Jewish Political Life in Poland on the Eve of the Second World War

The increasingly critical situation of the Jewish minority and the bankruptcy of the previously dominant political orientations within the Jewish community created a new set of opportunities for a group, the General Jewish Workers’ Alliance, or Bund which had played only a marginal role in both Polish and Jewish politics between 1920 and 1935. The growing strength of the Bund was clearly evident in the municipal elections of late 1938 and early 1939 which saw it emerge as the largest Jewish party in towns such as Warsaw, Łódź, Vilna and Białystok. This article seeks to evaluate the Bund’s reaction to its heightened importance in Jewish politics in Poland.