From early childhood I have been very passionate about history and I have read hundreds of books (literally) about many history events. I have always been particularly interested in the history of the World War II. I consider World War II to be the most significant event in the history of our modern civilisation. Recent contact with Jews in Australia has brought a mixed bag of feelings. Despite many positive experiences, I have heard several false anti-Polish statements that have roots in negative stereotypes popularised by the Western media which are not supported by historical evidence. As I personally know people who risked their lives to help Jews during World War II, these statements are deeply offensive to me, my friends and my nation and I simply won’t tolerate them. I would like to present comments expressed by Jews I have met in Australia for your consideration:
1. “Poles are Anti-Semitic”
As individual opinions typically vary, the cruel events of the World War II have greatly reduced the Jewish population in Poland (it has been reduced to around 15,000 people) therefore for most of my life I have never met a Jew and anti-semitism has never existed in my consciousness. Possibly, for the same reason I have never met anyone who has demonstrated anti-Jewish attitudes. According to Wikipedia, “Germany, France, Britain and Russia are the countries with the highest rate of anti-semitic incidents in Europe. The Netherlands and Sweden have also consistently had high rates of anti-semitic attacks since 2000”. Poland is not mentioned there. It is also an undeniable fact that Poland hosted the biggest Jewish community on the planet for many centuries, with first settlement records reaching back to the XI century. Read more about Jewish settlement in Poland through the following link:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland
2. “Poles collaborated with Germans to destroy Jews”
Firstly, several Jews killed in World War II, despite having their own traditions and religion, were Polish citizens – in the same way Maoris are considered New Zealand citizens and Aboriginals are now considered Australian citizens (although, of course, Jews were not native to Poland). Statistics from the Israeli War Crimes Commission indicate that less than 0.1% of Poles collaborated with the Nazis, which is far less than in other European countries. In addition, those who did were often sentenced to death by the Polish Underground Army.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Collaboration_with_the_Axis_Powers_during_World_War_II#Poland
Lastly, in addition to the 3.1 million Polish Jews killed by Germans, it should not be forgotten that over 2 million native Poles also lost their lives as a result of Nazi oppression:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_ethnic_Poles
3. “Polish death camps”
There is no evidence of Polish death-camps. Suggestions of Polish death camps are completely false statements base on the fact that several Geman Nazi concentration camps were located in occupied Poland (but many of them were placed in other European countries as well).
During World War II, Poland never built concentration camps to exterminate Jews, however, several Polish slave workers were forced by Nazis to build such camps.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camps
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/German_camps_in_occupied_Poland_during_World_War_II
4. “Poles didn’t help Jews during war”
This is not true. An estimated 450,000 Jews were saved by Poles; up to 50,000 Poles alone lost their lives when helping Jews. Up to 3 million Poles were involved in helping Jews in total (some of these I have met personally). Also, 6,135 Poles have been awarded the title of “Righteous among the Nations by the State of Israel”. This represents over 25% of all awards which is more than any other nation. Read more here:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Rescue_of_Jews_by_Poles_during_the_Holocaust
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Righteous_among_the_Nations
Interestingly, there is very little evidence of Jewish help to Poles: if you type “Poles saved by Jews”, Google returns no results...
5. “Poles helped Germans in ghettos”
This is another false statement; read a note on Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who helped 2,500 children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, providing them with false documents, and sheltering them in individual and group homes for children:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Irena_Sendler
There are several reports written by high-ranking SS officers (like Jürgen Stroop) commenting on “Polish bandits” supporting Jews in ghettos, providing food, weapons or taking part in military actions against Nazis, see here:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising#Polish_support
6. “Church in Poland didn’t help Jews and collaborated with Nazis”
I am not a Catholic and I am oppose the Church in many ways but there are known cases of Polish priests, nuns and bishops who helped Jews.
Worth reading is the following story of a priest who helped Jews and gave his life for another prisoner in Auschwitz:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Maximilian_Kolbe
7. “Polish organised pogroms, also after II World War”
This is also untrue. These cases were marginal and Poland was continuously occupied by the Soviet Union until 1993(!). Poles had no rights to govern their state and they had no opportunities to organise a pogrom. Poles at that time were victims of NKVD activity where a major part of this regime's police officers were Jews. This secret police organisation created many political provocations. [add: MK]
It is also worth mentioning that number of Jews cooperated with Russians and the NKVD (like Koniuchy massacre where a Polish village was attacked by Jewish and Russian partisans with an estimated number of up to 300 civil victims).
With regard to victims of the communist government and its provocations, and estimated number of 1000-2000 Jews were killed soon after World War II, however, these numbers need to be analysed in a wider context of Stalin’s repression in Poland after war, where over 2 million ethnic Poles fighting for democracy were arrested, over 50,000 deported to Gulags and 20,000 murdered.
Look closer at that case: Jewish communist officer Helena Wolińska-Brus - the Soviet regime's prosecutor responsible for the murder of polish WWII hero, General Fieldorf, after the war in 1953. [add: MK]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_August_Fieldorf
Final word:
It all seems that a particular business lobby (maybe Zionists' supporters) performs and broadcast “creative” history for some reason. What they want from Poland? [add: MK]
More money from such poor, destroyed and used up country? To take over political and economic power in Poland and turn Poles into their slaves? [add: MK]
I provided links to Wikipedia sites which are considered to be neutral, unbiased sources of information, edited by hundreds of international experts providing information quality close to Encyclopaedia Britannica. I can provide more information on the above topics from many sources should one become more interested.
I do not consider myself anti-semitic nor racist and I am always willing to make connections with people of different religions, backgrounds, races, etc. that include Jews, as long as they are open to constructive communication and are willing to think “outside the box”, putting general stereotypes aside. If you however deny the historical facts presented above and still carry anti-Polish resentments, you are not welcome in my house and please seek another host.
And of course, this text is neither anti-German nor anti-Russian – I have only presented historical facts, I feel no resentment towards Russians and Germans and actually, I have many good friends from these countries.
With regards,
Daniel Wesolowski
PS. Look also at this http://socjologiakrytyczna.blog.onet.pl/Niemcy-1940-Izrael-2009-nic-si,2,ID416710305,n [add: MK]
Co-author: Maciej Krzystek
Editing support: Leanne Gordon
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