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... Jewish success in medicine and banking industries. The Polish Jews had been the subjects of discrimination, humiliation and manipulation at the hands of their fellow countrymen, but not until World War Two did they think that their neighbours or friends would be capable of committing violent hate crimes. During the occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1945 Nazi officials were amazed by the majority's willingness to collaborate, especially in terms of the Jewish final solution. In towns all over Poland violent pogroms erupted and Jewish citizens were murdered, not by enemy soldiers but by those they interacted with and saw on a daily basis. To construct a reality into the causes of collaboration in 1939, it is necessary to examine Polish history, particularly the political, economic and cultural factions which for so long perpetuated discrimination against the Jewish population. Only when we are able to view these patterns of anti-Semitism ...