Prior to the Holocaust, there were thriving Jewish communities across the world.
The largest population of Jews before the Holocaust was in Eastern Europe, with a community of 3,000,000 in Poland, 2,525,000 in Russia, and 980,000 in Romania. The size of this Jewish population in these countries meant that they made a huge contribution to the culture. Hayim Nahman Bialik, a Ukrainian Jew who is widely regarded as the father of modern Hebrew poetry, is just one example of this contribution.
In Western Europe, in countries such as Britain and Germany, many Jews were assimilated into the culture of the country in which they lived. Most of these countries had sizeable Jewish communities, with 300,000 Jews living in Britain, and 565,000 living in Germany.
As Joseph Leftwich declared in 1936, ‘There is, in fact, no group of people more attached to their native soil than the Jews. In Germany, the Jews have been continuously resident in the country since at least the year 320 and probably much longer’.
In cities and large towns in Eastern Europe, such as Warsaw in Poland, younger Jews fully embraced the country’s culture whilst simultaneously observing some Jewish traditions with their families.
However, not all of Europe was as assimilated, or partially assimilated, as Western Europe and the larger towns and cities of Eastern Europe.
For example, cultural separation was more apparent in rural areas of Eastern Europe, such as Poland and Russia. Here small towns or villages called ‘Shtetls’ comprised mainly of Jews. In Shtetls, people aimed to live a simple, traditional, life focused around religion, community, and family.
After the Nazi’s came to power and antisemitism intensified, all Jewish life in Europe was to change forever. This section gives a few examples of the diversity of Jewish life prior to the Nazi destruction.