It appears that the video has been removed from YouTube, but it is still visible on the web, on Facebook for example. It was put forth by the Ruderman Family Foundation. You can find it by googling "Polish Holocaust."
Update: ABC reports that the video has been removed by the Ruderman Family Foundation. You can read more here. OTOH the video is still visible on sites other than YouTube.
This comment appears under the above-linked ABC article:
Arthur Leon
My father and his family were from Poland and in the Holocaust there - 2 Uncles were in the Minsk Ghetto, later w the partisans in the forest and on more than one occasion sheltered Hersh Smoliar, who was always on the run.
I was born in America so I can only relate what my Dad and his family always said of the Poles - no one hated the Jews more than the Poles, German Nazis were second. Uneducated and brutal, generations of hatred that existed long before WWII. The antisemitism that's seen now... not surprising in the least.
Don't like what my father said? Is it not PC or bothers historical revisionists? Tough, he lived it, he said it.
And while millions of Poles died in WWII fighting against the invading Nazis... that does not obfuscate their hateful sentiments of Jews.
Another empirical data point supporting Danusha’s argument that Poles continue to be vilified by members of the Jewish community as more evil than the Nazis.
ReplyDeleteAs the animated discourse continues, extremist voices are emerging. On the one hand, as Michal Karski points out in the previous post, there’s talk of a Polish equivalent of a Holocaust museum, and on the other, there are American Jews demanding that the U.S. end relations with Poland.
If ever there was warrant for a promptly-constructed Polokaust Museum, we have it right here and now.
ReplyDeleteReaders please note that the above blog post has been updated.
ReplyDeleteNapisze po polsku, bo kaleczenie angielskiego nie ma sensu. Nie ma potrzeby, żeby P. go umieszczała, w środowisku angielskim i tak nikt nie zrozumie. To do P. chciałem tylko napisać.
ReplyDeletePrzeczytałem kilka P. wpisów i z tego, co się zorientowałem, to jest P. za kontynuowaniem, powiedzmy pogłębionej współpracy z ludźmi pochodzenia żydowskiego.
Moim zdaniem takie wezwania nie mają sensu z kilku przyczyn.
Do kogo to ma się odnosić do ogółu ludzi? Znajomości są osobiste. Ktoś chce niech się koleguje, kto nie chce niech się nie koleguje. Niech robi co chce.
Jest jednak sprawa głębsza. Otóż główna nauka, która płynie ze „wspólnego” życia Polaków i Żydów, to że te dwa narody nigdy się nie stanowiły wspólnoty. Jak to napisał żydowski pisarz I.B. Singer: „Żydzi i Polacy żyli razem przez 800 lat, ale nie zintegrowali się. Dwa i pół mln nie potrafiło napisać najprostszego listu po polsku. Dla setek tysięcy Żydów w RP język polski był równie obcy jak język turecki”. To jest ogromna nauka, że dwa narody żyjące na jednym terytorium były obok siebie, były między nimi konflikty. Szczególnie w okresach kryzysów ekonomicznych, jak brakowało na chleb i były tarcia.
Więc stańmy w prawdzie, jak było, a nie jakbyśmy sobie życzyli, żeby było.
Nie ma co wracać do tego, dobrze, że to minęło i trzeba z tego wyciągać naukę.
Arkadiusz Kostner
In relation to the text in question, the important problem in relation to the attitude of so many second generation American Jews of Polish origin towards the Poles is that they depend almost entirely on "received wisdom" and from survivor statements and attitudes. These are taken as always true down to the last detail and beyond criticism. The problem is clear: many such statements are wrong in dtail and overall interpretation of events. Typically, the eye witness/survivor can only discuss his or her own experience and that of immediate comrades/victims. However, even here the unrelaibility factor has to be taken into account and the statements subjected to scrutiny. Some will pass the test, some wome won't. Some will be wrong in detail but not in general, some will be wrong in the generalization but correct in details. And so forth.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in many Jewish circles no criticism is permitted in relation to survivor statements except where they contradict the received/approved narrative which features eveil Poles. It is a very real task to undermine the habit of calling on Holocaust survivor witness statements as if they are the absolute final arbiter in a discussion.
Teaching about the Bieganski stereotype will only have effect within discussions of the Holocaust between poles and Jews when it becomes possible to discuss survivor opinions rationally and not a some form of devinely inspired truth.
What Peter said is very true. There is a Jewish "peer pressure" for Holocaust survivors not to be "too favorable" to Poles.
DeleteIn fact, I actually found this in print [in TOGETHER AND APART, by Holocaust-scholar Shimon Redlich].
Redlich interviewed Jewish sisters Rena Wanderer-Stolarsky and Ruth Wanderer-Biheller, both of whom had survived the Holocaust thanks to being hidden by a series of successive Poles. Both sisters expressed hatred of Poles, and: "Rena advised me not to present the Poles in too favorable a way `for the sake of our martyrs'. Still, during lunch in Ruth's suburban New Jersey house, she remarked, `I wonder what we would have done as potential rescuers.' We didn't follow up on this touchy subject." (p. 22, 169)."
My book Bieganski talks about the feature you mention, Peter. See chapter six, specifically under this subheading: "Do Not Speak Ill of the Dead:"
DeleteThe Difficulty in Treating Polish Jews as Ordinary Humans"
To the person who wrote saying that he would never write again, your vow not to write again is not helpful. Write again. You asked that I keep the note private, so I won't post it. Thanks.
ReplyDelete" There is a Jewish "peer pressure" for Holocaust survivors not to be "too favorable" to Poles."
ReplyDeleteOne instance does not prove this assertion.
In their book "Zegota: The Rescue of Jews in Wartime Poland" Irene Tomaszewski and Tecia Werbowski mention the reluctance of some Jewish survivors to acknowledge that they were helped by Poles, "We personally know a number of Jews who were helped by Poles and some told us their stories. Others acknowledged getting help, but they felt that their pain and psychological torment prevented them from speaking about their helpers. Many of them hate Poland because of the loss of their families and their own suffering there. For them, Poland is only a graveyard. Some shared their stories but asked to remain anonymous because their friends would resent their 'whitewashing' of the Poles [sic!]" (pp. 12).
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. It is a powerful quote.
DeleteHello,
DeleteI've read post above, and I've noticed that words like "survivors" are used.
I find it somewhat misleading.
In polish language there is no word for "survivor". We never needed such word. We don't need it now.
But we do have words for winter, hunger, snow-storms, disease and hypothermia.
In German-occupied Poland there were no survivors, only rescued. No helpers, only rescuers. And no bystanders, only witnesses.
Poland is not some tropical island where fruits grow on trees all year round.
Here people don't "survive". They are saved.
Words matter.
Term "polish death camps" isn't the only one that is wrong.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteThank you for shining critical light on the usage of the words “survivor”, “helper” and “bystander” in the context of German-occupied Poland. I had never given these words much thought until I read your post. I have no doubt that the words “rescued”, “rescuer” and “witness” much more accurately represent what happened and don’t cause further distortions of the historical record. I’m going to use them from now on.
I've been thinking lately... The Muslim minorities in Western Europe also despise their host Nations. They call on France to go f... itself. They also like to root, burn down cars and speed up French people whom they called victims. Same thing in Germany, Sweden... Perhaps this distain is in reality an attempt to overcome inferiority complexes? This is truly the beauty of multiculturalism. I hope we will never again let in any exotic minorities into Poland enought is enought.
ReplyDelete