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

The PMI Compendium of Anti-Polish Sentiment (German Camps, Polish Victims), by Jan Niechwiadowicz. 2012

The “Polish Death Camp” Lie is Disturbingly Common in the Media. Who Has an Interest in Promoting This Polonophobia?

This issue has commonly been in the news even though this book has now been written 8 years ago. Various media outlets have raised a big stink about the Polish Holocaust law that criminalizes the phrase “Polish Death Camps”. This is especially ironic in view of the fact that the law is modeled on long-established laws that criminalize Holocaust denial in many nations. Evidently, the standard double standard is in force for memory laws.

GERMAN GUILT EVASION: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE POLISH DEATH CAMPS MENDACITY

“Polish Death Camps” do not have to be believed literally, by the hearer, in order to have an effect. The very term implants a negative prejudice against Poles. Thus, by analogy, Jews rightfully object to the PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION, even though “nobody believes that”, because it instills negative prejudice against Jews. So why is “Polish death camps” supposed to be any more innocent?

In addition, “Polish death camps” ever-so-subtly enhances the process of German guilt dilution by forging an emotional connection between the Pole and the German genocidal murderer, and commonly serves as a provocation (a “bait”) for further accusations [e. g, “OK, so the death camps weren’t Polish. But the Poles were still glad that Hitler did the dirty work for them” (another lie)].

DEALING WITH POLONOPHOBIA: SCOPE OF THIS WORK

Anti-Polonism is surprisingly common in much of the media of the English-speaking nations. Niechwiadowicz especially focuses on British, German, Jewish, and Russian Polonophobia. This work, after the introduction, consists of alphabetized entries that list misleading phraseology, media outlets, personages, and organizations. Additional information, such as the history of Jews in Poland, is included in the back of the book.

THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF THE POLISH DEATH CAMP MENDACITY

The alphabetized listing that comprises this work specifies misleading or mendacious phraseology such as “Nazi Poland”, “Polish concentration camp”, “Polish death camp”, “Nazi-era Poland”, “Nazi Poland”, “Poland’s Auschwitz…Poland’s Treblinka…etc., and many others. In addition, there is widespread confusion, among the public as to who the Nazis were, and who the perpetrators of the genocide of 5-6 million Jews were. This fact has been serious enough to be mentioned as a concern by Laurence Weinbaum (p. 69) and Rabbi Byron Sherwin (p. 77).

MANY SPECIFICS PROVIDED

The alphabetized listing that comprises this work features major news outlets. It identifies the specific ways that they had mischaracterized Poles and Poland, and corrected or refused to correct the same. Some of the outlets listed are the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, American Broadcasting Corporation, Associated Press, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Boston Globe, CNN (Cable News Network), Daily Express, Daily Mail, Die Welt, The Guardian, Ha’aretz, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and others.

The alphabetized listing that comprises this work includes major organizations, such as American Jewish Committee, AMOPOD, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). It also lists major personages in this issue, such as Timothy Garton Ash, Norman Davies, Marek Edelman, Abraham Foxman, Danusha Goska, David A. Harris, Laurence Weinbaum, Simon Wiesenthal, and others.

THE ACTIVISM BY POLISH MEDIA ISSUES (PMI)

Author Jan Niechwiadowicz summarizes the history of the organized activity, centered in the UK, to fight Polonophobia, “The actions of five individuals who set out to try to make a difference have had major results. Since the founding of the Polish Media Issues (PMI) group in July 2005, we have grown to almost seventy members, have over 530 followers on Facebook, produced two booklets on the German camp issue in English plus one in Polish, and have fought over 1,200 incorrect claims in the media about Poles and Poland.” (p. 14). More power to him!