The New York Times Receives Grace Never Granted to Polish Villagers

I can't find a source for this photo 

The New York Times recently published two anti-Semitic cartoons. 

Pruchnik, a small, remote village in Poland, staged a custom called "Judas beating." This custom is also carried out in Mexico, Brazil, Greece, the Philippines, and other places. 

Here's one difference in the condemnations that followed: the Pruchnik custom was used by outlets big and small to insist that Poles are essential anti-Semites. "It's in their genes," as many said. "They are Nazi scum," many said. 

I didn't see any news outlets or organizations reaching out to Pruchnik itself, to dialogue with the villagers there. "What are you thinking? What is the purpose of this event? Are you a Nazi? If we could tell you how inflammatory this custom is, would you be willing to change it?" Just the beginning of the questions one might ask. I didn't see anyone ask them. 

No. Coverage didn't exist to make the world a better place. Coverage existed to smear all Poles as essential anti-Semites and Nazi scum. If you didn't go along with that, you were ... an essential Polish anti-Semite and Nazi scum. 

The New York Times, on the other hand is a far more powerful entity than the villagers of Pruchnik can ever hope to be. And the New York Times was offered, and accepted, a chance to explain itself. It does so in Bret Stephens' April 28 column. 

It was just one editor, Stephens explains. We withdrew the cartoon. We aren't anti-Semites. The people who published the cartoon aren't anti-Semites, just ignorant of anti-Semitism. The anti-Semitism of the cartoon was "undetectable" to the editor who approved it. 

Well this sounds like hogwash to me. But at least he's trying. 

My guess is that Pruchnik villagers would say something very like what the Times is saying. "We aren't anti-Semites ... this is about Judas, not all Jews ... it's an old custom ... " And, as part of a respectful dialogue, concerned outsiders could educate those few who planned this event on why what they are doing is a bad thing, and, incidentally, an international disaster for Poland. 

The New York Times gets that chance. The Polish villagers of Pruchnik have not been given that chance. And they won't be. Because those covering this event, from the two Facebook friends whose friendship is lost, to too many outlets and organizations, didn't choose respectful dialogue with the participants in the custom -- who, it must be mentioned, were overwhelmingly *children* who could have no understanding of the implications of their action. No. Those talking about Pruchnik were not so much covering it as exploiting it, in a manner that simply furthered the stereotyping of Poles. 

Nazi Parallel to New York Times Anti-Semitic Cartoon

Researchers have combed through Nazi propaganda and found an all but exact parallel to the cartoon the New York Times ran. One internet source identifies the image thus:  "Nazi Germany’s Lustige Blätter, which in 1940 published this cartoon showing “England’s leadership is in good hands”, depicted by the “eternal Jew” leading Winston Churchill."

New York Times Publishes *Another* Anti-Semitic Cartoon

After rousing outrage by publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon, the NYT responded ...  by publishing *another* anti-Semitic cartoon. 

Clearly we should all just be focused on a tiny, remote village in Poland, because these Polish villagers, who invented anti-Semitism, are somehow controlling the NYT. 

Not. 

Source

Source

Pruchnik Mayor's Statement

I was deeply troubled by how some responded to the small gathering of "Judas beaters" in the small and remote town of Pruchnik. Too many Jewish organizations and media outlets wrote about that event as if it were definitive proof that all Poles are, as one poster wrote, "Nazi scum." 

We don't talk that way about other groups. Beating Judas has been practiced far more enthusiastically in Mexico City. I did a search of scholarly publications and found Mexico City mentioned most frequently. No one is using that fact to demonize all Mexicans as "Nazi scum." 

I lost two Facebook friends in these discussions. Both were older Jewish men. They both clung to the idea that Poles are *essentially* anti-Semitic monsters and anyone saying otherwise was simply a Nazi scum Polish anti-Semite in denial.  

Anyway. With any other group, one would have had to traveled to the event and engaged in dialogue with participants, witnesses, and town officials. 

Pruchnik has a Facebook page. The event is being discussed there. Anyone could join in that discussion. I did. 

Did any of the outlets insisting that Pruchnik proves that Poles are essential Nazi scum bother to engage in dialogue with Pruchnik residents, either in person, on the Facebook page, or via Skype or other methods? Not that I could see. 

Pruchnik's mayor has denounced the event, as well he should. Did any media outlets contact him? Again, didn't see it. 

