Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Bieganski Lives in the Comments Section of the Jerusalem Post. Cue the "Scary Polish Peasants."

"Scary Polish peasants" from Shoah ... no ... wait 

THESE are the "scary Polish peasants from Shoah" source
Same old same old. Nothing new. You've read it all in Bieganski

The Jerusalem Post said something nice about Poland, and posters in the comments section called Poles antisemitic murderers. 

"The Resurgence of Jewish Life in Poland" by Greer Fay Cashman reports that "There's a miracle going on in Poland; Jewish life is thriving, and it’s easier, safer and better to be Jewish every day in Poland than anywhere else in Europe,” Jonathan Ornstein, the director of the Jewish Community Center of Krakow, told participants in a conference marking the 25th anniversary of the renewal of diplomatic relations between Poland and Israel."

The article is followed by comments like this one, 

"Mr. Andrzej Bernstein is representing the rather thankless side of trying to defend Polish culture at the time of the Nazis.

But at least in one area there is hope: Most Europeans are eschewing religion and leaving their churches in droves. Since almost all Polish anti-Semitism comes from the Polish Catholic church, there is hope.

We have hope that more Polish people become agnostic and atheists, like their other European colleagues, and will also drop anti-Semitism at the same time. That said, there remains vicious anti-Israeli action among Europeans, on the "basis" of the "Israeli occupation" of alleged Palestinian lands.

It is difficult to see how Jews have any way of avoiding hatred. It either comes from the European churches...or from anti-Israel hatred. Either way, they cannot win. It's not a matter of wearing sack-cloth and feeling sorry for ourselves. It is what it is. Jew hatred is the most persistent cultural virus in history, and renews itself with each generation.

Jews must therefore remain armed. Armed Jews is the TRUE legacy of the Holocaust. The rest of the World will just have to accept that it is increasingly difficult to kill Jews. They now fight back."

And this "I am sure its safer than Syria or Yemen, but that is not saying much Greer

When the good Polish people who stole those homes and farms from the Jews who were shipped off to death camps, and stole all of our art and possessions , come to us and apologize with tears in their eyes, and give back the stolen goods, then maybe will will talk."

and this "Please give it a break. I could never live in a place where my relatives were shot and thrown into mass graves in the ground, or taken by train to a death camp- how can one trust his enemies, (neighbors) remembering that after the war, Jews who returned to their homes were met with murderous Poles who had taken over their property and killed them rather than face them. 

I remember seeing the movie documentary Shoah,  and the cold stares and expressive hand motions of the local Polish people as Jews were being carted off to labor camps, death camps and crematoriums- they would use the hand movement of the neck being slit open as the trains passed. NICE?"

And this, "my husband's family are listed as the dead murdered by the poles who sent the Jews on their merry way"

Read it -- again -- here.

Oh, Polonia, when will you wake up and do the necessary? As described here

11 comments:

  1. I haven't seen Shoah and don't intend to, but from what I have read about it, and from some of the comments you mention, I assume its purpose was to "unter" Poles.

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  2. Lanzmann's SHOAH is unadulterated Polonophobic crap.

    It keeps being reissued by Amazon, and I have written a recent review (please click on my name in this posting to see it).

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    1. Thanks Jan - you are a tireless worker in this murky swamp filled with the crocodiles of Political Correctness. I have "liked" your review. A rescue from all this is so close now. Its the rescue we pray for when we say the Lord's prayer and ask for God's Kingdom to come.

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    2. I've seen part of SHOAH in tv. That part filmed in Poland. There was a difference between what was said by peasants (in Polish) and English translation (text). That discrepancy was also noticed by dr Gunnar S. Paulsson. Links below.
      http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-holocaust&month=9705&week=c&msg=EUoMwE8LjezN7D6720F10w&user=&pw=
      http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-holocaust&month=9705&week=c&msg=t04ynkiu1WlhIS%2bk28KSSw&user=&pw=

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    3. Jan, thanks for your informative review of Lanzmann's Shoah. It’s distressing that so many blindly accept such rubbish as gospel and repeat it. Thanks also for your herculean effort in reviewing the literature on Polish-Jewish relations. I don’t know how you manage such a prodigious task but I very much appreciate your instructive and straightforward analyses.

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  3. On other subject. Some time ago I've found this map on the internet.
    http://pfg.blox.pl/resource/183329.jpg
    I think that this is the map that dr Goska mentioned during some previous discussion.
    And here's another one. Just for a laugh.
    http://www.polishexpress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/mapka15414.jpg

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  4. Danusha, thanks for sharing the JP piece.

    In reading the largely negative comments, there’s an obvious a fusion of ignorance of the facts, rigid belief of myths, and visceral hatred. Fighting and moderating such entrenched convictions seems to be an impossible task and I applaud you and Sue for engaging some of the commentators. I would also add that in addition to Jewish detractors, there are ignorant others (e.g., FBI Director Comey) who draw sizeable media attention in defaming Polonia. Hopefully Polonia can organize as you recommend and perhaps be as effective as the ADL.

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  5. The Python pic above reminds me of the old chestnut: "the peasants are revolting, sire".

    Lanzmann and Polish peasants - the supercilious in pursuit of the superstitious, or at least that's how it sometimes appears.

    Interesting links from Lukasz above. I've watched the monumental "Shoah" twice now. Some viewers or reviewers seem to be totally uncritical because of the sheer length of the film, but sometimes it seems to me that the interviews with the Poles have quite possibly done more damage to the nation's image than anything else on celluloid. In response to the argument that the peasants condemn themselves out of their own mouths with their primitive anti-Semitism, it could be said there is a bit of subtle manipulation going on on the part of the director, who, apart from the obvious fact that he has chosen to omit all the positive stories of rescuers, seems intent on fitting the responses of his interviewees into a pre-determined agenda, in other words, his mind is already made up.

    The famous cut-throat gesture, for example, is hardly some kind of triumphalist sign of utter disdain for the wretched freight car passengers, but rather a futile attempt to offer some warning of their impending fate.

    The peasants were not the ones gassing the millions. Why make them out to look like villains?

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    Replies
    1. Lanzmann asked those peasants to make those gestures. When they did he asked them to do that gesture again. And again. And again. And again.
      When peasants started to show amusement because of absurdity of the situation, Lanzmann got what he wanted. He captured a perfect moment.
      Polish peasants smiling when they remembered a nice memory.
      Lanzmann treated Poles with condescension and made no effort to hide his disdain.

      "The peasants were not the ones gassing the millions. Why make them out to look like villains?"

      Blaming some "primitives" is more convenient. Westerners can delude themselves that they are above it. Incapable of committing such crime. Accepting the fact that civilized Westerners were the perpetrators ruins their complacency. And deprives them of sense of superiority.

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    2. Absolutely. Even if it was the educated and sophisticated compatriots of Goethe and Schiller (and, alas, Mozart too) who were responsible for the insanity of The Final Solution, it is so much easier to blame the inarticulate, slovenly, backward Slavic peasant - and this, of course, is one of the central themes in the "Bieganski" book.

      I have a feeling that Lanzmann's magnum opus may have difficulty standing the test of time because of his tendentious approach towards people he clearly considers his inferiors. But at the moment, it would appear that to question any of his methods is tantamount to sacrilege, given the iconic status his film enjoys.

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    3. Certainly true, Lukasz.

      The cut-throat gesture was a warning, not a mockery of the fate of the Jews. In fact, I found an example where one Jew was warning another by employing the cut-throat gesture. To see it, please click on my name in this posting.

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