What were the alleged reasons for the pogroms which took place in Poland in 1946?
What were the alleged reasons for the pogroms which took place in Poland in 1946?
The pogroms that took place in Poland in 1946 were some of the worst anti-Jewish violence after the Holocaust.
They were sparked by false accusations that Jews were kidnapping Christian children for ritual murder, also known as blood libel.
This was an old and nasty lie that had been used to justify killing Jews for centuries.
One of the most brutal pogroms happened in Kielce, a city in southeastern Poland, on July 4, 1946.
A mob of Polish soldiers, police officers, and civilians attacked a building where about 180 Jewish refugees lived.
They killed 42 Jews, raped some women, and wounded more than 40 others, while no one tried to stop them.
The violence lasted for hours and shocked the world.
The Kielce pogrom was not an isolated incident.
It was part of a wave of anti-Jewish hostility that swept across Poland after the war.
Many Poles resented the return of Jewish survivors who had lost everything and wanted to reclaim their property or leave the country.
Some Poles also believed that Jews had collaborated with the Nazis or the Soviets, or that they were communists who threatened the Catholic nation.
The pogroms showed that Poland was not a safe place for Jews anymore.
They also triggered a mass exodus of Polish Jews who sought refuge in other countries or in Palestine, where they hoped to establish a Jewish state.
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