Below please find Pruchnik Mayor Waclaw Szkola's statement, cut and pasted from his town's webpage. 

STATEMENT FROM THE MAYOR OF PRUCHNIK

In reference to the event which took place on Good Friday, called "Judgement over Judas", we would like to inform that it was neither organized, nor permitted by the local council. A small group of people prepared the event themselves without having informed any authorities.

It is a fact that in the past such an event used to take place, however, it ceased to be celebrated. In present-day reality, when Poles are attributed the responsibility for the Holocaust and collaboration with the Nazis in World War Two, events of this character may be used by the enemies of Poland as an example of alleged Polish anti-Semitism.

For dozen of years inhabitants of Pruchnik lived in harmony with the Jewish community, not infrequently hiding the Jews from the Nazis during World War Two, and our territory witnessed numerous acts of courage, devotion and heroism against the Holocaust.

I would like to express my sincere regret for this incident. Engaging children in this type of an event was downright pathetic and highly irresponsible. I perceive this as a deliberate act of provocation by certain groups of people, who - no one knows why - are not concerned with a good name of our town and our country.

I declare that all the possible actions will be taken to assure that such events will not take place in the future.

The Mayor of Pruchnik
Wacław Szkoła

You can also read the statement in English and Polish here

Another Crazy American Anti-Semite: Owen Benjamin

I have seen, shared, and liked at least one Owen Benjamin YouTube video. He, I think, wrote a song titled "How They Rule Ya" about Tommy Robinson's incarceration. 

And that's all I knew about Owen Benjamin. 

Now I know that he's been in movies and on other popular YouTube stars' channels. 

Today I was idly scrolling through my Facebook feed and I found out that he's a crazy anti-Semite. 

Article from Algemeiner here. Excerpt:

***

As the comedian, who goes by the name of Owen Benjamin, rants about the evil, hate-worthy Jews who are responsible for all the problems of the world, his supporters make comments on YouTube’s live chat stream that vilify and demonize Jews. They type things like “With Jews You Lose,” “Jews became their own god,” “The bible is a jew scam,” “MUZZIES ARE PWNS OF JEWS,” and “BOLSHEVIK JEWS ZIONIST JEWS SAME CONTROL FREAKS.”

As far as what to do with the Jews, one commenter exhorted his fellows to “SODOMIZE THE JEWS INTO SUBMISSION.” Another barely literate commenter who probably had too much to drink typed, “may all jews asa be murdered, if nescessary, all of them, so nobody thinks anymore they are the h=cosen people anymore.” The typos are bad, but the message is clear. This guy wants Jews murdered en masse, just as they were in Pittsburgh last year.

Up until a few weeks ago, YouTube made money from allowing this type of rhetoric — which clearly violates the company’s terms of service — to be broadcast on its servers.

*** 

I went to YouTube and watched one of the anti-Semitic videos. It was very disturbing. Even more disturbing were the comments under the video. Comparable to the comments, above. 

This guy is comfortable, child of college professors, tall, handsome, successful, happily married, has a huge following ... and somehow he is convinced that Jews are a menace to him. 

Clearly anti-Semitism is not a problem merely in tiny Polish villages. 

Excellent Article about the Rise of Anti-Semitic Speech in Polish Politics

An excellent article about the rise of anti-Semitic speech in Polish politics. Factors in the Pruchnik incident. In fact I came across this link on the Facebook page for Pruchnik. 

I know this blog is in English and so most readers are English speakers, but this article is worth reading, even if you have to read it in "Google translate" format. 

By the way, this article is a good example of how to criticize racist behavior. It does *not* say that "All Poles are anti-Semites and Pruchnik is just proof of that," and it also does not dehumanize the Pruchnik participants, most of whom, it behooves critics to remember, were children. It does not accuse Poles of being *essential" anti-Semites. It does not equate Poles or Catholics or peasants with Nazis and the Holocaust. 

It says what needs to be said. 

Opening paragraphs: 

"After 1989, forces using anti-Semitic language remained marginal in Polish politics. In the presidential election, open anti-Semitic candidates were able to collect 100,000 signatures required for the start - Leszek Bubel in 1995, Bohdan Pawłowski in 2000, Grzegorz Braun in 2015 - but they were usually in marginal places. Never in the Polish parliament has there been a significant political force with an openly anti-Semitic program - if such politicians were involved in it, then they remained on the margins. In the last four years, however, something begins to change in a very disturbing direction. 

