Bixbaum And Esther Analysis

Society throughout Europe changed drastically for many groups in the wake of the First World War. The nation-state of Poland was created, and many other borders were completely redrawn. The people began to have clear differences based on nationality and region, but were also very different within their own populations. This included the communities of Jews in these countries. The lives of Henry Buxbaum and Esther show that, while the Jews of West and East Europe during the interwar period had clear overarching distinctions, there was also an abundance of variety and division amongst the Jews of Germany and the Jews of Poland. This is manifested in both their stories as religious, economic, and political struggles and disagreements. The stories …show more content…
Buxbaum’s narrative is riddled with references to the political climate in Germany. For instance, he says one “could taste antisemitism everywhere; the air of Germany was permeated by it” (Buxbaum, 303). He goes on to mention how, to the rest of the Germans, the Jews became synonymous with communists, which intensified persecution. Buxbaum experienced these things personally as well as it became more difficult for him to practice medicine and in his interactions like that with his acquaintance on the train (Buxbaum, 301, 303-304). While this showed the growing division between Jews and Germans in Germany’s political climate, Esther speaks more on internal Jewish divisions. When referencing the number of Jewish political parties she says “where would you find a wider range of viewpoints and concepts of good and evil than among Jews? … if others belittled us and despised us, then we ought to stick together to prevail” (Esther, 330). This was much easier to attain in Poland than Germany because Polish Jews made up a much larger percentage of the total population. This impacted Esther personally as her normal social groups and town reacted negatively towards her socialist best friend. This showed the conflict between the Polish Jews existed at both the larger political level and in the daily lives of citizens as well. Overall, the lives of Henry Buxbaum and Esther are evidence of both the divide between Eastern and Western European Jews during the interwar period as well as the differences and conflicts within those groups in Poland and Germany. They clearly express this using their personal narratives and observations of their respective societies. These differences would bleed over into the period of war and Jews’ differences would be disregarded as the Nazi forces swept through