Poland Must Not be Succoured into any Denial!
“..This was a particularly cruel crime. It was justified by nothing. ..victims were helpless and defenceless. For this crime ..we should beg ..souls of ..dead and their families for forgiveness. This is why today ..as a citizen and as president of ..Republic of Poland ..I apologise.” President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
The President of the Polish Republic apologises for what was committed during Hitler’s onslaught against the Jewish People. In fact, when Polish community’s sought their own rage against the Jewish People in places like Jedwabne, Kielce and Sokoly and Murdered their former neighbours, the Nazi presence had gone in many instances, replaced by a millennia of old hatred’s. In some of these Community’s identified here, the Murdered Jews had already Survived what Hitler had resolved for them and returned to their former homes in the hpe of healing their bitter wounds. In Jedwabne for instance, where more than 340 Jews of the Town were driven into a barn and burned alive, the blame had fallen upon the Nazi’s for years. While it is true that the main protagonist’s were compiled of local people, their instigators were German. So those who immersed themselves in this particular atrocity were not exclusively German or even Nazi.
In viewing the landscape of The Holocaust, there can be no discolouration of the very truth which has painted it. As there can be no History which is not truthful, any form of distortion cannot be allowed to prevail. There is erected in Jedwabne now, a newly erected Monument which seeks to memorialise those who were Murdered and to remember what occurred here and to express a regret for what happened.
“..In memory of ..Jews of Jedwabne and surrounding areas ..men ..women ..children, fellow dwellers of this land ..murdered and burned alive at this site on 10 July 1941.”
Throughout The Holocaust realm, as we move from such sites and we visit not just places and community’s where atrocities were piled high upon the Jews who once resided there, but we have a system of Camps that Hitler had built to ensure atrocity was piled ever higher upon atrocity. As we know for certain that there were numerous Camps dotted around all Poland, in which all manner of assistance was delivered by many Poles, History expects a regret as to what local Poles also achieved. All copoperation, which finally led toward Hitler’s final resolve to Murder all the Jews of Europe, was not exempting of an atrocity attributed to local Polish citizenry. Specifically though, and in these particularly Camps designated as Death Camps, and there were only 6 such locations in the whole of Hitler’s Reich, these were placed firmly in Poland and have become entrenched in the psyche of both the Jewish and Polish Peoples.
It must be a considered fact here that a distinction must be made in which is a system which Hitler created and is delivered away from the immediate Reich was done for obvious reasons. Where these 6 Death Camps dealt exclusively in the destructive capacity to annihilate the Jews sent there, the Final Solutio which had put in place had its final resolve in Poland largely, and in many other nations also. But these 6 Death Camps were Hitler’s Death Camps. They were erected by organs of Hitler’s Reich for the eventual resolve of Hitler’s Final Solution. The shift of emphasis here, taking the Jewish People away from Reich territory was a deliberate attempt to not only contaminate the lands of Poland with the blood of Polish Jewry ostensibly, but with the combined weight of all of European Jewry finally being resettled, evacuated to be confined there.
The is no such thing as a Polish Death Camp so the term, Polish ‘death camps’ has to be seen as an attempt by apologist’s for Hitler’s blood letting. The effort to clearly shift the intention away from Hitler, who actually sought to fully effect the spoiling of Polish lands with the blood of the European Jews, has been the right of the Polish Government to respond to. For this contamination of The Holocaust intention cannot allow for anything other than the affirmation of Hitler’s guilt. Clearly, in both Auschwitz and Majdanek, while some of these Jewish People were afforded a temporary reprieve and given forced labour until they could work no longer, the term of Death Camp still speaks specifically of Hitler’s final intention. At Auschwitz, those who were transferred to nearby Birkenau had reached the end of the line and the final moments of their existence was treated both methodically and mechanically. Those remaining behind within auschwitz were left to face a debilitating existence which would severely limit their ability to survive.
But the clear intention always was to create an uncertainty related to Hitler’s so cruelly chosen place for Poland in being the Jewish Cemetery of the World. That is what is at stake and it is necessary to confront that clearest of intentions here. Once the term of Polish ‘death camps’ had been constructed however, and it must be recognised that it is an illegitimate attempt to shift the emphasis of Hitler’s clear policy of Final Solution, the term must be stricken from the conscious assurance given to the veracity of all Holocaust literature, statements and intentions. The attempt to move any and all accusation away from Hitler, Germany and those Nazi’s who were obsessed and predicated on delivering for Hitler all that he demanded of them, must be returned to its rightful owner, the originator of The Final Solution, Hitler. Of course the term of Polish ‘death camp’ itself has vented its way into The Holocaust description incorrectly and needs to be replaced by a more tangible meaning! We can never allow for the deliberately orchestrated attempt to negate the fundamental strivance by Hitler to destroy all of European Jewry, and mainly within Poland.
