Stepan12, Thanks for your reply. There will always be elements of antisemitism and anti-Polish resentments between the Poles and Jews. They did not always get along with each other. But by and large, they managed to live side by side for centuries in communities throughout Poland - complete with all the business rivalries and partnerships, fistfights and occasional inter-marriages, joint festivals and pogroms.
The reason the Nazis put their death camps in occupied Poland was because that was where the largest numbers of Jews lived. — It saved on transportation costs.
Ref the Massacre in Jedwabne, I did address this in the text of the article. It was never “revealed that Jedwabne was committed by the Poles.” There have only been accusations made by Jan Tomaz Gross in his book neighbors. Gross has been thoroughly discredited because he relied almost completely on the testimonies from the Soviet show trials. But just to be clear: it was not the Poles who murdered the Jews there, it was the SS. Chodakiewicz details the forensics, the conceptual discussions from the German Archives for the program which was ordered by Himmler, the information operations and the dynamics of Polish-Jewish, Polish-German relations in Poland during the war in his book The Massacre in Jedwabne. The shooting and burning of the Jews in barn was done exclusively by the SS Einsatzgruppen who were there with cameras to film the episode. The modus operandi they used throughout the region was to stage events which would attempt to manipulate mob-mentality and feelings of antisemitism. The Nazi stage managed the murder. They created a marketplace specticle of Jews as anti-communist event (a “Jewish funeral” for a bust of Lenin). The SS siphoned off the young Jewish men and shot them out side the barn, stacking them in a common grave. They then paraded the rest of the Jews to the barn forced them inside, and burned them alive.
Ref Sobidor Camp Revolt leader,Leon Feldhendler. It was unclear who shot him as he was apparently shot once through the closed door of his apartment. It is unlikely that anyone who truly wished him dead would allow a single shot at an unseen target suffice for an accomplished mission. More than likely it was a botched robbery attempt and Feldhendler was a known gold trader. At the time, the Soviet controlled press blamed all crimes on the Home Army and its subgroups.
Ref the Kielce “pogrom”. The numbers are overblown. According to Michael Checinski, a Jewish member of Polish Counter Intelligence (SMERSH) at the time, it was a provoked government (communist) event to create difficulties for the opposition (patriotic Polish Catholics)among Jewish circles in the US. It also forced Jews who decided to stay in Poland to become ardent supported of the new regime for protection, and allowed the communist to accuse Poles and the Catholic church of antisemitism while posing as the “defenders of the remnants of Polish Jewry.”
Glenn Beck should not apologize. Poland should not be let off the hook despite the furious efforts of you and others to cover up Poland’s sorry history in the holocaust. It is not for nothing that the late Israeli Prime Minister Shamir said that antisemitism is “mother’s milk of Poles” or something to that effect. He may well have been thinking of his polish father who escaped the death trains only to be murdered by his fellow Poles (so-called childhood friends).
From the poles or their apologists concerning the treatment of Jews during WWII, we not only have holocaust denial, but post holocaust denial!
Far out!