One of the main arguments of my book "Bieganski: The Brute Polak Stereotype" is that in contemporary Western culture, Poland is conflated with the Holocaust. As one of my informants said when asked how he would react if he were on a TV game show and he won an all-expenses-paid, round-trip ticket to Poland, "I wouldn't want to go anywhere associated with the Holocaust."
Poland is "brick to brick, concentration camps," another said.
You can read their words in the book, along with further evidence to support my assertion.
New evidence of this conflation of Poland with the Holocaust appears regularly.
New evidence of this conflation of Poland with the Holocaust appears regularly.
What can concerned citizens do about the conflation of Poland with the Holocaust?
Inmaculada Martinez lists herself on “Linked in” as Advisor to Spain’s Minister and Secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, since July 2020.
ReplyDeleteIn response to her tweet, Spain’s Ambassador to Poland, Mr. Francisco Javier Sanabria Valderrama, tweeted the following: “I understand and fully share the indignation of all who encountered this despicable comment and expressed righteous anger. Poland and Poles deserve the deepest admiration and sympathy for the enormity of suffering suffered during IIWW. Respect! @MSZ_RP @PLenEspana @RauZbigniew”
I saw another tweet that said she, or her tweet, also appeared on Polish TV the next night. Meanwhile, her tweet is no longer on Twitter. I’m guessing she won’t be employed much longer with Spain’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.
Yes, this is a keeper. Thanks for blogging it. This is the Revised Version of WW2.
ReplyDeleteAnd unfortunately it is Politically Correct Revisionism. Or maybe I should say Woke Revisionism? Its hard to keep up with the spin.
Sadly, your Bieganski book,and this blog are getting more relevant by the day.
Helena Wolińska-Brus was a military prosecutor in postwar communist Poland with the rank of lieutenant-colonel and was, allegedly, involved in Stalinist regime show trials of the 1950s. It is also alleged that she was implicated in the arrest and execution of many Polish World War II resistance fighters (i.e. those who resisted the Nazis) including significant figures in Poland's wartime Home Army.
ReplyDeleteAfter the war, she settled in England, in Oxford. And post-communism the Polish government did make more than one attempt to extradite her to face trial.
The relevance to this Tweet?
From a thoughful article by Anne Applebaum:
"It is the life of Helena Brus, and not merely her alleged crimes, which will, sooner or later, be the subject of debate in Britain. For in comments to this newspaper and others, she has already indicated what her line of defence may be. She told me over the telephone that she would not return to that “despicable country” where “they write such ghastly things about me.” She has told others that she will “not have a fair trial in Poland,” that she will not return to the “country of Auschwitz and Birkenau”, that she is being scapegoated because “everyone else is now dead,” that she had nothing to do with General Fieldorf’s death because he had a civil trial, and she was a military prosecutor."
https://www.anneapplebaum.com/.../the-three-lives-of.../
Which suggests to me that one reason why so much effort has gone into moving Poland into both the "unter" page ("despicable country") and the Axis Camp ("the country of Auschwitz") - views which are accurately, if incoherently, mirrored in the Tweet - may be to protect Stalin's willing executioners and "furies" from being called to account.
Unfortunately, there was not much debate about this - and of course Poland was not allowed to extradite her.
Thank God that there will one day soon be a loving, just and impartial rulership over the earth - the wonderful Kingdom of God - with Jesus at its head. How much we need it.
And I hope that during the Thousand Years, General Fieldorf (and so many others!) will be woken from the dreamless sleep of death. If so, he will next open his eyes in an earth truly at peace, an earth ruled by the law of loyal love.
It's like that article(and even more so comment section) in NYT about grandfather secret policeman in Communist Poland where it boiled down to Jews did nothing wrong and if they did Poles deserved it.
DeleteThere exists https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/64787.html It is possible that some newspapers ignore the differnce. The 'our' Inmaculada is A.I. Scientist and lives in London.
ReplyDeleteAll this happened many times before, and must be put in broader context. The standard narrative puts the blame on Poland.
ReplyDeleteI am posting these questions to US students:
ReplyDelete1. Who were the Nazis.
2. Has the government of Poland collaborated with the Nazis?
3. How many Christian Poles were murdered by the Nazis?
4. Is "Maus" legal in Poland?
5. In which state does action of "Maus" take place?
6. Are Polish people like pigs? Are American people like pigs?
As far no student has answered, one teacher refused to ask the questions and one dean rejected my mail, probably as spam.
ReplyDelete???
Deletehttps://www.laguardia.edu/maus/teachmaus.htm How to teach "Maus"? If a teacher is comptetent s/he is able to teach. Some bad teachers may indoctrinate.
ReplyDelete