Anti-Semitic language is more and more pronounced in the mainstream of public debate. It appears in the statements of politicians who have chances for seats and sit in the parliament - including in the benches of the ruling party. It penetrates into the main right-wing mainstream media. It spills on social media. Again someone released a genie of Polish anti-Semitism from the bottle."

"Greedy Scabs. A Brood of Vipers" by Jakub Majmurek in TVN24 Magazine 

New York Times International Publishes Anti-Semitic Cartoon: WTH?

A cartoon response Source

From Dominic Green in The Spectator 

"Easter worshippers who opened Thursday’s copy of the International Edition of the New York Times were treated to a cartoon to warm the cockles of white supremacists, Islamists and lovers of ‘Edelweiss’ everywhere. The cartoon, apparently by a Portuguese artist named Antonio Espresso, depicted a blind Donald Trump, resplendent in the kippah he wears at all times except when the cameras are near, being led by Benjamin Netanyahu in the form of a sausage dog, wearing the Star of David dog collar that all sausage dogs wear.


Some people published something, and now all those over-sensitive Jews are blaming the entire New York Times for it."

Read complete article here

Brick Township NJ Controversy over Parks

from Twitter 

There is a controversy brewing about Orthodox Jews and parks in Brick Township, NJ. You can read more here, here and here. This echoes a previous controversy about Orthodox Jews and park use in Mahwah. See coverage here

Washington Post: Small Polish Village Catholics are Single Handedly Responsible for All Anti-Semitism

The Washington Post covered the Pruchnik beating Judas custom as a manifestation of violent anti-Semitism and Catholicism that is responsible for the Holocaust. "Anti-Semitic attacks on the rise across Europe," the Post reported. The Post did not mention that those carrying out these increasing attacks are largely Muslims. 

"The Catholic Church taught for much of the past century that the death of Jesus was to be blamed on Jews,World War II and the Holocaust triggered a rethink." 

I was never taught that Jews were responsible for Jesus' death. The Council of Trent denounced the deicide accusation against Jews in the sixteenth century. Yes, some Catholics did believe in the deicide charge. But that's not what the Washington Post says. The Washington Post links Polish villagers, Catholic belief, and the Holocaust. Nazis would appreciate this deeply. 

The author of the Washington Post account is Rick Noack. Noack is responsible for an article that prompted widespread outrage. After Christians celebrating Easter were massacred in a Sri Lanka jihad attack, Noack wrote, "Christianity under attack? Sri Lanka church bombings stoke far-right anger in the West." In other words, Noack's concern was not with murdered Christians, rather, his concern was that "far right" people in the West would use this massacre to talk about being persecuted. Noack was raked over the coals for that piece. His singling out of Polish villagers was not controversial. 

You can read the Washington Post account of Pruchnik here. 

Burning of Judas an International Custom

Associated Press source

"In older times, the Judas effigy was made of straw. Sometimes, topical variations on the theme are introduced. In at least two villages in Crete this year, the Judas figure was made to resemble Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A darker side of the custom is an implied hostility in some cases toward Jews as the “killers of Christ.'”

The tradition even led to an international incident in mid-19th century Greece.

Worried about offending James de Rothschild, founder of the French branch of the famous Jewish banking family who was in Greece to negotiate a loan, the government banned the burning of Judas in Athens in 1847. An outraged mob then ransacked the house of a Jew who was a British subject.

Britain demanded restitution equal to a sizeable percentage of the Greek budget. The Greek government refused, and Britain imposed a naval blockade in 1850. France and Russia took Greece's side and the British lifted their blockade after six months. A restitution agreement was reached the following year."

Source: "Greek Town Ritually Burns Judas as Orthodox Celebrate Easter" Associated Press April 8, 2018 

Mexico source

Brazil

Source Klearchos Kapoutsis

Pruchnik and the Holocaust. Poles and Jews and Negative Images of Ethnic Others

From Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Slave 

The [Polish] mountaineers no longer bothered him [the novel's Jewish male protagonist]. But this was not true of the girls who slept in the barn and tended the sheep. Night and day they bothered him ... they sought him out and talked and laughed and behaved little better than beasts. In his presence they relieved themselves, and they were perpetually pulling up their skirts to show him insect bites on their hips and thighs.

