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

Europa 1939-1945: Kto Wspieral Hitlera, a Kto Z Nim Walczyl, by Ewa Kurek. 2020. Wydawnictwo Clio, Lublin

Belarussian Collaboration. Unlike Other European Nations, Poland Alone Had No Organized Collaboration

EUROPE 1939-1945: WHO BACKED HITLER AND WHO FOUGHT WITH HIM, is the title of this Polish-language book. It surveys all the nations that were occupied by Nazi Germany, and how they collaborated with the Nazis. Poland stands out as an exception.

SUBSUMING THE HOLOCAUST? THE POLISH UNDERGROUND APPRECIATED THE JEWS’ HOLOCAUST

A constellation of Polonophobic myths variously accuses the Polish Underground and postwar Poland of ignoring the fate of the Jews, or, failing that, of just mixing up Polish and Jewish deaths, at the hands of the Germans, and treating them as one and the same. The complete fallacy of these insinuations is shown, for example, by the Polish Underground BIULETYN INFORMACYNY (September 17, 1942). (p. 94). This underground bulletin specifically identifies the Jewish tragedy as different from the Polish one. It states that the mass murder of Jews has no parallel in all the world, and that it makes all other atrocities pale in insignificance. It stresses the fact that all Jews are being murdered, of all ages, and regardless of whether they are Judaic Jews or Christian Jews. It points out that, up to that time, over a million Jews had already been murdered, and that this toll increases day by day. Poison gas is used. The Polish Underground cannot do anything to stop this heinous German act. It can only protest.

NATIONS THAT WERE ALLIED WITH THE THIRD REICH

Historian Ewa Kurek identifies the following nations as allies of Nazi Germany: Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Italy.

Neutral nations, such as Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden, also had their forms of collaboration with the Third Reich.

NATIONS THAT HAD COLLABORATIONIST GOVERNMENTS, AND/OR THAT FIELDED COLLABORATING MILITARY UNITS

Kurek points out the following nations as collaborating with the Nazis: Albania, Belgium, Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Holland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Norway, various Russian groups, Serbia, and Ukraine.

THE CASE OF BELARUS

I take a closer look at Belarussian collaboration for the following reason: Some Belarussians have been going around accusing Poles (specifically the ZOLNIERZE WYKLECI unit of Romuald Rajs “Bury”) for conducting wanton atrocities on Belarussians. It is therefore instructive to note that the Belarussians were pro-Soviet in 1939, and then turned on a dime and became pro-German in 1941. (p. 43). Some Belarussians became part of Vlasov’s pro-German Russian army. No less than 12,000 young Belarussians joined the Organization of Belarussian Youth, which was fascist and anti-Semitic. A large number of Belarussians collaborated with the Nazis by serving in the Byelorussian Auxiliary Police, where they participated in the Holocaust and in the pacification of villages. Several hundred Belarussians joined the Belarussian SS, which was formally called the WEISSRUTHENISCHE-POLIZEI BATAILLON No. 13. (p. 43).

For more on Belarussian-Nazi collaboration, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2023/04/23/do-not-mystify-antisemitism-anti-semitism-bury-accusation-irony-voluntary-belarussian-collaboration-featured-jewish-collaboration-taboo-polish-deportees-to-siberia-soviet-archives-unreliable/