Reply #31: Thank you [View All]

[blackhorse]

... for a reasonable post.

I know a Polish woman who lost a sister and a brother to the Nazis. The family was Catholic. The sister was sent to Auschwitz for "economic crimes", and the brother went to Gross-Rosen after being accused of delivering resistance newsletters.

The attitude of many at DU toward Poland is IMO quite shallow. Because the current leadership of Poland has unwisely involved the country in the Iraq war, Poland seems to be seized upon by many here as a convenient punching bag. Frankly, I wonder how many of these people have ever considered how screwed over Poland was in the fifty years between the German invasion and the collapse of communism. A free hint to those prone to disagree with this assessment is to check out the Polish civilian losses in the war, and then look at those losses as a percentage of the whole. IIRC, Poland had the largest per capita losses, something like 18% of its prewar population. This works out to around six million civilians, of which the loss ratio is split more or less evenly for Christians and Jews.

Like every other topic that we'd rather oversimplify, Poland and its conduct during the war cannot be readily summarized if one wishes to remain intellectually honest. Poland was a hotbed of anti-semitism and Polish Christians in some cases helped the Nazis conduct the Holocaust. Other Poles refused and were themselves sent to camps -- because the Germans were ready to use any excuse to send what they saw as a sub-human slavic race to their camps. The Polish resistance to occupation was one of the fiercest in Europe and the country paid a hefty price for it, including the wanton destruction of their capital city by Germans who were enraged that the Poles refused to submit in the expected manner. The Polish army resurrected not once, but twice, and was the only allied army of the war to have fought on every major front of the war in Europe. But to summarize Polish participation in the war by saying only that the Poles helped the Nazis kill Jews is a gross oversimplification that serves no one but those fascists who wish to re-write the history of the Second World War and excuse the Nazis for their crimes.

At the end of the war, the country on whose behalf the allies ostensibly went to war for, was left to be dominated by the Soviets and subjected to further purges of what was left of their better human material for forty-five years. Not that there was that much left of people in Poland who could lead and still had real integrity; the Nazi terror had specifically eliminated anyone in Poland who they thought could represent a threat to their murderous agenda.

Beyond all that, I urge all DU'ers to consider their anger with the occupation of Iraq, and then think about the Nazi occupation of Poland. Given human nature, it is not at all surprising that some Poles collaborated with the Nazis. If anyone here thinks Americans under occupation would react any differently, hoo-boy, then those people are really kidding themselves. My take is that an America under occupation would be notorious for its sheer numbers of awful collaborators (and the freep and militia types would be very strong in their participation). Every country has its immoral swine; Poland was no exception, and the U.S. wouldn't be either. All the collaboration proves is that reality, unlike the perceptions which we choose to believe, is often an ugly situation.

Bottom line is that Poland needs help. It, like other east European countries, has needed genuine assistance and guidance since 1989. Poland didn't get it from the West and the Vatican filled the vacuum. So, if we look at Poland now and see an ultra-conservative, ultra-religious country that is being distracted with material goodies and crap politics ... well, then that situation in some part exists because the West really didn't give a damn after it won its "victory" in the Cold War.

BH