Entangled in Fear: Everyday Terror in Poland, 1944–1947

367 Pages·2022·3.61 MB·English

by  Marcin Zaremba

E n t a n g l e d i n F e a r

E n t a n g l e d i n F e a r
EVERYDAY TERROR IN POLAND, 1944–1947
Marcin Zaremba

Translated by Maya Latynski
Indiana University Press
This book is a publication of Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Indiana University Press Names: Zaremba, Marcin, author. | Latynski, Maya,
Office of Scholarly Publishing translator.
Herman B Wells Library 350 Title: Entangled in fear : everyday terror in Poland,
1320 East 10th Street 1944-1947 / Marcin Zaremba ; translated by Maya
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA Latynski.
Other titles: Wielka trwoga. English | Everyday terror
iupress.org in Poland, 1944-1947
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana
© 2022 by Marcin Zaremba University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
All rights reserved Identifiers: LCCN 2022011697 (print) | LCCN
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in 2022011698 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253063083
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, (hardback) | ISBN 9780253063090 (paperback) |
including photocopying and recording, or by any ISBN 9780253063106 (ebook)
information storage and retrieval system, without Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1939-1945—Psychological
permission in writing from the publisher. The aspects. | World War, 1939-1945—Atrocities—Poland. |
paper used in this publication meets the minimum Psychic trauma—Poland. | Terror—Poland. |
requirements of the American National Standard Violence—Poland.
for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Classification: LCC D744.55 .Z3713 2022 (print) |
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. LCC D744.55 (ebook) | DDC 940.53/1—dc23/
eng/20220328
Manufactured in the United States of America LC record available at https://lccn.loc.
gov/2022011697
First printing 2022 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.
gov/2022011698
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Before There Was Fear 1
1 In the Labyrinth of Fear 10
2 Fear in Interwar Culture: The Bolsheviks and “Jewish
Communism” 19
3 The Trauma of a World War: Psychosocial Effects of
the Second World War 38
4 In the Beginning Was Chaos 65
5 “Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire”:
The Dreaded Red Army 69
6 The Demobilized 94
7 Looting Fever 135
8 Outlaws: “The Dishonored Soldiers’ Peasant War” 155
9 It Was More than Just Travel Nerves 175
10 The Politics of Fear 182
11 The Phantoms of Transience 200
12 The Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Hunger, High Prices,
and Infectious Diseases 253
13 Ethnic Phobias and Violence 275
Conclusion: “The Boogeyman” 325
Bibliography 327
Index 347

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not have been written had several This publication would have been much shorter had
things not happened. Marcin Kula helped me to over- it not been for a grant I received from the State Com-
come my “ante-fear” of studying fear. He read the whole mittee for Scientific Research [Nr 1 H01g 031 2 for “Fear
manuscript, for which I am eternally grateful. I would in People’s Poland (1944–1989)”] and a two-month
also like to thank Błażej Brzostek, Jerzy Kochanowski, fellowship in 2005 at the Institute of Human Sciences
Łukasz Krzyżanowski, Jolanta Tokarska-Bakir, Antoni in Vienna, where an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Sułek, Bożena Szaynok, and Joanna Wawrzyniak for grant allowed me to conduct research. The interviews
being so kind as to read the whole manuscript before it with former prisoners of the Mauthausen concentration
was published and to give me their comments. Andrzej camp by Piotr Filipkowski and Jarosław Pałka of the
Friszke, Joanna Hytrek-Hryciuk, Bartosz Kaliski, Adam Oral History Archive, to which I was given access, were
Leszczyński, Piotr Osęka, Andrzej Paczkowski, Krzysz- invaluable. Translation of the book has been funded by
tof Persak, Dariusz Stola, Paweł Śpiewak, and Marek the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Repub-
Wierzbicki read sections. I presented some of the chap- lic of Poland, National Program for the Development
ters in seminars and discussions chaired by Andrzej of Humanities, grant no. 0126/NPRH3/H31/82/2014.
Paczkowski at the Institute of Political Studies of the My wife was the book’s first reviewer and editor, and
Polish Academy of Sciences; by the late Włodzimierz without her help I would not have dared show it to any-
Borodziej, Jerzy Kochanowski, and Marcin Kula in the one. I spent several years living by fear and in fear. My
Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw; and by family could not avoid sensing it, and I would like to
the late Jerzy Jedlicki at the Institute of History of the thank them enormously for their patience.
Polish Academy of Sciences. The tips about sources and
the comments made on these occasions were of great
help. A warm thank you to Padraic Kenney.
vii

E n t a n g l e d i n F e a r