Volume 1

»Gegen den Strom«

Among the most important representatives of the Jewish minority in East-Central Europe between the two world wars was the General Jewish Workers' Alliance, popularly known as the »Bund.« It was established in 1897 in Vilna and one the eve of WW II, the »Bund« was the single most powerful political force in the Jewish population in Poland.  As a community of shared conviction and solidarity, the »Bund« made a major contribution to the flowering of Yiddish culture in Poland in the interwar period. Gertrud Pickhan was able to gain access to documents only recently opened to public accessibility in East European archives, and to evaluate them for her fundamental study.