Jewish Collaboration Not All Choiceless Choices Niewyk

Fresh Wounds: Early Narratives of Holocaust Survival, by Donald L. Niewyk (Editor). 1998

Jewish-Nazi Collaboration: Not All Choiceless Choices. Paid Greedy Rescuer Myth. Bentschen (Zbaszyn) 1938

This anthology features Holocaust survivors from Poland and a few other countries, including Germany. The experiences include those of Jews who fled the ghettos as well as those who survived the war by being in German concentration camps. The survivors are identified by their first names and the first letters of their last names.

JEWISH-NAZI COLLABORATION: NOT ALL CHOICELESS CHOICES!

Abraham K. describes the actions of the Jewish Council of Eastern Upper Silesia, which was responsible for more than forty Jewish communities in the general area. It was headed by Moshe (or Monek) Merin. Abraham K.’s provides information about Merin, and the Jewish militia (Jewish ghetto police), that contradicts the notion that these collaborators were merely powerless individuals desperately trying to save their own lives. It also contradicts the notion that Jewish collaborators were not really collaborators in that they obtained no favors from the Germans. Thus, Abraham K. writes, “I don’t know how he [Merin] worked himself up so high. He had influence with the Gestapo and everywhere had his say. He had his own automobile, he had a chauffeur, and he led the life which he certainly could not have afforded before the war…The Jewish militia did not feel that they were merely functionaries to execute what was demanded of them. They also felt that they were better, more important people.” (p. 29). Clearly, these acts do not partake of choiceless choices!

JEWS NOT ONLY FEARED POLES WHO KNEW THEM: THEY ALSO FEARED JEWISH POLICE WHO KNEW THEM

A Jew about to be arrested by a German policeman, that did not personally know him, could often hide. But if a Jew about to be arrested by a Jewish policeman was known to him, then any attempt to hide was much more difficult. (p. 29).

THE PAID GREEDY RESCUER MYTH

In recent years, neo-Stalinist authors, notably Jan T. Gross, have accused Poles of being animated by “greed and (what else?)anti-Semitism” whenever they sought financial compensation for aiding Jews. Editor Donald L. Niewyk knows better. While giving the introduction to the interview of Lena K., regarding Jewish children hidden in church institutions, he comments, “Attempts by church officials to extract payment from Jews for sheltering the orphans during the war must be viewed compassionately in light of the desperate poverty of these institutions at the end of the fighting.” (p. 151).

CLUES TO BENTSCHEN (ZBASZYN) 1938

The editor tells the reader that 70,000 Polish Jews moved to Germany before WWI. (p. 289). This, in part, animated the contempt of German Jews for the OSTJUDEN. Many of these once-Polish Jews were expelled by the Nazis to Bentschen (Zbaszyn) in 1938, and now–guess what–Poland is the one getting blamed for balking against the acceptance of these long Poland-abandoning Jews.

GERMAN COMMUNISTS IN NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS: FAKE SYMPATHY FOR JEWS

Communists often wrapped themselves in the mantle of sympathy for Jews, and never tired of running down Poland for her (what else?) anti-Semitism. However, Bernard W. described the attitudes of the German political prisoners that he encountered at Buchenwald, “Only in rare cases was a Jew looked upon as an equal with a German. It was a rare case that a German Communist should not consider himself first a German and only then a Communist.” (p. 76).