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

Red Shadow: A Physician’s Memoir of the Soviet Occupation of Eastern Poland, 1944-1956, by Zygmunt Klukowski, Andrew Klukowski (Editor), George Klukowski (Translator). 1997

Postwar Lawlessness: Extensive Postwar Looting and Sporadic Killings All Around, Not Something That “Poles Did to Jews” That Had Survived the Holocaust

This work is a natural sequel to the author’s diary of life under the German occupation: Diary from the Years of Occupation 1939-44. See my review:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/jew-killing-wwii-by-poles-justified-klukowski/

NOT ONLY JEWS SUFFERED FROM LOOTING!

Both the retreating Germans and the arriving Soviets looted the Poles. (p. 7). This was followed by numerous arrests and executions of Poles by the Soviets (p. 34), including people who had never been involved in Underground or political movements. (p. 32). Villages experienced pacification terror at the hands of the Communists just as they had earlier under the Nazis. (p 71). Finally, there were Communist units (sometimes called pozorny) that pretended to be Polish guerrillas. (p. 122).

COLLABORATORS ARE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE

Locals who had collaborated with the Germans, especially the Volksdeutsche, were brought to justice. (e. g., p. 40, 97). So was a Polish policeman who had victimized both Poles and Jews on behalf of the Germans. (p. 79). Women who had consorted with the Germans had their heads shaved. (p. 9).

THE ZOLNIERZE WYKLECI IN ACTION

Members of the A. K. (Armia Krajowa, Home Army), though never ordered to fight against the Communists, sometimes killed Communists on their own. (e. g., p. 22). A Jewish Communist, Sawicki, was among those assassinated. (p. 25). Later, after the A.K. was disbanded in January 1945, successor independentist organizations, such as W.I.N., were formed.

RAMPANT BANDITRY: POLES-ON-POLES, NOT ONLY POLES-ON-JEWS

Rampant banditry among Poles is frequently mentioned in this diary. (e. g., p. 9, 26, 47-48, 72). The perpetrators were commonly members of the A. K. (Armia Krajowa, or Home Army). (e. g., p. 9, 10, 33-34; including its officers: p. 39, 40). They had fought against the Germans for Poland’s freedom, but Poland got no freedom. The author comments: “Most of the officers and soldiers of the Home Army are extremely depressed because of the uncertainty. The organization is falling apart.” (p. 10). Also: “During the last several days there have been many cases of robbery in our region. There seems to be a direct connection between the demoralization evident in the circles of former underground soldiers and the robberies. Some of them cannot sit still without any action, and without ongoing military discipline they look to robbery for both excitement and fulfillment of their daily needs.” (p. 13).

POSTWAR LAWLESSNESS: MANY DIFFERENT ‘FOREST PEOPLE’, AND NOT ONLY POLES, COULD HAVE KILLED HOLOCAUST-SURVIVING JEWS

As had been the case under the German occupation, there were many “forest people”, consisting this time of the likes of deserters from the Berling Army (p. 25, 64), and formerly upstanding citizens who had become bandits. Klukowski remarks: “Today I have encountered en example of how the forest, alas, sometimes causes a breakdown of morality and produces bandits.” (p. 72). People were afraid to go out at night. (p. 72). A wealthy Jew, Luft, was liquidated by the forest bands for unstated reasons. (p. 83).

Klukowski writes: “The fight against banditry is very difficult. Today’s authorities are helpless. The underground tolerates the situation and is not involved in any actions to eliminate the guilty parties.” (p. 48). The author fails to mention the fact that the Soviet-imposed Communist authorities were so pre-occupied with repressing political dissent that they seldom could bother with banditry. The Underground was struggling for its very existence. How could it possibly deal with widespread banditry?

In his FEAR, Jan T. Gross drew exaggerated attention to the postwar killings of Jews by Poles (some 600 out of 300,000 Holocaust-surviving Jews; less than 1%). Gross does a Judeocentric contextual vacuum, and neglects postwar lawlessness. Most of the killings of Jews, though routinely blamed on (what else?) anti-Semitism and a supposed guilt complex for having acquired post-Jewish properties, actually occurred under unclear circumstances and motives. Although Klukowski mentions the killings of Jews only twice (cited above), the circumstances he describes makes it easy to comprehend the perpetrators as pozorny (Communist units pretending to be something else), demoralized A.K. men functioning as bandits, and assorted “forest people”.

POSTWAR LAWLESSNESS: POLES LOOTED OTHER POLES, AND NOT ONLY JEWS

Poles have been portrayed as having an acquisitive complex when it came to Jewish properties, even to the point of desecrating Jewish graves. It turns out that this was an all-round phenomenon. Postwar lawlessness ruled. A formerly upstanding citizen, “Podkowa”, known to Klukowski, robbed a church, tearing up the floor to locate a hidden valuable. (p. 39).

THE ZYDOKOMUNA TERROR IN ACTION

Although only about 1% of Poland’s post-Holocaust population consisted of Jews, they represented a significant fraction of the leadership of the hated Communist security forces (the UB, U.B., or Bezpieka). While under arrest, Klukowski repeatedly encountered Jewish U.B. agents and functionaries. (p. 117, 122).