‘You alone will make our family’s name famous’ Rosa Luxemburg, Her Family and the Origins of her Polish-Jewish Identity

Abstract

The article explores Rosa Luxemburg’s background, youthand family and their influence on her Polish and Jewishidentities, as well as on her views on the Polish and JewishQuestions. It examines the views of Luxemburg’s father andgrandfather, as well as other relatives, in order to understandthe origins of her own ideas about Jewish assimilation, Polishnationalism and other subjects. Addressing the lackof scholarship on this subject by Luxemburg’s biographers,the article uses recent studies, newly available archivalmaterial and extensive interviews with members of theLuxemburg family to offer a new interpretation of the originsof Rosa Luxemburg’s Polish-Jewish identity.

Keywords

• Roża Luksemburg
• rodzina
• tożsamość żydowska
• tożsamość polska
• Zamość
• Warszawa