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Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies
Twenty Years with the Jewish Labor Bund: A Memoir of Interwar Poland
Bernard Goldstein’s memoir describes a hard world of taverns, toughs, thieves, and prostitutes; of slaughterhouse workers, handcart porters, and wagon drivers; and of fist-and gunfights with everyone from anti-Semites and Communists to hostile police, which is to say that it depicts a totally different view of life in prewar Poland than the one usually portrayed. As such, the book offers a corrective view in the form of social history, one that commands attention and demands respect for the vitality and activism of the generation of Polish Jews so brutally annihilated by the barbarism of the Nazis.
In Warsaw, a city with over 300,000 Jews (one third of the population), Bernstein was the Jewish Labor Bund’s “enforcer,” organizer, and head of their militia—the one who carried out daily, on-the-street organization of unions; the fighting off of Communists, Polish anti-Semitic hooligans, and antagonistic police; marshaling and protecting demonstrations; and even settling family disputes, some of them arising from the new secular, socialist culture being fostered by the Bund.
Goldstein’s is a portrait of tough Jews willing to do battle—worldly, modern individuals dedicated to their folk culture and the survival of their people. It delivers an unparalleled street-level view of vibrant Jewish life in Poland between the wars: of Jewish masses entering modern life, of Jewish workers fighting for their rights, of optimism, of greater assertiveness and self-confidence, of armed combat, and even of scenes depicting the seamy, semi-criminal elements. It provides a representation of life in Poland before the great catastrophe of World War II, a life of flowering literary activity, secular political journalism, successful political struggle, immersion in modern politics, fights for worker rights and benefits, a strong social-democratic labor movement, creation of a secular school system in Yiddish, and a youth movement that later provided the heroic fighters for the courageous Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Hardcover
First published March 15, 2016
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About the author
Bernard Goldstein
3 books1 followerBernard Goldstein (1889–1959), sometimes called "Comrade Bernard", was a Jewish Polish socialist, union organizer, and leader of the General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland prior to World War II. During the war, he was active in the Warsaw Ghetto, helping smuggle in arms in preparation for the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
After Poland's liberation from German occupation, he emigrated to the United States
After Poland's liberation from German occupation, he emigrated to the United States
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 9, 2016
Vignettes from the life of a Bundist labor organizer and head of the Warsaw self-defense militia during the interwar period. The book is pretty amazing, largely since it deals with the Bund culture and with the people of the Bund, meaning largely simple workers. Bund during this period was fighting for the embattled Jewish poor, suffering from both economic and ethnic attacks. In fact, it was encouraging them to fight for themselves, organizing them in unions and in self-defense militias. Goldstein does not patronize the people and does not think he knows best. In fact,he clearly considers himself to be one of them.
A large part of the story is Bund's fight against Polish antisemitic right-wing parties, against the government antisemitism, and against the Communists, habitually employing violence to force the workers join their own labor unions. While doing that, the Bund also established numerous cultural and self-help institutions and created a whole union-based culture emphasizing self-respect and self-improvement.
This culture was not sustained, since the population supporting it was emaciated by the Nazis. Still, it is an inspiring example of poor people organizing themselves in very difficult conditions.
While Bund insisted on the right of Jewish workers to cultural autonomy, Goldstein keeps talking in his memoirs about collaboration between Jewish and Polish activists, both in union activism and in fighting the violent right-wing parties. Bund clearly differentiated between its adherence to the value of sustaining cultural uniqueness of the Jewish minority and any sort of ethnicity-based prejudice.
I strongly recommend Goldstein's book, as well as his book of memoirs about the Warsaw Ghetto, where he talks about Bund desperately trying to assist the Jews in an impossible situation.
A large part of the story is Bund's fight against Polish antisemitic right-wing parties, against the government antisemitism, and against the Communists, habitually employing violence to force the workers join their own labor unions. While doing that, the Bund also established numerous cultural and self-help institutions and created a whole union-based culture emphasizing self-respect and self-improvement.
