Poland, other countries, had mixed Holocaust records

By Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel

CHULA VISTA, California — Jack Fairweather’s book The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz is a wonderful narrative about one of the great heroes of the Holocaust. Witold Pilecki’s memory deserves to be celebrated by people everywhere. From the respondents to my original article, I am also glad to hear that Witold Pilecki is the most revered in Poland and has been for some time.

But one respondent claimed, “There is no anti-Semitism in Poland!”

I hoped that this might indeed be the case.

But this comment piqued my curiosity, so I decided to check out this out for myself. According to one ADL report, there have been many demonstrations against restitution of Holocaust-era Jewish property. Some of the right-wing political parties and their candidates have minced no words how they really feel about the Jews. One candidate for the Konfederacja party had these words to say about the Jews:

• “The American empire here is the political and military tool of Jewish blackmail against Poland.”  He also wrote in the most recent issue of the far-right weekly magazine, Najwyzszy Czas, about “the war which the Jews have waged against the Polish nation. They have waged this war for centuries. In fact, they have always conducted it against the Poles and against the whole Christian world.”[1]

At least this fellow was being forthright in expressing his opinion.

My father told me a similar story occurred to him in his native Czechoslovakia, where my grandfather Moshe Samuel owned tens of thousands of acres. After the war, he went back to his father’s home only to be threatened by the new owners who stole his home during the war. This type of theft occurred throughout the Eastern European countries.

The fear that Jews will reclaim what was rightfully theirs was expressed under one picture featuring Hassidic looking Jews looking at a Warsaw skyline.  The caption read, “Son, someday this will all be yours.” [2]

There are other examples worth mentioning recorded by respectable news sources. An article that appeared on April 22, 2019 told a story about the Polish town of Pruchnik.  The article featured a story about a Good Friday ritual beating of a Judas effigy, one that resembled a typical Orthodox Jew. Jews all over the world expressed outrage and for good reason. The World Jewish Congress said, “Jews are deeply disturbed by this ghastly revival of medieval anti-Semitism that led to unimaginable violence and suffering. . .”[3]

On an even more serious note, on June 27, 2018, the Polish government made it a criminal offense to accuse that nation of complicity in Nazi war crimes. Anyone found guilty could face up to three years in jail. As you might expect, European countries made a public outcry, as did people in Israel and the US.[4]

Why the insistence upon such a law? The Polish right-wing parties were upset at Jan T. Gross, a Polish Jew who teaches at Princeton University. Gross’s new books have created tremendous controversy in Poland. One of his books, Neighbors details the massacre in the town Jedwabne where the Jewish population made up half of the community. They were brutally murdered —not by the Nazis, but by people who they knew very well.  About 1,600 men, women, and children-all but seven of the town’s Jews. The incident resembled a  Stephen King novel.

Then again, there was the Kielce Pogrom, which was an outbreak of violence toward the Jewish community’s ingathering of refugees in the city of Kielce, Poland on July 4, 1946.  Polish soldiers, police officers, and civilians participated in a pogrom in which 42 Jews were killed, and more than 40 wounded.

How did animosity between Poles and Jews in Kielce begin?

It began with a blood libel. For Jews living in Eastern Europe, being accused of a blood libel was nothing new. Except this accusation was made one year after the Holocaust. A little eight-year-old who was missing told his father after he reappeared that he had been held by a man in a basement. He pointed to a large building located on 7 Planty Street in the town of Kielce owned by the Jewish Community that housed many Jewish institutions and refugees.

But the building never had a basement.

On the morning of July 4, a small group of state militia and local police approached the building to investigate the alleged kidnapping. As rumors of misdeeds spread, a version of the centuries-old “blood libel” that Jews were kidnapping Christian children for ritual sacrifice circulated and a mob began to assemble.

Gross narrated the story in chilling detail in his 2006 book, Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz. Gross pointed out the violence did not originate with the populace, but with the police and militia—people who were supposed to protect the Jews and maintain the peace. Instead, they dragged Jews into the courtyard, where the townspeople savagely attacked the Jewish residents.

