RE: How Could Szpilman Stay in Poland?

[Mordechai Kamel <mkamel...>]

Lee,

 

The only point that I would make in response is that the Pole who fought was
a political and that had nothing to do with his / her attitude towards Jews.
It was in fact the Polish resistance that perpetrated most of the immediate
post war pogroms.  The Pole who helped Jews was the true rarity.  My mother
encountered both.  She was saved by a Pole, her husband was murdered by a
Pole and her second husband was murdered in a pogrom by the Polish resistanc
resistance 8 months after the liberation.  The vast majority of Poles
collaborated or were active participants in the Shoah.  Accepting that fact
is no way ?making outrageous comparisons to the Germans?, German crimes are
indeed ?without parallel?, but the crimes of the collaborators need to be
remembered as well.  

 

I would also comment on the fact that your French analogy falls short as
well.  The French, for the most part, collaborated in the mass murder of
Jews, and this included members of the resistance.  Just like in Poland it
was the rare person, or in some cases village that resisted by saving Jews.

 

Really, the only point in your post with which I would agree is that
?things? were very complicate, but it is condescending to say that
American-born Jews are unable to cut through the misinformation, or
disinformation, including yours, and understand the true situation.

 

Mordi

 

 

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Lee <mailto:leegoldberg2002 (at) yahoo(dot)com>  Goldberg 

To: World <mailto:jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>  music from a Jewish slant 

Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 9:57 PM

Subject: How Could Szpilman Stay in Poland?

 

Alex Jacobowitz cites a number of facts about antisemitism in Poland that I
have no inclination to dismiss.  But they don't justify the conclusion he
draws, namely, that there is a good "Polish analogy with German savagery".
Yes, the Polish underground Home Army was generally hostile to Jews and many
units killed Jews on the run (what I think Alex means when he says "the
executions of Jews in Poland by Poles during the war"), but the very fact
that there was a mass Polish resistance fighting the Nazis flies in the face
of the notion that the Poles as a people collaborated with the Germans in
genocide (many individual Poles did; organized Polish society as represented
by its government in exile in London and its resistance forces on the ground
did not).   The general run of American Jews have enough trouble keeping
straight which Eastern European nationality is which, and who fought on
who's side on World War II, as it is, without making outrageous comparisons
to the Germans, whose crimes are without parallel. 

My point is that things (and countries) are more complicated than many
American-born Jews seem to think.  If we recognize that France and the
French includes everything from resistance heroes to Vichy scum, then why
lump everything about Poland and the Poles into one reductive pot? 

Lee Goldberg

Anything´s possible. Wanna look up the facts
yourself? Jews weren´t considered Poles by the Poles 
- until they were murdered in Auschwitz. How about the
executions of Jews in Poland by Poles during the war?
The Kielce pogroms (and others) AFTER the survivors
returned to Poland in 1946? 

The anti-Jewish political purge and anti-Israel riots
of 1968, orchestrated by the government? 
The Carmelite nun affair? Radio Maria? 
Have you read Artur Rubinstein´s autobiography, and
his letter to the New York Times protesting
the new (at the time) Polish purges? That 
Rubinstein himself was presented in the Polish
press as a Pole, but never as a Jew?
The interviews with Poles in Lansky´s "Shoah"?

Don´t misunderstand - there are some Poles who
were good and saved Jewish lives - just as there
were some good Germans, as in Szpilman´s case.
There are devils and angels everywhere, but in
this case, the Polish analogy with German
savagery is more sound than anyone wants
to hear. The record backs it up. I´m sorry.

Alex Jacobowitz

 

 


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