August 2017 Traditional Jewish Attitudes Toward Poles

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602 Jonathan Krasner, “Constructing Collective Memory: The Re-envisioning of Eastern Europe as Seen Through American Jewish Textbooks,” in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, vol. 19 (2007): 229–55.

603 Danusha V. Goska, “The Necessity of ‘Bieganski’: A Shamed and Horrified World Seeks a Scapegoat,” Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, vol. 19 (2007): 205–28, here at 219–21. See also Danusha V. Goska, Bieganski: The Brute Polak Stereotype, Its Role in Polish-Jewish Relations and American Popular Culture (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2010). (Surprisingly, Goska views Jan Gross’s problematic book Neighbors in a positive light, without realizing that the outpouring of bigoted and ugly demagoguery that it generated, some of which she cites, was not only inspired by the book but also calculated by the author to do exactly that. Gross never complained about his book being misread by its American reviewers, nor did he distance himself from their anti-Polish diatribes.) Fénelon’s descriptions of Poles contrast with those of many other Jewish inmates of Auschwitz. Halina Nelken, a Jewish woman from Kraków, writes of the solidarity of Polish and Jewish prisoners in the Płaszów concentration camps, the assistance shown by Polish inmates of Auschwitz, the camp’s first inmates, to later transports of prisoners, including Jews. These anonymous benefactors, who may well not have been the “norm,” were known by the name of “kochany” (“darling”). While they did not have much to offer—perhaps some scraps of food or clothing—their attitude had a great impact on the new arrivals. Nelken relates similar displays of solidarity she was shown by Polish women inmates at Ravensbrück. See Halina Nelken, And Yet, I Am Here! (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), 232, 248, 272. Sigmund Gerson and Eddie Gastfriend, young Jews imprisoned in Auschwitz, speak of the “loving” attitude of Father Maximilian Kolbe and all the Polish priests toward the Jews in the camp. Eddie Gastfriend said: “There were many priests in Auschwitz. They wore no collars, but you knew they were priests by their manner and their attitude, especially toward Jews. They were so gentle, so loving.” See Patricia Treece, A Man for Others: Maximilian Kolbe, Saint of Auschwitz (New York: Harper & Row, 1982; reissued by Our Sunday Visitor, Hutington, Indiana, 1982), 138, 152–53. Ada Omieljanczuk, a Jewish woman, attributes her survival to Polish fellow prisoners of Auschwitz who shared their food parcels with her. See Tadeusz Andrzejewski, “Wileńscy strażnicy oświęcimskiej pamięci,” Tygodnik Wileńszczyzny (Vilnius), February 3–9, 2005. Jerzy Radwanek, a member of the Polish underground in Auschwitz, used his position as camp electrician to provide widespread assistance to Jewish prisoners, and came to be known by them as the “Jewish uncle” of Auschwitz. See the profile of Jerzy Radwanek under “Poland” in the web site of The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, Internet: . Another inmate mentions a Polish kapo in Auschwitz who agreed to Jewish inmates holding a service and guarded the entrance to the barracks to watch out for the SS. See Judy Weissenberg Cohen, “‘The Kol Nidre I always remember,’” The Canadian Jewish News, September 24, 1998. Yet another prisoner remembers with gratitude how her Polish “block trusty” tried to protect Jewish prisoners from being sent to the ovens. See the account of Anna (Chana) Kovitzka, posted at . Assistance by Polish inmates at Auschwitz has been documented by Yad Vashem: Israel Gutman and Sara Bender, eds., The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, volumes 4 and 5: Poland (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004), Part 1, 256 (Stanisława Sierzputowska); Part 2, 638 (Jerzy Pozimski), 658 (Jerzy Radwanek). Other accounts that mention kind deeds by Polish kapos and block elders in Auschwitz can be found in Donald L. Niewyk ed., Fresh Wounds: Early Narratives of Holocaust Survival (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 15, 205, 210; and Konrad Charmatz, Nightmares: Memoirs of the Years of Horror under Nazi Rule in Europe, 1939–1945 (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2003), 101–102.