As the term lends itself as such incorrectly to what Auschwitz and Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka must insist, we take back its fullest meaning in the context of Hitler’s intention. And that is a simple fact that while these Camps were indeed on Polish soil, they were the initial construct of Hitler, his invasive and murderous regime. Previously, I have clearly been at fault in this, but never in asserting other than these Death Camps were Hitler owned. The distinction has been so obviously made, that in the level of mechanised and systematic destruction of the Jewish People, for which these Death Camps were raised in Poland, they are of an entirely Hitlerian construct. While the Polish Government has every right to be affronted by anyone who might insist that, with other than their geographical placement, The Death Camps are in Poland, and there were x6 of these, they were other than an organ of Hitler’s criminal Reich. That fundamentally means that these Death Camps had their genesis with Hitler and none other than Hitler.
That they were manufactured under Hitler’s approval, and as they were conducted for the mass Slaughter of Human Beings, because they were Jewish, they were clearly ordained by Hitler. This is not to say either that Jews alone were Murdered within these Camps and Death Camps, or indeed were alone in being assailed by Hitler’s legions. As Hitler and his Wehrmacht, SS, Gestapo, Waffen SS, der Einsatzgruppe and all other arms of Hitler’s Reich traversed the length and breadth of Europe, any presence of Jews was quarterised from their local community’s and other’s for whom Hitler might have the slightest annoyance. The Jews of Europe were then force fed toward Poland and their eventual decapitation from the body of existence was made final. Here, evidence of that Fact has been reduced to an irreducible truth, Hitler is the cause, the motivating force and with the conclusive hatred that led 6,000,000 Jews toward destruction. Within that capacity to Slaughter human beings without human concern, it is understood that:
“..While not all ..victims of ..Nazi’s were Jews ..all Jews were victims.” Elie Wiesel.
When that is all said and done, History cannot then ever deny that it was for Hitler a priority to destroy the antecedence of all Jewish existence. That any Jewish presence from amongst the Jewish People might escape Hitler’s final goal is clearly out of the question. It is with the Jewish Faith which Hitler determined must be singularly sought out, and for all those who participated or proscribed any form of Judaism, they were all to be destroyed. That statement of fact too is proven, for as many converts who chose to move away from their Judaism were dragged back into the conflagration simply on the pretext and certainty of their Jewish descent.
“..As a child of ..Jewish people who ..by ..grace of God ..for ..past 11 years has also been a child of ..Catholic Church ..I dare to speak to ..Father of Christianity about that which oppresses 1,000,000’s of Germans. For weeks we have seen deeds perpetrated in Germany which mock any sense of justice and humanity ..not to mention love of neighbour. For years ..leaders of National Socialism have been preaching hatred of ..Jews. But ..responsibility must fall ..after all ..on those who brought them to this point and it also falls on those who keep silent in ..face of such happenings. Everything that happened and continues to happen on a daily basis originates with a government that calls itself ‘Christian.’ For weeks not only Jews but also 1,000’s of faithful Catholics in Germany ..and ..I believe ..all over ..world ..have been waiting and hoping for ..Church of Christ to raise its voice to put a stop to this abuse of Christ’s name.” Edith Stein,
As a some what lapsed Catholic I am all too aware that the Sainthood of a person is both reverential and special within the Catholic Church. But for me, it is incumbent upon those denoting saintliness and warranting the Sainthood of anyone, that the importance attributes to them is in stressing the reason of that ordaining position. For me, Edith Stein, while she was a remarkably reverent and theological Christian, her Murder at the hands of Hitler and his Reich was due to her status as a Jew. This was not her former status as a Jew, but that proclivity under Hitler which sought the fullest identification of a Jew as a Jew and which belonged to a Jew. This remained with the Jewish People until they had been fully destroyed by Hitler. Here, and what I have often found in the denial lobby is a very inarticulate distortion to claim what just is not so. Even when, in Edith’s case, the denier clearly sees her Jewish status first and foremost, they will deny or attribute her destruction to Hitler not to his antisemitic hatred.
