Poland and its Jews.
“..For long months ..suffering because ..world was deaf and dumb to our unparalleled tragedy. We complained about Polish public opinion ..about ..liaison men in contact with ..Polish government in exile. ..why weren’t they reporting to ..world ..story of ..slaughter of Polish Jewry. We accused Polish liaison men of deliberately keeping our tragedy quiet ..so that their tragedy might not be thrown into ..shade. ..now it seems that all our interventions have finally achieved their purpose. There have been regular broadcasts over ..English radio ..last few weeks ..treating of ..cruelties perpetrated on Polish Jews ..Belzec. Today ..a broadcast summarizing situation ..700,000 ..number of Jews killed in Poland was mentioned. ..broadcast vowed revenge ..a final accounting for all these deeds of violence. Oyneg Shabes has fulfilled a great historical mission. It has alarmed ..world to our fate ..and perhaps saved 100’s of 1,000’s of Polish Jews from extermination. ..I do not know who of our group will survive ..to work through our collected material. ..one thing is clear to all of us. Our toils ..tribulations ..devotion and constant terror ..have not been in vain. We have struck ..enemy ..hard blow. ..not important ..revelation of ..incredible slaughter of Jews will have ..desired effect ..whether or not ..methodical liquidation of entire Jewish communities will stop.” Emanuel Ringelblum.
Poland would be better placed, evaluating what it failed to do to save 3,550,000 of its Murdered Polish Jewish People, than issuing disclaimer’s as to what they made impossible to seek to achieve. Poland for far too long has disowned everything Hitler established in Poland, except what has proved lucrative to them. The Destruction of 3,550,000 of their own Polish Jews has indeed given property and lands to those poles who stole it from Polish Jewry. Of course, Poland plays a pivotal role in the History of the Jewish People and has paid witness to the gravest hatred ever perceived in Humanity. What raged against more than 3,550,000 of their own Polish Jews, for being Jews, adds to the cycle of hatred Poland was forging on its own. The Jewish People, ritually removed from the Lands of Their adopted Peoples, were now caught between a vicious war machine settling upon their extinction and a World’s apathy, watched while European Jewry was being obliterated. Such too was the Polish indifference, it all added to the attempt to consume what was in excess of 11,293,300 European Jews. This figure, as stated by administrative tool that was The Wannsee Conference, fails to identify that it was conducted after more than 1,000,000 Jews had already been Murdered, Polish Jews amongst them.
“..Bitterness ..pain fill ..Children’s recollections of those poles who hunted them ..betrayed them ..handed them to ..common enemy ..of cruelties perpetrated by other children ..of every human ignominy. ..there are few such testimonies ..reason ..simple ..painful ..children ..are not here to record their stories.” Maria Hochberg-Marianska.
Of course the Jewish People have been removed from the lands of others, and then they were Removed from all existence because of others. But my debt to 6,000,000 Murdered Jews, from within The Holocaust term, has been to recognise what has now been long written, and is still many words in progress, that if human complacency can ever be charged against inactive or collaborative efforts, Poland establishes both in its failings with their Jewish Community. Such is the Polish silence, it has gifted me a voice which I will use to remember the lives the World has denied the Polish and European Jews extinguished. I have delivered just first x7 Books so far, but in memory of what we have continually allowed to happen to them, I move to write my 8th, and then my 9th and hopefully, as many other Books as time and the will to do so allows me to. I have come too far to renege upon a promise I made to myself, and that while I have Memory, I shall lend it to these 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews of Europe, so that they too will be Recalled, Remembered, and are a constant Reminder of humanity’s failings towards them.
“..traveling criss-crossing Poland looking for surviving Jews ..we found them. ..sometimes these meetings were ..packed with emotion ..I lack ..words to describe it. ..idea ..we are ..Survivors couldn’t sink in.” Leah Hammerstein Silverstein.
