Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)


Ritual Murder Jews Believed Similar Mielnicki


Bialystok to Birkenau: The Holocaust Journey of Michel Mielnicki, by Michel Mielnicki, John Munro. 2000

Jews Against Romani (Gypsies): Jews Had Their Own Version of Accusations of Ritual Murder. Jews, and Not Only Poles, Did Looting

True to his earlier Communist ideation, Michel Mielnicki liberally uses the phrase “Polish fascist”. Compared with other Holocaust survivors, he also freely throws around accusations of anti-Semitism, not only against Poles, but also against virtually everybody–even British, French, and Canadians.

Mielnicki gives one clue to the Polish hostility against Jews that he reportedly experienced in his town, which was located just north of Bialystok. All of the textile mills and shops of Wasilkow were owned by Jews. (p. 74).

JEWS, TOO, HAD THEIR VERSION OF RITUAL MURDER ACCUSATIONS

Much has been said about Christians in general, and Poles in particular, commonly accusing Jews of ritual murder (the blood libel), even warning their children that, “The Jew is out to get you.” Mielnicki also repeats this accusation. (p. 59). Interestingly, however, he admits that Jews had similar beliefs about the malevolence of others, as he writes, (quote) Mind you, ours was still an age in which kids expected physical abuse from their parents. There was no such thing as teaching by reason, only by force or threats: “If you do that, the Gypsies will kidnap you, keep you in chains, and make you perform like a monkey in public!” This, after all, was how our parents had been taught. And not only did no one in authority object, they thought anything less amounted to parental neglect. (unquote)(p. 40). For another example of Jews teaching their children that Gypsies (Sinti and Roma) kidnap Jewish children, please see: The Janowska Road.

RECIPROCITY OF PREJUDICES BETWEEN JEWS AND POLES

Although Mielnicki often brings up Polish prejudices against Jews, he tacitly acknowledges that the prejudices were mutual (even if not held by himself), as he comments, (quote) Still, as a boy, I didn’t hate the Christian Poles. I may have given the impression that my life at school was one of constant harassment. It wasn’t…I learned how to trade insult for insult…But I didn’t spit on the ground at the sight of a Roman Catholic nun, as some Jews did. My father would have beaten me silly if he’d ever caught me doing such a thing. And I didn’t think to condemn all Christians for worshipping a false messiah and his mother. Quite the contrary, I thought their Christmas a wonderful celebration…(unquote)(p. 67).

COUNTERING THE “JEWS SUPPORTED COMMUNISTS OUT OF FEAR OF NAZIS” EXCULPATION

Mielnicki’s mother did not believe the events of pre-WWII Nazi Germany (Nuremberg Laws, KRISTALLNACHT, Buchenwald concentration camp, etc.). This was because she clung to the widespread Jewish belief that the Germans are the center of culture and civilization, and would never do such things. (p. 73).

Michel Mielnicki’s father, Chaim Mielnicki, was a Communist well before WWII. (p. 39). Later, the local Jews enthusiastically greeted the Soviet invaders of this part of Poland in 1939. (p. 76). Chaim Mielnicki became a member of the dreaded NKVD, and compiled lists of Poles for arrest, liquidation, or dispatch to Siberia. (pp. 82-83).

The author raises the common exculpation about Jews supporting Communism because they wanted a better life, and in ignorance about the Communist mass murders, Gulags, etc. (p. 78, 82). This is absurd. Who does NOT want a better life? News of Communist deeds had been widely known, notably in prewar Poland. In addition, Communism had always openly been based on deception, terror, violence, and the scapegoating and destruction of entire classes of people.

LOOTING WAS NOT SOME KIND OF POLISH DISEASE

Media-acclaimed Jan T. Gross, as in his GOLDEN HARVEST, has tried to indict the Poles for looting Jews during WWII. However, looting was a common behavior that knew no bounds of nationality among either the looters or the looted, and which took place in peacetime as well as wartime. After Mielnicki’s family had buried the body of their infant in a little-used cemetery, they were shocked to learn that someone had exhumed it. Apparently, looters (of unknown nationality) had incorrectly assumed that the family had hidden gold there. (p. 69). During the 1939 War, a Polish plane was shot down near during a dogfight with the Luftwaffe. Mielnicki’s father saw the downed plane and the body of the Polish pilot, and informed the authorities so that they would secure the area before peasants looted the site. (p. 72).

Later, Mielnicki’s father hid valuables under the barn floor by burying their container deep enough to be out of reach of probing bayonet-blade thrusts. In doing so, he was applying his experiences, going back to his being a soldier in WWI, when he had searched for hidden caches of arms, food, and hidden loot. (p. 70).

Scavenging of food among ruins was a given wartime event. (p. 98). After the war, when returning to Poland, Mielnicki brought goods that he had looted from the Germans that, in turn, were confiscated by the Polish border guards. (p. 217).

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