"Lay me," a girl would shamelessly demand, but Jacob acted as if he were deaf and blind. It was not only because fornication was a mortal sin. These women were unclean, and had vermin in their clothes and elflocks in their hair; often their skins were covered with rashes and boils; they ate field rodents and the flesh of rotting carcasses of fowls. Some of them could scarcely speak Polish, grunted like animals, made signs with their hands, screamed and laughed madly.

The village abounded in cripples, boys and girls with goiters, distended heads and disfiguring birthmarks; there were also mutes, epileptics, freaks who had been born with six fingers on their hands, or six toes on their feet. In summer, the parents of these deformed children kept them on the mountains with the cattle, and they ran wild. There, men and women copulated in public; the women became pregnant, but, climbing all day as they did on rocks, bearing heavy packs, they often miscarried.

***

Many are insisting that Polish Catholic peasants are responsible for the Holocaust. Proof can be found in a custom from Pruchnik, Poland, where, on the day after Easter, villagers beat an effigy with Jewish features. The effigy is meant to stand for Judas, but the facial features were stereotypically Jewish.

Poles are not alone in creating negative images of ethnic others. Jews do it, too.

The above passage is from Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Nobel Prize winning  author.

Some negative stereotyping wins Nobel Prizes. No one draws a line between Singer's, or his readers', contempt for Polish peasants and historical atrocities. 

The Polak joke book, pictured above, was written by a Jew. No one draws a line between books like that and historical atrocities.

The image of Poles as pigs is from Maus. Maus won a Pulitzer Prize. It occupies a cherished place in the Holocaust canon. It depicts Poles as pigs.

With Poles, the rules change. Pruchnik = the Holocaust.

It is a double standard and it deserves to be examined.

Pruchnik Proves that Polish Catholics are Responsible for The Holocaust: BBC

The BBC is now covering the Pruchnik "beating Judas" custom that took place on Monday. The BBC implies that the Pruchnik custom is responsible for the Holocaust. Please note the word "Holocaust" above the image of the Polish girl beating the effigy. 

The BBC also implies that Poles are in denial about their murder of Jews: "Last year a diplomatic row erupted between Israel and Poland after the conservative Polish government made it an offence to allege that the Polish nation was complicit in Nazi crimes. US officials also criticised the new law."

In none of this news coverage have I seen anyone actually travel to Pruchnik and ask the participants themselves what they were doing, thinking, or whether they plan to murder Jews. No. Their social betters are telling the world what they are: anti-Semitic mass murderers. And maybe they are. But no one has traveled there to interview them. 

Polonia, shame on you for not addressing the Brute Polak stereotype and for not educating the public about what really caused the Holocaust. Start here 

More coverage of Pruchnik here and here

Bieganski on WOR's Tonight with Joe Concha and Lis Wiehl

WOR radio in NYC features an evening program "WOR Tonight with Joe Concha and Lis Wiehl." 

This evening around six Concha was discussing Volodymyr Zelensky's recent election victory. Concha said he'd be playing some campaign ads by Zelensky. In fact Concha played snippets from the film Borat. In one snip, Borat talks about the village rapist. In another clip, Borat announces that his sister is the country's fourth best prostitute. You can hear this racist filth at around the 12 minute mark in the audio linked above. 

And that was how a serious news program on an historic NYC radio station addressed the recent presidential election in Ukraine. By mocking Ukrainians as rapists and prostitutes. 

I discuss Borat in my book, Bieganski The Brute Polak Stereotype. 

Give Poland and Hungary Their Qualified Due: Public Discourse

See here

"Poles Are Anti-Semitic to the Core" -- World Israel News Reports on Brute Polaks in Non-Existent Polish Town of "Parchnik."

Jewish leaders condemn hanging of black-faced Purim doll, Forward

World Israel News informs its readers that Poles are, as one reader wrote in the comments section, "anti-Semitic to the core." Why? In a non-existent town of "Parchnik," [sic] Poles beat an effigy of Judas. The effigy is clearly labeled "Judas" and "traitor." But the effigy does have stereotypical Jewish features. 

In any case, the real hate is in the comments section. There you can read comments like the following:

"The Catholic Church is satanic" 

"Polish Death Camps"

"Poles live on Jewish property"

"Nazis required Polish help for murder. "

Shaking my head. 

Yes, I get it that this effigy has stereotypical Jewish features, and I get it that those features are a problem, and I wish this were not the case. 

But clearly neither World Israel News nor the folks posting in the comments section is pursuing respectful dialogue with Poles, and the folks in the comments section are using this event in a small town whose name they can't even be bothered to spell correctly to create, and bash, another effigy: The Brute Polak. 