I give back in words, all which I hope will add to a resolve, not to move a single Jew away from the term which also enshrines our despicable intolerance and indifference, and that is The Holocaust. I stand against the tirade of abuse which has followed these 6,000,000 Individually Murdered Jewish Men, Women and Their Children for being Jews. I am regularly confronted by those who choose to forget and wish us to also place this catastrophe as far back as time might betray, and all because we allowed The Holocaust to happen. Poland’s people, as perceived in the political climate it now fosters, has learned nothing from its own history of the past. In the months leading up to Hitler’s attack upon Poland, feverish attempts were made to remove more and more Jews from Polish lands, and at a governmental level, it sought to rid even more of Jewish life and business from being conducted within Poland and from benefitting the Polish economy. In fact, right up until the very moment Poland realised it was not ever going to be aligned to Hitler’s ‘Weltanschauung’, it conspired not to prevent Hitler from achieving his ultimate goal in The Final solution, the eradication of the Jewish Question. Hitler gathered enough support for any world view for Poland, as it evaporated on September 1st 1939. Hitler’s plan was to subjugate Poland, with 85% of all non-Jewish Poles to resettled to far reaches of Russian Siberia, while his plans included the eradication of all 3,650,000 Polish Jews in Extermination Centres to be built there. The extirpation of European Jewry too was to be carried out largely, in Poland with as many as 4,500,000 Jews of European ploughed into the lands of Poland, as ash and dust. If not counting on entire Polish collaboration, Hitler assessed polish antipathy and indifference to Jewish Destruction as a perfect vehicle for The Final Solution of The Jewish Question there.
On January 26th 1934 Poland signs a 10 year pact of non-Aggression with Hitler and on April 14th 1934 the ‘Oboze Nardovo Radzykalny’, the ONR anti-Jewish political grouping in Poland is formed and between 1935-1938 Polish measures against its Jewish Community closely aligned to Hitler’s policy. It is Never possible to debate the truth of what happened to Polish Jewry within Poland, which is a truly awful accusation against Poland. There can be no doubt though, and as time emerged, Hitler sees in Poland a duplicitous and complicit resolve to act against its own Jewish Community. On May 12th 1935 more vociferous attacks upon Jewish integrity sweep through Poland. Both State, and Church coordinate their belligerence toward their Jewish Community, and when Polish Church and State conform to antisemitic hatred, more than 3,550,000 Polish Jews are forced into oblivion. On May 12th 1935. Marshal Jozef Pilsudski died, and this one-time defender of the Jews in Poland, who became a critic of Polish hatred for its Jewish People, he too was steeped in antisemitism.
“..it is easy to cope with ..Jewish problem when ..Jews are small in number ..but it is more difficult in Poland where their number is so much larger.” Jozef Pilsudski.
On June 8th 1935 a Pogrom in Grodno, Poland was raged against its Jewish Community. While Gedaliah Becher and Yisrael Berzowski were killed, Shlomo Pozniak was hospitalized, and his entire Family was threatened with eviction from their apartment because they could not pay the hospital bill. Leib Buchinsky was also hospitalised, and in Warsaw awaiting surgery, he was in danger of losing his hand. All told, there were some 50 Jews who were injured, and about 300 Jews who had their properties ransacked and damaged. Many of these Jews too were removed from employment and eventual damages were compensated at 1/30 of the value of the damage done. On July 7th 1935 there was a further Grodno pogrom, with a passing Jew killed and after 1935, one of the many slogans that festered within and throughout Poland was:
‘Swoi Do Swego’, urging non-Jewish Poles to boycott Jewish enterprise and business and avoid buying from Jewish retailers.
During 1936 we see the diminishing influence of Polish Jews being demanded, and throughout all spheres of Polish governance and administration, they were being denied any say. On February 29th 1936 cardinal Hlond, catholic primate of all Poland, issued a pastoral letter calling for discriminatory measures against the Jewish People. This incites a series of coordinated assaults on Jews in Poland. On March 9th 1936 a Pogrom in Przytyk sees 2 Jews Murdered and on April 30th 1936 the ‘onr oboz narodowo-radykalny’, attacked 5 Jews returning from Warsaw to Minsk-Mazowiecki. On June 1st 1936 in Minsk-Mazowiecki there is a Pogrom and on June 30th 1936 there is a Pogrom in Myslenice where 2 Jews are Murdered. On March 3rd 1937, the Polish government seeks to revoke Citizenship of Polish Jews in Germany and on May 13th 1937 the Jews of Brest were attacked by locals and police who looted, robbed and beat up the local Jews and the Jewish store owners and their workers. On June 16th 1937 the message is clear, and from those close to the heart of Polish society that there is:
“..No place for Jews in Poland.” General Lucjan Zieligowski.
