Grave Robbery Common in Wartime Tennenbaum

In Search Of A Lost People; The Old And The New Poland, by Joseph Tenenbaum, Sheila Tenenbaum. 2016

Grave Robbery Common, Not “Poles Did It To Jews”. Pro-Communist Jewish-American Author on Jewish-Nazi Collaboration, German Guilt, Expanding Polokaust, Communist Property Expropriation

POLES DID NOT PICK ON JEWS: EQUAL-OPPORTUNITY POLISH GRAVE ROBBERS

The most attention-getting part of this book is Tenenbaum’s visit to the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau sometime in 1946 or slightly later. He was appalled to hear about, and then see, Poles digging through Jewish cremains in search of valuables. (pp. 141-142).

This revolting experience prompted Tenenbaum to ask, (quote) Why had not somebody done something about this ghoulish business of robbing the dead? But then, I remembered my interview with Minister Tadeusz Olszewski, of the Foreign Office in Warsaw. He had said to me, “You do not realize the degree of savagery that the Nazis have left around here. There are gangs of grave robbers specializing in digging up cemeteries, robbing the dead, getting gold fillings out of their teeth, tearing off the burial vestments, the shrouds, everything removable. They do not take the time to cover up the graves. They leave the bones uncovered. Recently even the crypts of bishops have been opened and robbed…” (unquote)(p. 142).

Now consider GOLDEN HARVEST, by neo-Stalinist Jan T. Gross. This time, the site of the grave looting was Treblinka. Gross portrayed Poles as greedy, anti-Semitic savages who wantonly exploit the Jewish dead. This was not so. From Olszewski’s statement, it is evident that grave-looting behavior resulted from the demoralization caused by the Nazi occupation, and not from greed. Nor was it an anti-Semitic act. Polish grave robbers had no more respect for the Polish dead than they had for the Jewish dead. In fact, they did not even spare the graves of Polish bishops!

NO GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION

The focus of this book [review based on original 1948 edition] is the recently-concluded German-made Holocaust and its implications for Poland’s remaining Jews. In contrast to the modern tendency to dichotomize Germans and Nazis, Tenenbaum does not. He quips, (comment) But there has been in Germany a tradition erected over centuries, doctrines inculcated into its population generation after generation, to the effect that war, murder and rapine perpetrated on other peoples constitute the highest code of honor, and a passport to the Valhalla of fame. In Germany, the glorification of the sword has been preached and practiced from the dawn of German history, from Goths to Goering, from Frederick the Great to the clubfooted Goebbels. Accordingly, there has been crystallized a national philosophy of might which is clear in Fichte’s idealization of German megalomania, or in Clausewitz’s apotheosis of the holiness of war, or in the ungodly Hegelian philosophy of the State transcending Deity. (unquote)(p. 17).

A PLANNED EXPANDED POLOKAUST

Interestingly, Tenenbaum mentions that the Soviets found enough Zyklon gas, at Maidanek (Majdanek), to kill 4 million people. (p. 284). If true, it is yet another line of evidence pointing to eventual Nazi intentions for Poles. Owing to the fact that Maidanek was subordinate to Auschwitz as an extermination center, Maidanek’s eventual role may have centered on the nearby genocidal “Operation Zamosc” against Poles.

JEWISH COLLABORATION WITH THE NAZIS CONFRONTED

Tenenbaum is very critical of Polish conduct towards Jews during and after WWII. In addition, he is harsh on Jews who collaborated with the Nazis, and does not adhere to the modern tendency of seeing them merely as ones trapped in making choiceless choices, or as desperate individuals trying to save their own lives. He calls Jewish policemen traitors (p. 7), and assesses their conduct as follows, (quote) There were deplorable acts of the Jewish police, whom the Gestapo bribed with promises, inciting them to feed and fatten on their own people’s misfortune. (unquote)(p. 30).

A CHEERLEADER FOR SOVIET COMMUNISM

Tenenbaum engages in the predictable demonization of Poland’s pre-WWII government, and of General Wladyslaw Anders, and presents a hagiographic portrayal of the new, Soviet-imposed Communist one. He parrots the Soviet line on Katyn (p. 198) and the Trial of the Sixteen (pp. 20-207). He repeats stock Communist propaganda about the N.S.Z. being (what else?) fascist, collaborationist with the Nazis, and out to kill Poland’s remaining Jews. (pp. 206-on).

PROPERTY EXPROPRIATION. PROPERTY RESTITUTION? GO AFTER THE COMMUNISTS!

Interestingly, however, Tenenbaum sees a connection between the expropriation of private property by (the Jew) Hilary Minc, and that conducted earlier by the Germans. He comments, (quote) The truth is that economic nationalization had been effected before Minc, by the Nazis, who destroyed, robbed, pillaged and wrecked the factories, machinery and materials. (unquote)(p. 217). The foregoing should be remembered in the light of recent questions regarding property restitution and the Holocaust Industry.