An anonymous poster sent in the above, linked here.
The poster asks why Poles have a more positive attitude toward Germans than toward Jews.
My answer would be, "Ask the Poles." This company says it is the best public opinion researcher in Poland. Surely they could ask this question.
Also, I doubt this poll. I have not met Poles who have positive attitudes towards Germans. I certainly struggle with my own problems with Germans. Anti-German feeling has been part of Polish life for centuries. There have been killings and riots, going back centuries. Didn't Dmowski say that every Pole is the enemy of every German he meets?
Finally, one possible answer is that Germans have apologized to Poles. See for example here
With Jews, on the other hand, feeling has gotten worse since WW II, not better. Poles are frequently thrust into international controversies, in which Poles are identified as the worst people on planet earth. These controversies involve WW II and the Holocaust.
March of the Living stages visits to Poland, and there have been terrible events where young Jews from around the world express great hostility to Poland by, for example, in one instance, defecating in hotel sinks. This is covered in Bieganski.
But I'm only guessing here and the answer can be found in further research, not in anonymous internet posts.
BTW, at least fifty percent of Israelis have a negative view of Poland. Israelis also feel that Poles collaborated with Nazis in the Holocaust. No doubt these attitudes contribute to Poles' negative attitudes toward Jews. See here
FTA: According to the poll, 49 percent of respondents have an “unfavorable” impression of Poland (of those 33% said “somewhat favorable” and 16% “very unfavorable.”) Thirty-seven percent had a “somewhat favorable” view of the country, and only five percent “very favorable.” Nine percent had no opinion.
Once presented with a number of “facts” about Poland — such as the government’s condemnations of Hamas rocket attacks, the very low number of anti-Semitic incidents there, the absence of an organized effort to boycott Israel, and the rapidly growing economy — respondents’ attitude toward the country significantly improved.
At the end of the survey, they were asked again about their views, and more than three-quarters (76%) now had a favorable perception of Poland, while only 19 said they still have an unfavorable view.
At the same time, two-thirds (67%) approved this statement: “Poland has been reluctant to fully accept responsibility for the role its citizens played during the Holocaust.”
OTOH, Israelis LOVE Germany. Jews' love of Germany is also covered in Bieganski
See here
"Most Israelis have a positive attitude toward Germany, and about one-quarter of them even see it in an “extremely positive” light, according to a new poll published Monday by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation."
Many Polish people live in Germany. Many Polish women marry German men. Polish academy is partially financed by Germany. German crimes in Poland are studied rather by Germans than by Poles. Only Instytut Zachodni in Poznan is probably still Germano-sceptic. Many Polish newspapers are owned by Swiss-German Rinigier Axel Springer and German Polska Press.
ReplyDeleteRecent data are different https://www.cbos.pl/PL/publikacje/public_opinion/2019/02_2019.pdf
ReplyDeleteHello Mr. Pankiewicz,
DeleteMost Polish newspapers are owned by Germans. And they won't write a bad word about Germans. We didn't had so much German propaganda since the Nazi occupation. I wrote that once before and nothing has changed since then.
Hello Dr Goska,
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I find that poll to be unreliable source of knowledge.
Most of those nations on that list are somewhat...hmmm...exotic. By "exotic" I mean that I've never met those people. And my grandparents never told me stories about them.
Any sympathy or antypathy for them would be superficial. And such feelings rather easy to change.
I think that such is the case with those Israelis from the survey.
Lukasz, rather than just posting the link, can you please tell us the content of the article? Thank you in advance.
ReplyDeleteWell, I will try to summarize it. Spoiler alert.
DeleteThere is this article on POLITICO site. Written by a woman of Polish origin. Non-Catholic, pro-abortion liberal/leftist. And she...wrote an article in defense of Law and Order party. And in defense of Poland. And in defense of the Polish people.
It's just weird.
It's so weird that it has hit the headlines in Poland.
I don't know what is more strange. Such article written by such person, or that it was on POLITICO site of all places.
Here is a text excerpt:
"Is anti-Semitism on the rise in Poland? Not really. Is there as much of it as in France or Holland, say? Hardly. Is it equally murderous and virulent? Not remotely. But still everyone is in fits about Poland."
And here is another one:
"Poles are sick of being branded as unenlightened, primitive, bigoted, nationalistic, anti-Semitic, right-wing extremists just because they don’t think patriotism is a dirty word."
Below is a link to that article.
https://www.politico.eu/article/in-defense-of-poland-ruling-party-law-and-justice-pis/