On December 14th 1937 Poland now considers a territorial solution for its Jewish Community, and it is The Madagaskar Plan and Poland sent a commission to Madagascar in 1937 to investigate its feasibility. In 1938 alone, 40% of all Property in Warsaw was Jewish owned, with 40% of all non-Jewish poles employed in Jewish owned industrial concerns while 80% of the skilled workforce in Poland were Jews. On April 5th 1938 there are anti-Jewish riots across Poland and on April 15th 1938 in Dabrowa-Tarnowska, this sees Jews Murdered in an anti-Jewish Pogrom. On April 29th 1938 Vilna, Polish Jews are Murdered in an anti-Jewish Pogrom and on October 6th 1938 Poland revokes Polish Passports for its Jews living in Germany. On October 28th 1938 17,000 Polish Jews are placed in limbo, and are ‘Stateless’, pushed across the German border. Zbaszyn now becomes the holding pen for at least 8,000 Polish Jews in Poland, not wanted by Poland, deported from Germany. By 1939 the Polish Jewish Community had grown to some 3,650,000 Jewish People and as Hitler considered the Polish ‘slavs’ are lesser than the ‘aryan’ nation, and as such, in the context of his racial policy, far less a murderous target than the Jewish People were perceived of. The immediate enforcement of rationing saw German entitlement halved for non-Jewish poles and halved again for Jewish Poles. This meant that 2,000 calories per day would be administered for Germans which then became 1,000 calories per day for non-Jewish poles and halved again to 500 calories per day for Polish Jews, and if that. Here the conscious decision is made to ensure that non-Jewish Poles would be the Labour force as All of European Jewry would be Annihilated. However, while non-Jewish Poles would be murdered selectively, all of Polish Jewry would be Murdered, collectively and totally.
“..Poland ..home ..largest Jewish population ..Europe ..chosen by Hitler as ..central slaughterhouse for all Jews driven ..from other countries ..as ..greatest concentration camp for Jews. In Poland Hitler established ..arena where ..doomed Jews ..subjected to ..cruel manifestations of his antisemitic ..racial theories and where ..sadistic instincts ..were let loose without restraint. ..facts show ..Poland ..selected as ..country where promise of ..extinction of European Jewry should be fulfilled.” Jacob Apenszlak.
By the time Hitler had invaded Poland on September 1st 1939, and while some 400,000 Polish Jews had escaped from Poland, many to Russia, the Jewish fate within Poland was sealed. Soon, many of these Jews would return, to their homeland only to be fatally struck down. On September 18th 1939 there was a major pogrom in Grodno which sees 25 Jews Murdered.
Saturday January 6th 1940 “..Three ‘Skulls’ from ..totenkopf ..came to ..apartment on Wloclaweka Street ..took all ..money there was. ..Wehrmacht ..Skulls ..ethnic Germans ..Poles went through ..neighbouring apartments.” Emmanuel Ringelblum.
In February 1940 there was a Pogrom against Warsaw’s Jews and an earlier Pogrom in Warsaw had been followed by the Easter Pogrom’s in both Cracow and Warsaw. Between March 22nd. and March 30th. 1940 the relentless assault upon Polish Jewry was being absorbed by all too many Jews, who still not consider their presence was being readied for mass extermination.
“..Jews ..at ..31 Dzielna Street ..ordered to leave within a short period. ..paid ..janitor ..for leave to take out ..valise full of things. ..Polish guards ..in business ..too.” Emmanuel Ringelblum.
It is no wonder Hitler saw within Poland a fertile ground for all of his anti-Jewish measures and for whatever the negative consequences of formerly Polish antagonisms there were, this all coalesced into what Hitler decreed would be his major achievement, The Final Solution. Tragically here, Polish Jewry paid for that coalescence with 3,550,000 Murdered Jewish lives, and from what was a vibrant 3,650,000 Polish Jewish community. If ever Hitler was seeking to harvest his hatred for the Jews, he had found a fertile seed bed had been planted in Poland so as to conform to his very demand.
