Posted on 03/21/2007 11:31:07 AM PDT by JoAnka
We are a problem. Oh, yes. And we intend to keep it that way ;)
During the War Jews were appalled by the lack of aid they received from their neighbors and what they took to be avariciousness as some Poles usurped Jewish property now suddenly become available. The small number of Poles who preyed on Jews by turning them in for rewards made every Pole a risk to Jewish confidence. Jewish partisans were attacked and killed by Polish right wing nationalist groups who instead of making common cause against the Germans regarded the Jews as their enemies also.It is hard to know how many Poles had sympathy for their Jewish neighbors but were paralyzed into inaction by fear. Yet incidents described above were frequent enough that it was a common Jewish perception of Polish attitudes that they were either indifferent to Jewish suffering or positively glad that the Jews were being removed. {snip}
Following WWI when the newly constituted Polish state emerged from the Versailles peace conference there began a period of civil conflict. The resulting bloodshed led to pogroms against Jews. Prior to this time anti-Jewish violence had been rare in Poland. Jews were identified with the Communists.
During Pilsudski's rule anti-Semitism moderated somewhat. However, in the 4 years between his death in 1935 and the beginning of WWII there was an increasing tide of anti-Semitism in national life.
During the 1930's when Poland was hit by massive unemployment as a result of the worldwide depression anti-Semitism became rampant. National policy was such that jobless Jews were excluded from welfare benefits. The Endecja party promoted a national boycott of Jewish merchants that so radical as to advocate the confiscation of Jewish businesses.
At the universities Jewish enrollment was restricted and Jews had to sit in a segregated area of the classroom. The restrictions were so inclusive that while in 1921 Jews made up 24.6% of the student population by 1938 their share was down to only 8%. There was physical violence as well. Right-wing students assaulted their Jewish associates with canes and razors.
In the late 1930's the Polish government became increasingly concerned with the "Jewish Question." The favored solution was mass Jewish emigration. Under the guise of animal rights there was a national movement to forbid the Jewish ritual slaughter or koshering of animals.
It has been pointed out that anti-Semitism is not the same thing as mass murder. Polish anti-Semitism never envisioned wholesale murder.
Yeah, right.
Hitler's party was extremist Left - German National SOCIALIST Workers Party - NSDAP.
It's about outing former communist spies. Poland was under communism for half a century. Communist security services were executors of the brutal oppresion of the regime. Those security services employed spies, who helped uphold the regime.
Communism fell in Poland 18 years ago. But people who were responsible for communist crimes, functionaries of the regime and collaborators (spies) were never judged or punished. Their names remained a secret. Some of them remained present in the public life (journalists, priests, politicians) and have been blackmailed and manipulated by the former security services that KNEW that this person had been a spy and does not want this fact to come to light.
Now, after 18 years, we are trying to come clean about this past, and to reveal the names and past deeds of those former communist spies. It's not about punishing them, but just letting the public know, that this or that public figure (the 'vetting' law applies to public officials, journalists, academics) was a secret agent of the communist regime and spied on his or her family, friends, colleagues.
The vetting law is about transparency, about coming clean about the past, about cutting the ties that still hamper public life in Poland.
Hope this helps.
Well aware of the Nazis' Socialist ideology and the campaign of disinformation over the last 60 years to try and associate them with the Right. I just enjoy pointing how how in Russia alone the Communists racked up higher body counts than the Nazis did, to say nothing of the Communists in China and Southeast Asia.
Among the European Jews that escaped the German gas chambers were the Bulgarian Jews, some 48,000 persons. The price they paid for remaining alive was considerable. They passed through great moral and physical suffering, yet they never doubted that the Bulgarian people would not abandon them. An extraordinary epic, still in search of its narrator.... ...BulgariaThe rescue represents a real miracle in war time, as the Nazis were present everywhere in the country and their military supremacy was still uncontested. The polemics that followed after the war about, for example, the questionable Communist participation in the rescue, and the role played by King Boris III, are important but not essential. They will be presented to the reader once the latter becomes acquainted with the events which took place during this human drama and with the persons that were part of it. Some day, when the Bulgarian people breathe freely again, may be a kind of a Nobel prize will be awarded them for the rescue of 48,000 innocent men, women and children - an act of humaneness, unprecedented in world history.
BTTT
your comment speaks for itself...
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