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

Byc Zydem: Rozmowa z Dagiem Halvorsenem, by Andrzej Wroblewski and Dag Halvorsen. 1992

Addresses Many Common Misconceptions About Polish-Jewish Relations. Jewish Gestapo Agents

TO BE A JEW: DISCUSSIONS WITH DAG HALVORSEN ABOUT JEWS AND THE ANTISEMITISM OF THE POLES. In this Polish-language book, Halvorsen asks many questions which reflect popular stereotypes about Poles, and Wroblewski, who is of Jewish background (p. 7), responds to him.

Historical trends and events are emphasized. For example, while most peasants were illiterate, Jews were literate for religious reasons. Also, the study of the Talmud led Jews to think dialectically–not only the lawyers, but also the tailors and shoe repairmen. (p. 16). The proscription against Jewish-gentile intermarriage enabled Jews to keep their identity, but also was viewed unfavorably among Poles, and helped create a wall between Jews and non-Jews. (p. 17). One major factor in the emergence of poverty among Jews was the divide that separated the prosperous Jewish factory owners from Jewish commoners. (pp. 38-39).

1931 WILNO POGROM JEWS’ FAULT

The 1931 pogrom in Wilno began when a Pole, Waclawski, was killed in an altercation with a Jew. (p. 45). [The American reader can recount all of the race riots of the past that began when a white was killed by a black, or a black was killed by a white.]

POLISH THREATS OF DENUNCIATION, OF JEWS, DRIVEN BY MONEY

Let’s now focus on the WWII Nazi German occupation of Poland. The author knew a number of fugitive Jews who repeatedly paid-off the szmalcowniks (blackmailers), and were never betrayed to the Germans. (This tends to support the premise that most szmalcowniki, rather than hard-core anti-Semites, were petty extortionists who did not actually follow through on their threats to denounce fugitive Jews to the Germans.) Wroblewski was accosted by a szmalcownik who, after the war, became a member of the hated Communist security forces (U. B., or Bezpieka). (p. 124). [Other authors have reported this phenomenon: Low-character Poles serving the Communists in large numbers, whence the Chamokomuna (Boor-Communism) that served the Zydokomuna (Judeo-Bolshevism) elite].

A JEWISH GESTAPO AGENT

Of course, a fugitive Jew could meet denunciation and death from many quarters. Wroblewski describes the deaths of 11 Poles and Jews thanks to the work of Staszauer, a Jewish Gestapo agent. (p. 121). Once again, a single collaborator, Jewish or Polish, could cause the deaths of many people! For more on Jewish Gestapo agents, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2025/05/11/insidious-german-created-village-security-system/

CLAUDE LANZMANN’S SHOAH: THE MISPREPRESENTED CUT-THROAT GESTURE

The author briefly analyzes Claude Lanzmann and, while being neutral towards Lanzmann, does point out manipulative tendencies in Lanzmann’s work. For instance, Wroblewski points out that the peasant who did the cut-throat gesture was warning (not mocking) foreign Jews about what awaited them at Treblinka. Wroblewski doubts that the peasant’s smile, while interviewed, in any way indicates his attitudes at the time the events were actually taking place. (pp. 126-127).

Eyewitness Wroblewski contradicts those who assert that Poles expressed delight, or at least satisfaction, when the Germans burned the Warsaw Ghetto. He found masses of Poles staring vacantly at the event, as if thinking: “Today them, tomorrow us.” In any case, there is no basis for insinuating that “most Poles were indifferent.” Poles very likely sensed their powerlessness when beholding the fate of the Jews. (pp. 130-131).

As a matter of fact, during his movements across German-occupied Poland, Wroblewski encountered only one obviously Holocaust-approving Pole, who verbalized a “Jews had it coming to them” message. The author appreciates the crushing poverty of the peasants, and interprets the peasant’s comment as an expression of envy towards the more-prosperous Jews. (pp. 127-128).

GERMAN-IMPOSED DEATH PANTLY WAS DECISIVE

The author recounts the many Poles who aided Jews. Unlike Jan T. Gross and his fans, Wroblewski, who actually went through the Holocaust, appreciates the German-imposed death penalty as a valid and effective deterrent to more extensive Polish aid to Jews. (p. 129).

POLISH ANTISEMITES AIDED JEWS

Wroblewski recounts the fact that some anti-Jewish personages before the war (e. g., Jan Mosdorf, Father Marcel Godlewski) aided Jews during the German occupation.

DO NOT EQUATE THE POLICJA GRANATOWA WITH OTHER NATIONS’ COLLABORATIONIST POLICE

Although some members of the Polish Blue Police (Policja Granatowa) did cross the line into collaboration with the Germans, the overall conduct of this police should in no way be compared to the actual collaborationist police of other nations. For instance, Wroblewski cites the collaborationist police in Vichy France. Although they were not coerced in any way, they freely and willfully engaged in large-scale roundups of Jews, followed by the shipments to a camp at Drancy, and eventually Auschwitz. (p. 145).

TRANSPORTATION LOGISTICS DISPENSE WITH THE POLISH DEATH CAMP CANARD

Consider German guilt diffusion. Wroblewski also debunks the canard about the death camps built by the Nazis on Polish soil owing to presumed Polish attitudes towards Jews. It was simply a matter of logistics and minimal transportation. For instance, the Germans built Treblinka so that they would have to transport Warsaw’s Jews only 100 km to their deaths, rather than to have to transport them 300 km to Auschwitz, even though one or two more crematory-complexes at Auschwitz would have made up the difference. (p. 145).

POST-WWII ZYDOKOMUNA

After the war, Jews served in very disproportionate numbers in the hated Communist puppet government. Wroblewski contends that the over-representation of Jews was a mistake worse than a crime. (p. 168). Finally, Wroblewski does not think that eventual Jewish privations under Communism even things out. He writes: “There were proportionately more Jews among the executioners than among the victims.” (p. 181). [Note that this refutes Krystyna Kersten, who would have us believe that just as many Jews were anti-Communist as were pro-Communist. Not so.]