Warsaw, Poland – Historian Shocks Poland with Charges of Ethnic Cleansing

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    Warsaw, Poland – Accusing Poland of having forced out Jews who survived the Holocaust, United States-based historian Jan Gross sparked a backlash ahead of the Friday launch of the Polish edition of his book.

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    "Until now, no one has ever written like Gross … about the attitude of Poles towards the Jews," said historian Pawel Machcewicz, a fierce critic of the Polish-born Jewish writer.

    Machcewicz slammed Gross for using the term "ethnic cleansing" to describe the post-1945 expulsion of most Germans and Ukrainians from Poland, and the pressure on Jewish Holocaust survivors to leave the country.

    A professor at Princeton University in the US, Jan Gross focuses on the July 4 1946 Kielce Pogrom in which 40 survivors of the Holocaust were massacred by the local Polish population after false rumours spread that Jews had killed a Polish boy.

    In the immediate post-war period, between 600 and 3 000 of the 300 000 Jews who had survived the Holocaust were killed in pogroms or murdered one-by-one, according to Poland's Institute for National Remembrance (IPN).

    For Gross, Poland's communist regime took over where the Nazis left off in the annihilation of three million of the 3,5-million Jews who lived in Poland before the war.

    "I'm afraid this book will harm Polish-Jewish relations," said Father Adam Boniecki, from the Roman Catholic intelligentsia.

    Boniecki also found fault with what he termed the "accusatory tone" of the book. [AFP]


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    11 Comments
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    biGwheeel
    biGwheeel
    16 years ago

    Anon. 10:20PM. You are Sooo Right!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    16 years ago

    Prof Yaffa Elias has a story in her memoirs about Jews retuning to Eishshok, her Polish birthplace, after the War and finding thier previous Polish friends living in their homes and killing the returning Jews so the remainder fled. In the year 1000 or so there was a famous Polish King who took in the Jews because he wanted their industry. He was very good to them. That lead to a flood of Jews coming in from neighboring states. Soon they were the agents of the Polish Princes an dbecame the over seers of the Polish serfs, owned taverns, lent money, traveled and traded freely and their economic status exceeded that of the Polish serfs who through the priests and the Church began to hate and villify them. To this very day. Exceptions are the previous Polish Pope and some other more educated Poles. But in general, they hated us. Why do you think the Nazis Yemach Shemom establised the killing camps in Polish territory? Between the Poles, Latvians, Ukranians and Albanians, the Nzs had plenty of thugs to do their dirty work. May their memories ROT!
    And all you Yidden who employ Polish and Hungarian shikhas, besides the fact that they steal your tuna fish and jewelery and clothes, they are stealing your childrens minds. You cant drink Yayin Nesech because maybe the Goy dedicated it to their Avodah Zorah. What do you think they do to your children every day?? They bless them in the name of Yushka and wish them to become true converts one day. Oy mah nasse luni!!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    16 years ago

    The polacken snitched on all the yidden and told everything to the germans were everything can be found, after the ww 11the polacken ransacked all the yiddishe houses to find money&jewllery.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    16 years ago

    A holocaust survivor told that the Germans couldnt have succeded as they did without their help

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    16 years ago

    to anonymous 4:51

    Apparently you haven’t been the victim of Polish anti-Semitism or you would not have made those inappropriate remarks. It’s fashionable to use politically correct terms and denounce hatred…but there’s a time and place to “hate” your family’s killers. Any truthful history book will give you time and place of the Polish people’s crimes against the Jews.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    16 years ago

    Ignorance breeds prejudices, prejudices breed hatred, hatred breeds idiotic posts on the internet.

    “The Poles have been virulently anti-Semitic for centuries”

    “Poles were killing Jews way before the Germans, but didn’t have the brains of the more intelligent Aryans”

    “The fact that the vast majority of Poles were blood thirsty anti-semites is well documented”

    “Polish society […] is a case study in anti-semitism”

    “If they were capable of more than pogroms, the Poles would have wiped us out years before WWII.”

    Jeez…

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    16 years ago

    To anonymous 11:37am
    However, using stereotypical insults against the Poles (e.g. ‘not as smart as the Aryans’) or any other group in counter-productive.

    If it were acceptable to paint all Poles with the same brush we would have to accept the same treatment of Jews.

    My comment about the Poles was not a stereotypical insult, but rather the truth. The anti-Semitic Poles needed the meticulously organized and detailed Germans to supervise the destruction of European Jewry because they couldn’t do it themselves. If they were capable of more than pogroms, the Poles would have wiped us out years before WWII.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    16 years ago

    Anonymous said…
    The Poles have been virulently anti-Semitic for centuries so it’s not surprising that Jan Gross brings to light the massacres post-WWII.

    My family came to America in 1921 after a deadly pogrom in which my great-grandfather was thrown down a well and murdered along with 11 other Jews. Poles were killing Jews way before the Germans, but didn’t have the brains to do what the more intelligent Aryans did in WWII.

    January 11, 2008 10:56 AM

    The fact that the vast majority of Poles were blood thirsty anti-semites is well documented. This book should not be news to anyone.
    The majority of Poles learned anti-semitism in the crib and did not need any coaxing by the Germans to commit the worst atrocities against thier jewish neighbors.
    A miniscule portion of civil minded rescuers of Jews aside,
    Polish society of the pre Holocaust, Holocaust and post -holocaust eras is a case study in anti-semitism.

    However, using stereotypical insults against the Poles (e.g. ‘not as smart as the Aryans’) or any other group in counter-productive.

    If it were acceptable to paint all Poles with the same brush we would have to accept the same treatment of Jews.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    16 years ago

    Poland should admit that the unofficial environment was extremely anti-semitic both during the war and after the war. My parents were in Lodz until July 1945 and ran away because of the Poles treatment of survivors. If the Polish government doesn’t like Jan Gross book, well too bad.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    16 years ago

    The Poles have been virulently anti-Semitic for centuries so it’s not surprising that Jan Gross brings to light the massacres post-WWII.

    My family came to America in 1921 after a deadly pogrom in which my great-grandfather was thrown down a well and murdered along with 11 other Jews. Poles were killing Jews way before the Germans, but didn’t have the brains to do what the more intelligent Aryans did in WWII.

    biGwheeel
    biGwheeel
    16 years ago

    It’s very nice of the Historian MR. Jan Gross to bring out the sordid details [of the callousness of the local population in post-war poland] in his book, but everyone knew that the natives weren’t exactly very hospitable toward the Jews. Hardly a week went by without some [prominent] member of a political party or the clergy making negative statements about the Jews. Besides, to them, Mr. Jan Gross is “just another Jew”.