"The Jews merely hovered around its margins"

[captain1]

Hello, I would like to understand from you what the sentence "The Jews merely hovered around its margins" means(what is the meaning):
"To the Poles, it was a war between Poland and Germany, and the Jews merely hovered around its margins".

Source: Double Memory: Poles and Jews after the holocaust/Piotr Wrobel.


Thank you.

 

[GoesStation]

Hello, I would like to understand from you what the sentence "The Jews merely hovered around its margins" means(what is the meaning):
"To the Poles, it was a war between Poland and Germany, and the Jews merely hovered around its margins".

Source: Double Memory: Poles and Jews after the holocaust/Piotr Wrobel.

The author is asserting that Poles didn't think much about how Jews were affected by the war. I can tell you from close family experience that many surviving Poles somehow blamed the few surviving Jews for the devastation. I hope Wrobel discusses what happened to survivors who laboriously made it back from the camps to the place they had previously considered their home.

 

[captain1]

The author is asserting that Poles didn't think much about how Jews were affected by the war. I can you from close family experience that many surviving Poles somehow blamed the few surviving Jews for the devastation. I hope Wrobel discusses what happened to survivors who laboriously made it back from the camps to the place they had previously considered their home.

Thank you for your answer. And what that means: "merely hovered around its margins"?


Thanks again.

 

[GoesStation]

Thank you for your answer. And what does this [STRIKE]that[/STRIKE] mean[STRIKE]s[/STRIKE]: "merely hovered around its margins"?

It means that, from the perspective of the Poles, the Jews did not participate directly in the war.

 

[Tdol]

They were not central to it in this view.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Which war was he refering to? It's interesting that he thinks getting murdered is a form of hovering around the margins.

 

[GoesStation]

Which war was he refering to? It's interesting that he thinks getting murdered is a form of hovering around the margins.

The author was writing about the Poles' attitude towards the Jews after WWII. I wouldn't try to glean anything about his own attitudes from a one-sentence quotation.

I don't know much about specific incidents my mother and grandmother encountered when they returned to Poland, but my mother wrote about how hostile many of the Poles were. She had expected they'd settle back home in Poland; instead, they got out as quickly as they could.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The author was writing about the Poles' attitude towards the Jews after WWII. I wouldn't try to glean anything about his own attitudes from a one-sentence quotation.

I don't know much about specific incidents my mother and grandmother encountered when they returned to Poland, but my mother wrote about how hostile many of the Poles were. She had expected they'd settle back home in Poland; instead, they got out as quickly as they could.

Who wouldn't?!

It's also interesting that he says the Poles thought it was a war between Poland and Germany.