Bieganski the Blog exists to further explore the themes of the book Bieganski the Brute Polak Stereotype, Its Role in Polish-Jewish Relations and American Popular Culture.
These themes include the false and damaging stereotype of Poles as brutes who are uniquely hateful and responsible for atrocity, and this stereotype's use in distorting WW II history and all accounts of atrocity.
This blog welcomes comments from readers that address those themes. Off-topic and anti-Semitic posts are likely to be deleted.
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Very moving. Thank you Danusha.
ReplyDeleteKrystyna, thank you so much for reading and commenting. :-)
ReplyDeleteWow. What a beautiful and moving story. Thank you, as always, for opening up a lovely hole in my brain and heart, where your perfect little words create a real experience. Kisses.
ReplyDeleteRobin, thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of intermarriage, or what might be called genetic intermingling in whatever fashion, has always been a forgotten factor, it seems to me. But then from where the old saying, "Scratch a Pole, find a Jew?" The ancestry on both sides is very mixed. Of course I understand that it's the culture, not genes, that matter, but maybe a greater awareness of how mixed Poles and Jews are, not to mention Germans or any other "Aryan," ahem. . . nationalities -- maybe that awareness would do some good, so people would stop being quite so obsessed.
ReplyDeleteA great story. I was esp struck by the person who just discovered that the Holocaust "was a Nazi operation." Thanks for the labor of sharing this, and all the good work you've done toward more tolerance.
Oriana, thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteThe person who made the discovery about the Holocaust was a graduate student in history at an Ivy League university.
He also discovered that peasants were overworked and powerless. He brought that up in meetings. I don't remember anyone even hearing what he was saying.
Beautiful writing, Danusha.
ReplyDeleteThe complexity of the relationship between Poles and Jews puzzles me -- I see more similarities than differences but I am not sure if this is common or if this is just my family, my upbringing.
I know I want to explore it, I want to write about it.
In my novel, To Kill the Other, I have a character named Irene -- she is Jewish and she is not Jewish ... we can't tell for sure. What we can tell for sure is that she is an Angel (with real wings). Angel means the one who can create life (and not succumb to death) even under the most difficult circumstances.
I think you would like this character.
Danuta, thank you so much for reading and commenting. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have to check out a book with an Angel character.
A beautiful essay in honor of Rabbi Skopitz by Rabbi Michael Herzbrun:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bellersonline.com/rabbi/writings/emanuel.html
Do you have a copy of this essay by Michael? The link no longer works. Missing my dad tonight and doing some googling :) I just ordered the anthology btw.
DeleteNo, I don't, unfortunately. Maybe someone in his family or his office might have a copy? Good luck in your search.
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