Lost World of Przemysl, Poland, subject of doctoral student's work
By Steve Anable
Near Eastern and Judaic Studies doctoral student Curt Dunagan is doing a bit of time-traveling, examining why the southeastern Polish city of Przemysl (pronounced p-shem-i-shl) was, during the brief period between the world wars, a model of cooperation between three often-conflicting groups - Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians. Thanks to a Fulbright-Hays fellowship, he has just begun (in July 2004) a six-month odyssey that will take him to Przemysl and other cities with rich archival depositories. His muse: that perhaps Przemysl's mini version of "globalization" will hold valuable clues as to how once-conflicting parties can live successfully and symbiotically at close quarters.
"From 1919 to 1939, all three groups in Przemysl flourished economically, culturally, socially, artistically, and politically," Dunagan says. "They all became much more defined in this short period of time, and they made great progress." All three groups generally sent their children to public schools, and there was enough cross-cultural exchange between the Jewish and Polish communities to have Jewish newspapers published in Polish.
Historically, Przemysl has been part of a region called Galicia, which was never a bona-fide country with internationally recognized borders. In Przemysl's area of Galicia, Poles, Jews and Ukrainians made up the majority of the population, and throughout history the entire region has been a battleground for various countries attempting to incorporate it into their territory. According to a 1931 census, Przemysl had approximately 51,000 people - 25,154 Poles (49.1% of the population), 17,326 Jews (34.0%), and 8,278 Ukrainians (16.3%). Perhaps this delicate balance in the population contributed toward making Przemysl a relatively tolerant, inclusive place. Dunagan speculates that the city's location may also have played a role.
As far back as the 14th and 15th centuries, a major trade route had passed through the city. Hundreds of years later, the region's first railroad linked Przemysl to LwC3w, KrakC3w, and, eventually, Prague. Later, lines were constructed to connect Przemysl to Budapest and the Baltic coast. Dunagan believes that Przemysl attracted merchants and traders and "a slightly different class of people than the villages out in the middle of nowhere." He surmises that many acculturated Jews eventually gravitated toward Polish culture simply because they dealt more often with Poles, on a day-to-day basis, as neighbors. Still, he is looking for the bonds - institutional or informal, deliberate or spontaneous - that brought these cultures so successfully together.
The end of this society came during the Holocaust and the Nazi conquest, which produced some bizarre alliances. Przemysl became inundated with refugees from all parts of Poland, as the River San became the German/Soviet border after the Hitler/Stalin Non-aggression Pact of August 1939. Most of the Jews of Przemysl fled the Nazi-occupied west side of the city for the Soviet-controlled east. Nationalistic Ukrainians, whose homeland was then part of the Soviet Union, journeyed in the opposite direction, across the San to the Nazi-held shore --to escape the Soviet troops.
Dunagan's own journey to Brandeis was inspired in part by the presence of Albert Abramson Professor of Holocaust Studies Antony Polonsky, whose specialty is eastern European history. He was also attracted by the University's rich collection of Judaica, including many Yizkor books.
"Brandeis University provided me the opportunity to pursue my dream in the academics of inter-ethnic relations in central and eastern Europe," Dunagan says. "With a world-renowned faculty, an advanced Jewish studies department, and a chain of new scholars and historians now holding a Brandeis degree, the choice of where to pursue my doctoral degree was quite simple for me."