Posted on 01/25/2010 7:53:17 PM PST by smokingfrog
A leading Polish Catholic bishop caused a stir on Monday when he was quoted as saying that Jews had "expropriated" the Holocaust as a "propaganda weapon".
The comments by Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, a former head of the Polish bishops' conference, prompted concern among Jewish leaders in both Poland and Italy after they were published on the conservative Italian Catholic website www.pontifex.roma.
Pieronek later went on Polish television to say his comments had been manipulated and he denied one phrase in which he was quoted as saying "the Holocaust as such is a Jewish invention".
He also said that he did not "authorise" the publication of the interview, which was still on the website on Monday evening.
"It is undeniable that the greatest number of dead in concentration camps were Jews but there are also Polish gypsies, Italians and Catholics on the list," he was quoted as saying.
On Wednesday some countries will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Polish President Lech Kaczynski and ministers from many European countries are due to attend commemorative events at Auschwitz on Wednesday.
"It is not right to expropriate that tragedy for propaganda," Pieronek was quoted as saying, adding that memorial days should be held for the "victims of communism, for Catholics, for persecuted Christians and so on."
He continued: "But they, the Jews, enjoy good press because they have powerful financial means behind them, enormous power and the unconditional backing of the United States and this favors a certain arrogance that I find unbearable."
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Well, I might get flamed for this, but he has a point. 5,000,000 non-Jews died in the Holocaust and almost no one knows it. We only hear about the Jews, sometimes about Gypsies and homosexuals and that’s about it.
Sound like the pot calling the kettle black. Lets not talk about the wholesale slaughter by the Church of indigenous people of South America and Mexico.
There are, very sadly, some Jewish folks (even in the ADL itself) who hype this already horrendous tragedy, not for the sake of revising generally agreed historical statistics, but to keep on wringing money out of parties, even some of their own.
They made the Aztec system go away.
Yes but it was Stated and Planned policy to practice Genocide on the Jews.
Anyway this guy is an idiot.
In so far as Poland lost 6 million people (20% of its population) and only half were Jewish, I can understand soe bitterness at what they see as appropriation. However, let us not forget that the communist government of Poland actually tried to downplay Jewish deaths, perhaps as cover for their antisemitism. Meanwhile, East Germans and other communists used the Holocaust to attack all nationalism. I see no condemnation of this. I also see no condemnation of homosexuals trying to appropriate the Holocaust. Instead, he is singling out Jews and claims against Israel. The bishop does himself no favors.
why do those who hate jews find it so hard to believe that it did happen, after all they themselves would be happy to carry it out, right now
You are aware that there has been quite a resurgence of antisemitism in the world of late, though we in the US haven't really had that much exposure. It seems to be far more of a European thing, or a Middle Eastern thing, or a Far Eastern thing.....Hell, it's worldwide and getting worse as far as I can tell. I really don't believe it ever went away in Europe. The Jews need every edge they can get with those odds.
Anyway this guy is an idiot.”
Exactly!
Sadly, my DH had no clue that there was anyone but Jews killed in the Holocaust. He didn’t believe me that there were Catholics in the camps.
The Church didn’t slaughter Indians in Mexico or South America—Spaniards did on some occasions but not for religious reasons. The Inquisition existed in the New World but the indigenous people were not put to death by it. Most of the decline of population (very severe in some regions) was from the spread of disease. Anyway the Poles were not involved.
Sound like the pot calling the kettle black. Lets not talk about the wholesale slaughter by the Church of indigenous people of South America and Mexico
wait a second, I think all those armies were made up of protestants and......oh wait a second, there were no protestants then......sorry, they’re johnnie come latelys from a much later period of time...but always think they’re right...pathetic
This cleric should learn from Jesus and stop hating. This is not a man of God. This same poison permeated Poland before and during WW II and led to extreme suffering and genocide. A religious leader should know better.
He sounds like one of Father Rydzyk’s wackos.
The Spanish military and governmental forces, not the Church, were responsible for the deaths of the indigenous peoples. The Church actually sent missionaries, many of whom suffered greatly and died.
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