Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe and Russia, Research Paper Example

Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe and Russia is a long-standing and complicated story: this form of discrimination was alive and well long before the conquest of the Nazis or the advent of the USSR and, sadly, is alive and well today.  This paper will cover several aspects of this problem, including a very condensed history, the international agencies and agreements that deal with this issue, and a discussion of Hungary as a particular countries of interest.  A view of anti-Semitism from a realist and a liberal perspective will be given, and lastly a speculation about the future of this major social problem.

A condensed history of anti-semitism in eastern Europe and Russia

Anti-Semitism has long been a part of Eastern European and Russian culture and has its roots as far back as the 12^th and 13^th centuries: because of many expulsions from Western European countries at this time, much of the European Jewish population shifted eastwards into countries like Poland and Russia, where Jews were subjected to segregation in ghettos and even the occasional massacre. (Encylopedia Britannica 5). There was an uptick of anti-Jewish sentiment in the 19^thcentury, and pogroms in Russia in 1881 and accusation of ritual murder in Hungary in 1882 helped strengthen this (Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe 11). It was also in the 19^th century, anti-Semitism took on a “pseudo-scientific” element and became a politically powerful tool: the mayoral election in Vienna in 1890 was won on a strongly anti-Semitic platform.  Russia itself had restricted Jews in their domain to the Pale of Settlement since the 1790’s and their May Laws of 1882 restricted them even further.  In the early 20^th century, Russian was the site of several pogroms, and in the aftermath of World War I, anti-Semitism took on a new virulence, especially in places like Poland, Hungary and Romania, where Russian Bolsheviks gave anti-Semites a fresh target for their hatred.  This all set the stage for the Nazi regime with its proposal of the “final solution to the Jewish question”, and by 1941 the liquidation of European Jewry was a matter of public policy, resulting the deaths of nearly 6 million Jews.  (Encyclopedia Britannica 8). These efforts were strongly backed by anti-Semites in the Balkans, the USSR and Eastern Europe (Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe 13).

International agreements and agencies dealing with antisemitism

The United Nations, founded in the wake of World War II, has had an important role to play in protecting racial and religious groups from discrimination. It’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written in 1948 in response to the Holocaust and the general horrors of the war, states that “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration without discrimination of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion…or any other status” (United Nations 2).  The declaration is more than just noble words, however: a whole body of legally binding international law has stemmed from it, and this has been an important tool for fighting anti-Semitism, as well as other forms of religious and racial discrimination.

The European Union has also had a hand in fighting this social problem. One agency which deals with the issue of anti-Semitism on an ongoing basis is the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) which was set up as independent body to help support the EU-accepted International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). Because EU countries have accepted this convention, they are obligated under it to “prevent, prohibit, and eradicate all forms of racism or incitement to racial hatred” (Fundamental Rights Agency 1).  They do this by helping to understand the challenges that countries face when trying to comply with this international convention.

Country of interest: Poland

Of all the countries that fell victim to the Nazi invasion, it is arguable that Poland suffered the worst and lost the most.  Poland has had a rich history of Jewish settlement, dating back some 800 years.  Of all the countries in Eastern or Western Europe, Poland in fact had the greatest concentration of Jewry, nearly 10% of the general population, which amounted to a population of about 3.3 million by 1939.  It was after 1939 that the Jews began to be herded into ghettos, one of the largest of which was in Warsaw (Yad Vashen 1).  It was after this invasion that the Jews began to be shipped from the ghettos to the six concentration camps that had been set up in the conquered Poland: Chelmo, Belzec, Sobibar, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Maydarek, and in these six camps between 1941 and 1945 some 3.5 million Jews were exterminated (Jewish Virtual Library 1).

Anti-semitism from a realist and a liberal perspective

From a realistic point of view, one could well argue that anti-Semitism has long been a question of economics – certainly, this form of discrimination always seems to grow strong in times of economic unrest or turmoil: in the article, Reflections on the Holocaust, it is noted that “some Jews became prominent in bartering, trade, and moneylending and the Jews’ economic and cultural success tended to rouse the envy of the populace.  This economic resentment…propelled the forced expulsion of the Jews from many countries” (Encyclopedia Britannica 2).   This was not just the pattern in medieval times: the strong wave of anti-Semitism which emerged in Eastern Europe in the mid-19^th century was set against a backdrop of economic crisis and in reaction to the “increasing prominence of Jews in economic life” (Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe 232). The economic turmoil after World War I “notably intensified in Europe” (Encyclopedia Britannica 4) and it was in a Germany impoverished by their defeat in World War I and crippling reparations that proposed the infamous “final solution”.

From a liberal perspective, anti-Semitism can be seen as a long history of both racial and religious discrimination against an often powerless minority group.  In the beginning, certainly, the plight of the Jews was largely because of their religion; their discrimination was “mainly due to the Christian Church’s persecution of Jews and Jewry…Jews were seen as strangers who represented a different religion (Encyclopedia Britannica 6).  It was beginning in the 19^th century that anti-Semitism also became based on race. The Danish Center for the Holocaust notes that “Pseudoscientific theories asserting that Jews were inferior to the so-called ‘Aryan’ race gave anti-Semitism a new respectability and popular support” (Danish Center for the Holocaust 11).  Thus, from a liberal perspective, one could say that anti-Semitism is both religious and racial discrimination.

The future of anti-semitism in eastern Europe

Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe is not a history lesson but an ongoing and current social problem.  And by many accounts, this is a problem which might be getting worse.  As recently as 2013, an extensive survey conducted by the Fundamental Rights Agency of Jews across eight countries in Europe – including two Eastern European countries, Latvia and Hungary – 68% of respondents reported that they consider anti-Semitism to be a “major problem” and nearly 33% reported that they had considered immigrating to escape this problem.  A spokesperson for the FRA commented that “while member states have made sustained efforts to beat anti-Semitism, the problem is still wide-spread” (Higgins 1).

Conclusion

From all this, we can see that the issue of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe is of long standing and involves a number of highly sensitive issues.  Because of its long and deep-rooted history in this region of the world, this is not a problem which is going to be solved to everyone’s satisfaction anytime soon. However, efforts on the part of organizations like the Fundamental Rights Agency and laws like the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination will have a beneficial effect and allow for some amelioration of this complex and long-standing social problem.

References

“Anti-Semitic Parties and Movements”.  The Yivo Online Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.  2012. Web. 8 April 2014.

“Extermination Camps in Poland”.  The Jewish Virtual Library. 2012. Web. 12 April 2014

“Fate of Jews Across Europe: The Murder of Jews of Poland.”  Yad Vashen Website. 2013. Web. 12 April 2014.

Higgins, Andrews. “Jews in Europe Report a Surge in Anti-Semitism”. New York Times Online. 2013. Web. 8 April, 2014.

“Jews Persecuted Since the Middle Ages”. Danish Center for the Holocaust. 2014. Web. 8 April 2014.

“Racism and Similar Forms of Discrimination”.  Fundamental Rights Agency. 2013. 8 April 2014.

“Reflections on the Holocaust”. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.  2014. Web. 8 April 2014

“Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.  United Nations Website. 2012. Web. 8 April 2014