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

Between Friends: The Correspondence of Hannah Arendt and Mary McCarthy 1949-1975, edited by Carol Brightman. 1995. Harcourt Brace & Company, New York, San Diego, London

Hannah Arendt Correct. She Was the Object of an Organized Campaign to Destroy Her Credibility

German Jew Hannah Arendt observed the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel, and wrote a book about it in 1963: Eichmann in Jerusalem. In it, she also brought Jewish collaboration with the Nazis to public attention. The Jews were furious, and powerful Jewish organizations such as the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) launched a determined campaign to smear her.

My review is limited to those portions of this text that are relevant to what Hannah Arendt is best known for–her courageous stand against the obsequious conduct of the Judenrat towards the Nazi German authorities.

Why is this still relevant? The Jews are trying to invert the truth of Jewish-Nazi collaboration by blaming the Poles. A recent survey of Israeli public opinion shows that 72% of Israeli Jews believe that Poles are co-responsible with the Germans for the Holocaust! (Lidor 2004). If this is not bigotry, then what is?  [Lidor, Canaan. 2024. France Seen as More Anti-Semitic Than Poland in New Poll Among Israelis. The Times of Israel, May 4, 2024. https://www.timesofisrael.com/france-seen-as-more-antisemitic-than-poland-in-new-poll-among-israelis/ ]

JEWISH GROUPS ATTEMPT TO DISCREDIT ARENDT AT ALL COSTS. JEWISH COLLABORATION A TABOO TOPIC

As soon as Hannah Arendt spoke up, powerful Jewish organizations went after her. Brightman writes, “This was an A. D. L. memorandum to regional offices and national committees calling on B’nai B’rith to denounce Arendt’s depiction of ‘Jewish participation in the Nazi holocaust'”. (p. 146). [Note the small letter for Holocaust at the time, while Communism is nowadays spelled with a small “c”. I don’t wonder why].

Brightman recounts one of the censorship efforts, “Writing McCarthy in September 1963, shortly after the Anti-Defamation League [ADL] sent a letter to rabbis urging them to preach against Eichmann in Jerusalem on the Jewish New Year, Arendt gave her reasons for remaining silent. The attacks against her in review after review were part of a ‘political campaign’ to create an absurd ‘image’ of the book to hide the real one. There was nothing she could do about it, she argued, ‘because an individual is powerless by definition and the power of the image-makers’–who have ‘money, personnel, time, connections’–is considerable.” (p. xxvi. Emphasis added).

The organized attempt to defame the scholarship of Hannah Arendt was extensive. It spanned two years, and included the United States, Israel, and Germany:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2023/07/30/jewish-influence-hysterical-attempt-to-suppress-hannah-arendt-on-jewish-nazi-collaboration-zionist-nazi-accord-kohler/

See also:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2023/10/15/holocaust-foibles-highly-organized-attempt-to-suppress-hannah-arendt-on-jewish-nazi-collaboration-goldhagen-effect-holocaust-uniqueness-an-evasion-of-german-guilt-kautz/

JEWS HAVE THE POWER TO CONTROL THE NARRATIVE

We can vividly see the uneven playing field that exists between Jewish influence enforcing standard Holocaust narratives, on one hand, and dissenting individuals (Jewish or non-Jewish), on the other. The Holocaust juggernaut marches on.

The Jewish bullies knew very well that Arendt had no way of defending herself.  Let us expand on Arendt’s insightful consideration: Again, the Jews have “the power of the image-makers–who have money, personnel, time, connections–is considerable“! This enables Jews to promote their particular narratives about the Holocaust, silence all dissidents, and to largely shadow ban all other genocides. It creates a vast asymmetry between Jews and Poles in the ability of getting their messages out, and it enables the Jews to freely present their anti-Polish falsehoods to the general public with little effective pushback.

ARENDT CORRECT: THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH ABOUT JEWISH-NAZI COLLABORATION

It is obvious that the subject of Jewish collaboration struck a raw nerve among many Jews. It went against the standard narrative of Jews as nothing more than victims entitled to everlasting sympathy and attention. Brightman comments, “The furor over Eichmann in Jerusalem did not pass easily into memory’s good night.” (p. xxviii).

JEWS HAD REAL CHOICES UNDER THE NAZIS

Arendt decisively rejects the common exculpatory view that the Jews were totally powerless–that realistically they could do nothing except to serve the Germans in every detail. For one, Jews could have done some passive noncompliance that would have hindered the Nazis. For example, Brightman writes, “The ‘truth on a factual level’ probably refers to Arendt’s account of the Jewish Councils’ compliance with Nazis orders to register their members. Resistance wouldn’t have prevented the extermination policy, she contended, but it might have made it harder to put into effect.” (p. 146).

For more on the fact of how Hannah Arendt is correct, and for other examples of what the Jews should have done to ameliorate the German-made Holocaust, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/judenrat-collaboration-arendt-answers-her-critics/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/judenrat-collaboration-exculpations-rejected-arendt/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/judenrat-big-help-to-germans-arendt-macdonald/

For more on the censorship of Hannah Arendt, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/judenrat-collaboration-exculpated-zertal/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/communism-more-repressive-than-nazism-aschheim/

This continues today. Instead of confronting Jewish collaboration with the Nazis, the Jews prefer to blame other European nations for collaboration. And how! Think Gross, Grabowski, and Engelking.