Izabela Kazejak, *Jews in Post-War Wrocław and L’Viv: Official Policies and Local Responses in Comparative Perspective, 1945-1970s*. Stuttgart, Germany: Ibidem Verlag, 2023.

Send us Fan MailThis book examines the revival of Jewish communities in two post-war European cities – Wrocław (WOs-VOW), Breslau, which changed from Germany to Poland in 1945, and L'viv, which transitioned from Poland to the Soviet Union.These revival efforts were supervised by two distinct Communist regimes. The book contrasts the similarities and differences in the policies of these two nations.Regrettably, the attempts to restore a vibrant Jewish life were not successful in either case. This study clarifies why the efforts to build communities that identified as Jewish and were loyal to the Communist state did not succeed.After analyzing the prewar history and the wartime destruction of Jews in German Breslau and Polish Lwów, the book explores the postwar regimes' attempts, with the assistance of Holocaust survivors, to recreate Jewish life. It reviews the history of these developing communities up to 1968 in Wrocław (WOK-VOW) and into the 1970s in L'viv.The comparison is made in five interconnected contexts. These include the official policies towards Jews from the governments of the Polish People's Republic and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the local application of these central policies, the specific national frameworks of Jewish life in communist Poland and Soviet Ukraine, the influence of popular and official antisemitism on postwar Jewish communities in Wrocław (WOs-VOW), Breslau, and L'viv, and the consequences of the economic and social modernization of the Communist regimes for local Jewish communities.