The Polishi-Jewish Problem in Interwar Poland's Baking Industry (1924-1939)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the ethnic confrontation between Jewish and Polish bakers caused by the competition in Poland's interwar bakery industry. This research was based mainly on two sources- articles published in Polish and Jewish trade magazines and archival materials preserved in the National Archive in Cracow, especially assembly-meeting minutes of both the Jewish and Polish groups belonging to Cracow's bakers' guild. According to a number of statistical surveys, anywhere from 37 percent (1927) to 56 percent (1929) of Cracow bakers were Jewish; the others were Poles (Christians). The fact that neither groups was overwhelmingly dominant in the profession caused severe competision between them. By reconstructing the relationship between the two groups within the guild, this paper aims to reveal the cause of accelerating ethnic conflict from an economic point of view. This research elucidates four crucial factors that intensified the antagonism between the two groups. First, stratification within the baking industry Jewish and Polish bakers differently. Due to financial difficulties, fewer Jewish bakers proportionately than Christian bakers were able to modernize and mechanize their workshops. The Christian bakers who modernized their workshops regarded the Jews who did not do so as "dirty competitors". And those Christian bakers who themselves could not invest more in their shops, readily used anti-Semitism as an instrument to differentiate themselves from the Jews. Second, during the Great Depression, poorer families substituted potatoes and other cheaper foods for bread. The fall in bread consumption in the 1930s exacerbated competition among bakers, regardless of their religion. Some of the poorer Jewish bakers accordingly sold bread at prices below that agreed upon by the two groups, which intensified hatred among Christian bakers against Jews in general. Third, Sunday closing hours and the introduction of qualification systems, sanitary standards and other regulations to the baking industry were sometimes interpreted and enforced arbitrarily by local and central administrations, which intensified the antagonism between the groups. Fourth, because the guild was divided into two ethnic groups, it was hard for either to understand the situation from the other's point of view. Any economic dispute turned easily into ethnic conflict. On the Jewish side, efforts continued to squash "dirty competition", but Christian bakers were not easily able to evaluate these efforts positively. These four factors functioned together in complex ways to weaken the relationship between the two ethnic groups and intensified anti-Semitic feelings among Christian bakers.