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

Red Runs the Vistula, by Ron Jeffery. 1985

Escaped British POW in German-Occupied Poland. Unstinting Credit For Polish Bravery. Confronts Yalta: Briton’s Shame Over Poland’s Betrayal

Talk about adventure! Author Jeffery, a British POW in German hands, ends up in German-occupied Poland, escapes, becomes a member of the AK (ARMIA KRAJOWA) (p. 101), participates in the Underground-sponsored assassination of a Volksdeutsche infiltrator (pp. 154-156), acquires access to evidence (p. 287) that irrefutably blames the Soviets for the heinous crime of Katyn (p. 143, 251-252), marries a Pole (Marysia, who lived through and later described the Warsaw Uprising: pp. 271-275), and finally returns to Britain in early 1944, where he is silenced about Katyn (p. 235) and has to fend-off a smear campaign originating from British Communists.

POLES, LIKE JEWS, SLATED FOR EXTERMINATION, ALBEIT BY STARVATION-GENOCIDE

Jeffery provides a vivid account of countless German cruelties against Poles and comments: “The food ration for Poles was less than that for British prisoners of war. The black market, of absolute necessity to sustain life, was periodically viciously repressed.” (p. 67). “Since my arriving in the former Polish Corridor in 1940 as a German prisoner of war, my mind had harboured a growing conviction that the Nazis were eventually bent on meting out the same liquidation programme to the Polish people as were evident to the Jews wherever they found them.” (p. 112).

STOP BLAMING POLES FOR NOT DOING “MORE” FOR THE JEWS

Much of what happened during the German occupation will never be known, prompting Jeffery to conclude: “Since the war, opinions have been voiced that insufficient help to the Jews was forthcoming from the Poles during the Nazi occupation and especially during the ghetto revolt …The elements who have invented or distorted the history of those times and those two peoples to suit their personal objectives, contribute nothing of which the human race can be proud.” (p. 284).

THE SOVIET-BETRAYED WARSAW UPRISING

Jeffery puts the Warsaw Uprising in perspective: “Only the sparsest reference has ever been made in the Western news media, to the vast number of Polish civilians who perished in the Warsaw Uprising as a result of Soviet manipulation. Japanese casualties sustained during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were far less.” (p. 246).

BRITISH SYCOPHANTIC TO THE SOVIET UNION–AT POLAND’S EXPENSE

The author’s countrymen come in for scathing criticism: “Britons in both high and low places were more pro-Soviet than seemed necessary to sustain what was a purely military alliance.” (p. 247). “The Robin Hood aura bestowed by the media in some reports of Philby’s despicable career is sickening as well as suspicious.” (p. 253). “Between Russian communists on one hand and a proportion of the British establishment on the other, it is surprising that I have remained such a patriotic Briton considering the disgust I feel.” (p. 293).

BRITON AFFIRMS POLAND”S HEROIC NARRATIVE: THOSE INDOMITABLE POLES

As for the Poles whom he came to know so well, Jeffery said: “People of more matchless moral and physical courage than the Poles have never existed…” (p. 43). “A major inspiration to produce this book has been to pay homage to the Polish people and especially to their magnificent unsung efforts during the years of Nazi occupation.” (p. 259). “To contemplate the political destruction of people like the Poles, the most loyal Allies in the fight against the Nazis, was heartbreaking.” (p. 299).