604 M.B.B. Biskupski, Hollywood’s War with Poland, 1939–1945 (Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2010). While contemptuous of Poland and Poles, in order to continue doing business in Germany after Hitler’s ascent to power, all of the Hollywood studios, all but one of which were headed by Jews, agreed not to make films that attacked the Nazis or condemned Germany’s persecution of Jews. The arrangement remained in place through the 1930s, as Hollywood studios met regularly with the German consul in Los Angeles and changed or cancelled movies according to his wishes. The studios acceded to the gradual Aryanization of their Jewish work force in Germany, then to Nazi censorship of their films when they screened in the Third Reich. This involved banning movies by directors such as Ernst Lubitsch, films starring Marlene Dietrich, and excising credits of actors or directors who were Jewish or considered politically objectionable, as well as cutting scenes that Nazi censors found offensive. See Ben Urwand, The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler (Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013). The contrast of Hollywood’s behaviours towards Nazi Germany and Occupied Poland, in the 1930s and 1940s respectively, simply has to be read so as to be believed.

605 For examples of anti-Polish publications see Jerzy Robert Nowak, Antypolonizm: Zdzieranie masek, 2 volumes (Warsaw: Maron, 2002).

606 Mieczysław B. Biskupski, “Poland and the Poles in the Cinematic Portrayal of the Holocaust,” in Robert Cherry and Annamaria Orla-Bukowska, eds., Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future (Landham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), 27–42, here at 34–35. Although Jews wield tremendous influence in American film, media and politics (e.g., the powerful lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the Congress on March 3, 2015)—out of all proportion to their numbers—and this influence is often used to the detriment of others (such as the Palestinians and Poles), in manipulative polls designed to gauge their level of “anti-Semitism,” Poles and others are asked whether Jews have too much influence, and those that answer “yes” are perversely branded as anti-Semites, even though the existence of that tremendous and disproportionate influence is an undeniable fact. Avraham Burg, a former Speaker of the Knesset, writes candidly, “Jews hold stunningly powerful positions and clout in the United States. The combination of the American state’s power and the Jewish power in the areas of legislation, administration, media, law, business, culture, and entertainment have made the Jews a defining factor of contemporary America. Because Israel is inseparable from the identity of American Jews, Israel is inseparable from the American experience.” See Burg, The Holocaust Is Over; We Must Rise From Its Ashes, 194. In his article “Jews DO Control the Media” published in Times of Israel on July 1, 2012, Elad Nehorai acknowledges what is plainly obvious, namely, that Jews do exert enormous influence, and that such disproportionate influence can legitimately be a source of resentment. Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the liberal Jewish magazine Tikkun, recently pointed out that “various universities denied tenure to professors who had made statements critical of Israel,” something that would be unthinkable for those making critical statements about Poles. See Michael Lerner, “Mourning the Parisian ‘Humorists’ Yet Challenging the Hypocrisy of Western Media,” January 9, 2015, Huffington Post. Peter Beinart acknowledges: “As a force in American journalism, we certainly have. Jews edit The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Vox, Buzzfeed, Politico, and the opinion pages of The New York Times and Washington Post.” See Peter Beinart, “How The New Republic Stopped Being a Jewish Magazine,” Haaretz, December 10, 2014. According to another report, “Jews are hugely important—even decisive—in their political giving. The Jewish two per cent—which is overwhelmingly liberal—accounts for about two-thirds of all donations received by the Democratic Party. … The importance of Jewish money to Democratic fortunes …” See Lawrence Solomon, “How Barack Obama Fooled the Jews and Betrayed Them Once He Had Their Money,” National Post, December 29, 2016. Of course, no group gives money in this magnitude without expecting something in return. When it comes to buying influence, empirical research demonstrates that gifts are powerfully effective; when we accept a gift we become, consciously or not, beholden to the person who has given it to us. See Arthur Schafer, “Even Small Gifts Can Buy Political Influence,” The Globe and Mail (Toronto), January 3, 2017. Arguably, any concentration of power or disproportionate ability to exert influence in the hands of any one group is detrimental to society as a whole. It is interesting to note how the results of such manipulative polls are interpreted by mainstream Jewish commentators. Writing in Haaretz, Chemi Shalev mused: “Sort of makes you wonder if their real gripe isn’t that the Nazis simply weren’t thorough enough.” See “Ten Comments on ADL’s Global Survey of Anti-Semitism (It’s not all bad),” Haaretz, May 13, 2014. International efforts to expand the meaning of “antisemitism” unfortunately go hand in hand with a concerted effort to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli policies, as both are championed by Jewish lobbyists and pressure groups. A case in point is the predictably shrill reaction to a report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council on March 16, 2017, which was co-authored by Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and himself a Jew, as United Nations rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian territories. See Richard Falk, “The Hazards of Criticizing Israel,” Toronto Star, May 9, 2017.