Nor is it possible from this particular time span to future proof an atrocity because of the hatred for a Jewish People. In the case of The Holocaust, 6,000,000 Jews of Europe were destroyed and it appears to be a continuous issue for all manner of haters, antisemites and various other miscreants to look to present day Israel to seek a past justification. For all the wrongly inarticulate reasons and so that deniers can state the cause of extremist hatred within Palestinian for instance, they do so to justify their own antisemitism. Where the lands of the State of Israel and its People are to be fought over, an irreverence to the factual truth that these 6,000,000 Jews were Murdered is to be denied. Not withstanding this form of negation there is a link with anything that gives doubt to those who will seek any doubt to issue a blanket rebuttal of the entire truth. It is apparent to me, in the attempt by this present Polish Government to redirect historical attention away from the Polish collaboration in the midst of The Holocaust, more can be gained by the denier than the veracity of History has to gain.
What no one can refute is the truth and what no one debates is The Holocaust. That factual truth of the Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews in The Holocaust is no more debatable than the very fact of our own existence. For the Polish position, which should clearly point to cases where Poles were instrumental in the identification of Jews for abuse, atrocity and their eventual destruction, the academic World cannot simply accept an attempt which might conspire to corrupt our past any further. The Polish position does warrant a response and as they have made the case in defence of their forebears, it should be stressed that 3,000,000 Polish Jews do not have this luxury. Nor do any of those Jews who were transported into Poland to be resettled by Hitler’s volition to face complete annihilation. Any attempt to then obliterate these Polish Jews and the Jews of Europe from all existence is all Hitler’s. The Polish position though is thus:
“..It wasn’t our mothers ..nor our fathers ..who are responsible for ..crimes of ..Holocaust ..which were committed by German and Nazi criminals on occupied Polish territory. Our responsibility is to defend ..truth and dignity of ..Polish State and ..Polish Nation ..as well as our Fathers ..our Mothers ..our Grandparents.” Polish Justice Minister Zbignew Ziobro
While it is most certainly true that many of the Parents of Poland, and even the Granparents of Poland were of the Jewish Faith, these were not offered the full and requisite protection of the Polish State. Nor, from all of those Poles within the Polish Nation of the time could the Jews count on either. Truth and dignity must be bestowed where Truth and Dignity belongs, and as with those Poles who assisted and aided, for those Poles who helped and hid those Jews they either knew or did not know, theirs was a matter of human conscience. It is fair to state, that while those proven Righteous before the World, those who have been proven culpable and complicit in the Crimes of The Holocaust must be clearly identified, even if they are Polish. However, I fully agree with the Polish position which sees rightly that within Hitler’s orchestrated assault and the subsequent Nazi occupation of Poland, it was Hitler who drove the frenzy of annihilation forward.
That said we cannot then deny the use made of Polish informants, Polish Police, Railroad workers and others who were instrumental in the containment and distribution of Polish Jewry toward these Killing Centres. While it is necessary to ensure that former Nazi’s are not allowed to deflect their substantial perpetration and participation in the annihilation of the Jews on Polish soil, it should not be considered that Poles had no part in the tragedy at all. While German knowledge of Polish Jewry had a reliance upon the well established antisemitic and inter relationship between Poles and Jews, and the somewhat intuitive recognition of Polish Jews, this effort was collaborative. That antisemitism within Poland had existed between Poles and Jews for millennia, it must be made clear that Poles identified Jews and Poles were certainly paid to do so. Poles have since plundered the possessions of the Jewish Slaughter and to this day they retain what ostensibly remains stolen.
Clearly, Poles hid Jews and understandably Poles who took an enormous risk in denying Hitler any assistance in claiming even more Jewish lives, are commendable. But the one position only adds as a counter weight to the atrocious enabling of Hitler’s murderer’s to achieve their end goal. What cannot be denied either is that some Polish priests led this charge toward Jewish destruction. A Polish ministry that was steeped in an antisemitism that is in contravention of the priesthood’s ethical, moral and Christian duty. In Christ’s name the Christian commandment is to ‘Love thy Neighbour as thy self’ and with this too many of these priests failed to do. The collaborative, antisemitic remonstrations are the scenes which are repeated the length and breadth of Hitler’s Final Solution in Poland, in so many sites, camps and Death Camps. The depiction’s of what has emanated from within Poland also share’s the concerted nature of that widespread atrocity that Hitler had sought.