“..Jews must adjust themselves to all conditions ..we shall endeavour to create such conditions for them as will make ..adjustment difficult.” Dr. Ludwig Fischer.
We will see, and on a monthly basis during 1941, and in the Warsaw Ghetto alone, and even excluding those Jews who are also being ritually Murdered within the Ghetto, the totality of Jewish demanded Death’s through Starvation and Disease is:
January 900, February 1,023, March 1,668,
April 2,655, May 5,821, June 4,290,
July 5,550, August 5,560, September 7,545,
October 4,614, November 4,841, and December 4,966.
This certainty was also ensuring for Hitler that at least 10% of Warsaw Jewry, these 49,433 Jewish Dead, would need no further aktionen in his drive for a Final Solution here. Statistics must never mask the effects that human loss prevails upon us to recall, remember and remind us, that hatred feeds off the body of humanity and within The Holocaust, 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews has never relinquished its hold over human beings.
“..There is a difference between ..German orchestrated systems of terror against ..Poles and ..Jews. ..Germans want to ruin ..Polish state as a state. ..with regard to ..Jews ..they want to devastate ..biological substance of ..Jewish Nation. If ..Germans do not change their method of dealing with ..Jewish population ..if there is no effort at Allied intervention ..whether through reprisals or other action ..barring some unforeseen circumstance ..within 18 months of ..time I left ..Homeland ..Jewish People of Poland will cease to exist.” Jan Karski.
On July 10th 1941 there were more than 1,600 of Jedwabne’s Jews Murdered, in a combination of efforts, but mostly at the hands of an Einsatz kommando. However though, there were some 340 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children who were Burned Alive and to Death in a local Barn. This, at the hands of their non-Jewish neighbours, has been part of a controversy over denial which has raged over this one particular incident, to this day. The very fact too that many of the Towns Jews were drowned in local ponds, is also dismissed in a ritual of distortion seeking to distance Poland from its vilest deeds against its Polish Jewish Citizens.
“..In November and December 1941 began ..slaughter of Jews in ..Warthgau. ..slaughter ..by means of gas. ..a special gas chamber car ..used ..90 people ..loaded at one time. ..victims buried ..Lubartow Forest. ..1,000 ..gassed daily. In Chelmno ..November 1941 to March 1942 all ..Jews from Kolo ..Dab ..Bugaj ..Izbica 5,000 in all ..with 35,000 from Lodz Ghetto and a number of Gypsies ..gassed.” Szmul Zygielbojm.
Details, written into the Gazeta Polska criminally set the standards of rationing which will fully debilitate and slowly starve the entire Jewish population of Poland given time to do so. Aligned with the encampment of the National Armed Forces, this combined assault upon the very integrity of Polish Jewry, was to be seen manifesting its ritual hatred in the areas of both Kielce, Lodz and Lublin. In December 1941 we clearly recognise, and while it would be disingenuous to not see the intention to deprive non-Jewish Polish of a sustainable calorific necessity, it is more clear hown mush more badly the Jews are to be considered for such devastation.
“..Jews receive half ..food which ..poles receive. ..poles receive grams of bread daily ..Jews receive 100 grams ..every other day.” Dr. Witold Majewski.
When we look more closely at the dire situation facing Polish Jewry, from the year 1939 to when The Wannsee Conference brought all arms and aims of The Final Solution toward a closer and more integrated an assault, we must recognise the implementation of The Final Solution was already dealing a deadly blow to the Jewish presence in Poland, and then the wider European continent. Meanwhile, Sonderkommando Lange, which had honed its skills in murdering Jews and others, at the VII Fort in Poznan, and which he conducted and operated here from October 1941 to February 1942, this is before he was heading for a larger offence against the Jewish People at the Death Camp at Chelmno.
“..Polish people in general were sympathetic to ..problems of Jews ..many Polish ..rob ..blackmail ..denounce or ..murder Jews in hiding.” Jan Karski.
