Why We Stayed: Poland’s Remaining Jews’ Experiences, Identities, and Reasons for not Emigrating, 1939-2018
By Filip Mazurczak
By the 1980s, it seemed that it would be only a matter of time before Poland’s Jewish community would completely disappear. After the dramatic 1968 events, in which the communist regime forced thousands of Polish Jews to emigrate, it seemed that the only ones who remained were elderly Holocaust survivors whose children had either become completely assimilated or emigrated. However, after 1989 it soon became clear that many more Polish Jews had stayed than anyone previously believed. For my thesis, I interviewed five Polish Jews born between 1932 and 1940 to ask them why they stayed during two major waves of Jewish emigration from Poland (in 1945-1946 and in 1967-1968), and why they reemerged with their Jewishness after the fall of communism.
Filip Mazurczak holds a BA in Spanish and Hispanic Studies and History from Creighton University as well as an MA in International Affairs from the George Washington University. Since graduating, he has worked as a journalist, Polish-to-English translator (of academic publications and of fiction), and English teacher. Many of his nearly 150 published articles have dealt with historical topics.
Currently, he is pursuing a PhD in history at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. His academic articles have been published or accepted for publication in the Oral History Review, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, and Konteksty Kultury.