Polokaust A Genocide Recognized Classic Lemkin

Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, by Raphael Lemkin. 1944

The Term Genocide Coined, and Applied Not Only to Jews (Now: Shoah or Holocaust) But Also to Poles (Now: Polokaust)

Raphael (Rafal, Rafael) Lemkin, a Polish Jew, is well known for coining the term genocide. This reprint of his 1944 classic book describes genocide in a manner that departs considerably from contemporary thinking. Instead of Jewish suffering selectively repeated and elevated above that of everyone else’s, and only Jews (and possibly also Gypsies) recognized as WWII victims of genocide, one almost enters a different world. In it, Lemkin’s analysis of German-inflicted death and destruction juxtaposes many European nationalities, and recognizes both Jews and Poles as victims of genocide. The latter encompasses what nowadays is called the Polokaust or the Polocaust.

NO GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION HERE

Most contemporary Holocaust materials, apart from being excessively Judeocentric, are also German-whitewashing. Unidentified Nazis (they may as well be aliens from another planet) arrive out of nowhere to kill the Jews (and only the Jews). Lemkin, in stark contrast, puts the blame squarely where it belongs (p. xiii): “Hitler’s Mein Kampf has essentially formulated the prolegomenon of destruction and subjugation of other nations. The mere fact that the vast majority of the German people put Hitler into power through free elections is evidence that they freely accepted his program which was secret to nobody.”

LONG-TERM NAZI GERMAN GENOCIDAL AMBITIONS AGAINST THE SLAVIC PEOPLES

Hitler is quoted (p. 81) as saying: “It will be one of the chief tasks of German statesmanship for all time to prevent, by every means in our power, the further increase of the Slav races. Natural instincts bid all living beings not merely conquer their enemies, but also destroy them.”

GENOCIDE DOES NOT REQUIRE THE TOTAL BIOLOGICAL ANNIHILATION OF A TARGETED GROUP

Lemkin (p. 79) elaborates: “By “genocide” we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group…Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves…The confiscation of property of nationals…may be considered simply as a deprivation of their individual property rights. However, if the confiscations are ordered against individuals solely because they are Poles, Jews, or Czechs, then the same confiscations tend in effect to weaken the national entities of which those persons are members.”

PRACTICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST THE POLISH NATION

To show how Lemkin recognizes Poles as victims of German-sponsored genocide, I quote his comments in reference to Poles (All caps are as in the original); (pp. 82–90) “TECHNIQUES OF GENOCIDE IN VARIOUS FIELDS…

POLITICAL…In western Poland, especially, this has been done on a large scale. The Polish population has been removed from their homes in order to make place for German settlers…

SOCIAL…This is especially true in Poland and Slovenia (Slovene part of Yugoslavia), where the intelligentsia and clergy were in great part removed from the rest of the population and deported for forced labor in Germany…

CULTURAL…Moreover, in the Polish areas Polish youths were excluded from the benefit of liberal arts studies and were channeled predominantly into the trade schools…The occupant apparently believes that the study of the liberal arts may develop independent national Polish thinking…the population has also been deprived of inspiration from the existing cultural and artistic values. Thus, especially in Poland, were national monuments destroyed and libraries, archives, museums, and galleries of art carried away…

ECONOMIC….As to the Poles in incorporated Poland, the purpose of the occupant was to shift the economic resources from the Polish national group to the German national group…the Poles were expelled from trade, and the Germans entered that field…

BIOLOGICAL…the occupant is endeavoring to encourage the birthrate of the Germans. Different methods are adopted to that end. Special subsidies are provided in Poland for German families having at least three minor children…

PHYSICAL…Rationing of food is organized according to racial principles throughout the occupied countries…prewar diet…Germans..93%…Poles..66%…Jews..20%…The result of racial feeding is a decline in health of the nations involved and an increase in the deathrate…Endangering of health…The transfer, in unheated cattle cars and freight trucks, of hundreds of thousands of Poles from Incorporated Poland to the Government General, which took place in the midst of a severe winter, resulting in a decimation of the expelled Poles…Mass killings. The technique of mass killings is employed mainly against Poles, Russians, and Jews…In Poland, Bohemia-Moravia, and Slovenia, the intellectuals are being “liquidated”…

RELIGIOUS…Likewise in Poland, through the systematic pillage and destruction of church property and persecution of the clergy, the German occupying authorities have sought to destroy the religious leadership of the Polish nation…

MORAL…According to this plan, the mental energy of the group should be concentrated upon base instincts and should be diverted from moral and national thinking…Therefore, the occupant made an effort in Poland to impose upon the Poles pornographic publications and movies. The consumption of alcohol was encouraged, for while food prices have soared, the Germans have kept down the price of alcohol, and the peasants are compelled the authorities to take spirits in payment for agricultural produce. The curfew law, enforced very strictly against Poles, is relaxed if they can show the authorities a ticket to one of the gambling houses which the Germans have allowed to come into existence.”

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AN UPDATE

Other events in the CULTURAL component of genocide against Poles occurred soon after Lemkin wrote this book. These included the Germans’ systematic burning of all libraries and archives (with the loss of millions of priceless, irreplaceable items) in Warsaw AFTER the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, along with dynamiting of culturally-significant Polish buildings (notably the Royal Castle). Comparable German barbarities outside of Warsaw included preparations for the blowing up of the architectural treasures of the medieval city of Krakow as well as the famous Jasna Gora monastery. Only Polish sabotage, combined with the unexpectedly-rapid advance of the Red Army, prevented the implanted explosives from being set off the retreating Germans.

Finally, Lemkin could not have realized the lasting effects of German genocide against Poles. For example, out of the thousands of artworks confiscated the Germans, many have not been located to this day.