Chelmno, under its first commander SS Sturmbannfuhrer Herbert Lange was complimented by Polish auxiliaries who acted against their fellow Polish Jews and even non-Jewish Poles, and with zeal. These former Polish prisoner’s had been occupied in the Slaughter’s, both in and around Poznan, and took to their forthcoming tasks with relish at Chelmno both religiously and zealously. Amongst these murderer’s were Lech Jaskolski, Marian Libelt, Henryk Maliczak, Henryk Mania, Franciszek Piekarski, Stanislaw Polubinski, Kajetan Skrzypczynski and Stanislaw Szymanski. Poland was being gradually eroded by now, and indeed ‘cleansed’ of its entire Jewish presence. So let us acknowledge more clearly, and with this conference being on January 20th 1942, that this is merely the final administrative effort in slaughtering all the Jews of Europe that was enjoined to the operation that had already been murderously conducted.
“..There will be a Jewish problem as long as ..Jews remain. It is a fact that ..Jews are fighting ..Catholic Church ..persisting in free thinking ..and are ..vanguard of godlessness ..Bolshevism and subversion. It is a fact that ..Jews deceive ..levy interest and are pimps. It is a fact that ..religious and ethical influence of ..Jewish young people on Polish people is a negative one.” Primate of Poland Cardinal August Hlond.
Through the shooting and gassing vans, which had Murdered as many as 1,000,000 Jews, der Einsatzgruppe was already fully active. However, and from within Poland, it was to be sidestepped in favour of a more radical, industrial and regimented killing process. In place of the Killer’s moving out, and toward those Jews to be Murdered, the apparatus would be static in Death Camps within Poland, and the Jews would be force fed, transported, resettled and moving toward these Factory’s of Destruction. The Death Camps in Poland signalled a more systematic approach, and Wannsee would secure the duplicity of the entire industrial and administrative infrastructure within Germany to do so. Up until the Chelmno Death Camp came fully on stream, December 5th 1941, and Belzec began operations March 17th 1942, and both Sobibor May 1942 and Treblinka July 22nd 1942, all these death dealing facility’s ensured the most devastating effect on Jewish persistence would be felt. Of the 3,650,000 Jews of Poland, 2,900,000 of these were still alive. Given the extension of Hitler’s Death Camp system in Poland, with Sobibor and Treblinka taking their toll, and with Birkenau and Majdanek to relish their participation, it is obvious that within a year, there were fewer than 750,000 Polish Jews still left alive within Poland’s borders.
By 1942 “..we will destroy Jewish breed. They will disappear through hunger and want. ..Polish people will be grateful ..Jewish Question only a cemetery will remain.” Dr. Ludwig Fischer.
The Warsaw governor, Dr. Fischer was keen to express his understanding of how the Poles felt about their Polish Jewish neighbours. He also recognised that all measures aimed at debilitating the Jewish presence would lead to ever more Jews dying from hunger, starvation, and disease, and save as much of German intervention as was possible. This was aligned with the encampment of the Polish National Armed Forces, and this was to be in the areas of both Kielce and Lublin. When we look more closely at the dire situation facing Polish Jewry, from the year 1939 to when The Wannsee Conference brought all arms and aims of The Final Solution toward a closer and more integrated an assault, Poland was by now, gradually being eroded and ‘cleansed’ of its Jewish presence. With this conference being on January 20th 1942, the shooting, which we have assessed rather conservatively, all effort had still managed to murder 1,000,000.
On Thursday October 15th. 1942. “..in ..uniform of ..Polish policeman I visited ..sorting ..camp ..located near ..town ..Belzec ..well known all over Poland from ..tales of horror ..circulated about it.” Jan Karski.
Now unless we are going to revise the words of such a distinguished, and Polish diplomatic testifier, we have to correct a perception here. It is accepted that Jan Karski visited the Jewish presence within the Warsaw Ghetto, and a nearby Death Camp. But it was to be the Izbica Camp, one has to assume, and not the Death Camp Belzec he was purported to be a witness to. However, We cannot definitively know and can only assume that the geographical difference is in error and not the fact that Belzec was easily identifiable as a Death Camp. Though, and while we are certain, Jan Karski stood along a precipice and watched as Polish Jewry was being decapitated, as I too strolled around Belzec, there were many areas where one could visibly identify what was being undertaken, let alone from distances of up to 15 or 20 miles away, where the smoke and stench of the destruction could be understood. Jan still used the information at hand to inform the World, that Polish Jewry was being exterminated. That Jan Karski also recognized the differing emphasis placed upon Polish Jewish extinction, and non-Jewish Polish subjugation, we must recognise clearly what Hitler demands for The Final Solution. The very nature of Hitler’s quest was to be a deadly resolve to the extensive limits of Jewish Question, brought to bear upon all Jews.