This culture was not sustained, since the population supporting it was emaciated by the Nazis. Still, it is an inspiring example of poor people organizing themselves in very difficult conditions.
While Bund insisted on the right of Jewish workers to cultural autonomy, Goldstein keeps talking in his memoirs about collaboration between Jewish and Polish activists, both in union activism and in fighting the violent right-wing parties. Bund clearly differentiated between its adherence to the value of sustaining cultural uniqueness of the Jewish minority and any sort of ethnicity-based prejudice.
I strongly recommend Goldstein's book, as well as his book of memoirs about the Warsaw Ghetto, where he talks about Bund desperately trying to assist the Jews in an impossible situation.
June 7, 2025
Some of the chapters are stunning, unforgettable. In a humble and understated way, at times his storytelling just overflows with feeling- pride, tenderness- even though he is remembering and writing about very hard things. Speaking as a secular Jewish union organizer in 2024 I badly wish we still had the bund around us. Thank you Bernard. We are doing our best to carry on your struggle!
June 21, 2024
Bernard Goldstein was a leading member of the General Jewish Labor Bund in Warsaw between the First World War and the Holocaust. He was the head of the Bund's self-defense militia — or put another way, he was the party's enforcer, muscle, and all-around tough guy. He was the guy who had to threaten gangsters, negotiate with landlords, and comfort widows.
Goldstein spent five years in the Warsaw Ghetto, and he wrote a much better-known book about that time: The Stars Bear Witness. This book covers the two decades before the catastrophe. It isn't a literary memoir — instead, it's almost one hundred vignettes about working-class Jewish life in interwar Poland. Bit by bit, Goldstein tells the story about how the Bund became the leading party among Poland's Jews, in a constant battle with antisemites, Zionists, and Stalinists.
The lines between Warsaw's pauperized workers and petty criminals were never particularly clear, so self-defense was a constant concern. At its height, the Bund militia had 2,000 (!) members in Warsaw charged with protecting the movement. All of Goldstein's stories are marked by the looming disaster: the last lines of a chapter will often mention that a comrade escaped to some distant continent, or that an entire family was wiped out. It's good this book is so long: it's a rare testament to an entire world that was liquidated.
Goldstein became active in the Bund in the years following the Russian Revolution, as a pro-Communist faction was splitting away: the Jewish Communist Labour Bund in Poland, or Kombund. He really despised the Communists, and here he portrays them as bandits who did nothing but terrorize the Bund. This is rather strange because many Communists were former members of the Polish Socialist Party PPS, with whom Goldstein was friendly, or the Bund itself. I have read some memoirs by Polish Jewish Communists (P. Minc), and I think they did a few other things besides disrupting Bund meetings.
Goldstein spent five years in the Warsaw Ghetto, and he wrote a much better-known book about that time: The Stars Bear Witness. This book covers the two decades before the catastrophe. It isn't a literary memoir — instead, it's almost one hundred vignettes about working-class Jewish life in interwar Poland. Bit by bit, Goldstein tells the story about how the Bund became the leading party among Poland's Jews, in a constant battle with antisemites, Zionists, and Stalinists.
The lines between Warsaw's pauperized workers and petty criminals were never particularly clear, so self-defense was a constant concern. At its height, the Bund militia had 2,000 (!) members in Warsaw charged with protecting the movement. All of Goldstein's stories are marked by the looming disaster: the last lines of a chapter will often mention that a comrade escaped to some distant continent, or that an entire family was wiped out. It's good this book is so long: it's a rare testament to an entire world that was liquidated.
Goldstein became active in the Bund in the years following the Russian Revolution, as a pro-Communist faction was splitting away: the Jewish Communist Labour Bund in Poland, or Kombund. He really despised the Communists, and here he portrays them as bandits who did nothing but terrorize the Bund. This is rather strange because many Communists were former members of the Polish Socialist Party PPS, with whom Goldstein was friendly, or the Bund itself. I have read some memoirs by Polish Jewish Communists (P. Minc), and I think they did a few other things besides disrupting Bund meetings.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews