Undemonizing Polish Nationalism Super

Twenty-Five Years With the Poles, by Paul Super. 1951

Poland’s Interwar Achievements. Undemonizing Polish Nationalism. Teschen/Cieszyn 1938. YMCA in Poland

The author arrived in Poland in 1922. At that time, Poland was afflicted with hyperinflation, and would be for at least another two years (for details, see p. 55). This reminds us that hyperinflation, a common exculpation invoked for German support of Hitler, was hardly limited to post-WWI Germany.

POLAK POTRAFI (THE POLE WILL DO IT)

Paul Super visited Czarna Wies, and commented on the rebuilding efforts after the devastation of WWI. (Quote) Here the Poles had gathered many twisted, bent, and rusty sections of structural bridge steel brought far and wide from rivers and gullies, the dynamited wreckage of war, and with steam hammer and sledge hammer and vast patience and car they had cut and beaten and pounded these ruins into new bridge units and were putting them in place over streams and ravines to again carry Poland’s trains to the eastern provinces. What a people! I thought. (unquote). (p. 32).

Now consider the “miracle port” of Gdynia. In 1922, Gdynia was a small fishing village. Work began in April 1923. However, serious construction of the port did not begin until mid-1926. (p. 84). By 1939, the port of Gdynia had become the greatest port on the Baltic Sea. Its import and export tonnage surpassed such long-established ports as Helsingfors, Koenigsberg, Danzig, Stettin, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. (p. 142).

THE TRUTH ABOUT POLISH NATIONALISM

Nowadays, nationalism is a dirty word in the largely left-wing academia, and is a standard label for someone that leftists and Judeocentrists don’t like.

When it came to Poland, at least, Super knew better. He commented, (quote) I have spent a quarter of a century among Poles and probably know more Poles than any living foreigner. Except among a small but politically active element of the student population of Poland, I have never encountered that which is evil in nationalism, and there is a good, a splendid, side…Such nationalism as Poland had, looked inward, to the building of a worthy nation; it does not look outward in envy of some other nation’s lands; it never took the form we Americans call spread-eagle boasting; it made no silly assertions of superiority over all other nations. (unquote).(p. 115).

DEMYSTIFYING AND DE-POLITICIZING THE NARUTOWICZ ASSASSINATION

Nowadays, the assassination of Gabriel Narutowicz is blamed on (what else?) anti-Semitism, and is portrayed as a great stain on Poland’s history (to this day, notably by LEWAKS and certain Jews). [For example, see Paul Brykczynski’s PRIMED FOR VIOLENCE.]

The author was in the crowd when President Narutowicz was murdered, and personally experienced the commotion in the crowd. Although he faults the Endeks for being too strident in their criticisms of Narutowicz, and realizes that the assassin was an unbalanced fanatic, he also alludes to the reasonableness of the Endek position. He writes, (quote) …General Joseph Haller, the standard bearer of that party, fastened an incident in my memory. “Poland must be independent; Poland must be Catholic”, the general shouted to his demonstrating followers. This seemed perfectly obvious, even banal, to me. But the general and many others feared the election of a parliament in which the Socialists and national minorities would unite and elect a president too far to the left. (unquote).(p. 46).

PAUL SUPER ADDRESSES MISCHARACTERIZATIONS OF JOSEF PILSUDSKI AND JOSEF BECK

The author’s firsthand familiarity with many Polish leaders is insightful. Super takes a middle view of the Pilsudski “coup” of 1926. He categorically rejects the label of Pilsudski the dictator, even an informal one. Pilsudski’s rule was nothing like that of Mussolini, Hitler, or Stalin. Moreover, Super adds, (quote) There were whole areas of life in which his government never interfered…hundreds of matters were never referred to him nor did he meddle in minor affairs nor even in certain weighty ones. In many ways he played a far lesser role than did President Franklin D. Roosevelt and he was not nearly as publicly conspicuous as that colorful figure. (unquote). (pp. 83-84).

Super strongly condemns the mis-portrayal of Jozef Beck as pro-German. In actuality, he was pro-Polish, and had a delicate balancing act to do with Poland’s enemies. (p. 149). There is no way that Polish leaders could have averted WWII.

1938 TESCHEN

Although the author disliked Poland’s taking of the border area of Teschen (Cieszyn) from Czechoslovakia, he came to see that Poland could not have done otherwise. He also realized that Czechoslovakia had been the aggressor, not Poland. He pointed out that, (quote) The Czechs attacked and occupied Teschen, Silesia, January 23, 1919. They rejected the unanimous decision of the Interallied Commission of April 28, 1919 as to where the boundary between Poland and Czechoslovakia should run, a decision arrived at after three months of study on the spot. The Czechs claimed certain territory not for moral, historical, nor racial reasons but because of economic considerations. The inhabitants of the old Austrian duchy were 70% Poles, the rest Germans and Czechs. In the final settlement forced on Poland the Poles did not get a single locality with a Czech majority but Czechoslovakia seized 9 boroughs which, according to the census of 1910, had a Polish majority of 90%…Poland simply took back what had been taken by the Czechs and kept it out of the hands of Hitler. (unquote).(p. 158).

THE 1939 WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH

By 1938, 70% of Poland’s commerce went through her outlet to the Baltic Sea. (p. 156). Clearly (even if overlooking Germany’s true designs on Poland, which was lebensraum), giving into Germany’s demands for the Corridor (or even a corridor within the Corridor) would have been suicidal on its face.

Super lists the usual factors leading to Poland’s rapid defeat in the 1939 war. However, he highlights the size and perfidy of the German fifth column in Poland. (e. g, p. 214).

The author places Nazi German aggression in historical context. For instance, Danzig (Gdansk) was German because the Germans had wiped out its original Slavic population in 1308. (p. 30). Super adds, (quote) The Germans have been a warlike and military people throughout history. Days of Rome, Caesar, Tacitus. Pressure toward the east after 800 A. D. Prussian expansion in the 18th Century. Recent history. 1864, 1866, 1870, 1914, 1939. (unquote). (p. 309).

THE YMCA IN POLAND

Paul Super (1880-1949) focuses on the establishment and development of the YMCA in newly resurrected Poland. [Review based on original 1951 edition.] At first, this was hindered by the perception of the YMCA as a Protestant institution, and by the burden of it being “Masonic”. In Europe, Freemasonry commonly had the connotation of an irreligious, secret movement with nefarious goals. (p. 50). In time, the YMCA became established in Poland, and grew at a rapid pace. (see graph, p. 145).During WWII, Super was involved with the YMCA activities on behalf of Polish refugees and soldiers in Hungary, Romania, and, later, France and other parts of the world. Finally, he attempted to re-establish the YMCA in war-torn Poland until his retirement in 1947.