'Aftermath' Dares to Unearth Terrible Secrets of Poland's Lost Jews

Hollywood Reporter ^ | October 28, 2013 | By Seth Abramovitch

[Brad from Tennessee]

On July 10, 1941, half the residents of Jedwabne, a Polish village 85 miles northeast of Warsaw, murdered the other half. The mob, led by the mayor, were Catholics; their 1,600 victims were Jewish, slaughtered over several nightmarish hours with bats, knives, rifles and other improvised weapons. Those who survived the massacre were then rounded up in a barn donated by a local farmer, which was then set ablaze. A plaque erected at the site blamed Nazis for the massacre, but, in fact, Nazis had only authorized it. Locals walked by the plaque for half a century, knowing the truth, but saying nothing.

Jedwabne's terrible secrets were at last laid bare in Neighbors, an explosive account of the massacre by Princeton University historian Jan T. Gross. That 2001 book shattered carefully held myths, promulgated by Communist leaders, that Poles were only victims of World War II, not perpetrators. (Poles -- who unlike many European countries never officially collaborated with the Nazis -- lost close to 6 million citizens to the Nazis, or about 17 percent of the population. Just over half of those were Jewish.) Now, 12 years later, comes Aftermath -- premiering stateside Nov. 1.

It's a film inspired by Jedwabne that has forced the country to once again face certain unthinkable aspects of its past. Since its October 2012 premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival, the movie has been a lightning rod. Major news outlets have dismissed it as anti-Polish propaganda, its non-Jewish star Maciej Stuhr has been the target of vicious anti-Semitic attacks, and its producer says he has been blacklisted by the country's national film council. . .

[Netz]

First off, I am not “targeting” the Poles only.

In every occupied country, you had collaborators, willing executioners and even Jewish KAPOS in camps who used the same brutality as the Nazis.

There were Ukrainians, Poles, and all other European brutes who assisted the Nazis in their plans. I do note, however, that in many a book, document, testimony and film all point to a deep seated, inherent hatred for the Jews in Poland, by the Poles themselves.

I am sure that the Hungarians, Ukrainians, Muslim Croats, Serbs and many others, shared a deep hatred for the Jews in their own countries but maybe, by virtue of the fact that the camps were on Polish soil itself, afforded the Poles the opportunity to vent their rage on their fellow Jews more than other nationalities?

[Netz]

The Jews were traditionally targeted because they were Jews by religion first. Second they were more educated than the other populations. Third, they were despised based on the professions they WERE allowed to practice and fourth, some were financially well off. It was jealously combined with Church-inspred crusades and hared of the Jews for their supposed “betrayal” of Christ (the Jew).

[Netz]

The British tried to appease the Arabs (long before they created the false “Palestinian identity via the PLO) in British Mandate Palestine by halting desperate Jewish immigration to the shores of the future Israel and the most critical time in the Jews’ history. Europe, that most marvelous civilization and cradle of the West is today acting out it's inherent antisemitism by being anti-Israeli.

[wardaddy]

Ustachi...one word....if one must implicate some members of the Catholic church for being guilty of bad judgement at best and atrocities at worst

One the other hand when’s the movie coming out about how many folks commies have killed since 1917 and how why so many Jews were drawn to that humanist mantra....only to be purged to a large degree later by Uncle Joe

Truth is every group has blood on their hands somewhere....some groups just don’t get called on it ...much if at all

Jews aside...we have had scores of Holocaust or Shoah movies....some quite good...some rather sensational

Hundreds of evil Nazis or even evil South Africans or southerners like me....movies

But how many that showed the excess of collectivism or Marxism of bolshies or mensheviks etc

Reds was mostly complimentary....Doctor Zhivago ambivalent kinda

Killing Fields really nailed it.....more than most

But still...really just a few

Yet Nazi movies and charactitures ad. naseum

This is not by accident but I can’t say I blame them....but at one point do folks think they have made their point

I feel the same way about movies depicting black suffering which unlike Nazi movies which often are based in truth.... inglorious bastards being a big exception

Many flicks about racism against blacks are outright lies ...Grisham....or flimsy truth and still many lies..The Help or The Butler

When does this focus on non whites and non Christians as victims end?

BTW....which group in America is most victimized by another group now?

Which group in the Muslim worldwide being butchered the most now by Muzzies?

Where are the movies...... that’s what I thought

I’m not saying blacks and Jews....and others haven’t been victimized....Jews far far more numbers wise

But this story has been told over and over and yet some of us live out here in clear and present real dangerville and nobody makes movies about our victims

The largely unnoticed irony is a movie about genocide that exonerates to some degree Nazis ...how bizarre

[DJ Taylor]

In my experiences, I’ve found that there’s no limit to what greed will cause men to do, but I’ve never encountered men who were such devout Christians that they would murder women and children in the name of Christ.

[dfwgator]

In 1968, the Communists drove out most of the remaining Jews in Poland, under the guise of an “anti-Zionist” purge after the 1967 war. Can’t blame the Church for that one.

[Jewbacca]

“but I’ve never encountered men who were such devout Christians that they would murder women and children in the name of Christ.”

