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

Christians in the Warsaw Ghetto: An Epitaph for the Unremembered, by Peter F. Dembowski. 2005

Jewish Anti-Assimilation, Paid Rescuers’ Mortal Risk, and the Rationality of Prewar Polish Antagonisms to Jews

According to the German-developed Nuremberg Laws, Jewish Christians were considered Jews, and treated accordingly by the Nazis in German-occupied Poland. That is why there were quite a few Christians–Jewish Christians–in the Warsaw Ghetto.

WHY JEWS WERE USUALLY ANTI-ASSIMILATIONIST

Interestingly, Poland’s Jewish leaders often considered assimilation into Polish society as much a repudiation of one’s Jewishness as conversion to Christianity (p. 117, 137-138). In fact, Jewish Christians often experienced animosity from other Jews in the ghetto (p. 122), including unprovoked violence (p. 85).

LOCAL JEWS DID NOT BELIEVE POLISH WARNINGS ABOUT THE UNFOLDING HOLOCAUST

Dembowski presents a variety of historical information. We learn that the prewar ONR had been outlawed by Polish authorities since its inception (p. 62). While the occupying Germans forced Jews to wear the star, they also forced the Polish slaves in Germany to wear the “P” (pp. 45-46)(petka). Marek Edelman recounted the fact that Warsaw’s Jews initially disbelieved Polish reports of the mass gassings of Jews (pp. 53-55). Edelman’s wife praised THE PIANIST for its qualities (p. 39).

THE GREEDY PAID RESCUER MYTH

Dembowski rebuts Mordecai Kaplan’s charge that Polish priests wrote false certificates for Jews out of mercenary motives. In actuality, false baptismal certificates were a risky undertaking, incurring the German-imposed death penalty for both the priest and recipient if caught (p. 99).

ATYPICAL GERMAN HARSHNESS ON POLISH RESCUERS OF JEWS (UNLIKE OTHER NATIONS)

There is irony in the betrayal of Anne Frank by a Dutchman. Two of her benefactors were not arrested at all, while one of the remaining two was released after arrest. Had Anne Frank’s family and benefactors been Polish, they would all have all been summarily shot by the Germans (p. 83).

A JEWISH SCIENTIST WITH A RATIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF POLISH ANTI-SEMITISM

The Jewish-Christian bacteriologist Ludwik Hirszfeld put prewar Polish anti-Semitism into perspective: “My nation accused by the world of anti-Semitism is a good nation. [It gives assistance] despite the death sentence for help, and despite the inherited antipathy towards Jews. I believe that if Jehovah maintains the register of all the injuries suffered by Jews, he will erase the Przytyk pogrom, university disturbances, and separate seating for Jews [in the universities], because Polish antipathy lasted only as long as there was a vision of powerful Jews. It was replaced by pity when the pauper appeared. It was the case during the Jewish martyrdom.” (p. 124). For more, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/betrayals-of-jews-by-poles-contextualized-hirszfeld/

POLES DID NOT CHEER AT THE SUFFERING JEWS

Several accounts, such as the fictional little Polish girl in Steven Spielberg’s SCHINDLER’S LIST (saying Goodbye Jews!) and the various selectively-chosen anecdotes in Jan T. Gross’ FEAR, would have us believe that Poles delighted in Jewish suffering. In contrast, Antoni Marianowicz (Kazimierz Jerzy Berman) wrote: “When we were returning to the car, wearing our armbands, children at Zytnia Street pointed their fingers at us and whispered: ‘Look, the Jews!’ There was no animosity in their voices, only curiosity in seeing the officially branded people.” (p. 114).