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Contested loyalties in war: Polish-Jewish relations within the Anders Army
Supervisors: Dr Ewa Ochman and Dr Jean-Marc Dreyfus
This research analyses inter-ethnic relations during wartime. My case study
is the relations between Jewish and Polish soldiers who served in the Anders
Army during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath. The Army, which
was formed in the USSR in 1941 and passed through Palestine en route to Europe,
offers the opportunity to examine continuities and changes in the relationship
between Poles and Jews during the war outside the overwhelming influence of the
Nazi Holocaust policy. My objective is to fuse the Polish and Jewish
perspectives regarding national identity and national loyalty, which have been
heretofore studies separately. I will examine to what extent Polish official
pre-war attitudes towards national minorities evolved during the war outside
Poland, on the one hand, and how Polish Jews renegotiated their position in
Polish society in the context of a dramatic, multi-faceted transformation, on
the other. In addition, I will explore how the inter-ethnic tensions within the
Army acquired global and international meaning in the context of war
geopolitics and the emerging rivalry between the Eastern and the Western blocs.
The research thus offers a multi-disciplinary analysis that integrates the
following areas: Eastern European Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Ethnic
Studies; War and Migration Studies; and Holocaust Studies.
Contact: dom-ini@wp.pl
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