“..new death house provides for ..liquidation of 8,000 to 10,000 victims. If we consider ..right now 2,000,000 murdered Jews ..greater part of Polish Jewry ..already buried in ..area of Treblinka ..disturbing question arises ..for whom do ..SS men intend that new house of death.” Jacob Apenszlak.
You simply cannot disown the place of the Polish Jewish People because they present Poland with what is a distasteful history. In a past of intolerance and indifference to what then fully emerged within Poland, explicitly upon Hitler’s forced arrival into Poland, some 3,550,000 Polish Jews would be completely annihilated, eviscerated from their very presence and existence. You cannot then behave toward the Polish Jews like they were simply being removed from your fabric of Polish History. Poland, and without even considering the Jewish contribution to Polish culture, arts, vibrancy and education, Poland still owes more to a Jewish presence than can be taken away from the Jews of Poland. But such is the rampant stain of centuries of Polish antisemitism, there is a visceral hatred that is still being wreaked upon the Jewish People within Poland. All too many Poles are reluctant to forsake such strong anti-Jewish sentiments, that are enshrined in their religious belief system and should be in accordance with any moral and ethical principles. During May 1943 though, one Jew took a stand against the rancid nature of indifference that was being shown inside and outside of Poland, and eventually toward all the Jews of Europe, and this is Szmul Zygelbojm.
“..although ..Polish Government has contributed to a large extent towards influencing world opinion ..it has done Nothing commensurate with ..scale of ..drama now taking place in Poland. Out of some 3,500,000 Polish Jews and 700,000 Jews deported to Poland from other countries ..only 300,000 remained alive in April 1943 ..according to information from ..leader of ..underground Bund organization transmitted to us by ..Government’s Delegates. ..Extermination continues without pause. I cannot remain silent. I cannot go on living when ..remnants of ..Jewish people in Poland of whom I am a representative are being eliminated. My comrades in ..Warsaw Ghetto died with arms in hand in their last heroic stand. It was not my destiny to perish as they did and with them. But I belong to them and to their mass graves.” Szmul Zygelbojm.
The intolerable nature of what Poland saw, heard, witnessed and even sensed, which is far more than any other nation in Europe ever perceived of, is a contemptible assault upon our reason. Here, and all the while the Jews faced extinction, and the non-Jewish Poles became totally disengaged from the hatred meted out to their former Jewish neighbours. In many instances, the Poles joined in, and it has to be stated again and again, that while not all non-Jewish Poles were guilty of such crimes, not all non-Jewish Poles are innocent of the crimes we are describing here. We are witnesses to what many non-Jewish Poles were clearly replicating, in line with what Hitler’s machinery of murderous destruction was undertaking. All of Poland was murderously ambling and moving toward a distinction which removed the vast majority of its Polish Jews from their very existence, with little more than murmur.
Monday December 14th 1942. “..Polish Christian spiritual leaders have done very little to save Jews from massacre ..resettlement ..to use their euphemism.” Emmanuel Ringelblum.
What is then further morally questionable, and ethically devoid of compassion, is when the surviving Polish Jew would return to their former homes. From what could have been the destruction of the non-Jewish Pole also, these surviving Polish Jews were not met with the heralding of any form of welcome and could not therefore salvage any relief from what they thought they had escaped from. Tragically, and for all too many surviving Polish Jews, the message of the day was clear, all barriers to any welcome were posted. As Polish Jewry met with every imbalance of hatred, that was even directed toward an absent Polish government which had fled, and those messages equally conveyed by Jan Karski, this exemplify’s the treacherous nature of a Polish people hell bent on preventing Polish Jewry from life or return.
