Bidspirit auction | ”The Nazi Rule in Poland”

”The Nazi Rule in Poland” – one of the earliest publications on the Holocaust of European Jewry while it was still unfolding. First British edition - Nazi Rule in Poland by Szymon Segal, one of the earliest publications on the Holocaust of European Jewry while it was still taking place. Published by Robert Hale Limited. London, 1943 – first British edition. The book was prepared under the auspices of the Institute of Jewish Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, New York. First British edition of the important work by Simon Segal, documenting the Nazi conquest of Poland and the persecution of the Jews as it was happening. Published in the midst of World War II at the darkest time for the Jews in the ghettos and during the deportations to the death camps—it is regarded as the first detailed publication describing Nazi-occupied Poland. Segal, a Polish-born professor who emigrated to the United States in 1935, reveals chilling details from confidential sources regarding the methods the Nazis used to enslave the Jewish population in Poland, including accounts of underground resistance efforts. Even at that early stage, Segal understood that “Poland serves the Nazis as a testing ground for their plans to establish a future German colonial empire in Europe.” He warns and explains how traditional antisemitism pales in comparison to the cruelty of Nazi antisemitism. In the introduction, Segal writes: “Humanity is going through one of its greatest and most tragic crises... In this book, I have tried to present what the Nazi ‘New Order’ looks like in practice. Poland was the first country to be conquered by the Third Reich through armed force, and it now serves as a testing laboratory for Nazi ideas. After two and a half years of German occupation, the overall pattern of the regime has become clearly visible.” Segal was among the first to document the systematic starvation imposed by Nazi Germany in the ghettos of Poland, the organized looting of Jewish property, the total destruction of Polish industry, and the deliberate spread of German antisemitism among Ukrainians—a policy aimed at inciting them against the Jews. (The Nazis introduced antisemitic slurs in a Yiddish-inflected dialect which the Ukrainians quickly adopted), He details how the Jewish population in the ghettos struggled to endure the ever-tightening restrictions: the closure of Jewish schools, shutdown of Jewish theaters, and how Jews were forced to watch German propaganda films; the banning of the Jewish press, the closing of synagogues, and the prohibition of kosher slaughter. “Hundreds of thousands of Jews, since the beginning of the Nazi occupation, have hardly eaten any meat at all—not even the meager rations officially allotted to them, ” he writes. Segal also chronicles the severe conditions faced by the Jewish medical system within the ghettos, Nazi decrees in the Kielce ghetto, and much more. Furthermore, Segal reveals Nazi efforts in Poland aimed at the complete erasure of Jewish heritage and the creation of a so-called “new Poland” free of Jews, achieved through a systematic rewriting of history. He provides details about the establishment of the Institute for the Study of Eastern Problems in Kraków on April 20, 1940—one of whose key goals was to convince the Polish population that Jews were the primary cause of the collapse of the old Polish state. “The Institute publishes a quarterly and a monthly journal promoting Nazi ideology, praising the regime’s supposed achievements in Poland. All of this indicates the Germans are convinced they will remain in Poland permanently—and are laying foundations for the future…” While these facts are known today, it is important to remember that Segal was writing this in 1943, at a time when much of the world was still unaware of the full scope and evil of the Nazi plan.  However, even Segal—despite his prescience—was still unaware of the systematic deportation of Jews to the extermination camps, a reality that is barely mentioned in the book. Instead, he voices deep concern about what would happen if the Jews were forced to remain in the ghettos for another year or two, as resources continued to dwindle. He also speculates about the psychological impact that life in the ghetto would have on survivors once the war ends: “Today, the Jews of Poland have forgotten their futile party struggles and have united in the effort to survive, ” he writes, explaining that Jews are doing everything in their power to make ghetto life bearable. Yet, tragically, he could not have foreseen that before the gates of the ghettos would ever be opened, most of their inhabitants would already be sent to Auschwitz and Treblinka. The book is accompanied by photographs and maps. Among the images are: a “Jews-only tram”, a notice ordering the burning of property, the entrance to the Warsaw Ghetto, the ghetto wall, underground newspaper front pages, a forced labor decree for Polish youth, and more. X, [1], 214 pages.