Asterblumowa’s case: some reflections on Polish-Jewish divisions and disappointments of the late 1930s

Cywja Asterblumowa was a first-year law student at the University of Warsaw when during one of many antisemitic riots in 1936 she was beaten and accused of insulting the Polish nation. In the trial, the judge and the prosecutor, taking into consideration her religious faith, refused her the right to feel Polish. The author of the article presents not only Asterblumowa’s case—from her enrolling in the university to being imprisoned—but above all, concentrates on the reactions of the public opinion in which the discussion centered on the Polishness and Jewishness as well as the truth and the usurpation. In Asterblumowa’s case and the discussion surrounding it, all the divisions, prejudices, stereotypes, fierceness, disappointment and resignation, which the late 1930s brought upon the Polish-Jewish relations, are clearly visible.

Cywja Asterblumowa was a first-year law student at the University of Warsaw when during one of many antisemitic riots in 1936 she was beaten and accused of insulting the Polish nation. In the trial, the judge and the prosecutor, taking into consideration her religious faith, refused her the right to feel Polish. The author of the article presents not only Asterblumowa’s case—from her enrolling in the university to being imprisoned—but above all, concentrates on the reactions of the public opinion in which the discussion centered on the Polishness and Jewishness as well as the truth and the usurpation. In Asterblumowa’s case and the discussion surrounding it, all the divisions, prejudices, stereotypes, fierceness, disappointment and resignation, which the late 1930s brought upon the Polish-Jewish relations, are clearly visible.