Reviews

"Simuland" him/herself bears false witness by spreading ignorance!: "What Polish underground? That must have been a really exclusive minority. There was no organized effort by any Polish underground to save Jews; whatever Jews happened to be rescued were done so by individuals acting on their own. To claim otherwise, as K. does, is to lie." FACT: Poland had the largest--and longest lived--underground in Europe during WWII! It gave France & Britain a copy of the Germans' enigma coding machine, & helped to crack the code. FACT: Future Georgetown University Jan Karski escaped to England to inform a doubting West of the Holocaust(including meetings with British foreign secretary Anthony Eden and President Franklin D. Roosevelt). FACT: Zegota (the Council to Aid Jews)was a branch of the Polish underground established to rescue Jews from the Nazis.Its express purpose was to aid the country's Jews and find places of safety for them in occupied Poland. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe with such a dedicated secret organization.

Simuland then continues to spew his bigotry: "Widespread deep-seated Polish anti-Semitism both predated and survived the Nazi invasion; Poles killed Jews even after the Nazi's retreated. To this day they make life insufferable for the scarce Jews who remain in their country. (I have this directly from a Jewish colleague who grew up in and fled modern Communist Poland.)" There was strong animosity on both sides toward each other. This came from centuries of antagonistic living in close quarters (predicated by Poland's unprecedented religious tolerance--which is why 90% of European Jews lived autonomously in pre-partitioned Poland). While some Poles did kill Jews, it is likewise true that some Jews killed Poles. To blame the entire populations for the actions of the few, would be like blaming all Americans for the actions of the Ku Klux Klan. Many Jews were communists (the 1st. head of the party in post-war Poland, for example), and helped the Soviets to select & deport 2 million Poles to Siberia after Stalin invaded & divided the country with his ally, Hitler, in 1939 (within a year, 1 million of these Poles were dead). The "pogrom" he alludes was political. In the Cold War, Moscow backed the Arabs against the U.S. backed Israel. It directed the Polish Communist Party to rid itself of its Jewish faction. The non-Jewish & Jewish factions of the party were bitter rivals.

Obviously, "timgui," you know little--if anything--about Polish history, especially during World War II. Six million Poles (half Gentile, half Jewish) died in the Holocaust. This is because the Slavs were also on the Nazis' list. Poland had the largest--and longest enduring underground in Europe. They had the only organization--"Zegota""--created to save Jews. More Poles saved more Jews than any any other country (even though only in Poland was aiding a Jew punishable by death--often for the whole family, or the whole village--NOT a necessary law if Poland was so anti-Semitic as you would have us believe). There are thousands of stories of Poles trying to save Jews. I have heard none of Jews trying to save Poles. As a matter of fact, many Jews were responsible for the deportation (and subsequent death of half) of millions of Poles, sent to Siberia by their Soviet comrades (who were Hitler's allies at the time). And I don't know where you got your rosy view of the Communists!! Stalin killed millions more than Hitler--and mostly of HIS OWN people (in one year alone he starved 7-14 million people--mostly Ukrainians--while he was exporting food for cash)!! You have no idea how ruthless they've been. Get your facts straight before you spout off!!