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

Islands of Memory: The Landscape of the (Non) Memory of the Holocaust in Public Education from 1989 to 2015, by Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs. 2020. Jagiellonian University Press, Krakow

Holocaust Memory Wars: Omitted and Welcomed Flags. Holocaust Supremacy Persists

Author Ambrosewicz-Jacobs brings up Robert Szuchta, who asked this question about Poles commemorating the Holocaust at a site in Poland, “‘I have a problem with the Israeli flag–what does Israel have to do with a people for 400 years had built Poland?” (p. 349). Good point. It is Holocaust memory wars. Note that Poland’s Jews insist that they are Poles–except when they are not. By flying the Israeli flag, Poland’s Jews reckon themselves part of their own nation (not Poland) retroactively–even long before the appearance of the State of Israel. And so Poles have every right to reject so-called Jewish Poles as valid Poles.

Ambrosewicz-Jacobs then quotes Szuchta’s criticisms of Poles, “‘Why were there no Polish flags here? That hurts me.’ Robert Szuchta was not afraid to reveal his own emotions and present his own opinions. He indicated the non-Jewish Polish collective identity issue of excluding Polish Jews from the community of memory. The lack of a Polish flag at the killing site of Polish Jews hurt the teacher and he communicated his feelings directly.” (p. 349). A little irony here! Pointedly, we must ask if Israelis, specifically the descendants of Polish Jews, ever display a Polish flag in their Holocaust-related marches, in Poland let alone Israel. Laugh.

Szuchta’s statements are also ironic in view of the fact that Jews, through Holocaust supremacy, have been excluding Poles as “proper” victims of Nazi Germany from time immemorial, and, better yet, have insisted that the very term “Holocaust” refer only to Jews and not to Poles. So, on this basis alone, Poles have every right to reciprocally exclude Jews from Polish memory. This is the essence of the Holocaust memory wars: Jews have imposed their narratives on Poland, and Poland can turn the tables.

SAME OLD VICTIM HIERARCHY OF JEWS OVER POLES

The author is consistently pro-Jewish. She trots out all the canned arguments for the preeminence of the Holocaust over Polish suffering. This includes the myth that Jews were targeted for complete annihilation (p. 63, 70, 94), and the secondary myth that Poles were not.

Ambrosewicz-Jacobs alleges Polish repression of Holocaust memory owing to fear of property restitution claims by Jews. (p. 35, 68). In doing so, she tacitly validates the reality of the Holocaust Industry. With reference to Auschwitz, she laments the fact that many Poles think that “victims should not be compared”. (p. 267). In doing so, her complaints validate the premise that, to Jews, suffering is indeed competitive (“who suffered more”?) that Jews must emerge at the top of this victim competition, and that Poles are bad if they disagree. That is blatant Holocaust supremacism.

Finally, the author repeatedly complains that Poles feel no shame or guilt for the supposed acts of their ancestors against Jews. (p. 20, 29-30, 35, 39, 68, etc.). An expectation of shame, and resentment that shame is not forthcoming, indicates adherence to the pedagogika wstydu (pedagogy of shame). Wisely enough, the Poles have rejected it. Note also that Jews never feel guilt for their past wrongs against Poles.

In repeating all these hoary arguments, Ambrosewicz-Jacobs is largely rehashing the same statements of her three earlier books. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/07/19/holocaust-leverage-holocaust-education-inequities-poland-pushback-poles-not-fooled-standard-judeocentric-narratives-and-a-clumsy-denial-of-the-pedagogika-wstydu-politics-of-shame-ambrosewicz-j/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/holocaust-supremacism-pushed-on-poles-ambrosewicz-jacobs/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/german-guilt-diffusion-smoking-gun-ambrosewicz-jacobs/