Martin Luther comes to mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jews_and_Their_Lies

[Bill Russell]

Ref: “Poland tends to let everyone fight through and to not make trouble.”
No one fought more bravely than the Poles. They inflicted over 60,000 casualties on the Germans during the initial invasion in 1939 (and probably a similar number on the Russians). They never surrendered — there was no “Vichey” Poland. The trained pilots who escaped and made their way to England and formed the two highest scoring squadrons in the Battle of Britain (achieving 40% of the kills against the Luftwaffe while forming only 10% of the fighter force flying the older Hurricane Hawkers). The hundred plus thousand who survived Stalin’s Gulags moved to Palestine to form the Polish II Corps under British Command and took the mountain top at Monte Casino. The Polish Airborne Brigade which was designated to jump into Warsaw was wasted trying to salvage the debacle of Montgomery’s Operation Market Garden. The list goes on and on.....

[Bill Russell]

Well said, olezip!

[Bill Russell]

Ref the “lack of will of the west” is all too true. FDR was the biggest collaborator with Stalin in undercutting Churchill in dealing with Stalin on Poland. The book “A Question of Honor: the Kosciuszko Squadron” by Stanley Cloud and Lynn Olsen gives pretty good details of how things were played by FDR.

[Bill Russell]

Thanks, Brad.

[Bill Russell]

Yes, it is a tough battle of perceptions. Many of the communist inspired messages on World War II worked their way into popular opinions. The Communists effectively labeled the Church pro Nazi and Fransisco Franco as a Fascist. When the exact opposite is true. The Pope hid 5000 Jews in his summer residence, while the Church throughout Europe resisted the evil of Nazis. Meanwhile, Franco, a devout Catholic, led the Catholic Carlists and Falangists against the Communists who were engaged in an all out war against the Catholic Church. - William Carroll wrote a great book on the Spanish Civil War entitled “The Last Crusade.”

[Bill Russell]

Well stated, ZF!

[Bill Russell]

I am sorry for your family’s loss. It all too common a story from World War II -— A story perpetrated by Socialists of both the Proletarian and Nationalist varieties.

It is funny, my wife (the daughter of a regional Solidarity leader in the 80’s) is very careful with Polish communities here in the States. Many Communists were infiltrated into the Polish (and all eastern European) ex-pat communities to spy on dissidents.

[Bill Russell]

Eddie, this is a review of another of Chodakiewicz’s books on the post war which I have not yet read.

I may be biased in that I personally know Prof Chodakiewicz and have studied under him. That said, I disagree with Goska’s attacks on Chodakiewicz for using a controversial source, his discernment in distinguishing between Jews and Poles, and the fact that he did not denounce people who my use his book for anti-Semitic purposes....

As a historian, Chodakiewicz will look at all sources and discern what is usable and true and what must be discarded. - Just because one source may be controversial or had one something discredited, does not mean they are completely unusable. With ref to the nationality issues of Jewish-Polish relations, there were many Jewish communities in the Eastern Poland (which was a part of the Pale of Settlement) where there was a mix of Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish communities. The Ukrainians and Jews had their own unique cultures and identities and did not consider themselves to be Polish. Many did not even speak Polish. Finally, Chodakiewicz does denounce racism on a regular basis. One of the specific classes I took with him was on Genocide and Genocide Prevention. — It would be a waste of print to denounce anyone you disagree with who might read your book before hand.....

[kearnyirish2]

“The Last Crusade” is a great book that should be read by any serious Catholic. While it focuses mostly on the first year of the war, it really tells the story our government would never tell us. It also explains the preference of many Europeans for fascism as opposed to Communism on the eve of WWII - they had seen the brutality and class warfare of the communists, and it terrified the middle and upper classes of Europe...

[kearnyirish2]

“FDR was the biggest collaborator with Stalin in undercutting Churchill in dealing with Stalin on Poland.”

I don’t know how (or if) Britains politicians from 1939 could survive; after going to war, losing so many people and your grip on the colonies, to have it result in an occupied Poland in the end? Those Brits died for nothing; all the scheming involved made those countries that sat out the war look brilliant.

[eddiespaghetti]

Bill,

Since you know (and studied under) the guy (Chodakiewicz), you’re probably able to assess his work better than I can, in that it’s been YEARS since I’ve done the kind of research to be able to discuss a guy’s work critically (and fairly).

Wszystkiego najlepszego (all the best),

es

[Brad from Tennessee]

In “Mississippi Burning” the film maker had every atrocity that occurred in Mississippi and Alabama happening in one twon in Mississippi. They also had the FBI violating all the suspects’ rights in order to deliver a justice that actually took years to finally achieve.

There's a series of LIFE magazine photos that depict the day a group of local Klan rowdies stopped a Greyhound bus full of freedom riders on the highway. When the passengers wouldn't exit the bus the klansmen set fire to it. All escaped serious injury but just barely as the bus was engulfed in flames.

The photos show the dazed survivors sitting in the grass on the right-of-way. They are holding glasses of ice water given to them by townspeople who came to their rescue. The Klan was a small minority even in those days because no matter a person's opinion on segregation most people opposed violence.