Narutowicz Assassination Early Politicized Krynski

Politics and Poetry: The Case of Julian Tuwim, by Magnus J. Krynski. 1973

Julian Tuwim and the Skamanders in the Light of Their Endek Critics. Endeks Were in No Sense Nazis or Nazi-Like. Early Politicization of the Narutowicz Assassination

Author Magnus J. Krynski, attempts to defend Julian Tuwim from Endek charges that he was “a Jew”, not a Pole. In doing so, Krynski stresses that Tuwim’s poetry was unrelated to Jewish themes (p. 3), and that Tuwim was clearly not interested in any religious, national, or cultural aspects of Judaism. (p. 13). In fact, Jews sometimes attacked Tuwim for “betraying the Jewish nation”. (p. 7).

Krynski’s exculpatory statements are disengenuous. The Endek point was this: Assimilated Polish Jews often display much the same aloofness or hostility, to Polish national aspirations, as do their unassimilated brethren. Whether or not they retain some kind of attachment to Judaism is irrelevant in this regard!

This premise does not imply that Endeks had Nazi-style racial beliefs in “Jewish traits” as inherited, innate, and unchangeable. Using modern parlance, one instead realizes that certain deeply-rooted cultural traits, in terms of Jewish habits and thinking, can survive assimilation, abandonment of Judaism, and even conversion to another religion.

THE HOSTILITY OF ENDEKS AND TUWIM WAS RECIPROCAL. IRONICALLY, TUWIM AFFIRMED THAT ENDEKS WERE NOT NAZIS OR POLISH NAZI-EQUIVALENTS

Without intending to, Tuwim slipped into the self-refuting nature of treating Endeks as some kind of anti-Jewish demons. This is inadvertently brought out by Krynski, who comments, “In 1921 Tuwim wrote two harsh satirical poems directed against the two leading nationalist journalists who continually attacked him and the SKAMANDER poets. In RODOWOD (A GENEOLOGY), published in April, Tuwim retaliated in kind. He utilized the fact that [Wladyslaw] Rabski was married to the poetess Zuzanna Kraushar, the daughter of a well-known historian of Jewish origin. He also brought to the reader’s attention the fact that KURIER WARSZAWSKI, which Rabski edited, was owned by the Lewental family who were also of Jewish origin.” (p. 7).

Far from trapping the Endeks in a contradiction, Tuwim makes it obvious that the Endeks were not hostile to ALL Jews. Nor were the Endeks opposed to ALL Jewish influence.

WHY THE COMMON HOSTILITY, OF EVEN ASSIMILATED POLISH JEWS, TO THINGS POLISH

The informed reader can assess the influence of Jews as one that is animated by a spirit of nonconformity—one built on nearly 2,000 years of statelessness, and one often manifested by aloofness towards the nation in which they lived. Assimilated Jews had an additional nonconformist spirit—one that had prompted them to reject part or all of conventional Judaism in the first place. Not surprisingly, such Jews commonly tended towards rejection of traditional mores, of all kinds, and gravitation towards radical social and political movements. For more on this, see: ANTISEMITISM, by Dennis Prager, and read my detailed review.

Tuwim’s WIOSNA (SPRING) celebrated the orgiastic behavior of the rites of Dionysius. For this, Tuwim was called The Jewish Pornographer. (pp. 6-7). Krynski shows his bias when he attributes this reaction to Polish prudery. (p. 7). How about a desire for common decency?

The informed reader can think of Tuwim’s “successor” in this regard: Jerzy Urban, who was once an active Communist. Urban publishes the weekly profanity-laced NIE, which included a hideous mockery of Saint Pope John Paul II.

THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT GABRIEL NARUTOWICZ: A MAINSTAY OF ANTI-POLISH PROPAGANDA, THEN AND NOW

In a manner very reminiscent of those today who still make political hay of the Narutowicz assassination, Tuwim early did so himself. In his 1922 POGRZEB NARUTOWICZA (PRESIDENT NARUTOWICZ’S FUNERAL), Tuwim had this line about the assassin: “With a cross on his chest, and a Browning in his hand…” (p. 8). To appreciate the anti-Christian cheap shot by Tuwim, substitute “Star of David” for “cross” in his statement, and think about the reaction this would provoke.

The instrumentalization of the Narutowicz assassination, to bash Poland, then continued as part of the Communist narratives about the awfulness of pre-Communist Poland. It lives on among today’s LEWAKS as a contrived indictment of patriotic and devoutly-Catholic Poland. For instance, see: PRIMED FOR VIOLENCE, by Brykczynski, and read my detailed review.

LIKE THEN LIKE NOW–THROWING AROUND THE LABEL OF FASCIST FOR PATRIOTIC POLES

Tuwim was obsessed with “fascism”. He not only used this term freely for Polish rightists but, in his KWIATY (FLOWERS), doubted if émigré Poles had truly shed what he called fascism in favor of democracy. (p. 17). He also demanded that two “fascists” (members of the SN: STRONNICTWO NARODOWE), in the Polish government in exile, be removed. (p. 21).

JULIAN TUWIM EVENTUALLY SHOWED HIS TRUE COMMUNIST COLORS

Soon, all this became clear. Tuwim’s support for Communism, as during WWII, became very open, and it cannot be soft-pedaled. Krynski writes, “As an émigré he was the first Pole of stature on the North American continent to declare his support of the Soviet Union.” (pp. 3-4). Krynski invokes the common exculpation, for Jews such as Tuwim turning to Communism, as a reaction to Polish anti-Semitism. (pp. 24-25). Never mind their turning a blind eye to Stalin’s anti-Semitism.

In 1952, Tuwim wrote SZPILKI (PINS), in which he attacked the Vatican for not condemning the American “murderers” of Korean children, and for being in bondage to American capitalism. (p. 24). It is obvious that Tuwim was not “reacting” to anti-Semitism, or, for that matter, anything in particular: He was a thoroughgoing, doctrinaire Communist, and a mouthpiece for Communism.