Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Their Brothers Keepers, by Philip Friedman. 1957

An Early Holocaust-Survivor Jewish Tribute to Polish Rescuers of Jews. Notably Anti-Semitic Poles (Partly Listed) Rescued Jews

Friedman discusses the rescue of Jews during WWII throughout German-occupied Europe, but especially Poland. Unlike most Holocaust materials written today, Friedman usually puts Jewish suffering within the broader context of non-Jewish suffering.

NO HIGH-LEVEL POLISH NAZI COLLABORATION

Some recent authors have advanced the fallacious argument that there was no Polish Quisling only because the Germans never wanted one. In actuality, the Germans did try unsuccessfully to find a suitable Polish Quisling. Friedman is unambiguously about this fact: “And yet, despite the fact that Poland suffered Nazi terror longer than any other country, the national spirit of its freedom-loving citizenry was not crushed. The Germans tried desperately, but never succeeded in creating a quisling regime as in Norway, France, and other lands. The Poles early formed guerilla units and many paid with their lives.” (p. 111). Also: “It is a matter of record that the Germans were unable to create a quisling government in Poland. The activities of the Polish Underground were widespread and effective, and the Germans retaliated with raids on the civilian population, deporting many thousands of Poles to slave-labor camps and staging public executions. Poles of the Resistance trying to escape the Nazi wrath discovered an odd ally: the Jewish badge.” (p. 37).

In the last cited statement, Friedman is alluding to the little-known fact that, during the first two or so years of the German occupation, Polish gentiles were more likely to be murdered than Polish Jews. A Polish gentile literally felt safer masquerading as a Jew and wearing the Jewish badge!

POLISH ANTISEMITISM NO BARRIER TO POLES RESCUING JEWS

Sweeping assertions have frequently been made that prewar Polish attitudes towards Jews made Poles disinclined to help Jews. This is, at best, a non sequitur. Friedman (pp. 114-115, 206) lists several notable Poles, by name, who had professed strongly anti-Semitic views before the war and yet actively assisted Jews during the German occupation: Jan Mosdorf, Stanislaw Piasecki, Adolf Nowaczynski,  Koziolkiewicz, Witold Rudnicki, Aleksander Witaszewicz, Franciszek Kowalski, and Dr. Filipowski. Some of the foregoing were members of the ONR.

POLISH BETRAYERS OF JEWS

Friedman places the Polish blackmailers (szmalcowniki) in proper perspective as marginal members of Polish society: “These extortionists, recruited from the dregs of society, frequently operated as well-organized gangs and made a lucrative livelihood from mulcting Jews they threatened to expose. And emulating these hundreds of professional and amateur extortionists were the street urchins who ran after strollers and passers-by, threatening to expose them as Jews unless they parted with their dwindling supply of zlotys.” (p. 121). One wonders how many of these street urchins were themselves completely destitute, perhaps orphans.

ABBA KOVNER A COMMUNIST (OR CLOSE ENOUGH)

Friedman devotes some attention to the Vilna (Wilno, Vilnius) ghetto. He points out that the famous Jewish guerilla leader, Abba Kovner, belonged to the Hashomer Hatziar, and was a Marxist. (p. 27). Otherwise, however, Friedman does not discuss the extent of involvement of Jewish partisans with Communists.

THE ARMIA KRAJOWA (HOME ARMY) AND THE JEWS

Friedman has a balanced view of the mainstream Polish Underground Army (the AK: Armia Krajowa). While he does repeat accusations of the AK sometimes killing fugitive Jews, he also comments: “On the other hand, there are records of protection given to Jews by some of the commanding officers of the Home Army such as those recorded in…” (p. 209). The fact of the AK protecting Jews and, not mentioned, of containing known Jews in its ranks, refutes Yaffa Eliach, who accused the AK of having a secret plan to “finish Hitler’s job” by exterminating Poland’s remaining Jews.

DOES NOT BLAME POLES FOR “NOT DOING ENOUGH” TO AID THE JEWS’ WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING (1943)

To his credit, Friedman (p. 122) understands the Polish Underground’s policy towards the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Provide some arms, but not so many that there would be the danger of it escalating into a premature and foredoomed city-wide or nation-wide conflagration. He also writes: “Seventy Jewish fighters who escaped through the sewers were transferred by the Polish Underground to the woods neighboring Warsaw, where they formed several small partisan units. However, constant German raids, the difficulties in obtaining food, and lack of arms, and their inexperience in guerrilla warfare decimated these groups.” (p. 123). Although not mentioned by Friedman, the inexperience of Jews in guerilla warfare partly explains the fact that more Jews were not accepted into the AK.

THE ALMOST-UNIMAGINABLE ADVANTAGES OF DANES WHO RESCUED JEWS

Friedman also discusses the rescue of Jews in other nations, notably those of Denmark. One is astonished by the extraordinary favorable circumstances that attended the Danes and the Danish Jews. To begin with, Denmark was situated a short distance across the Baltic Sea from neutral Sweden, and Sweden had already agreed to accept Danish Jews. Furthermore, Danish Jews were completely assimilated and were relatively few in number. The German occupation of Denmark was nominal, and so the Danes possessed considerable autonomy. To top it all off, local Germans (Count Helmuth von Moltke and Captain Georg Ferdinand von Duckwitz) actually warned the Danes of the impending arrests of Jews (p. 151), and the Danes had the luxury of having three months to act (p. 157).

HITLER DID NOT TARGET ALL EUROPEAN JEWS FOR EXTERMINATION

Finland’s (Germany’s ally) Jews were not exterminated. Friedman discusses the German attempts to pressure Finland to give up her Jews for extermination. But, interestingly, the Germans never invaded Finland when the latter balked. Obviously, then, there was something more important to a Nazi than killing every accessible Jew.