Polish Death Camp Lie An Old Jewish Spin Korbonski

The Jews and the Poles in World War II, by Stefan Korbonski. 1989

The “Polish Death Camp” Mendacity is a Jewish Meme That is Now Several Decades Old. Jews and 1968: Little-Known Facts

Although this book was written 30 years ago, it retains its significance–very much so. Its author, Stefan Korbonski, was one of the last surviving leaders of the Polish Underground state under German Nazi occupation, and was honored at Yad Vashem for his aid to Jews (p. 104). He not only gives a firsthand account of Polish-Jewish relations during WWII, but also traces many mischaracterizations of this history in the American press through about 1989. The informed reader can also appreciate how little has changed since then.

THOSE ETERNAL “POLISH DEATH CAMPS”

Already since the 1960’s, Korbonski had been writing letters to newspapers and magazines protesting the use of misleading terms such as “Polish death camps” (p. 117), “Polish gas chambers” (p. 91), etc. Again, how little has changed since then!

Although some Jewish organizations, to their credit, have since repudiated the “Polish death camps” formulation, other influential Jews persist in using it as a means of generating prejudice against Poles. Otherwise, they use it as a provocation. That is, the “Polish death camps” statement is uttered in order to provoke an attention-grabbing correction, which then serves as a platform for new bait-and-switch Polonophobic accusations, such as:

“OK, OK, So the death camps weren’t Polish. But Poles were still complicit in the Holocaust.” [whatever that means]

or

“OK, OK, So the death camps weren’t Polish. But Poles were glad that Hitler did the dirty work for them.” [another canard]

or

“OK, OK, So the death camps weren’t Polish. But Poles were generally anti-Semitic.” [Of course, nothing is ever the Jews’ fault]

Now consider the 2018 Polish Holocaust law that criminalized “Polish Death Camps”, which only paralleled the long-preexisting memory laws (Holocaust Denial laws), in many nations, that criminalize the questioning of 6 million Jewish deaths. The media raised a big stink over the former but never the latter. Double standards are just fine with them.

JEWS AND 1968: JEWISH COMMUNISTS, SOME GUILTY OF CRIMES, REPAINT THEMSELVES AS VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM AND (WHAT ELSE?) POLISH ANTISEMITISM

After WWII, a very disproportionate share of the Communist government forced on Poland was Jewish. In time, many of these Jews emigrated to the US and misrepresented themselves as victims: “The ten years of Jewish rule in Poland could not be easily forgotten. It was an era of the midnight knock at the door, arbitrary arrests, torture, and sometimes secret execution. Most of those responsible for that reign of terror left Poland and upon arrival in the West represented themselves as victims of Communism and anti-Semitism—a claim which was readily believed in the West and earned them the full support of their hosts.” (p. 86). A brilliant move.

Stefan Korbonski attributes the 1968 purge of Jews from the Polish Communist Party to a Soviet reaction to the Israeli victory in the June 1967 war and to popular Polish support for the Jewish side at the time (p. 85). Polish cardinal Stefan Wyszynski offered a prayer for Israel on June 5, 1967 (p. 92). Among leading Polish émigrés, General Wladyslaw Anders sent a letter of congratulations to Israeli General Moshe Dayan for his brilliant victory, to which Dayan responded favorably (p. 92).

PROGRESS IN POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS? WHAT PROGRESS? ASSORTED POLAND-ACCUSING MEMES (1989; Same in 2019)

Poles have at times been unfairly blamed for segregating Jews into ghettos. In actuality, before WWII, most Jews chose to live apart from Poles. Nor does this self-segregation necessarily imply discrimination the majority. Korbonski cites the Zionist Jabotinsky (Jabotinski), who compared the self-segregation of Polish Jews to that of Europeans living in Shanghai, China (p. 8).

Before WWII, the Endeks (National Democrats) believed that Poland’s Jews were an inimical factor in Polish life owing to the non-assimilated state of most of them, along with their dominance of the economy. But whether or not in agreement with them, one has to recognize that the Endeks, contrary to common portrayals, didn’t represent the majority of Polish opinion. Korbonski estimates that less than 20% of the Polish population supported them (p. 19).

Many recurrent Polonophobic themes, which first started emanating from certain sectors of the American Jewish population decades ago, are addressed and refuted by Korbonski. These include accusations of Polish collaboration with the Germans in the extermination of Poland’s Jews, universal Polish indifference to Jews, etc. Again, how disappointingly little has changed since then!

Korbonski shows that there was much more Polish aid to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising than commonly believed (and infinitely more than shown in Holocaust films!). The Polish Underground not only supplied scarce firearms to the Jewish fighters, but also fought alongside them (p. 59). There were also two unsuccessful attempts the Polish Underground to blow holes in the walls surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto, both of which ended in the deaths of the attacking Poles. The Polish Underground was responsible for evacuating the Jewish combatants through a tunnel after the fall of the Uprising. One may also be surprised to learn that Mordecai Anieliewicz did not have to commit suicide: An open escape route still existed.

In full candor, Korbonski discusses the rare cases where Poles killed fugitive Jews, and even killed two Jewish commanders in the AK. The perpetrators were a tiny extremist faction within the NSZ (p. 66). More recent evidence suggests that the perpetrators were not the NSZ, and that many fugitive Jews were killed bandits, some of whom had earlier been recruited Communist bands (the AL and GL).

Korbonski elaborates on the 1985 anti-Polish film SHOAH, Claude Lanzmann. Pointedly, Lanzmann used only 9.5 hours out of 350 (p. 115), choosing the scenes that fit his transparent anti-Polish agenda. Following this film, there was a formal Polish-Jewish dialogue (p. 118-on). It is obvious that little of lasting value was accomplished it. In fact, what passes today for Polish-Jewish “dialogue” is a grouping of LEWAKS and Jews agreeing on some premise that blames everything on the Poles.

LIKE 1989 LIKE 2019

Korbonski also answered the anti-Polish attacks of Abraham Brumberg (pp. 93-96), Elie Wiesel (p. 117), and others. But so what? We now (30 years later) we have a new generation of Abraham Brumbergs and Elie Wiesels.

Decades ago, arch-Polonophobe Jan Tomasz Gross (Jan T. Gross) had already been writing mendacious attacks on Poland. In his book, THE POLISH SOCIETY UNDER GERMAN OCCUPATION, Jan T. Gross made sweeping accusations of the Polish Home Army (AK) being (what else?) anti-Semitic, to which Korbonski retorted: “Yet he knew very well that many Jews fought in the ranks of the Home Army, including several officers at its headquarters. Stefan Korbonski responded to that unfounded accusation in his review of Gross’ book in the ZESZYTE HISTORYCZNE publication.” (p. 93).

But what’s the use? The same attacks get recycled and embellished, along with some new ones. In fact, the informed reader can also appreciate how little has changed in the 30 years since 1989, as seen in the media’s lionization of Jan Gross and his scurrilous attacks on Poland, as exemplified in his NEIGHBORS, followed that in FEAR and GOLDEN HARVEST. On top of that, we now (2019) have Gross wannabees such as, for example, Jan Grabowski, Anna Bikont, and Barbara Engelking. What’s more, the media and academia treat their pronouncements as gospel truth, and Poles are called “nationalists” if they try to correct the falsehoods.