It has to be commented upon, that whatever some Poles did in not assisting the Jews, there are many more Poles who are to be commended for doing so much to assist their Jewish neighbours. These Jewish neighbours were under direct threat and under the direst intimidation to their own lives and the lives of their Family’s. Of course, Poland was first to feel the effects of WWII as Hitler’s invading Armies crushed all Polish Resistance and within a matter of days. As the assault rang out on September 1st. 1939, for the Jews of Cities, Towns, Villages and Shtetl’s, they were now forced to live through those initial days, alarmed and even terrified. Sporadic attacks on Jewish community’s were widespread and on September 2nd. there were some 30 Jews of Piotrkow who were Murdered. But this was only the beginning as the plunder of Jewish existence was orchestrated on a massive and co-ordinated scale.
The following day, September 3rd. some 180 of Czestochowa’s Jews were murdered as were 17 of Wieruszow’s Jews, 4 of Lelow’s Jews and 3 of Zdunska Wola’s Jews. All murdered as a consequence of birth, antecedence and progeny. Meanwhile the tempo of the atrocity increased with such intensity that when Russia enjoined the conflict on September 17th., and as 20 of Laskarzew’s Jews are murdered, Jewish hope had all but dwindled and died. As Russia moves to occupy most of Eastern Poland, with this Hitler pact and without any formal declaration of War, Jewish life East of the divide settled into a bearable routine. Towns then enjoyed a relative quiet as the population gradually adjusted to Russian influences in this Eastern sector of Poland. It was a different story under Nazi control though as pogroms and assaults upon the integrity of the Jewish Community continued in the Western sector of Poland.
“..war with ..Soviet Union has ..created ..possibility of disposing of other territories for ..Final Solution. ..Fuhrer has decided ..Jews should be evacuated ..East. ..Madagascar ..no longer ..considered in connection with Final Solution.” Franz Rademacher. (Foreign Office Department Chief.)
All of this changed again when on June 22nd. 1941 Hitler turned against his erstwhile ally and Barbarossa was launched against Russia and the forces of Stalin. The move into Eastern Poland was rapid and what descended upon those Jewish Communities who had suffered fewer ill effects from the partition up to that point, it all now went toward the unimaginable cruelties that had been systematic for the Jewish People West of that divide. The impoverished Jews of Eastern Poland now became the decimated Jews of all of Poland. The dying Jews languished in certain knowledge that their time had been clearly fixed. There was an agenda of destruction that had now commenced, without subtlety and with a forceful direction. Immediately, an avalanche of anti Jewish assault fell upon all of these Jewish Community’s, whether Jews felt randomly or with a sense that some form of collective aggression had breached all civilised restraint, it stretched across all the Jews of Poland.
However, much of this newer assault was driven by the local Polish population who had taken over the administrative power from the fleeing Russian’s. These Eastern regions began their own torture and brutal repression of their now former Jewish neighbours in concert with an all consuming hatred. The story has been told and it has been well written and documented, but with such a systematic reign of violence against frightened, innocent and seemingly helpless Jewish People, the attacks became unrelenting. Entire Jewish Community’s in the entire Polish Country, more than 3,000,000 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children now fell under this catastrophic yoke of oppression. While it was fixed by Hitler’s influence, it fed through all too often to some in the Polish community who took refuge in this detailed assault to deliver their own injustices. The accusation of History does not stop at just a few local antisemitic, though ignorant Poles either.
Before Hitler’s move toward the programme for his Final Solution, almost any murder could be attributed to Polish excess. Even from amongst the local priest’s and the so called intelligentsia, pogroms unleashed had less of an unintelligent lead. Many Jews were ritually abused and were forced to shave off their beards and remove all identifying artefacts of their Jewish Faith. Those who barely clung onto life were forced to endure unspeakable torments, merciless torture, physical restraint and an immoral degradation of their basic humanitarian rights. Polish Council’s too took liberty to daily harangue and expropriate what was not theirs. Many Poles took stock of what Jewish Citizens would now forfeit to enrich their own existence. Until a time came when Hitler’s control loosened the slip knot and a stillness went before the newer storm that soon arrived, and with a vented fury, History still reels from The Holocaust.
What Hitler perpetrated here in Europe, though largely within Poland, has been fundamentally exposing the latent genocidal tendencies of human beings to excel where atrocity leads. With that in mind, Poland owes to its own History that certainty which composes a rightful telling of the truth. For the fact of its veracity, Poland needs to ensure History is correct. Poland has led the way forward for the Jews of the World to ensure memory of the catastrophe is never to be forgotten. In places like the Death Camps, Polish soil is run deep with the blood of innocents. While that fact remains, it is important that Poland seeks to identify the blood of those interred there and also, the attributing accusation for all of those who ensured the blood which saturated the Polish ground, was Jewish blood.