“..Tell ..Jewish leaders that this is no case for politics or tactics. Tell them that ..Earth must be shaken to its foundations ..World must be aroused. Perhaps then it will wake up ..understand ..perceive. Tell them that they must find ..strength and courage to make sacrifices as painful as ..fate of my dying people ..and as unique. This is what they do not understand. German aims and methods are without precedent in history. ..democracies must react in a way that is also without precedent ..choose unheard-of methods as an answer. If not ..their victory will be only partial ..only a military victory. Their methods will not preserve what ..enemy includes in his progress of destruction. Their methods will not preserve us. ..You ask me what plan of action I suggest to ..Jewish leaders. Tell them to go to all ..important English and American offices and agencies. Tell them not to leave until they have obtained guarantees that a way has been decided upon to save ..Jews. Let them accept no food or drink ..let them die a slow death while ..World is looking on. Let them die. This may shake ..conscience of ..World. ..This we did not intend to tell you ..but I want you to know it. We do not demand such sacrifices from our leaders abroad out of cruelty. We expect to make them here ourselves. ..Ghetto is going to go up in flames. We are not going to die in slow torment ..but fighting. We will declare war on Germany ..most hopeless declaration of war that has ever been made.” Letters from Jewish Poland.
The Jewish People, those who were the witnesses to the gravest carnage of extermination of a People ever to be served up to the World, were not only met with such disdain, but their spirits were also further crushed. These Polish Jewish People were beaten and humiliated even further and if they did not escape from their newer torturers, they were Murdered in line with scenes which Sokoly and Kielce will remind us. So many communities within Poland have set the seal of distortion on what history fully knows, and we identify non-Jewish poles with what was managed against a wounded, a wholly bewildered and a totally traumatised returning Jewish Citizen was now forced to endure, again. I have spent much of these past 30 years attempting to defend the truth, which acclaims the rights of the very science of History to do so. I do not seek to justify any motive for non-Jewish Poles whose actions proved deplorable in conjunction to Hitler’s intentions for all the Jews of Poland, and even Europe. What I do contest is the ambivalence to that truth which so destroys the fabric of all of history because some seek to underline a certain guilt. The attempt, armed with an admonition of the very truth we bring to bear to satisfy all of history’s hold upon the very integrity it depends upon, must always denounce the falsification sought.
In August 1943 “..return of ..Jews to their jobs and workshops is ..out of ..question ..even if ..number of Jews is greatly reduced. ..non-Jewish population has filled their places in ..towns ..cities ..in much of Poland this is a fundamental change ..final in character. ..return of masses of Jews would be perceived not as an act of restitution ..but as an invasion against which they would have to defend themselves ..even by physical means.” Roman Knoll.
The Polish Foreign Affairs Office of Roman Knoll would suggest that Poland defend the theft of Jewish property with violence, and toward any Jews who would return. Surely, and if this is not collaboration with the very spirit of Hitler’s Final Solution, the rules on complicity and duplicitousness must be re-written. No matter what you consider the attitude of non-Jewish Poles, the return of Polish Jews to their former homes is to be denied to them according to Polish diktat. By the exact same hatred which drove the Polish Jews from their homes in the first place, Poland exerts its demand to add further to those Hitlerite demands. It is clear that this is also legislated for, with laws to emerge that would ensure Jews could Not reclaim their properties, lands, or possessions. Whatever Poland wishes to insist to this very day, and as 3,550,000 Slaughtered Polish Jews lay heavily under the very soil of all of Poland, the destroyed Polish Jews could never reclaim their former existence. The enactment of any such law it is a cynical, fraudulent device to further ensure now that even their Surviving Families and Relatives could not reclaim such losses.
“..murders of Survivors right after ..War ..intimidated many who might have sought their property back. Fearing for their lives ..many made no attempt to retrieve their assets.” Naphtali Lavie.
My entire focus, and certainly my journey was commenced when, on February 17th 1945 in Sokoly, Poland, local poles murdered 7 Jewish Survivors. It is here where I arrived at the genesis of my study, my research, and my commitment to all 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews who are The Holocaust. I owe my last 30 years of concern and writing on behalf of these 6,000,000 Jews, but more directly to a little Jewish Girl, Tovah ‘Tokele’ Olshak, who was just 4 years of age when she was Savagely destroyed by non-Jewish hatred. At times, I owe my voice a release, an ability to come to terms with personal loss, and perhaps validate it more constructively. Indeed, and when we look to the location of the major assaults upon the Jews of Poland, especially in the Survivor period, the close proximity to power bases took a larger toll on Jewish lives. The warnings were not always as direct as had met those Jews of Skarzysko-Kamiena, as anonymous letters demanded the Jews were to leave or be Murdered. Some haters were more subtly placed to confirm to the Jews that they had no home any longer and those who stole their property’s and houses, would not relinquish them. This is Poland’s legacy in a supposedly ‘christian’ world?
