Polonophobia Cure Polish Achievements Olson

A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II, by Lynne Olson (Goodreads Author), Stanley Cloud (Goodreads Author). 2003

Polish Achievements: ENIGMA Code Cracked, the Battle of Britain won, Polish Guerrilla Warfare Crucial. Teheran/Yalta Doublecross. Polonophobic Memes Repudiated, Embraced

Olson and Cloud provide a broad overview of Polish history. As if to prove that Polish heroism is not the product of Polish self-flattery, the authors cite numerous prominent non-Polish personages to support their contentions (see below).

The reader learns a lot. For example: The progressive aspects of Polish society as attested by the democratic May 3, 1791 Constitution; the freeing of African slaves by Kosciuszko but not Thomas Jefferson (p. 23); and the granting of women’s suffrage in Poland before the USA (pp. 39-40).

POLES, NOT BRITS, BROKE THE NAZI ENIGMA CODE

Gordon Welchman, one of Ultra’s top cryptographers, acknowledges that, without the Poles’ breaking of the “invincible” German Enigma code, British efforts would never have gotten off the ground (p. 39).

THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF POLISH PILOTS IN THE ALLIED VICTORY IN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

Numerous British military and political figures are cited who recognized the skill and effectiveness of Polish pilots. Pointedly, Ronald Kellett, Air Chief Marshall Frederick Rosier, British air minister Sir Archibald Sinclair, and Sir Hugh Dowding all state that (p. 163), without Polish help, the RAF would have lost the Battle of Britain!

THE EFFECTIVENESS AND STRATEGIC VALUE OF POLISH GUERRILLA WARFARE

British parliamentarian Sir Douglas Savory is quoted as saying that Polish sabotage of German transports to the eastern front had contributed greatly to the collapse of the German offensive (p. 278).

NOT ONLY MONTE CASSINO

Field Marshall Viscount Alanbrooke (p. 374) asserted the indispensability of Anders’ army in the Allied advance through Italy.

PERENNIAL POLONOPHOBIC MYTHS ADRESSED

Several anti-Polish myths are refuted, including the tale of Polish cavalry charging German tanks and the Polish Air Force being promptly destroyed (p. 71). The long-lived caricature of Poles as an emotional and ungovernable people is shown to have originated from Poland’s conquerors two centuries ago (p. 24).

THE MEAGER BRITISH/AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR POLISH GUERRILLA ACTION. DON’T BLAME POLES FOR FIREARM “STINGINESS” TO JEWISH FIGHTERS

One hears frequent accusations of the Polish underground having been motivated by (what else?) anti-Semitism for not supplying the Jewish Warsaw ghetto fighters (April 1943) with more than several tens of guns. [Most Holocaust movies don’t show even THAT.] The authors implicitly demolish this charge by demonstrating the desperate shortage of arms that beset Polish guerillas as late as the ill-fated Warsaw Uprising (August-October 1944). Specifically, only 28 of the promised 301 Allied supply airdrops (October 1943-March 1944) were ever made (p. 285), largely to avoid offending Stalin.

Let’s put this in perspective. The underground forces of Greece, Yugoslavia, and France each received 10-20 times the arms airdropped on Poland! (p. 283).

THE POLOKAUST: THE FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST OF ETHNIC POLES

Although almost every non-Pole knows about the 6 million Jews, very few know about the 3 million Poles, including upwards of half of educated Poles, who were murdered by the Germans and Soviets during the war. These losses took three decades to heal (p. 408). The Katyn massacre of tens of thousands of Polish officer POWS is highlighted. Sir Owen O’Malley, having comprehended the Soviet murderous action, was very critical of the ensuing British whitewash (pp. 268-269).

POLAND BETRAYED BY HER “ALLIES”

Even Joseph Goebbels recognized the fact that the Poles had received a brushoff, by the British and Americans, as if the Poles were the enemies (p. 271). Roosevelt displayed a callous disinterest in Soviet crimes. Air Marshall John Slessor, indignant over the cold-blooded Soviet betrayal of the Warsaw Uprising that alone had cost over 200,000 Polish lives, chided anyone who still trusted Stalin (p. 347). Lord Vansittart and George Orwell also supported Poland’s cause (p. 341).

The authors spend much time discussing the dirty stinking doublecross of Poland at Yalta. George Kennan (p. 369) called the Yalta communique “the shabbiest sort of equivocation…” To add insult to injury, far too many Britons and Americans adopted a “blame the victim” mentality in accusing the Poles of being chauvinistic and otherwise spoilers of the Soviet-western alliance.

However, US ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane resigned to protest the Truman administration’s lukewarm reaction to the farcical postwar “free election” in Soviet-occupied Poland (p. 405). See my review of Lane’s I SAW POLAND BETRAYED.

Not all British officials had disregarded their treaty obligations to Poland. The Scot Lord Dunglass (pp. 379-380) fiercely defended Poland before the Parliament.

INSULT ADDED TO INJURY

The Poles were not even allowed to participate in the postwar victory parade in London. Ten members of the British Parliament protested this gross indignity (p. 5), as did Air Marshall Philip Joubert de Ferte (p. 398).

POLISH ANTI-SEMITISM: THE STANDARD, CANNED, ONE-SIDED ACCUSATIONS

Stereotyped comments about prewar Polish anti-Semitism are made (p. 41) without adequate historical context. Reference to prewar Polish discriminatory policies against Jews neglects the magnitude of Jewish economic dominance. At 10% of the prewar Polish population, Jews owned as much 40% of Poland’s wealth, and were comparably over-represented at universities. This greatly limited admission opportunities for Poles coming from a peasant background. The prewar economic boycotts and numerus clausus at universities were, using modern parlance, a form of affirmative action designed to get more Polish gentiles, recently emergent from peasant backwardness aggravated by 123 years of foreign rule, into Jewish-dominated institutions.

In the USA, restrictions on Jewish admissions to American universities existed as late as the 1960’s. In view of this fact, isn’t it a bit hypocritical of Anglo-American authors to moralize about the 1930s numerus clausus at Polish universities?

There is an element of objectivity, about Polish-Jewish relationships, in this book. Olson and Cloud recognize (p. 41) that Poland’s Jews were disproportionately leftist and pro-Soviet (the Zydokomuna).

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED AT JEDWABNE?

Unfortunately, the accusation of Poles killing hundreds of Jews at Jedwabne (p. 204) is uncritically accepted. The weight of evidence implicates the Germans as the perpetrators of this atrocity. The Poles were actually relegated to a compelled subsidiary role (perhaps 40 Poles, certainly not “half the town”). The Poles were forced to round up and guard the Jews. Whether the Poles were involved in the actual torching of the Jew-filled barn, consensually or not, has not been established by convincing evidence. (See my review of JEDWABNE, by Chodakiewicz, a historian).

Finally, since Jedwabne is such a big deal to Olson and Cloud, why not the Jewish mass murders of Poles at Koniuchy, Naliboki, etc.? Is the life of a Pole less valuable than the life of a Jew? Sure sounds like it.