EP85: Józef Piłsudski

Józef Piłsudski was the founding father of modern day Poland, and the country’s most significant political figure from its formation in 1918 until his death in 1935.

Initially a committed democrat who wished to see a Poland free for ethnic minorities to live in, Piłsudski eventually decided that his fellow Poles were not enlightened enough to accept his vision of a free and multi-ethnic Poland, and ruled effectively by decree after 1926.

But Piłsudski’s story is much more than a simple case of fledgling democrat turned dictator; indeed, his leadership of Poland reveals the centrality of the country to developments in Europe throughout the interwar period. All people know of Interwar Poland is its invasion by the Nazis in 1939, but there is much more to it than that.

My guest today is Joshua D. Zimmerman. Joshua is an associate professor at Yeshiva University in New York, where he holds the Chair in Holocaust Studies and East European Jewish History. He is also the author of Jozef Pilsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland.