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

The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry, by Ilya Ehrenburg, Vasily Grossman. 1980, 2003

The Myth of Poles Mixing Up Polish and Jewish Deaths. Jedwabne Responsibility Unclear. Swindler’s List Falsehood.  Non-Cheering of Jewish Deaths. Substantial Polish Aid to Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

This book provides considerable detail on the German murders of Jews in German-conquered eastern Poland and western Soviet Union, usually by mass shootings followed by either mass burial or mass cremations in open-air pyres. WARNING: The descriptions of both gratuitous and systematic German cruelties are graphic, even by Holocaust-material standards.

Although, not surprisingly, the narratives are laced with Communist propaganda, there is a surprising lack of contempt for religious people and the clergy. And nowhere in this book does Ilya Ehrenburg display his reputed collective hatred of Germans.

JEDWABNE: UNCLEAR PERPETRATORS

The narratives follow a geographic format. Interestingly, the massacre of the Jews of Edvabny (Jedwabne) is mentioned, but not any accusation of Poles being responsible (p. 205). This contrasts with the attention devoted to Baltic collaborators in their German-occupied nations.

AFTER THE JEWS, THE SLAVS WERE SLATED FOR EXTERMINATION

Grossman (p. xxix) juxtaposes the eventual fate of non-Jews with that of the Jews: “In many places the murder of local residents–of Russians, Belorussians, and Ukrainians–was merely the first step toward the realization of Hitler’s intended program of the eventual extermination of the Slavic people. With regard to the Jews, fascism implemented its bloody plans immediately and universally.”

SWINDLER’S LIST: THE NAZI GERMAN DEATH CAMPS: INFLATED FIGURES WERE NOT POLISH INVENTIONS

This volume provides one of the earliest postwar comprehensive accounts on the modus operandi of the German death camps, especially Treblinka (pp. 462-487) and Auschwitz (pp. 500-532). A Jewish-Soviet commission arrived at a figure of 4 million victims of the Auschwitz complex (p. 501, 513-514). This debunks the myth of this highly-inflated figure being some sort of later Polish invention designed to hide the Jewishness of most Auschwitz victims.

SWINDLER’S LIST: THE CANARD ABOUT POLES CHEERING JEWISH DEATHS

This mendacious meme is best known, to the public, through the well-watched movie SCHINDLER’S LIST, in which a young Polish girl gives a sarcastic farewell (Goodby Jews!) to the soon-to-be-murdered Jews. Better yet, some Poles are throwing globs of mud at the poor, doomed Jews.

Likewise, in his NEIGHBORS and FEAR, the media-acclaimed Jan T. Gross would have us believe that Poles habitually delighted in Jewish sufferings, and were intoxicated with greed towards Jewish properties. The Soviet-Jewish editors of this volume indicate just the opposite: “Honest Poles and Ukrainians were deeply disturbed by these unprecedented crimes, by the mass extermination of completely innocent people.” (p. 83). “Many Jews hid among the Poles and Ukrainians. No matter how much the Germans tried to corrupt the souls of the people with the threat of death, execution, treachery, and greed, the people remained brave, honorable, and capable of heroic deeds. The Polish intelligentsia saved many Jewish children from death.” (p. 84). Much the same situation prevailed in Byelorussia: “It must be said during those troubled times the friendship between Poles and Jews generally burned bright. The fascists were able to organize only the dregs of society and set them against the defenseless, persecuted Jewish people.” (p. 198). The last quoted statement is identical to the conventional Polish position: Polish collaborators and killers of Jews consisted of marginal members of Polish society–again refuting Gross.

WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING (1943)–SUBSTANTIAL POLISH HELP RECOGNIZED

The editors of this volume provided one of the earliest postwar accounts of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. They recognize the assistance and involvement of Poles to a much greater extent than do most Holocaust materials. There is a unit of the AK mentioned, along with its act of engaging the German sentries in combat, which enabled Jews to escape the ghetto (p. 549, 557). A partial list is provided of Poles who died fighting alongside, and on behalf of, the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. (p. 554).

Now, the authors of this book were Communists. They most certainly were not trying to give any kind of undeserved credit to non-Communist and anti-Communist Poles!