Danger signs from Poland
It is no comfort that the resuscitation of the most wicked and dangerous anti-Semitism is articulated by a small group of Poles who blame the pandemic on Jews and state that Jews “rule the world.” [See page 6.]
“The Jews poisoned the wells.” “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion control the world.” “The Jews hate the Poles.” Such are the irrational themes of anti-Semitism centuries old that have not died.
Any manner of rational discussion is barred by this level of anti-Semitic mentality. In this configuration, no one is hiding anti-Semitism behind anti-Zionism or otherwise playing games. The hatred and paranoia are out in the open for all to hear and see. “We live in times when such people do not even disguise themselves,” wrote a Jewish professor at the University of Warsaw.
There are several lessons here:
• Do not regard the tiny size of the anti-Semites as a reason to discount their importance. All small, destructive movements, not least Nazism, began small.
• Acknowledge that while legitimate differences over Israeli policies are held by people of good will, others who disagree with Israeli policies have simply located the current address for their Jew hatred.
• Even Poles who share nothing in common with the anti-Semites in their midst, do contribute to the hatred of Jews by insisting that Jewish-owned property before WW II now rightly belongs to Poles. The reassignment of ownership rights of this property is not a matter of “reparations.” It is the return of specific properties, whose original ownership is clear, whose theft is also clear, that is asked for. Poland is the only country in Eastern Europe not to do the right thing. Poland’s governmental policy casts the Jews as greedy and devious, and thus contributes to the anti-Semitism in Poland today.
Every Jew is grateful for the Polish righteous gentiles who courageously saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust, and sometimes lost their own lives trying to do so. To claim that other Poles were not anti-Semitic on their own initiative is a denial of history. The hatred was there — not only before and during the Holocaust, but after. And not only immediately after the Holocaust.
A little talked about episode today is what happened in Poland in 1968. Tens of thousands of Jews were subjected to a government-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign, and tens of thousands of Jews fled. Poland is virtually empty of Jews today not only because of the Holocaust. The survivors of the Holocaust were also hounded. This itself testifies to the deep roots of anti-Semitism in Poland, even as more Poles discover that they are of Jewish descent or otherwise find the Jewish history in Poland fascinating.
The country has made a dramatic turn from communism to democracy. Many of its citizens surely acknowledge the nature of its past. It is time for Poland to make the next turn: from anti-Semitism to ethnic and religious tolerance.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
