As is well known, the Jewish question in the reborn Polish state had several different aspects: national, international, political, economic, cultural, religious, and moral. This was due to the high percentage of Polish citizens of Jewish nationality, whose religion was alien to the official one, who had a different mentality and way of thinking, a different lifestyle, and a different everyday culture. Some of these characteristics had been formed under the age-old influence of the spirit of Judaism, others had been acquired during the Jewish wanderings among the peoples of Christian Europe. Wherever they settled, the Jews represented something of a problem, and its seriousness was conditioned by their proportion in the total population and the host country's economic structure, religion, legislation, and historical continuity. In the case of Poland, which had regained independence after 120 years of foreign rule, there were some unique circumstances that added to the weight of the problem.

That is why the issue was constantly present in popular thinking; this was reflected in the press, at that time the most influential mass medium of communication and propaganda. Most factions and political orientations of the time represented a more or less united front concerning the Jewish question. Its thrust was anti-Jewish and its force was determined by party divisions in the case of the secular press and by the degree of formal allegiance to the Church hierarchy in the case of the religious press. Even a cursory glance at just a few of the titles makes this clear. It may therefore be useful now, from a perspective of more than fifty years, to take a more probing look at the individual periodicals, with a view to uncovering the deeper message of these publications. By this means different facets of the ‘Jewish question’ and the nature of Polish antisemitism will emerge.

I take the view that the religious press was less antisemitic the closer it was to the episcopate and the more representative of the hierarchy's opinions. The periodicals in this category gave a deeper and less narrow-minded presentation of Jewish problems, putting them in perspective and writing about them in a less virulent and hate-filled tone. It is not my intention to play down the evil nature of certain passages that undeniably appeared in Church periodicals.