@literarypoland,
literarypoland wrote:
Poland was a young country in 1939, after just 21 years of American-backed independence. Earlier it had been occupied (for 123 years!) by Russia, Prussia and Austria. There had been three major uprisings against the Russians, who had the east with Warsaw. Poland emerged in 1918 as a patriotic republic similar to Ireland. That's why there were almost no collaborators here, and real fighting.
5 million Poles died in the war, 3 million of them Jewish.
My great-grandfather (not Jewish) was gassed in Auschwitz after 3 years there.
I have recently read about anti-Jewish pogroms (Wikipedia: Pogrom) and they seem to be a Ukrainian thing, or rather generally tzarist-Russian.
Though it can't be denied that in the years after Hitler's rise to power the de facto military dictatorship in Poland maintained quite friendly relations with Germany (Mussolini-like) and that there was an anti-Jewish party here (England-like). However, these people were not ready to become collaborators and many were murdered by Germans.
The above statistic that, "5 million Poles died in the war, 3 million of them Jewish" ignores the fact that many Catholic Poles were quite comfortable with anti-Semitism as part of the popular culture. So, the Jews in Poland really did not have the luxury of feeling as though they were true Poles.
I have heard stories of Poles teaching their dogs to chase Jewish children that were walking to school, which if you know American history, has a parallel story in the Old South.
The Jews in Poland that died did not have the luxury of dying with their boots on, so to speak, unless they joined the Soviet Red Army. Normally, they were just rounded up and shot, or sent to a concentration camp. That does not, in my opinion, whitewash the one-thousand year history of Polish anti-Semitism.
Anyway, the Poles I have met in the U.S. , that were American born, tended to be quite intelligent, and educated. Smarter, in my opinion, than many of those that ever shared a joke that had Poles as the butt (of the joke).
Also, perhaps some connection can be made for the Polish language being similar to Russian, yet their alphabet is with Latin letters. To me this implies that two different countries/cultures where running through their backyard throughout a good portion of history. Could this be the downside of not being warlike?
