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

Lichwa, by Mira Modelska-Creech. 2021. Wydawnictwo “3dom”, Czestochowa

Jewish Usury: Its Crippling Effects on Polish Landowners. Jedwabne Zydokomuna. Jews 1968

USURY is the title of this Polish-language book. The author discusses many topics, and I focus on a few issues of lasting interest in Polish-Jewish relations.

THE COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS OF JEWISH USURY AND POLISH FARMING

Let us keep usury in perspective. A Jewish usurer could make somewhere between 33.4% and 50% profit, which could only destroy the landowner. By contrast, the Polish owner of a large estate could make a 7% profit, and even that only under ideal conditions of crop growth. (p. 105). No wonder that usury was seen as a parasitic occupation!

JEWISH EXPLOITATION OF POLES: THE DOOM OF THE STARA HANCZA ESTATE

Author Modelska-Creech discusses the fate of the Stara Hancza estate in the Suwalki region. (p. 4). The owner, Waclaw Musialowicz, was the great-grandfather of the author. (p. 228). Musialowicz resorted to a Jewish usurer, and this was his eventual undoing.

The Jefraimov brothers were the usurers. Waclaw Musialowicz was allowed to save face by stating that he had sold the property to the Jefraimovs. This was a legal fiction. Even though the contract said that the Jefraimovs had bought the property, they had actually converted the property into a source of indebtedness.  The debt was crushing. Despite faithful payments to the Jefraimovs, the debt had grown fourfold and, by 1910, it had risen to 40,500 rubles (this part of Poland was Russian-ruled at the time).

Owner Musialowicz’s neighbors sensed the magnitude of the exploitation. They asked how it came to be that the owner, a recognized specialist in the husbandry of horses, cows, and sheep, and an expert on crop seeds, moreover one who toils so hard from dawn until dusk to keep his estate in top shape, is nevertheless incapable of paying off the Jewish usurers. (p. 101). Musialowicz, using facts and figures, explained that, even despite a well-run estate, ideal weather for growing crops, and the existence of excellent harvests, the geometrically-growing demands of the Jewish usurers are impossible to meet. (p. 101. See also p. 106).

Musialowicz knew that if he failed, the Jews could buy his estate for a song, and could auction it, and, in a further act of profiteering, could ruin the estate by parceling it out. (p. 104). Despite his herculean efforts, owner Musialowicz was forced to sell his estate to the usurers.

For a discussion of how Jewish usury harmed Polish landowners on a large scale, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/03/01/how-poles-suffered-from-jewish-usury-and-the-jewish-acquisition-of-polish-landed-estates-an-example-jewish-profiteering-modelska-creech/

CENTURIES OF JEWISH ECONOMIC HEGEMONY

The Jefraimov clan, as it turns out, had been doing usury for centuries. They appear to go back to the time of King John Sobieski, who had granted them all sorts of economic privileges. (p. 105).

Not only Poles suffered from Jewish usurers. So did some Jews, according to Jewish author Ignacy Schipper. (p. 235).

BOYCOTTS: THE POT IS CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK

There is an irony to the accusations against Roman Dmowski and the ONR, repeated to this day, about their organizing boycotts of Jews. Fact is, Jews themselves started the boycotts, largely shutting the Polish townspeople out of commerce centuries ago. It is Jews, and not the nobility, that exploited the common people. (p. 5). For more on this, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2021/02/10/polish-antisemitism-limited-and-rational-warning-a-politically-incorrect-book-jeske-choinski/

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JEDWABNE

Author Modelska-Creech tells of 49 young Jedwabne Jews that had joined the dreaded Soviet NKVD in 1939-1941, thus collaborating with the Soviets against the Poles. The fast-advancing German columns, in July 1941, subsequently seized the former NKVD building, and came across the list of Jedwabne Jews involved in the NKVD. (p. 138).

Obviously, though usually presented as such, the Jedwabne Massacre did not happen in a vacuum. This is so even had Poles been responsible.

DEEPER SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 1944 ZYDOKOMUNA

The Zydokomuna (Judeo-Bolshevism) was more than a perfidious betrayal of Poland to the Soviets. It was a foreign ethnicity, a foreign ideology, a foreign culture, and a foreign religion–all unilaterally imposed upon Poland. The fact that Jewish Communists frequently changed their names to Polish ones was an attempt at deception. It backfired. (p. 232). See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2021/08/20/abundant-cryto-jews-in-the-soviet-imposed-communist-puppet-government-of-poland-definitive-work-zaorska/

JEWS 1968

The author reminds us that ethnic Polish Communists belatedly won out over the Jewish Communists. Nobody threw the Jews out in 1968. Instead, the Jewish Communists largely fled Poland, as they were well aware of the fact that they may be held responsible for their crimes. (p. 143).

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HONORING HISTORIAN EDWARD REID

Author Modelska-Creech calls attention to the efforts of historian Edward Reid. This courageous American historian has done much to unmask the falsifications of history, especially regarding Poland and the German-made Holocaust, for which Poland is increasingly and scurrilously blamed. (p. 256).

CONCLUSION

This book provides a graphic example of how Poles were harmed by Jewish usury. It is every bit as important as the usual accounts of how Jews had been harmed by Poles.