Some pointed out that Orthodox Jews create effigies on Purim, and that some of those have been controversial, including blackface effigies and effigies of Israeli soldiers. 

I would *never* exploit those questionable effigies to bash Jews or to spread stereotypes about Jews. and I beg my Jewish brothers and sisters to reconsider their own exploitation of the beating Judas custom, that survives in small towns whose names the World Israel News can't even spell, to reconsider their approach to criticisms of their Polish brothers and sisters. 

The custom is also covered in The Times of Israel where, in the comments section, a Polish man wrote, "A stupid and primitive Christian tradition from barbaric Medieval times. And those horrible people participating in this stipid event. And I am sure it has some antisemitic background. I am ashamed as a Pole. Catholic Church probably was and still is main cause of antisemitism in Poland... look at those little kids beating that Judas doll... they were taught hate... and why? Because of stupid Christian tradition.... As Marx said - religion is an opium for people."

This man knows nothing about what caused anti-Semitism in Poland. But he knows how to hate.

And in the Jerusalem Post 

BTW, the town in question is Pruchnik. It has a population of 3,500 people. 

Source Daily Mail

Ultra Orthodox Burn solider in effigy in Jerusalem week after coalition rift tempered Source: i24 News

Ultra Orthodox Hang Soldier Effigies in Draft Protest Source: The Times of Israel 

"God through Binoculars" is "Lovely and Timeless" -- American Thinker

Thanks to Gene for alerting me to this review of God through Binoculars at American Thinker, and very grateful to the review's author, John E. Rafferty, who says some great things about the book. 

I really hope some Polish-interest periodicals review God through Binoculars. There is much Polish content. 

One Reason (There Are Many) for the Bieganski, Brute Polak Stereotype

A man named Joseph Puder has published several anti-Polish articles recently. In response, a man calling himself "Bogdan the Aussie" wrote, "Mr Puder and other Jewish friends; what about directing some of your grudge towards the American Jewish Diaspora itself?" 

I responded. My response rapidly disappeared. I don't know why. It may be a computer glitch, an internet glitch, or perhaps someone deleted my post. 

I will post my response here. I hope Bogdan can find it. 

***

There are many reasons for the Bieganski, Brute Polak stereotype. If you want the full answer, read the book.

One of the reasons is mentioned by Bogdan the Aussie in his post. 

No, American Jews were not and are not responsible for the Holocaust. German Nazis are. But, that fact does not eliminate psychological pain and guilt feelings. 

Below is an excerpt from my book, "Bieganski the Brute Polak Stereotype." 

            In 1983, "Indicting AmericanJews" by Lucy Dawidowicz caused great controversy. In this article, and in the outpouring of letters that followed, one finds the same rhetorical devices used against American Jews that would later be used against Poles. American Jews, some alleged, were passive and uninterested during the Holocaust. They could have helped, and they didn't. Books with similar themes followed: Haskel Lookstein's 1985 Were We Our Brother's Keepers? The Public Response of American Jews to the Holocaust and Rafael Medoff's 1987 The Deafening Silence: American Jewish Leaders and the Holocaust, for example. The pain these accounts communicated is suggested by Elie Wiesel.

While Mordecai Anielewicz and his comrades fought their lonely battle in the blazing ghetto under siege … a large New York synagogue invited its members to a banquet featuring a well-known comedian … The factories of Treblinka, Belzec, Maidanek and Auschwitz were operating at top capacity, while on the other side, Jewish social and intellectual life was flourishing, Jewish leaders met, threw up their arms in gestures of helplessness, shed a pious tear or two and went on with their lives: speeches, travels, quarrels, banquets, toasts, honors … If our brothers had shown more compassion, more initiative, more daring … if a million Jews had demonstrated in front of the White house … if Jewish notables had started a hunger strike … who knows, the enemy might have desisted. (Novick 30)

