Posted on 05/20/2009 1:55:14 PM PDT by lizol
Der Spiegel - other nations helped Germany in Holocaust
20th May 2009
Poland, among other countries helped Hitler mastermind the mass murders, the German weekly says
The Der Spiegel weekly claims that Germany would not have been able to prosecute its WWII mass-murder campaign against the Jews on its own and the country required the cooperation of other nations, including Poland.
The magazine's front-page story, entitled "Partners. European associates in murdering Jews," cites the case of John Demjaniuk, a former Ukrainian SS-officer, who is currently awaiting trial in Munich, in its bid to prove that without the support of citizens from occupied states the extermination of European Jews would not have been possible.
"Obviously, only Hitler and his associates or the Wehrmacht, were able to stop the Holocaust. This, however, does not weaken the argument that without foreign allies, thousands if not millions of the six million Jews killed would have been saved," the Der Spiegel article reads.
In addition, the weekly claims that while the French, Dutch and Belgians could not have really known what was happening to the Jews, Poles were well aware of the fate that awaited them in concentration camps. Historians and experts from Poland and Germany have undermined the weekly's claims, saying it has made a number of misinterpretations.
Anti semitism EXISTS. That does not mean it’s rampant outside of it’s “motherland” ~ Europe and the Middle East.
Or they certainly had it better than the Irish under British occupation.
And the German Jews were very integrated, had businesses, beautiful homes, wonderful neighbors and many had by the 20’s already “become” Christians with their children following all the German and Christian cultural norms.
So much for that assimilation.
While there were certainly collaborators, given the fact that Poland had no government, pending the enslavement of their non-Jewish population, I don’t see how they could be singled out. Any other nation, save the Finns and Danes, sure, with a special mention to France.
It is true that Germany before the Austrian Corporal came into the picture was probably more tolerant towards Jews than most European countries.
And yes, I do believe that Austria does not get enough blame for the Holocaust, some of the most ruthless SS members were from Austria, and even before the Anschluss, the German Nazis thought that the Austrian Nazis were too fanatical.
What I am saying is that anti semitism is most likely percentage wise not so far off in the US...EXCEPT that it is not outwardly expressed and an identified part of the culture as it is in the mideast.
BTW, America’s Christian community until just recently being enamoured of Israel was very antisemetic. It actually came as quite a surpise to American Jews when in the last decade or so, fundamentalist Christians began to support Israel and Jews.
You have studied the history well, I see. Not so many people are aware of that.
BTW, this article was meant for all the Eastern euorpean countries that want to enter the Nato group...it really has a sinister subplot that has nothing to do with Hitler or the Poles!
It also has a lot to do with the fact that Poland is a staunchly Christian country, and still believes in some semblance of morality. And that makes them a target for certain groups that promote shall we say, certain alternative lifestyles.
While there are Jew-haters everywhere, the Jews in Poland generally got alond well.
We had other forms of “racial purity”...as the bible says, the heart of man is evil. We need spirtual morality to deal with the basest of human tendencies.
I find ironic that Obama is so in favor of abortion and infanticide....and it is also ironic the anti semitism of many black leaders....after all Blacks would be the first to be exterminated by Hitler.
Reform, as you know, arose first in Germany, but became dominant in America as well. It's modeled on the Lutheran church reforms of the early 1500s.
Jacob's relatives to a man and woman became Christians.
They lived in a world where Judaism was just another church.
There's been this delusion by many Europhiles that the United States West of the Hudson is a wild country filled with Hillbillies and people who beat their wives. Time to get over such silly beliefs.
LOL...the Europeans also still believe we have Cowboys in our wild west! Ha...must be why they thought Bush was just a crazy cowboy.
and so did the Jews in Germany until Hitler.
OK, whatever you want to call it, Finland was fighting against the Russians in the Leningrad theater at the same time that the Nazis were besieging Leningrad, into 1944, and General Mannerheim accepted the Iron Cross sent to him by Hitler for Finland's participation in the fighting. It is true that the Finns did not advance beyond the pre Winter War border or fire artillery into Leningrad, both of which the Nazis wanted them to do.
By the way, my father was a 100% Finnish American, and I always insist that Finland be labeled as a co-belligerant, not an ally of Germany, as so many mistakenly refer to it.
“It actually came as quite a surpise to American Jews when in the last decade or so, fundamentalist Christians began to support Israel and Jews.”
Not really. The fundamentalists Christians have always been OK, albeit annoying. It was the Lutherans, Methodist, and Episcopalians (in that order) I was told to watch out for.
I’m just goint by my wife’s family’s experience.
They were helped out, hidden, and finally smuggled by Polish neighbors -— who boxed up all their stuff (including a very valuable silver menorah) and shipped it all (along with 100% of proceeds from sale of house in abstencia) to her in the USA, post war.
Paid the shipping, too.
(As an aside, they immigrated — with much hardship because of Soviets — and again lived next door to my wife’s family.)
I have never been to Poalnd, but I have a very soft spot for the country.
By the way, everyone knows that the KKK in the 20th century was notoriously anti-semitic (and anti-Catholic), but I am not familiar with the position of the original Klan of the late 19th century, a Democrat terrorist group hating Blacks and Republicans. After all, a member of the cabinet in the confederacy was Jewish, and there were numerous Catholics in southern armies. Do you have any info on this?
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