Feeling Communists: Communism, emotions, and gender in interwar Polish Jewry

Abstract

Bina Garncarska-Kadary and Esther Rosenthal-Schneiderman, two young female Jewish-communist activists during interwar Poland, published their autobiographies in Israel. Their life stories had much in common, but also some differences. This article focuses on the emotions that these two women expressed in their autobiographies, with an emphasis on those related to their political activities. In this way, I aim to shed new light on these women’s motivations for joining and engaging in activity within the Communist movement. A better understanding of the emotions they expressed provides us insight into the dynamics of political affiliation and the driving factors in extreme conditions. I argue that political parties, encouraged and used emotions as a working tool to recruit and to motivate activists.