Even more devastating was a 1943 appeal to American Jews from their coreligionists in the Warsaw ghetto. "Brothers! The remnants of the Jews in Poland live in the knowledge that in the darkest hour of our history you did not help us. Say something. This is our final appeal to you" (Polonsky, Brother's 152). Novick argued that American Jews paid more attention to the Holocaust in 1993 than they had in 1943 (37). Holocaust survivor and novelist Jerzy Kosinski expressed bitterness about this. He wrote in 1990, "Almost as if trying to make up for their inaction toward the slaughter of European Jewry during World War Two, the Jews of North America turned to the canonization of the Holocaust long after the cannons of that war went silent." One American rabbi did protest. Arthur Hertzberg's father preached this Yom Kippur sermon in 1940. "If we had any Jewish dignity, we would picket the White House. You hesitate because your sons and daughters have jobs in the New Deal and you are afraid that you are going to rock the boat." Within an hour of the end of the Yom Kippur fast, the rabbi was fired (PBS America and the Holocaust). For some Jews, the sense of blame is pressingly intimate. "My boy, why are you leaving me?" a Jewish mother wept as her son left Poland for Palestine. He never saw her again. She died in Treblinka (Segev 492). 

***

The point. Constantly keeping the Brute Polak stereotype alive is a psychological defense mechanism. It defends the stereotyper from confronting any guilt feelings. 

Again, Jews are not responsible for the Holocaust; German Nazis are. And pointing out that a stereotype exists is not to say that Poles never did any bad things, or that anti-Semitism has never been a part of Polish culture. Poles did do bad things, and anti-Semitism is a part of Polish culture, as it is a part of world culture. And decent Poles have addressed it in the past, and are addressing it now. The stereotype insists that Poles are racially inferior and incapable of addressing their own sins. Not true.  

***

By the way, from the comments section under Joseph Puder's most recent article

"The backwater Poles out in the country have big time inferiority complexes that are part of their cultural upbringing(Peasant Mentality) . No one hates & despises those who they feel are lower than themselves,....they laugh at them. It is feelings of Jewish superiority,however false those feelings really are,that illicit [sic] fear which leads to hate!"

"antisemitic Poles don’t consider Jews funny, just immoral, sinister, ugly creatures, who are receptacles of all vices. Kind of like Germans did, and Germans didn’t laugh either."

It's really hard for me to read comments like this. They are false, provably false, scholarship proves them false ... and they are contemptuous, especially contemptuous of Polish peasants.

Which is why I wrote my book.

Read it.

***

Another response I typed at Front Page. Reposting it here. 

Brian Kelly, I want to respond to what you wrote about the nature of ethnic strife per se, no matter who is involved. 

And I want to talk about how historians discuss this strife re: Poland. 

In 1939, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia at the same time. These are two of the most overwhelming, evil, genocidal powers on the face of the earth. See Timothy Snyder's "Bloodlands" and "The Eagle Unbowed" by Halik Kochanski. 

Quoting my own book here: "In accord with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the Soviets invaded from the east as the Nazis invaded from the west. By some measures, the initial phase of the Soviet invasion was worse. “Very conservative estimates show that [between 1939 and 1941] the Soviets killed or drove to their deaths three or four times as many people as the Nazis from a population half the size of that under German jurisdiction” (Gross Revolution 229)."

The Russian Soviet deportations of Poles were every bit as horrific as the eventual Nazi deportations of Jews. Poles were roused from bed in the middle of the night, packed into cattle cars without heat or bathrooms, and sent to Siberian gulags. 

My colleague John Guzlowski gave me an account of how his family experienced occupation, not by Soviets, but by Nazis and Ukrainian collaborators. Again, quoting my book. "John Guzlowski's Polish Catholic grandmother, aunt, and cousin were murdered by Nazis and Ukrainians. They raped John's Aunt Sophie and broke her teeth; they stomped his cousin to death. With his bayonet, a Nazi sexually mutilated John's Aunt Genia. John's parents were Nazi slave laborers; his father was in Buchenwald. John was born in a displaced persons camp after World War II; his family immigrated to America."

We know that under these horrific conditions of occupation, by both Soviets and Nazis, some Jews did collaborate and some Jews did denounce Poles to occupiers who arrested, tortured, imprisoned, and in some places killed them. 

How do serious historians address this Jewish collaboration? They point out, accurately, that Jews felt resentment towards Poles for the interwar period, that Jews felt powerless, etc. 

How do too many address Polish collaboration? Poles are monsters. 

There is the stereotype at work. The same act: collaborating with a genocidal invader in a way that results in the arrest, imprisonment, torture and murder of a neighbor, is treated differently depending on the ethnicity of the collaborator. 


Again, none of this is to say that Poles did not do bad things. Poles did do bad things, anti-Semitism is a part of Polish culture, as it is a part of world culture, and decent Poles have addressed this problem in the past, and they are addressing it today. 

