May 2016 Traditional Jewish Attitudes Toward Poles

. 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.

566 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.

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

568 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 excessive influence is an undeniable fact. The bizarreness of this situation can be gauged by articles such as Elad Nehorai’s “Jews DO Control the Media,” published in Times of Israel on July 1, 2012, which acknowledges what is plainly obvious, namely, that Jews do exert enormous influence, and that such disproportionate influence can legitimately be resented. 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,” somethinhg that would be unthinkable for 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. Arguably, any concentration of power in the hands of group in any field where influence can be wielded is detrimental. It is interesting to note how the results of such polls are interpreted by mainstream 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.

569 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.

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

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

572 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.

573 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).

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

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

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