Jew Killing WWII By Poles Justified Meed

On Both Sides of the Wall, by Vladka Meed, Feigele Peltel Miedzyrzecki, Steven Meed (Translator), Elie Wiesel (Introduction). 1999

When Poles Were Justified in Denouncing or Killing Fugitive Jews: It’s Either My Life (a Pole) or Your Life (a Jew). Otherwise, is the Life of a Jew More Valuable Than the Life of a Pole?

Let’s demystify the hunt for the Jews [JUDENJAGD, by Jan Grabowski vel Abrahamer]. Fear of German reprisals, rather than simple anti-Semitism, sometimes led Poles to denounce or kill fugitive Jews. Meed notes: “They [post Warsaw-Ghetto-Uprising fighters] hid in the Lomianka Forest, near Warsaw, awaiting help…The Polish peasants in the vicinity, afraid to be caught harboring Jews, threatened to report them to the Germans if they did not leave.” (p. 156).

ADDITONALLY, POLES TERRORIZED INTO DENOUNCING FUGITIVE JEWS

In recent years, Jan T. Gross and his friends have belittled the German-imposed death penalty for aid to Jews. Meed, who actually went through the German occupation, knows better. She writes of the situation soon after the Ghetto Uprising: “The streets of Warsaw were teeming with S.S. and Gestapo patrols, and with jeeps bearing armed Germans. Searches and arrests were the order of the day, even in Polish homes. Huge posters, warning of the ‘Jewish peril’, ordered the arrest on sight of any Jew, warning that Poles who extended aid or shelter to a Jew would be shot. As an object lesson of sorts, the Germans set fire to a house on Kazimierz Square, killing the entire Gentile family living they because they had given shelter to Jews. The Poles were frightened. ‘The Germans were capable of anything,’ they said apprehensively over and over again. Spontaneously, defense committees arose to safeguard Polish homes from ‘misfortune,’ a euphemism for Jews.” (p. 163; see also p. 175).

The situation got worse. Meed comments: “As the war dragged on and German reverses on the battlefields multiplied, the ferocity of the terror in Aryan Warsaw mounted. The Germans arbitrarily broke into Polish dwellings, ransacked them and deported thousands of Poles to Germany for forced labor or to Pawiak prison for liquidation. The reign of terror threw the entire Polish population into a panic. Even worse was the dread among the Jews hiding in Gentile homes.” (p. 226).

JEWISH VICTIMHOOD EXAGGERATED

Unfortunately, Meed greatly overstates the importance of the Polish extortionists/denouncers (szmalcowniki) of fugitive Warsaw Jews, as well as the same regarding Jews killed by Poles during the later Warsaw Uprising (1944). In actuality, 6/7th of fugitive Jews in Warsaw were not denounced. See: SECRET CITY, by Paulsson.

NOT ONLY THE JEWS: THE POLES ALSO TRY TO PRESERVE LIFE

Ironically, the Jewish hesitance in launching the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (not until 1943) owed to the same reason as Polish disinclination to support it more fully—the fear of incurring numerous potentially-avoidable deaths. “The Jewish leaders did not want to assume the responsibility of risking the lives of those who still hoped to survive.” (p. 69). “Before long, the admiration and excitement of the Poles over the Jewish uprising was replaced by a gnawing apprehension. ‘What’s next now?’ the Poles wondered. ‘Will the Germans turn on us also’?” (p. 147).

THE WARSAW GHETTO AND UPRISING

In common with many Jewish authors, Meed is critical of the Jewish Ghetto Police and its role in the deportation of Jews to their deaths at Treblinka. (p. 26-on). The Police accepted bribes from Jews who thereby avoided being made part of that day’s contingent. (p. 27).

Poles are sometimes accused of unilaterally disparaging Jewish fighting capabilities. This was far from the case. Meed comments: “Aryan Warsaw watched the Jewish resistance with amazement and observed its toll of hated Germans with grim pleasure, but it scarcely lifted a finger of help.” (p. 143). “The Polish underground had been awed by the heroic Jewish resistance. Illegal Polish publications praised Jewish courage and composed hymns to Jewish strength and fortitude. But that was the extent of the response. Almost no practical assistance was ever extended…” (p. 156). [The Polish-nonhelp assertions are patently false.]