.  The statute served as the basis for the legal position of Jews in Poland and led to creation of the Yiddish-speaking autonomous Jewish nation, which lasted until 1795.  The charter was an amazing document, granting Jews unprecedented rights and privileges

 1334 King Casimir III the Great (1303–1370) amplified and expanded Bolesław's old charter with the Wiślicki Statute

 1496 Jews have been expelled from England, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Bohemia and Germany.  With 50% of the world population now in Poland, she has been recognized as a haven for exiles from Western Europe

1503 The Polish monarchy appointed Rabbi Jacob Polak, the official Rabbi of Poland

1506 The birth of Zygmunt I resulting in perhaps the most prosperous period for Polish Jews

1547 First Jewish printing house founded in Poland

1548 Zygmunt II August is born.  It is during this period led to the creation of a proverb about Poland being a "heaven for the Jews"

1550 About three-quarters of all Jews in the world lived in Poland

1551 Jews were given permission to choose their own Chief Rabbi.  The Chief Rabbinate held power over law and finance, appointing judges and other officials.

1567 First Jewish university found in Poland

1632 King Władyław IV forbids anti-Semitic books and printing in Poland

1648 Poles and Jews die together at the hands of Zaporozhian Cossacks

1764 About 750,000 Jews live in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from a worldwide Jewish population estimated at 1.2 million

1794 A Jewish regiment fight alongside Poles in the Kościuszko Uprising

1830-1831 Jews were represented in the November Insurrection

1863 Jews aid the Poles in the January

1918 Poland gains independence and grants Jews full citizenship.

1921 Jews are given the choice of living in Poland or Soviet Union.  Hundreds of thousands move to Poland

1931 Jewish children were mainly enrolled in religious Jewish schools

1939 Poland had the largest concentration of Jews in Europe

1939 September: One hundred thirty thousand soldiers of Jewish descent served in Polish Army at the outbreak of the Second World War

1940 January: Maria Brodacka becomes the first Pole to be executed in Warsaw for sheltering a Jew.  The Germans also executed 100 Jewish intellectuals.

1940 February: Soviets begin the mass deportation of Polish citizens totaling 1.7 million of which 1.2 million were Poles.

1940 February: Soviets start the plans for murder of 22,000 Polish prisoners of war and other parts of intellectual elite.

1940 April: The British Foreign office receives with great scepticism accounts of conditions in German occupied Poland. 

1940 May: Beginning of the “Aktion AB” which was a pacification programme in Poland.

1940 June: 728 Poles become the first inmates at Auschwitz

1940 July: The first Polish prisoner escapes from Auschwitz

1940 September: Witold Pilecki deliberately allows himself to be captured, so he could be sent to Auschwitz to organise the resistance inside the camp.

1940 October: Poles and Jews both face deportation by Germans from annexed lands

1940 October: In Lańcut, Germans executed Aniela Kozioł along with Jewish Wolkenfeld family she was sheltering.

1940 November: E. Ringelblum records a typical event in which a Pole is murder for throwing a sack of bread into the Warsaw ghetto.

1941 January: The Polish resistance produced a bulletin to warn the Jews being sent to work camps by Germans are being brutal treated.

1942 September: Provisional Committee to Aid Jews was founded Polish democratic Catholic activists.  It was the direct predecessor to Żegota

1942 October: Żegota founded to aid the country's Jews and find places of safety for them in occupied Poland.  Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such a dedicated secret organization

1943 January: Poles fight alongside Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising

1943 April: Witold Pilecki escapes from Auschwitz to convince the allies to aid uprising but British authorities refused the Home Army air support for an operation to help the inmates escape.

1944 August: Jews fight alongside Poles in battle for Warsaw

1948 The Warsaw Ghetto Memorial was unveiled.  It was constructed out of bronze and granite that the Nazis used for a monument honouring German victory over Poland.

1948 Poland was the second nation to fully recognize Israel

1967 The Israeli victory over the Soviet backed Arab states in was greeted by Poles with a slogan; "Our Jews beat the Soviet Arabs"

1978 Karol Wojtyła elected Pope.  This Polish Pope is seen as the greatest friend to Jews in Catholic churches history.

1986 Poland was the first Eastern bloc country to recognize Israel again after Six-Day War of 1967

1988 The annual Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków starts which is one of the biggest festivals of Jewish culture in the world which mostly Christian Poles attend.

1996 3,000 in Poland attend the 50th anniversary of Kielce.

2006 Following attacks on Israel, Poland send extra troops (increasing from  214 to 500) as part of the United Nations Interim Force in the Lebanon

2009 The Prague conference on Jewish Claims singled out Poland for praise regarding the return of looted artwork.