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

Flags Over the Warsaw Ghetto: The Untold Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, by Moshe Arens. 2011

Communism Infected Much of Pre-WWII Jewish Political Life. It Was Not Marginal Among Jews! Holocaust Uniqueness Upended. The ZZW in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

This work focuses on active hostility against the ZZW as the major cause of the ZZW’s neglect. The rift between the Jewish right and the Jewish left was extreme in Warsaw–so much so that it did not bring Jews fully together even in the face of Nazi genocide. (e. g., p. 3, 116, 171). The Revisionists were often dismissed as “Jewish fascists” and, even decades later, much of this attitude persisted. For example, long after WWII, ZOB veteran Marek Edelman openly scorned the ZZW. (p. 301).

THE ZYDOKOMUNA PERMEATED MUCH OF PREWAR JEWISH POLITICS

Now consider the Zydokomuna (Bolshevized Judaism), which has often been incorrectly marginalized as disproportionate Jewish membership in the tiny Polish Communist Party. Actually, the Communist Party was just the tip of the iceberg.

Author Moshe Arens writes: “The years preceding World War II were a time when Socialists throughout the world were preaching the `class struggle’ and `solidarity of the proletariat.’ Many of them, not only avowed Communists, saw the Soviet Union as the pioneer and leader of this `struggle.’ This was also true in Palestine, where the Socialist Zionists had achieved a dominant position in the Jewish community.” (p. 7). The so-called “proletarian” camp included the Socialist Zionists and the non-Socialist Bund. (p. 9). Arens notes: “The Socialist Zionist movements, attached to Marxist ideology…” (p. 44).

ZOB leader Anielewicz was a member of Hashomer Hatzair with its “Marxist approach to Zionism”. (p. 113). Hashomer Hatzair and Left Po’alei Zion showed their true colors (pardon the pun) in preferring that the red flag be hoisted over the fighting Ghetto instead of the blue-white Zionist flag. (p. 287).

It got worse. ZOB leader Hersh Berlinski exhibited undisguised disloyalty to Poland as he said that his support was to the USSR over Poland. (p. 142). As for the Warsaw Ghetto rank-and-file soldiers, Arens refers to them as: “…younger generation, their orthodox Marxist thinking giving rigidity to their arguments.” (p. 106).

Poles get a bad rap for “not doing enough” (whatever that means) to help the Jews’ 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Who can blame Poles for their reluctance to support the Uprising owing to its taint of Communism? (p. 71; 200-201; 226)

HOLOCAUST UNIQUENESS UPENDED: THE NAZIS DID NOT DEMAND THE DEATH OF EVERY SINGLE JEW

The cornerstone of Holocaust Supremacism is the premise that the Jews’ Holocaust is the only time in history that a group was targeted for the death of every single man, woman, and child that comprised the group. [Even if it were true, it would not validly diminish non-Jewish genocides by one iota.] As it turns out, it is not true.

Interestingly, sixty-nine Warsaw Jews, holding British Palestinian passports, were released by the Germans, some after the 1942 extermination of the bulk of Warsaw’s Jews, in exchange for German citizens held by the Allies. (p. 125). They ended up safely in Palestine.

THE POLICJA GRANATOWA: TWO VIEWS

During the actual Uprising, some members of the Polish Blue Police helped ferret out escaping Jews. Other members were shot on the spot by the Germans out of suspicion of assisting the Jewish fighters. (p. 239).

DISCOUNTING THE POLISH ROLE IN THE JEWS’ WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

Unfortunately, Arens is inconsistent in his use of sources, accepting them when they agree with his views and rejecting them when they do not. He accepts the authority of prominent Holocaust historian Yisrael Gutman in doubting the veracity of accounts of Poles fighting alongside the Jews. (p. 316). Gutman cited “conflicting statements and exaggerated claims”–ironic because Holocaust survivor accounts are rife with these very tendencies, as Holocaust deniers never tire of reminding us.

Arens then turns around and rejects Gutman when it comes to the latter’s reckoning that the ZZW resistance at Muranowska Square, though existing, lasted only one day. (p. 308). We then learn that Gutman was a ZOB fighter and a member of Hashomer Hatzair. (p. 308). [Perhaps Gutman’s quasi-Communist past accounts for both his lingering biases against the ZZW and against the Polish role in the Uprising. It could also account for the many Polonophobic remarks that pepper Gutman’s many writings.]

CREATIVE WAYS OF MANIPULATING EVIDENCE AND DENYING POLES CREDIT

Continuing on the same path, Arens finds the STROOP REPORT authoritative insofar as it supports his contention that ZZW resistance at Muranowska Square lasted three days, (p. 309), not one day as allowed by Yisrael Gutman. Then Arens, all of a sudden, turns around and rejects the STROOP REPORT for its allusion to Polish fighters among the combatants. (p. 208). He repeats the completely unsupported (in fact, silly) contention that Stroop invented the Poles because he could not believe that Jews could fight effectively, or because he had to explain why his suppression effort was taking so long. [This nonsense is refuted by the fact that, in his report, Stroop repeatedly admitted that Jews, even when acting alone, were offering tenacious resistance.] Finally, Polish combatants in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are also mentioned by an eyewitness Dutch SS man.

For verification of the last two points, see: Hitler’s Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/warsaw-ghetto-uprising-nazi-credits-poles-blood/