The Kielce Pogrom was the deadliest pogrom against Polish Jews after the Second World War. The incident marked a significant point in the post-war history of Jews in Poland. After this incident occurred, many Jewish survivors decided to leave Poland for good—they had enough.[5]

When anyone looks at the history since the end of WWII, it is no wonder why certain ultra-nationalists want to keep the history of Polish complicity and anti-Semitism buried in the past, hoping that the world will forget.

Gross has done a fine job detailing this part of modern Polish history. And while I greatly respect the work and research done by Gross, it would be nice if he also wrote a book about the heroic Poles who made a difference. To some degree, I understand their animus of many Polish citizens against Gross for telling only one side of the story. After all, isn’t a historian’s responsibility to educate the people reading his book? It would add balance and objectivity to his overall work.

Yet, the Polish people must recognize there are retrograde forces within their country that want their people to forget what happened.

The Baptist preacher C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) famously wrote about Cain’s question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

• I put it to the consciences of many silent Christians, who have never yet made known to others what God has made known to them—How can you be clear from guilt in this matter? Do not say, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” for I shall have to give you a horrible answer if you do. I shall have to say, “No, Cain, you are not your brother’s keeper, but you are your brother’s killer.” If, by your effort you have not sought his good, by your neglect you have destroyed him.”^[6]

Again, let me reiterate: It is not my intent to say that all Poles were complicit in allowing the Holocaust to occur, but there were too many stories depicting gratuitous cruelty.

There is much more to be said about the numerous Polish heroes who stood up against Nazism. Men and women like Witold Pilecki deserve to have their story told to the world. The State of Israel has awarded more Polish citizens with the award of “Righteous Among Nations” than any other country. Poles make up the largest number of citizens who have received the award (6,394), while Great Britain has 19 and the US only 4.

Poland was not the only country that is deserving of criticism.

As American Jews, we must not forget that we too bear partial responsibility for allowing evil to proliferate during the Holocaust. It took one hundred Orthodox rabbis to embarrass the President to do something when they marched in front of the White House.

In the United States, it is well known that many Jews (and rabbis such as Stephen Wise) refused to challenge President Franklin D. Roosevelt concerning the Holocaust because of their loyalty to the Democratic Party.  Roosevelt’s legacy will forever remain tarnished for failing to rescue European Jewry.  In hindsight, Jewish leaders of that era placed their unconditional support in a president who was, at best, unresponsive, and at worst cynical about the pleas of the Jews. In contrast, the Polish nation produced many heroes who risked their lives and families rescuing Jews.

FDR refused to let the St. Louis ship to bring in the refugees and instead he sent them back to die in the death-camps. Britain’s behavior during the war was no less disgraceful.  Today, American Jews like Bernie Sanders and his ilk, who routinely seek to punish Israel over her overall policies concerning the Palestinians are hardly any better.

My point is, we must learn from the mistakes of our past—otherwise, rest assured we will repeat them again and again until we finally learn.

The survival of our species depends upon it.

 

[1] https://www.adl.org/blog/anti-semitism-in-polish-protests-against-restitution

[2] https://www.adl.org/blog/anti-semitism-in-polish-protests-against-restitution

[3] [3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48012965

[4] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44627129

[5] Interview with Krzysztof Kąkolewski, Archive copy at the Wayback Machine Also available with purchase at “To Moskwa zaplanowała ten mord” (The murder was planned in Moscow), Tygodnik Angora – “Przegląd prasy krajowej i światowej”, Łódź, 29/2006 (839); section Kultura, p. 56. Copy available at Forum historycy.org, 3 July 2006, and at Gazeta.pl Forum (incomplete) Archived 7 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, 7 June 2016. (in Polish)

^[6] C.H. Spurgeon and T. Carter, 2,200 Quotations: From the writings of Charles H. Spurgeon: Arranged topically or textually and indexed by subject, Scripture, and people (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995), 228. Vol. 33. 672.

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Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista.  He may be contacted via michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com