How to Become a Young Jewish Socialist Martyr in Interwar Poland: The Tsukunft Youth Movement and Its Politics of Memory

There is no doubt that “new Jewish politics” flourished in interwar Poland. Youth movements played a very important part in that phenomenon. All of them were attuned to the Zeitgeist of the time, being convinced that Jews needed to be transformed in order to create a better future. Tsukunft, the youth movement associated with the Bund, was not unique in this regard. However, it offered a vision of the new man and woman which was slightly different than its Zionist counterparts. This paper focuses on the politics of memory of this Jewish socialist movement. Furthermore, the article illustrates that the Tsukunfist lexicon of myths was drawn not from Jewish cultural tradition but from an already developed socialist tradition of iconography and ideological education.