German Guilt Diffusion A Short History Niechwiadowicz

German Camps,Polish Victims: The Irish Independent and its coverage of German-occupied Poland, by Jan Niechwiadowicz. 2012

German Guilt Dilution: A Short History of the Orwellian Redefinitions Behind It. Includes “Polish Death Camp” Lie

Alternative Book Title: The Polish WWII Holocaust-Related Experience as Slanted in the IRISH INDEPENDENT

Jan Niechwiadowicz has produced a series of booklets that examine, in great detail, media portrayals of WWII Poland. This is especially in terms of the Shoah. As with his other works, Niechwiadowicz supports his contentions with hundreds of specific citations.

MISLEADING AND MENDACIOUS PHRASEOLOGY

In his German Camps,Polish Victims: The BBC coverage of German-occupied Poland (please click on this item and read the Peczkis review), Niechwiadowicz points out that the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) not rarely uses fallacious formulations such as “Polish death camps”. (For more on this odious phenomenon as a whole, please click on The PMI Compendium of anti-Polish sentiment (German Camps, Polish Victims)). The BBC also commonly uses the amorphous term “Nazi” instead of German. Finally, The BBC is proportionately more likely to refer to France as “occupied” than Poland.

In this work, Niechwiadowicz shows that the same tendencies exist in the reporting of the IRISH INDEPENDENT. However, the foregoing tendencies are not as pronounced in the IRISH INDEPENDENT as they are in the BBC.

THE ORWELLIAN RE-LABELING THE DEATH CAMPS AND RUNNING AWAY FROM THE GERMAN PERPETRATORS: A HISTORY

Dr. Joanna Lubecka describes the terminology, over time, used to refer to the German Nazi death camps in German-occupied Poland. She then analyses the causes behind the changes in terminology.

For a few years after the events, Poles referred to the death camps unambiguously as German. A few years after WWII, the Communists changed “German” to “Nazi”, because they did not want to offend the East Germans, all the while portraying West Germany as a haven for Nazis. In the western nations, German was changed to Nazi owing to the reasoning behind clichés such as “Not all Germans were Nazis, and not all Nazis were Germans.” [This is technically correct, but the vast majority of Germans were Nazis (in thinking, at least), and the overwhelming majority of Nazis were in fact Germans (or Austrians, another German nationality). Note, furthermore, that most Nazi collaborators were opportunists seeking to improve their lot under German rule, and were not Nazis themselves. One must also remember that Nazi-style thinking had deep roots in German thinking, and long preceded Hitler.] Others had objected that calling Auschwitz a German death camp reduces it to a German event. [Who had created and operated the camp–the Martians?]

German historian Klaus Bachmann also repeats the “Not all Germans were Nazis…” exculpation. Dr. Joanna Lubecka will have none of it. She comments, (quote) While Klaus Bachmann is factually correct, he ignores one fundamental aspect. An Austrian Nazi, a German clerk working in occupied territories, and a concentration camp guard (even if not a Nazi) all represented the German state – the Third Reich. Their involvement not only legitimised its activities but also its crimes (even though often indirectly). So, `German crimes’ are not ascribed to a nation but to the German Nazi state. So long as the world’s press, Germany’s included, uses the description `Polish Extermination Camps’ (polnische Vernichtungslager) Poland cannot afford to call them `Nazi Camps’ because that will blur the responsibility for the crimes. Any and all assertions that this refers just to a geographic location are simply compounding an error because people’s knowledge of Europe’s WWII history is not that obvious now and will become even weaker over time. (unquote). (pp. 16-17).

How much clearer can it be?

DEALING WITH “POLISH DEATH CAMPS”

What should be done about the historical relativism of “Polish Death Camps”? Niechwiadowicz comments, (quote) Experts suggest that court proceedings should be pursued against authors using the term `Polish death camps’, a proposal supported by several Polish Ministers for Foreign Affairs, lawyers and other experts (including B. Geremek, S. Hambura, J. Kochanowski, A. Rotfeld, experts from the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation). (unquote). (p. 18).

UPDATE (2018 EVENTS)

This issue has been in the news lately. Various media outlets have raised a big stink about a new Polish law that criminalizes the phrase “Polish Death Camps”. This is especially ironic in view of the fact that the law is modeled on long-established laws that criminalize Holocaust denial in many nations. Evidently, the standard double standard is in force.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE POLISH DEATH CAMPS MENDACITY

“Polish Death Camps” do not have to be believed literally, by the hearer, in order to have an effect. The very term implants a negative prejudice against Poles. Thus, by analogy, Jews rightfully object to the PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION, even though “nobody believes that”, because it instills negative prejudice against Jews. So why is “Polish death camps” supposed to be any more innocent?

In addition, “Polish death camps” ever-so-subtly enhances the process of German guilt dilution by forging an emotional connection between the Pole and the German genocidal murderer, and commonly serves as a provocation (a “bait”) for further accusations [e. g, “OK, so the death camps weren’t Polish. But the Poles were still glad that Hitler did the dirty work for them” (another lie)].