Gallery 8: POSTWAR YEARS, 1944 TO THE PRESENT
“In my opinion, the only solution to the Jewish issue is this: either our own state, Palestine, or, complete assimilation.” This is one of hundreds of answers to questions that Sara Hurwic, a sociologist, sent to Jews in Poland in 1948. This survey, which was the basis for her doctoral dissertation, explored their attitudes to religion, language, change of name, assimilation, antisemitism, emigration, and the creation of the State of Israel. Hurwic published her dissertation first in English in Israel in 1986 and in Polish only in 1996, after the fall of communism. This unique document captures the thoughts and feelings of Holocaust survivors in Poland just after the war.