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

The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945, by Robert Gellately. 1990. Clarendon Press, Oxford

Robert Gellately. Poles and Jews Were Quite Alike in Nazi German Thinking

This scholarly book contains information that upends Holocaust orthodoxy, which erroneously treats Jews as qualitatively different from other persecuted peoples of the Third Reich. I initially focus on this.

LIKE POLES LIKE JEWS: FORBIDDEN SEXUAL ACTS WITH GERMANS

Gellately, a Canadian historian, makes this eye-opening comment, “As far as concerns the functioning of the Gestapo there was little or no difference between prosecuting those thought guilty of ‘race defilement’ when the ‘racially foreign’ person involved was Jewish, and when a Pole was implicated. The police used the same terminology in both cases.” (p. 260). So, the Germans were on one side, and both Jews and Poles were on the other side.

NAZI GERMANY DID NOT EXTERMINATE POLES THE WAY IT DID THE JEWS–FOR TACTICAL REASONS

The Nazis did not have any more regard for Poles than they did for the Jews. Nor did the Nazis consider the Jews as some kind of extraordinary existential enemies or engage in some form of redemptive antisemitism. The Third Reich was forced to treat Jews and Poles differently for prosaic reasons. Author Gellately makes this clear, “The ‘General Plan East’ envisioned several genocides…The reason given for not ‘solving the Pole question’ on the model of the ‘final solution’ to the Jewish question was that neighboring peoples might become concerned about their own future. Such ‘political dangers’ had to be avoided…” (p. 218).

GESTAPO INFORMERS INCLUDED JEWS

The Gestapo was relatively small: It relied heavily on informers in order to adequately monitor the German population and to root out potential disloyalty. For more on this, see the author’s later book:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2021/05/06/germans-were-not-victims-of-nazism-poles-and-not-only-jews-were-racial-enemies-of-the-third-reich-and-were-treated-accordingly-letter-p-nazism-radicalized-not-only-against-jews-gellately/

In the present book, Robert Gellately identifies some of the informers, “It is a grim fact that some Jews as well as some Catholic priests acted as Gestapo informer; these assertions are supported by evidence from other parts of the country.” (p. 63).

THE SOCIALISTS AND COMMUNISTS CELEBRATED MAY DAY. SO DID THE NAZIS!

Finally, Gellately presents this little-known fact, “The Nazis transformed 1 May, the day for workers in Europe to demonstrate their socialist leanings, into a general holiday and a day to celebrate work.” (p. 97).