607 See the following empirical surveys by Robert Cherry: “Contentious History: A Survey on Perceptions of Polish-Jewish Relations during the Holocaust,” in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, vol. 19 (2007): 338; “Measuring Anti-Polish Biases Among Holocaust Teachers,” in Cherry and Orla-Bukowska, Rethinking Poles and Jews, 69–79. Robert Cherry concludes, in the latter study, that: “The evidence presented strongly suggests that complaints in the Polish American community about the anti-Polish stereotypes found among non-Polish faculty who teach Holocaust-related courses are well-founded; not surprisingly, these stereotypes are strongest among non-historians. … Jewish faculty teach Holocaust courses throughout the country, courses that enroll tens of thousands of students annually. They organize conferences and influence museum presentations of historical events. … By contrast, Polish academicians do not have a significant forum to promote their views to the general public.” Ibid., 76–77.

608 Anna Morgan, “Jewish kids embracing Halloween,” Toronto Star, October 28, 2007.

609 Giles Coren, “Two Waves of Immigration, Poles Apart,” Times (London), July 26, 2008.

610 Candice Krieger, “Coren Launches His Own Assault on Poland,” The Jewish Chronicle, August 14, 2008. The Economist assailed Giles Coren and the Times in the following words (“Unacceptable Prejudice: Don’t Be Beastly to the Poles,” August 14, 2008):
It is a fair bet that no British newspaper would print a column that referred to chinks, coons, dagos, kikes, niggers, spics, wogs, wops or yids. Indeed, a writer who tried using these words would probably find himself looking for a new job before the day was out. Yet Giles Coren, a leading light of the Times, last month referred to “Polack[s]” in a piece about his great-uncle's funeral, and seems entirely unrepentant about it. … Mr Coren seems truly to dislike Poles … For many people, ethnic prejudices are unshiftable. Sometimes they are harmless (Scots who will applaud any country that beats England in a sporting contest). Sometimes they are loathsome or even lethal. The real issue is why the Times, a respectable mainstream newspaper, permitted the slur to be published; and why, once it had been printed, nobody felt the need to apologise. The answer is that anti-Polish prejudice is still socially acceptable, in a way that anti-Jewish prejudice, say, is not. That is partly a legacy of Soviet propaganda, which liked to portray all east European countries as benighted reactionary hotbeds that had been civilised by proletarian internationalism. It is partly a knee-jerk reaction of people who dislike the Roman Catholic Church, and particularly the last pope (described contemptuously by a leading British scientist as “an elderly Pole”, as if that disqualified him from having an opinion). It is mostly because being rude about Poles carries no risk.

611 In fact, the Borat character on occasion uses Polish dialogue in the film, a fact that undercores the anti-Polish bigotry of its author, who is also of Jewish origin. Borat repeatedly sings two Polish phrases: “I speak and read in English” (Czytam i mówię po angielsku) and “Could you speak slowly please?” (Proszę mówić wolniej).

612 Giles Coren, “Today I Am Make First Column in Polski,” Times (London), February 2, 2013.

613 “Reactions to Giles Coren’s Column,” The Times, February 5, 2013.

614 Jerome Ostrov, After a Trip to Poland,” Internet: