Israelis lining up for Polish citizenship

The Washington Times ^ | April 18, 2005 | Joshua Mitnick

[lizol]

Eastern European ping list

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[PhilDragoo]

I'll bet Israelis aren't "lining up" to go to France.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[Brilliant]

I would be willing to trade a few Mexicans for a few Israelis.

[xJones]

1. Israel needs all their Jewish citizens.

2. There's a whole lot of Polish that are still angry about the large percentage of surviving Polish Jews that helped run the Communist Polish State. Particularly, there's one female Jewish Polish judge that's currently being given sanctuary in Israel, after allegedly sentencing countless innocent non-communist Poles to death. That is, unless a lot of Poles are lying about her.

Remember, if we don't tell the whole truth, then we are no better than the other liars.

[Grzegorz 246]

I wonder If they at least know a few words in Polish...

[lizol]

You meant probably Helena Wolinska - Brus.

But - if your post relates to her - she was a military prosecutor (not a judge) and she doesn't live in Israel. She lives in Great Britain today.

This is some information about her (dated 16 August 1999)

Poland's Justice Ministry has requested the extradition from Britain of a Stalinist-era prosecutor on charges related to the execution of a Second World War resistance hero. "The Minister has asked the British Justice Ministry (Home Office) to temporarily arrest and extradite colonel Helena Wolinska," the ministry's spokeswoman Barbara Makosa-Stepkowska told Reuters. Helena Wolinska-Brus, now a British citizen living in Oxford, is accused of signing illegal arrest warrants that allowed communist authorities to jail and later execute August Fieldorf, a general in the AK (Armja Krajowa - Home Army) which resisted Nazi occupation from 1939 to 1945. A spokesman for Britain's Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases of extradition. Fieldorf, alias Nil and deputy commander in Poland of the underground resistance, was arrested in 1951 and executed in 1953 for allegedly trying to overthrow the communist state. After the 1989 fall of communism he was posthumously cleared of the charges, which stemmed from the Soviet-dominated communist party's fears that the AK would foster resistance to Moscow's post-war influence. In response to these charges the 80 year-old Helena Wolinska-Brus told BBC radio: "It's a political problem. I didn't handle the case. This is a lie that I was a prosecutor in the trial."

http://www.ce-review.org/99/8/polandnews8.html

[xJones]

Thank you, I was confused because there are other Jewish Polish communists whom the non-Jewish non-communist Pole disagreed with.

[Grzegorz 246]

Damn, I've just read a full version.

""I am embarrassed that I need to ask for something like this," said Shoshana's father, who also refused to give his name. The resident of Hadera said that he spent most of World War II in Russia and then moved to Israel afterwards.
"I've never been back. I know them, and they were worse than the Germans," he said."

WTF is this !? Why the hell this kind of shit get citizenship !?

[lizol]

Well, she actually is of Jewish roots and she plays the "Polish anti-semitism" card as an argument against her being extradited to Poland.

An example of a situatiuon like you described is the case of Salomon Morel.

Latest News about the Polish Mass Murderer Salomon Morel.

Israel Rejects Poland' Extradition Motion
Warsaw, Dec. 7, 1998: Israel has rejected Poland's motion for the extradition of Salomon Morel, commander of a camp for Germans in Swietochlowice, southern Poland, after World War II. Morel is internationally wanted by the Prosecutor's Office in Katowice for genocide. A reply sent to the Justice Ministry said that the Israeli law provides no basis for Morel's extradition as crimes for which the former camp commander is wanted are not perceived in Israel as genocide and are subject to statutory limitations. Salomon Morel was a commander of a camp in Swietochlowice. Between February and November 1945 a half of over 3,000 prisoners were murdered or died there. The camp was under the supervision of the Soviet security police NKVD and later Polish UB. Poland sent a motion for extradition this April on the basis of the European Extradition Agreement, signed also by Israel.

http://www.msz.gov.pl/file_libraries/45/6869/ANG1208.doc

If you like see also:

http://www.ipn.gov.pl/eng/eng_news_high_morel.html

[lizol]

Asking me? I don't know.
But - relating to your question - I can figure out why he didn't want to give his name.

