Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz

Leo, Nie, 2008-01-13 01:33 Kraj | English


Controversial sociologist Jan Gross's new book on anti-semitism in post-World War II Poland, 'Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz' is due out this week and is already ruffling feathers in society.

His former publication 'Neighbours: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne '(2001), described how Polish Jews in the small village of Jedwabne were killed by their fellow citizens over 60 years ago.

The author explained to Polish Radio that “The post-war aggression of Poles towards Jews is deeply rooted in the attitudes assumed by Poles during the war." He further states that "It was the effect of a complete devaluation of moral norms that should be adhered to by every Christian, and that was the main source of the post-war aggression of Poles towards Jews."

The launch of this book will create a much needed debate within Poland about acknowledging its own complicity in war crimes against its Jewish population, after the Nazi campaign of genocide had all but eradicated the once thriving, large religious community.

It comes as His Royal Highness George Bush II is quoted as saying that Auschwitz should have been bombed all them years ago. Whether George's reasons are humanitarian or to aid his buddies in the arms factories is not entirely clear though.

More info. on Polish Radio

I've been reading lots of

Akai47, Nie, 2008-01-13 09:03

I've been reading lots of commentary made even before the book came out. Unfortunately, the voices of the right are very strong and very reactionary. Instead of talking about the antisemitism, they try different methods to made the issue about something else. Usually it's about how Jan Gross creates an "unfair image" of Poles. For example, I saw one asshole on TV talking about this. The other person on the "debate" said that many facts about pogroms like the Kielce pogrom are well documented and are considered historic facts. At which point the asshole says something like "Yeah. We know about this, it was in the papers, etc. So Jan Gross didn't publish any new historic facts. So why did he publish this book?" And further giving viewers the idea that, if there is nothing new historically here, the reason behind the book is to bash Polish people. That's the level of discussion which well-known journalists bring to the debate.

Even better is to try to downplay the issue or distract people like in Rzeczpospolita paper recently. On one page you had a scathing condemnation of the book and on the next a whole page article claiming that Stalin was the worst anti-semite going. The article about Stalin had lots of truth to it, but in the context, it was clear that the role of the article was to show that there were even worse anti-semites than Poles. This has an important subcontext, which is only clear if you follow right-wing articles and thought in Poland. Some right-wing historians have tried to explain pogroms as not being against Jews, but against communists, claiming that Jews were very populous amongst the communists. What people bred on right-wing propaganda are supposed to put together therefore is an image of the Jew and his friends the leftists as hypocritical Pole-bashers who unfairly focus on anti-semitism in Poland when it was much worse under Stalin.

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anti-semitism

Czytelnik CIA (niezweryfikowane), Wto, 2008-02-19 22:18

In Polish a word "Jew" (Żyd)is not emotionally neutral. Say "sex, violence, war, emigration" and you feel these are just words describing neutral though very often controversial issues. Say "a Jew" and suddenly all eyes are focused on you. This is bizarre considering there are almost no Jews left in Poland.

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Was the Polish government

Czytelnik CIA (niezweryfikowane), Nie, 2008-01-13 13:40

Was the Polish government complicit or some elements of Polish society? I think Gross's point was rather to see how anti-semitism flowed through societies and was quietly accepted.

It's healthy to ask questions. In the US there's a renewed debate about the american governments inaction during WWII when they didn't bomb Auschwitz. Nobody is saying that this type of discussion is "anti-American" and it would be considerable ridiculous - even for the right. The Prosecutor examining the book is an assault on freedom to discuss unpopular ideas.

Sounds like people are justifying antisemitism to me.

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I wonder

Czytelnik CIA (niezweryfikowane), Sob, 2008-01-26 17:18

...I wonder how the American citizents or any other nation involved would have behaved at the time of war... when people get into a fear mode, they loose human feelings and become animals. It is not that Polish society was/is anti-semitic - it was difficult time, time of fear and human degradation. The people who took part in pogroms and "helped" Germans were in great majority simple, uneducated and pretty stupid people. Easily manipulated, angered. And there was a lot of anger towards Jewish population as they always stayed on a side, never integrated or had much respect for gentiles around, well, unless they had money. They reacted using basic instincts: fearm greed, hatred for they felt worse (in lots of cases they felt inferior to rich population of Jews, whom they did not understand; and also the Jews never thought of mingling with Polish population). To kill to steal - Romans had it, Americans too - the outbusrt of hatread towards Japanease or Arabic people at the times of war. Let's not generalize. Why do they present two sides of story in a newspaper? It's an easy answer: because the truth is somewhere in between.

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