Author Description

One aspect of the Holocaust in Poland and throughout Nazi-occupied Europe was the appropriation of the victims' property by both murderers and bystanders. For instance, the vicinity around Treblinka turned into a veritable Eldorado in 1942-43, because camp guards exchanged money and valuables given them by the victims to procure food and services from the local populace. Local residents began to dig in the grounds of Treblinka and other death camp sites in search of Jewish gold and valuables as soon as the Germans had retreated, and sometimes even before. Stealing Jewish property was a significant motive for perpetration of the pogroms in the Jedwabne area in 1941, as well for many other anti-Jewish actions. The behavior of non-Jews was no different in other parts of Nazi Europe, from France to Greece and Russia. Stresses that the anti-Jewish actions of the locals were collective; the appropriation of Jewish property was regarded as an act of social justice, and the refusal of some Poles to participate were viewed as "a lack of patriotism". Many Polish leaders assessed the Nazi destruction of Jews in Poland positively, as the solution to a social problem. The Catholic Church maintained silence regarding the Holocaust. The Poles' and other bystanders' participation in anti-Jewish actions was only a small factor in the German-initiated Jewish disaster, but nevertheless an important supplement to it.