"The pogrom began. They broke down doors and windows...they took everything they could carry...they rushed like demons. we cried, we hid in cellars and in barns but we were ready for death. The pogrom didn't subside; it grew. The gang leaders who gave directions were well-dressed men. The more we pleaded with them for mercy and the more they felt in control of the situation, the madder they became...We cried for our martyrs...I was afraid. In every Pole I saw a murderer." (8 year-old Jewish boy in village near Cracow).
        How did such behavior come about? Who were these perpetrators? Real demons? No, pogroms were run by ordinary Poles. It was the rhetoric of the increasingly conservative government that incited pogroms.
        As Celia Heller notes, it is impossible to convey the tragedy of pre-war violence to a generation silenced by Hitler and Stalin. Historical important facts are noted above in the political review section.
        It is important to note the official acceptance or downright approval of the violence in the system. The violence after Russian invasion was quite highly organized, precise, and consistent, with the help of the Endek and the observance of everyone else. Even the Church, while not officially condoning the violence, provided rationale. A Cardinal Hlond in 1936 illustrates this incitement-by-default in an oft-quoted address: "A Jewish problem exists, and will continue to exists as long as the Jews remain Jews...It is a fact that the Jews fight against the Catholic Church, they are free-thinkers, and constitute the vanguard of atheism, and of revolutionary activity. It is a fact that the Jewish influence upon morals is fatal...But let us be just. Not all Jews are like that...I warn against the fundamental, unconditional anti-Jewish principle, imported from abroad. It is contrary to Catholic ethics...it is not permissible to hate anyone. Not even Jews. One ought to fence oneself off against the harmful moral influences of Jewry, and to separate oneself against its anti-Christian culture, and especially to boycott the Jewish press...But it is not permissible to asault Jews...When divine mercy enlightens a Jew, and he accepts sincerely his and our Messiah, let us greet him with joy in the Christian midst." The Jesuit periodical, Przeglad Powszechny, further illustrates the official attitude, in response to later pogroms: "One should let the Jews be, but eliminate them from the life of Christian society. It is necessary to provide separate schools for Jews so that our children will not be infected with their lower morality." The Church, with more power than any other single institution in Poland, failed to halt the violence (being done with supposedly Christian aims) with strong condemnations, and thus subtly encouraged it.