The Good, the Bad and Bieganski
Michal Karski
BLONDIE: Hey, Tuco. What’s happening
with the Nazi Gold Train? You got any answers for me, amigo?
TUCO: What are you after, you sly
son of a bitch? I know your sort. Who sent you? The Fat Man? You self-righteous
Polonistas drive me up the wall. Always complaining about something.
BLONDIE: You planning on teaming up
with Angel Eyes? You remember what happened in 1934?
TUCO: Yeah, I remember what
happened in 1934 and how he double-crossed me back in Nazi-occupied Poland. I
wouldn’t team up with Angel Eyes if you made me president of the US of A. Now
what do you want from me, Kowalski.? I’m a busy man, you know. I’m a journalist
these days. Respectable. You can’t pin anything on me. I pay my taxes.
BLONDIE: Wrong film, Tuco. I ain’t
Kowalski. And what’s that you just said about Poland? Did I hear you right? Did
you hear that, Angel Eyes, or was I dreaming?
ANGEL EYES: Big mistake, Tuco.
You are one ignorant hombre and you’re gonna pay for that. Everyone knows you
should have said ‘German-Nazi-occupied Poland’.
BLONDIE: Both completely off the
mark. ‘Cause Poland wasn’t occupied until 1939. I’m gonna make life hell for
the both of you.
TUCO: Look – anybody can make a
mistake. Gimme a break.
BLONDIE: I’m gonna have to give you
and your journo friends some history books.
TUCO: History books? We don’t need
no stinkin’ history books. We know everything there is to know.
BLONDIE: Do you really? Who was
president of Poland in 1934?
TUCO: Er – Frederic Chopin?
BLONDIE: Try again.
TUCO: Was it Arch Stanton?
BLONDIE: Not even close.
ANGEL EYES: Paderewski?
BLONDIE: Getting warmer…
TUCO: I know. It was that guy with
the moustache.
BLONDIE: Which guy with the
moustache?
ANGEL EYES: I know. He means
Pilsudski.
BLONDIE: And was Poland under
Nazi-German occupation at the time of Pilsudski?
ANGEL EYES: Er…
BLONDIE: Not only was Poland not
occupied in 1934 but Pilsudski wanted to crush the German Nazis before they got
too powerful. He had his critics of course but how many people know that he
wanted a preventive war to stop Hitler back in 1933? If he had persuaded the
Brits and the French to go along, we’d be calling him a hero today instead of
accusing him of being a dictator. Read this.
ANGEL EYES: I didn’t know that,
Blondie. Don’t shoot, amigo. I’ll take those history books…
TUCO: Blondie, old friend. I
always knew Pilsudski was a good anti-Nazi president.
BLONDIE: Wrong again, Tuco.
TUCO: B-b-but what do you mean?
Isn’t that right?
BLONDIE: Pilsudski wasn’t the
president. He may have been the power behind the throne but the actual
president was Ignacy Moscicki.
TUCO: That’s what I said. Mos
Stanton. I mispronounced it a little…
***
Explanation:
Bieganski:
The Brute Polak Stereotype describes
a stereotype of Poles and other Eastern Europeans as the world's worst
anti-Semites. That stereotype is so powerful that it often supersedes, in people's
imaginations, the reality of Nazi Germany.
People
giving greater weight to the stereotype of Poles as quintessential anti-Semites
and not attending to the reality of Nazi Germany is demonstrated frequently in
classrooms, Holocaust education curricula, and in a recent news article that
referred to 1934 Poland as a Nazi state.
The
facts, as covered in Bieganski.
Nazism was a German product, and a product of wider Western trends. You can
read more about that at "Nazism's Foundations and Inspirations," here.
Poland
was invaded by Nazi Germany in September, 1939. It was also invaded by Soviet
Russia.
Nazis
committed horrible crimes in wartime, occupied Poland, 1939-1945. To attribute
those crimes committed against both Polish non-Jews and Polish Jews to Poland
is inaccurate, to say the least.
Michal
Karski, author of the above blog, writes:
A week
or so ago, UK news outlet Yahoo News managed to describe Poland of 1934 –
unbelievably - as “Nazi Poland”. After
immediate protests from Poles and Polonians, some of whom (unfortunately)
insisted on the change to “Nazi-occupied Poland”, the article was amended in
line with the complaints. The wording of the corrected version now made it seem
that Poland was occupied by the Nazis in 1934. After more complaints, the
editors of the article finally got it right
Is
this material for satire? You be the judge… If we don’t laugh at the astounding
ignorance of some of our western journalists, we’d only end up despairing.
"Bieganski: The Brute Polak Stereotype describes a stereotype of Poles and other Eastern Europeans as the world's worst anti-Semites. That stereotype is so powerful that it often supersedes, in people's imaginations, the reality of Nazi Germany."
ReplyDeleteThat's just it!
We should not, on this blog, be arguing, as we did earlier, about what Catherine the Great had said about the Poles. It is completely irrelevant. Today's Holocaust-related Polonophobia is what is relevant--in fact, supremely relevant.
Danusha's book shows that the brute Polak stereotype predates Nazi propaganda. In fact, Jan, you yourself brought up Bismarck's views about the Poles if I remember rightly in one of your comments, so there is a historical continuity about all this.
DeleteIn my opinion, what is most damaging is the level of ignorance about things Polish and Polish history on the part of influential Western opinion formers - usually, I'm sorry to say, journalists. Which is the point of the above piece.
As a matter of fact, since you bring up Catherine, the perception of her as an enlightened despot is a product of how propagandists such as Voltaire have transformed a person largely responsible for dismembering Poland into a heroine of the Enlightenment. If she was "great", as some people would have it, then - so the reasoning seems to go - she must have been justified in partitioning the recalcitrant and anarchic Poles. I recommend an essay by Joseph Conrad entitled "The Crime of Partition".
M Karski, yes, and everyone should read Larry Wolf's book on the Enlightenment inventing Eastern Europe.
DeleteThere's a book about Piłsudski. It's titled "Unvanquished: Joseph Pilsudski, Resurrected Poland, and the Struggle for Eastern Europe" (thanks for review Mr. Peczkis). Written by an American. A man who admits that he's enamored in Polish history.
DeleteHe's not a Pole. He's not a Polonian. And he wrote a book about one of our greatest heroes.
A Pole or a Polonian should have wrote such book long time ago.
Lukasz and other Polonians should have invited him to speak.
DeleteAs I get older, and closer to death, nothing can salve my heartbreak at how Poles and Polonians don't champion their scholars, thinkers, and writers.