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

The Last Jew From Wegrow: The Memoirs Of A Survivor Of The Step By Step Genocide In Poland, by Shraga Feivel Bielawski, Louis W. Liebovich. 1991

Jewish Economic Privileges in Pre-WWII Poland. Rare Candor About the Danger of Jumping to Blame-Poles Conclusions, Despite the Author’s Vindictive Polonophobic Mindset

Bielawski grew up in Wegrow, which is located well north of Warsaw. At Wegrow, 75% of the businesses were owned by Jews before WWII. (p. 3). During the Great Depression, Bielawski converted most of his assets into gold, worth a then-considerable $4,000. (p. 14). [Privilege is relative. Thus, while most Polish Jews were not wealthy, let us not forget that, even more so, most ethnic Poles were not wealthy either!]

ASPECTS OF JEWISH RELIGION

This memoir mentions some Jewish beliefs and practices. For instance, the Jews believed that the world was created out of nothing. (p. 55). Also, the rabbi had taught that: “…every Jew must perform good deeds, MITSVOS, and that if he did he would go to the Garden of Eden after he died. If he did evil, he would go to GEHINOM (hell). He explained that hell was a great, hot oven.” (p. 118).

NAZI GERMAN OCCUPATION: POLISH-SPEAKING GERMAN (VOLKSDEUTSCHE) MAYORS TAKE OVER THE TOWNS

After the Germans conquered Poland, they began oppressing the Jews immediately. As was the case in countless other towns and villages, they appointed a Volksdeutsch mayor for Wegrow. (p. 17). (The Germans appointed a Volksdeutsche Mayor of Jedwabne, and yet this is disregarded in the customary headlong rush to blame Poles for the Jedwabne massacre.)

POLISH AID AND JEWISH BANDITRY

During the Holocaust, a series of Poles helped and hid author Bielawski. He stayed a long time with the farmer Bujalski, hiding in an ingenious hideout in a barn, and stole some of Bujalski’s food to supplement that which he had been given. (p. 142). [How many cases of Jews denounced or killed, even by their erstwhile Polish benefactors, had been provoked by Jews engaging in such conduct? And let us not forget that Poles ALSO had to eat.]

DO NOT ASSUME THAT SLAIN FUGITIVE JEWS HAD BEEN KILLED BY POLES

At one time, however, Bielawski was told that Russian POWs in the area had escaped from the Germans, and were robbing and killing Jews in the forest. (p. 73). So, members of other non-Polish nationalities also engaged in such acts, but nowadays only Poles are blamed for it.

AN INADVERTENT WARNING TO HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS: DO NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE PRESUMED MALEVOLENCE OF POLES

In spite of the Polonophobic tone that permeates his memoir, Bielawski had to common decency to admit when he was wrong in accusing the Poles. He had gotten help from Mrs. Rowicki, who told him to return the next day. Upon doing so, he heard Germans in the house, and concluded that Rowicki had set a trap for him by inviting the Germans to lie in wait for their unsuspecting prey. It turned out that the Germans had invited themselves coincidentally, and had stayed long into the night. (pp. 70-71).

This incident reinforces the dubious credibility of Holocaust survivors. In this particular instance, the survivor realized that he was wrong, and admitted it. But, how many other examples, of alleged Polish malevolence, are nothing of the sort, because the Holocaust survivor either did not know all the facts, or chose not to mention them? Thus, had Bielawski not known or admitted the truth, his testimony would have gone down in history as yet another example of (what else?) Polish anti-Semitism, as well as the eagerness of Poles to help “the Nazis” kill Jews, and, most of all, Polish complicity in the Holocaust.

For more on the lack of credibility of the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, see my reviews of:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/bad-pole-holocaust-survivor-testimony-unreliable-browning/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/german-contrition-dubious-stangneth/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/bad-pole-holocaust-survivor-testimony-unreliable-wieviorka/

THE JEWISH VINDICTIVE SPIRIT DIRECTED AT POLES

In the end, Bielawski evidently forgot that he owed his very life to Poles, and exuded venom against them. He wrote the following vile words: “I prayed that the land would split and swallow up the Poles as Korach’s followers were swallowed by the earth in the days of Moses.” (p. 159). Nice way to go. And people wonder why some Poles hate Jews.

UPDATE (MARCH 2019)

Jan Grabowski, the author of JUDENJAGD, has become all excited about the fact that some scholars in Wegrow have questioned the veracity of this memoir by Shraga Feivel Bielawski. This, actually, is quite standard. Historians critically evaluate ALL sources of information, and no one is privileged.

Incidentally, the vicious (even racist) Polonophobia exhibited by Bielawski does not exactly inspire confidence in the scholarly detachment and objectivity of his memoir on Polish-related matters! In fact, he lays some anti-Polish whoppers. For examples, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/08/23/shraga-feivel-bielawski-dalej-jest-noc-night-without-end-fictions-zydokomuna-pivotal-armia-krajowa-why-few-jews-zimmerman-off-kopstein-debunked-narutowicz-assassination-context-ipn/