AntiSemitism Anders Army Irony Zamorski

Telling the Truth in Secret: The Story of Two Polish Army Research Units, by Kazimierz Zamorski. 1994

The Soviet “Amnesty” of the 1939-1941 Polish Deportees in the USSR. For Some Jews, Nothing Could Shake Their Pro-Communist Orientation

In 1941, Nazi Germany suddenly turned against its erstwhile Soviet Communist ally. This provided an opportunity for the Poles, deported in the wake of the 1939 Nazi-Communist conquest of Poland, to be freed. This work details the many difficulties and obstructions placed, upon the freed Poles, to assemble and to leave the Soviet Union.

The author reminds us that the “amnesty” applied only to ethnic Poles, and that the Soviet Communist authorities continued to reckon the Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Jewish deportees, from the Kresy, as Soviet citizens. (p. 199). This work touches on the Soviet efforts to hinder or prevent Polish Jews from leaving with Anders’ Army. For instance, one Polish Jew who asked for help in locating the Polish Army was told by the Soviet interlocutor that, as a YEVREY (Jew), he should not be joining the “fascist” anti-Semitic Polish Army. (p. 42).

THE BEHAVIOR OF POLAND’S JEWS IN THE SOVIET UNION

Some commentators have suggested that the Jews were quickly disabused of their fondness for Communism and the Soviet Union as a result of their harrowing experiences in Russia. Author Zamorski partly challenges this notion. He quotes and translates Stanislaw Kot. 1955. LISTY Z ROSJI TO GEN. SIKORSKIEGO [LETTERS FROM RUSSIA TO GENERAL SIKORSKI], p. 164, as follows,
“These reproaches accuse almost exclusively Jews from the eastern lands, who even before the war tended towards Russia, the common Jewish people in particular. The obstinacy of these people was so great that some were not even convinced by the beatings they suffered in Soviet prisons and camps. On the other hand, there are many positive accounts of the behavior of the Jewish intelligentsia and so-called bourgeoisie: most of them presented themselves as Poles and stayed in touch with Polish society as a whole. Some deserve recognition for ‘bravery in their conduct’.” (This translated quote can be found in Zamorski, p. 200).

This persistent pro-Soviet mindset, among some Polish Jews, is an irony to the “anti-Semitism” charges regarding General Anders Army.

MASS JEWISH DESERTION

Author Kazimierz Zamorski also briefly describes the mass desertion of Poland’s Jewish soldiers in Palestine. Some 3,000 of the 4,300 Jews deserted. General Anders forbade the Polish Military Police from interfering with this. (p. 56).