Bieganski the Brute Polak Never Dies: Joseph Puder

On April 5, 2019, Front Page Magazine ran my piece "The Brute Polak Stereotype Strikes Again." You can read that piece here.

Front Page has published a response by Joseph Puder. I don't know anything about Joseph Puder, but it is apparent that he no lika da Polax. You can read his piece here. It is titled, "Poland's Two Faces: The Plague of Jew Hate Once Again Rears Its Ugly Head." 

I am very grateful to Brian Kelly for the post, below, that appears in the comments section under the article. 

Casimir Pulaski was Intersex: Reports

Casimir Pulaski was intersex, new reports say. See here and here. 

Poles Were the Most Vicious. You Ignorant Peasant

"Though I have Polish friends, there is no disputing that the Poles were some of, if not the, most vicious against Jews is WWII "

"As a Jew, it's hard not to react whenever it seems someone is making excuses for the viciousness of the Poles and all of their concentration/slave labor camps."

"Poles as just as murderous and brutal against Jews. And John  showed me that the majority of Poles gladly embraced Nazism and enjoyed the killing and brutality and still do. So it's hard to deny the brutal Polack stereotype."

Above are a few quotes in response to my essay "The Brute Polak Stereotype Strikes Again," which appeared here, on facebook, and at Front Page magazine, at the link, below.

The "ignorant peasant" comment appears in the comments section under the article at Front Page Magazine.  

The book has been out for many years. This blog has existed the entire time. Polonia has done virtually nothing to support the book, or to address the stereotype. And the brute Polak stereotype thrives, with no one, but us here, so much as trying to do anything about it. 

Shaking. My. Head. 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273292/brute-polak-stereotype-strikes-again-danusha-v-goska

Poland's Populists Targeting Gay People

Source

"Poland’s ruling party plays the LGBTQ card. Attacking gay rights could cement right-wing support while splitting the opposition." See here 

"Poland’s Populists Pick a New Top Enemy: Gay People" see here.

FYI: I support the fully humanity of homosexuals and I will not post, and don't want to receive, homophobic comments in the comments section. Thank you in advance. 

The Brute Polak Stereotype Strikes Again

The Brute Polak Stereotype Strikes Again

Our Shared Heroes and Martyrs Deserve, and Demand, Better of Us

A spectacular view splayed itself out before us like a brazen artist's model. High in the hills, the carefully cultivated backyard, with its quaint apple tree, was the last horizontal earth before a dizzying drop hundreds of feet to the flatlands. A carpet of lights twinkling in the darkness gave way to the lustrous waters of the San Francisco Bay. In the distance rose the power and poetry of the Golden Gate Bridge; beyond stretched the Pacific and no land till Japan. This evening's hostess, an heiress and descendant of minor European nobility, was so Politically Correct she had converted to Islam. And Quakerism. And Buddhism. And Neo-Paganism. I was dazzled. I had left my working class, New Jersey town with its domestic violence and cancer-causing toxic waste. I was among the elite.

Another guest, Neil, arrived. After learning my name, Neil told a series of off-color Polak jokes. For me, Neil's jokes were the sound of a needle's harsh scratch suddenly interrupting a recording of Mozart. How could he tell such ugly jokes at such an elegant gathering?

"Oh, come on," Neil snapped. "Polaks were never lynched." Neil elaborated. He was Jewish. He knew Polaks were the world's worst anti-Semites.

There were other events during my grad student career. Sometimes the bigot was a professor, and his bigotry slowed my advance. Such encounters informed my book, Bieganski, The Brute Polak Stereotype, Its Role in Polish-Jewish Relations and American Popular Culture.

The Brute Polak stereotype matters to you, including those of you who are not Polish or Jewish. Evidence of the Brute's necessity is his ubiquity. Stereotypes of Poles and other "Bohunks" – that is, Eastern European, Christian, peasant-descent populations – as brutes, as primitive, violent, ignorant and hateful, are found throughout Western cultures. They're in movies, television shows, comedy routines, fiction and non-fiction, scholarly and popular books, including books used to teach young people about the Holocaust, school curricula and museum exhibits. Even elites who would stop their fellows in mid-sentence if they ever uttered the n-word eagerly host anti-Polish material. Hundreds of examples of stereotypical depictions of Bohunk brutes can be found in my book and on my blog. If the Brute Polak didn't matter, he would not be everywhere.