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

Mitteleuropa: History and Prospects, by Peter Stirk (ed.). 1994. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

Embarrass Euroenthusiasts: Mitteleuropa a Forerunner of the European Union

Mitteleuropa is a general tem for some kind of German plan for central Europe. It peaked before and during WWI. When a big power has plans for you, watch out!

MITTELEUROPA TO EMBARRASS EUROENTHUSIASTS

The local peoples largely saw through the Mitteleuropa idea. Author Stirk comments, “It was becoming increasingly difficult for German authors to persuade non-Germans that any conception of Mitteleuropa was something more than propaganda for Germanic hegemony. Friedrich Naumann, in the most famous contribution of the war years, entitled simply Mitteleuropa, sought to recommend Mitteleuropa to his co-nationals and to persuade other nationalities that Mitteleuropa did not entail their subjugation. He pleaded for greater German sensitivity to the feeling of the non-German peoples. He claimed that his proposed Central European state would not interfere in religious, educational or linguistic matters. By and large his efforts to assuage the fears of non-Germans were unsuccessful.” (p. 14).

Much the same situation exists today. Euroskeptics expose the German hegemony over Poland that is inherent in Poland’s membership in the European Union, while the embarrass Euroenthusiasts try to have us believe that the German intent is benign and not threatening to national sovereignty, and–even more fantastic–will always remain so. For more on Mitteleuropa, and how it actually tends to embarrass euroenthusiasts, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/european-union-likeness-was-achieved-before-third-reich-zweig/

THE REALITY OF MASSIVE JEWISH INFLUENCE

On a separate matter, author Steven Beller leaves nothing to the imagination as he writes, “This is merely one illustration of the phenomenon which could be seen throughout Central Europe: that the impact of Jews on the cultural, social, economic and political life of a region far outweighed their relatively small numbers.” (p. 76).

JEWISH GERMANOPHILIA AND THE FAKE POLISHNESS OF EVEN ASSIMILATED GALICIAN JEWS

Beller continues, “…Central European Jewry largely remained culturally loyal to the German heritage of the emancipation. The predominant form of modern Central European identity was culturally a German one…The appearance of Jewish national diversity was largely deceptive. This was so in the case of Jewish adherence to Polish in Galicia, which was more the result of political shenanigans than a true adoption of the Polish tongue by the province’s Jews.” (p. 76).

Nowadays, Poles are berated for treating Poland’s Jews as “the other”, and are treated to the Orwellian fiction of “Jewish Poles and non-Jewish Poles”. We can clearly see, once again, that Poland’s Jews (with few exceptions) were not Poles, and that the likes of Roman Dmowski was correct in questioning the genuineness of the Polishness of even the Polish-speaking Jews.

In fact, the Austrian authorities recognized the fact that the Galician Jews were not Poles in any sensible sense. Seven Beller remarks, “In 1857 the Habsburg authorities still counted Jews as a separate nationality. Later censuses regarded them only as a separate religious group.” (p. 83). The foregoing also illuminates the infamous Alfred Dreyfus case, where the question arose whether or not a Jew living in France could be a Jew and a Frenchman at the same time.

Embarrass Euroenthusiasts: POLEXIT Now!