Polish Ambassador's Response to Simon Webb Allegations about Polish Concentration Camps

Source for this letter here.

I WAS saddened to read Simon Webb’s article “Were ‘secret’ concentration camps run in Scotland during WWII?” (February 8). A number of accusations proclaimed in this piece distort historical truth and disrespect the memory of Polish servicemen in the Second World War.

I am surprised at the implication of similarity between internment and detention centres for non-commissioned Polish officers in Scotland with Nazi German concentration camps. Making the connection with the emotionally charged term “concentration camp” – nowadays used almost exclusively in connotation with the Holocaust – to describe institutions of different origin, purpose, and mode of operation is misleading. By arbitrarily connecting events and ambiguous statements, Mr Webb paints a contorted picture of British-Polish relations. He also corrupts the legacy of Poles who served during WWII, including in the defence of the Scottish coast, insinuating that half of them were willingly serving in the German Wehrmacht before being drafted to the allegedly anti-Semitic Polish Armed Forces.

Both the article and Mr Webb’s book fail to recognise credible sources, instead supporting the allegations with conspiracy theories, rumours, and propaganda from Pravda – the official newspaper and organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. One must remember that the Soviet Union treated Poland as an enemy and had a very specific agenda aimed at discrediting the independent Polish government, and General Władysław Sikorski in particular. Together with Nazi Germany, the USSR invaded Poland in September 1939, deported two million Poles to Siberia, murdered 22,000 Polish officers in the infamous Katyń massacre, and enforced communist rule in Poland after the war.

It saddens me that The Scotsman participated in Mr Webb’s promotional campaign for his controversial publication. Without understanding the wider historical context of this period and subject matter, as well as validating the research by looking into other sources, both the author and your newspaper risk spreading misinformation intended by the Soviet propaganda of the 1940s.

Witold Sobków,

Polish Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Poland,

47 Portland Place

London

Polish Concentration Camps in Scotland

"In his new book, historian and author Simon Webb, claims a network of ‘concentration camps’ operated in Scotland during and after the Second World War. Run with the full approval of the British government by a Polish government-in-exile, some only eight miles from the centre of Edinburgh, Webb claims that those detained in the camps were mainly Jews, communists and homosexuals. Here Webb takes a look at some of the most gruesome evidence he uncovered while researching his book."

Read about it here.

Thank you to Michal Karski for alerting me to this article. 

Huffington Post on Polak Jokes

A polish guy wins a brand new sports car in a contest. He drives around all the time waving at the rednecks. One day the rednecks stop him, they draw a circle in the dirt and say “If you step out of that circle, we will kick your ass.” They pick up hammers and start busting up his new car. They look back and he is smiling. They hit the car some more, and he is laughing. They walk over to him and ask “Why are you laughing? We just busted up your car.” He says “I know, but I stepped out of the circle 9 times.”

Michal Karski alerted me to Huffington Post article on Polak jokes, here.

Melania Trump is a Polack

One of the central arguments of "Bieganski" is that the Brute Polak stereotype applies to all peasant-descent, Christian-descent Eastern Europeans, from Lithuanians in the north to Serbians in the south. 

Melania Trump is Slovene, so, yes, she qualifies as a "Polak" too, as this commentator says, "Who the fuck cares what this Polack, douche bag gold digger thinks? She could barely speak, it's like she has ten Trump dicks in her mouth………fuck off Eurotrash!" see original post here.

Bieganski Lives in 2016

The Polish-language version of Bieganski, Biegański: Stereotyp Polaka bydlaka w stosunkach polsko-żydowskich i amerykańskiej kulturze popularnej, is now available on Amazon. I hope concerned Polonians and friends will post and vote for positive reviews. You can do so here.

And of course Bieganski remains available in an English-language version, here.

Recently a Polish man interviewed me about Bieganski.

This Polish man told me that reading the book shocked him. It was like a "cold shower," he reported. He seemed incredulous that my book reported conditions accurately.

As part of my response to him, I sent him the following:

Today is March 20, 2016. I just typed "dumb Polak" into a Google search box and limited the search to the previous year. That's a way to see how current the stereotype is. Every reference to "dumb Polaks" that I saw in my search is limited to material that was posted on the web in the past 365 days.