“..Two Polish women who had entered after us and were still standing at ..counter raked us with hostile gazes. We overheard them ..Look ..look ..said one to ..other ..how many dirty Jews are still alive. And they told us that Hitler had managed to exterminate all of them.” Sara Plager-Zyskind.
Of course, the immediacy of the assault spelt it out more clearly for the returning Polish Jews, as Poland did not want them. It becomes apparent that Poland did not wish to return anything to the Jewish Survivor, and buoyed by this, the non-Jewish Poles, happily ensconced in their former Jewish properties certainly had no wish to relinquish their title to stolen goods, lands and possessions. Please see in such acknowledgement what it appears the Polish government was at length attempting to distance itself from. By the Summer of 1946, there were more than 200,000 Polish Jews, living in, and returning to their former domicile of Towns and Cities, which were still within their country of Poland. However, by the first quarter of 1947, this number had severely shrunk by about 90,000 Polish Jews, and those who remained were still managing to live in Poland. Even when there were pogroms still raging against them, Polish Jews still managed to cling to the embers of hope which was being both eroded and set alight. We may well know of Kielce, and after eastern Poland was liberated by the Russia, there were still hundreds of attacks on Jews in the Lublin area between summer 1944 and fall of 1946. The incidents ranged from individual attacks to Pogroms and the number of victims, although disputed, is likely to be well over 1,000 Jews, further destroyed. On March 8th 1946 Poland decreed that Jewish Restitution claims for Property, Homes and Possessions are to be made, and by the end of 1947. Then, at the end of this period, a year’s extension is granted and on Sunday 21st April 1946, and though they survived Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Mauthausen, 5 Jewish Survivors could not survive the hatred for them in Nowy-Targ. They were shot by former elements of the Polish Home Army on the outskirts of the Town. On July 4th 1946 Polish soldiers, Polish police officers and Polish non-Jewish civilians Murdered 42 Polish Jews in Kielce and more than 40 other Polish Jews were wounded.
“..mass murder of Jews in Poland carried out by ..Germans will diminish ..Jewish problem ..but it will not remove it altogether.” Roman Knoll.
On December 31st 1948 Polish Measures are brought to bear to ensure Jews cannot now reclaim property, lands, all manner of possessions for what Jews are to have forcefully deprived of. We must deal more effectively with the cost to the Jewish Survivor of having to face newer assaults upon their return to their former homes. Here, and at the hands of those non-Jewish poles who expressed a wish that was clearly designed to assume ownership of what was still owned by all that the 3,650,000 Polish Jews had lost. For all of these Jews, who would not return, and the remainder of some 100,000 Jewish Survivor’s, their presence proved more divisive. General Stefan Rowecki was the Commander in Chief of the Polish resistance, and he was adamant in his warnings to all concerned in the Allied camp, that they should remain silent concerning Polish Jewry unless they wished to press the non-Jewish Polish population to even graver wrongs against their Jewish neighbours. But lest we forget, anti-Jewish assault was the occupation of those within polish society who sought to devolve Jewish People of all existence. This Polish resolve too was even prior to Hitler’s invasion in 1939. Established to fight the Nazi occupation, the Armia Krakowa and the Armia Ludowa, and the most antisemitic of these non-Jewish partisan groups, the Narodowe Sily Zbrojne, or National Armed Forces all raged against Polish Jewry. It was from within these groups that was fought a two pronged war on two fronts, against the Nazi’s, and then their own Polish Jewish Community, at one and the same time.
“..Kielce really is a symbol of ..exodus of Jewish survivors from Poland ..and a symbol sometimes that there is no future in Poland for Jews. ..despite what Jews had endured during The Holocaust ..and despite ..fact that ..local Polish population had observed all that ..had witnessed all of that ..Jews cannot feel safe in Poland.” Joanna Sliwa.
Leave a Reply