[xJones]

WTF is this !? Why the hell this kind of shit get citizenship !?

Poland is being admitted to the EU, and it's a safe bet that Israel never will be.

[lizol]

Yeah, but I think Grzegorz got furious, that Polish citizenship goes to a person, who insults and expresses disdain for the nation, that he's supposed to join.

Am I right Grzegorz?

[Lion in Winter]

From the complete article:

"We want to leave something for our kids," said Shoshana, who declined to give her last name. The member of kibbutz Ma'anit said she has been encouraging her parents to visit Poland for years, but to no avail. Bringing her parents to the embassy took a bit of convincing as well.

"I am embarrassed that I need to ask for something like this," said Shoshana's father, who also refused to give his name. The resident of Hadera said that he spent most of World War II in Russia and then moved to Israel afterwards. "I've never been back. I know them, and they were worse than the Germans," he said.

Those who have re-established ties with Poland think the discrimination still exists.

Hana Viesbrot, a 71-year-old native of Hrubishov, Poland, has visited Poland twice, but thinks the country is not eager to give Israelis citizenship. "They are afraid because they think people will want their homes back."

" But not everyone is lining up at the embassy. Yehudit Re'em, who attended elementary school in Poland, lives near the embassy and sees crowds outside the entrance every day, rain or shine. But she's never joined them.

"After all that has happened, I'm not interested," she said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Years ago, I watched a TV program about Poland and the Holocaust and one part of it discussed a Holocaust surviver. He was a Polish Jew who returned to his home in a medium size Polish town several months or maybe a year after his liberation. Anyway, all his immediate family was dead.

He stated that he went to the old family homeplace hoping to find some photos or just some little items that had belonged to to his parents and his sisters. He just wanted something to cling to from their lives together. He said that he had no intention of staying there as he already decided to make his way to the USA where he had some cousins. They had promised to help him start a new life.

When he arrived at his old homeplace, he said that he was run off like a mad dog and called vicious names! Not a shread of human kindness at all was shown to him, he said. He commented that he would never return to Poland ever again.

From the comments by some of the Iraelis in this article, they too may have experienced that sort of brutal treatment OR WORSE in Poland.

[dennisw]

This is common story. After WW2 many Jewish survivors went back to try and reclaim their homes and apartments in Poland. But their homes now had Polish living in them who could not be budged. These Jews were mostly run off by the anti Semites of Poland. They went to Israel, America, Canada and elsewhere. But could not stay in Poland

I know one story first hand. The man is 102 now

[SJackson]

During the Holocaust Poland’s Jewish population shrank from 2.25 to 2.5 million to around 100,000, around 95%. Post WWII, it shrank from around 100,000 to 8,000 today, another 90%+. It’s fair to say there are plenty of stories like Lion’s and the father in the article’s out there. IMO, it’s probably not productive to extrapolate those stories to today. Poland seems to be making efforts to remember their former Jewish heritage. And no, 1,200 citizenship requests per year doesn’t mean Jews are flocking back to Poland.

[Ciexyz]

I seriously doubt that a mass exodus of Jews will leave Israel to actually reside in Poland. Watch a copy of the multi-hour documentary "Shoah" and see why not. The director took his cameras back to Poland and interviewed some Polish citizens who were living in property that once belonged to Jews. The attitude of these Poles was, so what? It's ours now. There was no compassion for the victims of one of the biggest property grabs and monetary confiscations in history.

[Ciexyz]

There was a made for TV film, Sobibor, made approx. 15 years ago, starring Alan Arkin as a Polish Jew who led a concentration camp uprising in Sobibor. Arkin's character survived the uprising, and after the war ended, made his way back to his home village...where he was murdered in an anti-Semitic attack.

[SJackson]

According to the article, 1,200 a year (vs 2,200 for Germany). Most likely for the benefits of an EU passport.