Jewish Smuggling in Pre WWII Poland Smith

Treblinka Survivor: The Life and Death of Hershl Sperling, by Mark S. Smith. 2010

Jewish Smugglers in Pre-WWII Poland. Polish Businesses Jewish and Foreign-Owned. German Terror Drives Untoward Polish Conduct Towards Jews

This work contains much detail about the Treblinka Death Camp. It is semi-biographical, focusing on Hersh Sperling (Szperling), who escaped from Treblinka but committed suicide a few decades later. Owing to the breadth of its content, I focus on only a few issues.

JEWS AND SMUGGLING IN PRE-WWII POLAND

The book flashes back to Sperling’s native Klobuck, a Polish town then situated a short distance from the pre-WWII German-Polish border. The author’s description of Jewish economic life in that town includes the following: “A number of Jews also made a living by smuggling goods to and from Germany across the border, particularly tobacco, saccharin and silk. One Jewish entrepreneur was known for shooing his geese into the air just before the German frontier and gathering them up on the other side, where he could sell them for twice the amount without having to pay toll charges at the border.” (p. 40). [How might such conduct affect popular perceptions of Jews?]

POLAND’S LARGELY JEWISH-OWNED AND FOREIGN-OWNED ENTERPRISES IN THE SECOND REPUBLIC

Jewish economic dominance and increasing Polish efforts to reverse it were a major source of pre-WII Polish-Jewish antagonism. Smith alludes to this matter when he elaborates on the city of Czestochowa, where Szperling eventually lived during the early stages of the German occupation of Poland: “Jews were at the centre of this economic boom, and by 1939 they owned around 80 per cent of the city’s industry and commerce. The bulk of the remaining businesses—mainly the largest of the city’s factories—were owned by French and Belgian industrialists, whose profits flowed out of Poland into western Europe.” (p. 53).

Fast forward to WWII:

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE POLOKAUST

One unique feature of this book is its occasional departure from a purely Judeocentric analysis of Nazi actions. Smith mentions the Battle of Mokra in the 1939 war. He also discusses the German genocidal destruction of Poland’s intelligentsia (p. 66) as well as eventual genocidal plans against Slavs as a whole. (p. 65). He also mentions the fact that the Nazis murdered 10,000 Poles at labor-camp Treblinka. (p. 79).

And, now, the German-made Shoah:

AUTHOR DEBUNKS THE “POLES WERE BYSTANDERS” HOLOCAUST MYTH

In all fairness to Smith, the author, he at least goes beyond the common “most Poles were indifferent” insinuation, and realizes the true cause of most Poles not acting on behalf of Jews, as after the Treblinka revolt: “However, most [Poles] did nothing and remained in their homes for fear of German violence.” (p. 140).

THE SZMALCOWNIKI: DESPERATE CIRCUMSTANCES LED TO SOME POLES EXTORTING MONEY FROM FUGITIVE JEWS

The author indirectly also touches on the causes of Poles blackmailing fugitive Jews: “Meanwhile, most Warsaw Poles had been reduced to poverty. Records reveal that Warsaw residents received the lowest food rations anywhere in German-occupied Europe and correspondingly the city became an enormous centre for illegal commerce.” (p. 146).

POLISH WARNINGS TO, NOT JEERING AT, THE DOOMED JEWS

The author mentions Polish farmers sometimes approaching the trains nearing Treblinka and warning Jews of their fate (p. 74). This is quite different from the usual Polonophobic Holocaust meme of Jews cheering the deaths of Jews, as exhibited, for example, in the movie SCHINDLER’S LIST, with the scene of Poles throwing mud at the Jews being escorted to their deaths by the Germans, and giving them a sarcastic farewell (Goodbye Jews!).

And, now, more of the same:

THE CANNED, FACT-FREE ANTI-POLISH NARRATIVES

While discussing the Holocaust, this work frequently lapses into Polonophobic innuendo, the most egregious of which is the absurd accusation that the German actions could not have succeeded without Polish attitudes, and the “…complicity and tacit approval of the local population.” (p. 32). Fact is, the Germans acted unilaterally against the conquered Poles, and could not care less about the opinions of the despised Polish untermenschen (subhumans). The biggest assets to the German Nazi extermination of Polish Jews were the Ukrainian, Baltic, and, yes, Jewish collaborators. Poles were a distant fourth, and their role in the Holocaust was small. [Jews were also complicit in Polish sufferings, as at the hands of the Soviets, but that is another subject, one we rarely hear about.]

THE USUAL BLAMING OF CHRISTIANITY INSTEAD OF THE GERMANS

In common with much Holocaust material, this work commits the genetic fallacy in logic [(A) preceded (B); therefore (A) caused (B)] as it endorses the blaming of past Christian teachings about Jews for the Holocaust. Using the same logic, we should conclude that the anti-Catholic teachings of Protestants eventually caused the Nazi persecution of devout Catholics, and that the anti-Protestant teachings of Catholicism eventually caused the Nazi persecution of devout Protestants.

JEWISH NAZI COLLABORATORS HINDERED THE TREBLINKA REVOLT

The Treblinka prisoners’ revolt is, in my opinion, better described than in most other books on Treblinka. It even features a map (p. 135) that traces the course of revolt. The revolt was complicated by the presence of Jewish informers among the kapos, including Kuba and Paulinka (or Perla). (p. 130, 133).

POLAND YESTERDAY AND TODAY: SELECTIVE INDIGNATION ON CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS

During the Auschwitz Carmelite and Cross controversies, some Jews said that they found Christian symbols to be objectionable reminders of past Christian persecutions of Jews. Poles, on the other hand, pointed out that Jews had no problem beholding and even handling Christian symbols when they could profit from them. Such indeed was the situation in the city of Czestochowa, beloved by Poles for the Black Madonna and Jasna Gora Monastery. Smith writes: “Jewish factories once produced these religious artifacts and souvenirs for the pilgrims of Czestochowa.” (p. 59).

POLAND TODAY: RECKLESS CHARGES OF (WHAT ELSE?) POLISH ANTISEMITISM THROWN AROUND YET AGAIN

Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, is quoted as saying that, at one time, 95% of Poles were anti-Semitic. (p. 235). He does not define this oft-used very-elastic term, nor explain how he arrived at that figure. He is also silent about Jewish attitudes and conduct towards their Polish host state.