The Bund in Poland, 1935-1939

Political conditions in Poland after the death of Jozef Pilsudski in 1935, and the increasing influence of antisemitic elements in Polish society, caused the Bund to embark upon an obstinate and uncompromising struggle to ensure the civil rights of Jews in Poland. During the late 1930s, the "Jewish problem" became the core of public dispute. The Bund was practically the only force actively engaged in defending civil rights for Jews in Poland. Its ties with opposition parties, especially with the Polish Socialist Party; its status as a Jewish party in the Socialist International; the educational system and cultural framework which it operated, and the trade unions that it controlled - all these transformed the Bund into a mass movement. Many of its members joined not because they accepted its Marxist ideology, but because of its efforts to defend their basic rights.