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

The Holocaust and the Crisis of Human Behavior, by George M. Kren. 1989

Polish Anti-Semitism, Whatever Its Prevalence, Was NOT the Cause of Germany Succeeding in Murdering Over 95% of Accessible Polish Jews

This work presents many topics, and I discuss a few.

NAZISM WAS LEFTWING, NOT RIGHTWING

It is fallacious to consider Nazism as extreme conservatism. In fact, many German conservatives opposed Nazism. (p. 31, 57, 60).

THE SHOAH AS GOD’S WILL

Some Christians believed that the Holocaust was God’s will, as punishment for Jewish sins (p. 171). Then again, some rabbis thought likewise (p. 219), even to this day. (p. 5, 171). But only Christians are blamed for once thinking this way.

NO GERMAN GUILT DILUTION HERE

The authors identify the Holocaust as a uniquely German invention (pp. 30-on) and reject the premise that it was an outgrowth or culmination of previous European anti-Semitism, or that it was something irrational and beyond comprehension. If one dichotomizes the Nazis and Germans, this begs the question why the Nazis were Germans.

Apart from the usual-cited factors in the emergence of Nazism, one of the most important factors that led to the Holocaust was the German mentality that separated private from public morality. (p. 35-on). Considering the subsequent dominance of this tendency in modern western thinking, it is a frightening portent for the future.

LOCALS’ ANTISEMITISM DOES NOT PREDICT THE DEGREE OF SUCCESS OF THE GERMAN-MADE HOLOCAUST

Most interesting of all, Kren and Rappaport debunk the widespread belief that indigenous anti-Semitism, the attitude of the local Church, and collaboration by locals were decisive (or even significant) factors in the percentage of local Jews successfully destroyed by the Germans. (pp. 101-103). Actually, the decisive factor was the degree of control by the SS. In German-occupied Poland, SS control was extreme, and 88-98% of Polish Jews perished. Romania was exceptionally anti-Semitic and had a high rate of Jew-killing local collaboration (p. 102, 217), yet only 46-50% of Romanian Jews perished. This was because SS involvement came late.

Notwithstanding the philo-Semitic Dutch population, 70-86% of Dutch Jews perished–all the result of strong SS control. Countries such as Italy, Belgium, and even Vichy-collaborating France had relatively low Jewish death rates as a result of the mildness of the German occupation, where influential locals were free to offer opposition to German policies or the SS. Finally, the German occupation of Denmark was largely nominal. In fact, the authors explicitly reject the usual unfavorable but fallacious comparison of Polish vs. Danish Jews saved. (p. 103).

IGNORANCE ABOUT POLAND AND ABOUT CHRISTIANITY

Polonophobic innuendoes lace this work. The authors show abysmal ignorance about such things as the social situation of prewar Polish Jews (p. 99) and the policies of the Polish-Government in exile. (p. 104). They cast slurs against the Polish Home Army (AK)(p. 104, 204, 219), and parrot unsubstantiated allegations about Poles being mostly indifferent, if not gleeful, to the fate of the Jews. (p. 103, 219). Their knowledge of Christianity is little better, and they misrepresent it as teaching the eternal coexistence of God and Satan (actually, see Rev. 20:10).