Polonophobic Memes Fugitive Jews Killed Facts and Fantasies Engelking

Such a Beautiful Sunny Day, by Barbara Engelking. 2016

Much Ado About Normal Wartime Behavior. Same Media-Quoted Fantastic Numbers of Fugitive Jewish Deaths

In every war, some members of the population act in a dishonorable manner. This is nothing new. It is also very easy for those who have never been through a war to moralize about the conduct of those who did.

AUTHOR BARBARA ENGELKING CONTRADICTS HER OWN BASIC PREMISE

Choiceless choices must be factored, and any attempt to paint a picture, of the bad-guy Catholic Pole, falls apart solely the information that Engelking sometimes mentions. This includes denunciations and killings of fugitive Jews caused by:

Jewish robberies of Poles (144-149, 177, 179; See especially p. 149).

Admittedly-valid Polish fears of impending, murderous German reprisals (p. 120).

Admittedly-valid Polish need of being paid for the housing of fugitive Jews (pp. 111-113; See especially p. 117).

Admittedly-valid reaction to Jewish blackmailing of Polish rescuers (p. 123).

The admittedly-needed German reward of a bag of sugar–an essential for infants, small children, and the sick. (p. 221).

Admitted killings, by “Polish guerrillas”, actually the deeds of bandits (pp. 288-289).

SURPRISE: A DEMORALIZED, BRUTALIZED POPULATION ACTS BAD–AND NOT ONLY AGAINST JEWS

The denunciations of fugitive Jews must be put in wartime context. The onerous German occupation of Poland had bred a culture of snitching against others. Neighbors tattled on each other, to the Nazi German authorities, about almost anything. One Jewish testimony, that of Michal Zellner, quoted by Engelking, makes this quite obvious, “‘I came to the conclusion that we wouldn’t be able to survive in the countryside, because the cunning peasants betrayed their neighbors and informed about the slightest misconduct (such as slaughtered pigs or cattle without the authorities’ permission), which caused various searches in the huts, which also increased the danger.’” (p. 227).

CONJURING-UP EXPANSIVE NUMBERS FOR A BETTER ANTI-POLISH STORY

As with her Polish-language version, Barbara Engelking’s figures, for fugitive Jews purportedly killed by Poles, and allegedly based on archival information, falls short of 5,000. (pp. 17-18, 318-319). This is unimpressive.

But why let such small, factually-based numbers get in the way? Something much more exciting is need for media sensationalism, and we get it. Barbara Engelking, Jan T. Gross, and Jan Grabowski, now tell us that on the order of 120,000-200,000 fugitive Jews did not survive the German occupation. (pp. 165-166). To arrive at this fantastic number, they all arbitrarily assume that an unbelievably-high 10% of Poland’s Jews fled the ghettos, and lived among Poles. (p. 165). Though repeatedly challenged to provide scholarly facts to back up the 10% figure, they have yet to do so. This speaks volumes about the veracity of their claims.

Now, back to the actual hard evidence. The minuscule archive-based 5,000 figure, quoted by Engelking, is incomplete. It is inflated by hearsay, community storytelling, and duplicate accounts. In any case, it is a long, long way off from 120,000 or Jan Grabowski’s equally-fantastic 200,000. Then again, if the latter makes for a more sensational tale of the Polish-Catholic villain and innocent-victim Jew, why not? That is what the mystification of the Holocaust is all about. If the Holocaust Industry comes into play, then so much the better.

Finally, Barbara Engelking finally gives away the store when she repeatedly admits that there is no way of even estimating how many fugitive Jews were delivered to death by Poles. (p. 166, 175). Case closed.