I found lots of material, including the exchange, below, between two discussants at an internet site. The discussants go by the screen names "BFIFE985" and "KOPYKAT."

***

BFIFE985 Like I said you're a dumb fucking Pollock who doesn't value his life. Watch for the red dot special. Lol.

Is your father a dump fuck Pollock like you too?

Here's a game for a dumb pollock like you. Go and find the penny in a corner of a round room! Lol! Dumb fuck

Who dumb fuck Pollock. Ever hear of ghost accounts. Typical pollock

KOPYKAT  Pollack? I'm not a fish? You really are one dumb cop. How can a fish type on a keyboard? Did you misspell the word on porpoise or just for the halibut?

pollack: pronounced [pol-uh k]

a food fish, Pollachius pollachius, of the cod family, inhabiting coastal North Atlantic waters from Scandinavia to northern Africa.

KOPYKAT You fucking moron. It's Polak, Not pollock or pollack. Go buy a dictionary you retarded fucking.

Stop you? stop you from what? Making an idiot out of yourself? You can't even stop you. It happens naturally.

BFIFE985  Like I said you can't do anything about who I may or may not be. Dumb fuck

BFIFE985  And? Another dumb pollack

KOPYKAT I got it. You're a stupid cop and another dumb Polak.

BFIFE985  Where did they bury your pollack father? Did he have a pollack casket? A garbage can with two handles?

KOPYKAT Get over it, your father is dead.

BFIFE985  Bingo! You proved yourself being a dumb fuck Pollack. Now get your fathers cock out of your mouth.

The noun Polack (/ˈpoʊlɑːk/ or /-læk/; also Pollack, Pollock, Polock), in the contemporary English language, is a derogatory reference to a person of Polish descent. It is an Anglicisation of the Polish language word Polak, which can mean a Polish male person or a person of Polish nationality

KOPYKAT Drew's size (5) 8===D, drilling your ass. Then you suck him off.

Does Gayle like to watch?

BFIFE985  I love seeing a dumb fuck pollack make a fool out of himself.

Like I said stop fucking your mother and your fathers pollack cock out of your mouth.

You're grasping at straws. There's nothing you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Lol

***

I also found the comment below as the caption to a video, here:

"Watch what happens to a Dumb Polack at a crossing gate

Polish biker really gives new meaning to the term."

Many people responded to this video and no one objected to the opening post's use of the words "Dumb Polack."

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I also found this, posted on March 16, 2016, here.

***

"By this point in the 21st century, most working professionals know that there are certain things that are absolutely unacceptable in today's workplace. What might have been tolerable at an office setting in the 1970s can get you fired today. Sexually suggestive remarks, pornography on your computer, knocking back a few stiff drinks in your office, and racial epithets hurled at coworkers are actions that are no longer tolerated.

But what about a good, old-fashioned Polish joke? You know, the kind where employees don't really mean any ill will or disrespect towards a certain ethnicity, and they don't seem to be revealing any racism. They're just trying to have some fun, and everyone seems to be enjoying them. Those are still OK, right?

Wrong. A West Virginia mining company and an Oregon auto repair shop just learned the hard way that teasing or harassing behavior including national origin insults can lead to an employment discrimination lawsuit and a hefty price to pay, even if you think there is no malice behind the insults.

Polish Jokes At A Mining Company

Michael Jagodzinski was a mine foreman for Rhino Energy in Bolt, West Virginia. According to a lawsuit filed in federal court by the EEOC, he was treated to an array of derogatory remarks about his Polish national origin during the course of his employment. The complaint said that supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates would frequently call him 'stupid Polack' or 'dumb Polack' or other similar insults, and that coworkers would scrawl graffiti on mine walls saying things such as 'Jag sucks' (and many others unprintable in this publication).

At some point, according to the lawsuit, a poster of the Geico caveman was hung in the workplace with someone labeling the character as Jagodzinski. Mimicking a popular ad campaign and making fun of Jagodzinski's ill-fitting work uniform, the claim alleges that someone wrote on the poster: 'Pulling in a belt…so easy a caveman can do it. But a Polack can't.'"