|
« Those airbrushed WMD
Main |
January 27, 2004
Oldest hatred revisited
The Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster have joined the Chief Rabbi in warning against resurgent antisemitism and drawing attention to its link with anti-Israelism. They say: 'Criticism of government policy in Israel . . . is a legitimate part of democratic debate. However, such criticism should never be inspired by anti-Semitic attitudes, extend to a denial of Israel's right to exist, or serve as justification for attacks against Jewish people.' Such a declaration, which the Times religious correspondent Ruth Gledhill says is 'unprecedented in its strength', is long overdue and very welcome. As the Times remarks in a perceptive and sensitive leader today, the fact that some Jews are reassured that 'only' one in five Britons thinks that Jews have too much influence and a Jewish prime minister would be unaceptable is only because they feared the situation was actually much worse. 'To discover that millions of Britons harbour such attitudes is deeply depressing...' says the paper. 'That the publication of such poll results should find so many Jews unsurprised is perhaps the most concerning aspect.' It is more than a pity, however, that the clerics' statement was not also signed by Muslim leaders. And it will be worth very little unless the Christian churches now actively confront within their own flock precisely this cross-over from criticism of Israel into anti-Jewish feeling that they have now identified. Are the Christian clerics' words to mark Holocaust day worth any more than the paper they are written on? Posted by melanie at January 27, 2004
Comments
Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust Friends of Sabeel So I guess you won't be attending ? Just who or what are these organisations ? Posted by: Romulus at January 27, 2004 05:47 PMPrescott Bush (President's Grandfather) financed Hitler into power from 1922 onwards and had his assets confiscated by the US Government in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act. That was Prescott Bush's contribution to 54 million deaths. There are similarities between Hitler invading Poland and Bush invading Iraq: 1. Each happened simply because just one warmonger politician decided to invade. 2. Both events had the Bushes behind it (Hitler had Prescott Bush from 1922) 3. Hitler only invaded Poland once, and killed less Poles than Dad Bush killed Iraqis. (Dad killed 200,000 in the war, 1.5million with sanctions - UNICEF) 4. Both Hitler and Bush chose a defencess nation to attack. (The Iraqis could never attack America, can't and never have killed Americans) 5. Both Bush and Hitler own the world's biggest military machines. (There over 1,000 times more Weapons of Mass Destruction in the USA; isn't that where the Weapons Inspectors should be sent?) 6. Both Hilter and Bush seized power by usurping the electoral process. (Bush brothers destroyed 250,000 Democratic votes in 4 electoral frauds in Florida, declared "W" the winner by 537 votes.) 7. Hitler and Bush gave fake reasons to invade. (Saddam Hussein has never been in partnership with bin Laden). But the Bushes and bin Ladens have been business partners for 24 years. The bin Ladens were the first investors in GW Bush's first company, Arbusto in 1978 and are still joint owners of The Carlyle Group, a multi billion dollar weapons company which the Bushes built up with corrupt government contacts. 8. Freedom in Germany and the USA had been denied before the attack (This time it's Bush's cynically named USA Patriot Act which nullifies the Bill of Rights of 1791. Both Hitler and Bush imprison people without trial.) 9. Both Hitler and the Bushes show stunning cruelty. (Dad Bush dropped depleted uranium "dirty bombs;" now thousands of Iraqis are dying horrible deaths of radiation poisoning.) 10. The populations of both Germany and the USA were indoctrinated by the govenment (Carl Rove with 24/7 "news" has duped Americans into believing they are "under threat" and war is "inevitable") 11. Hitler and Bush both keep their populations subdued with brutality. (GW Bush faced 7 legal cases (eventual impeachment?) for electoral fraud in Florida. That was Bush's motive to bring down the World Trade on 9/11. He said his junior business partner Osama did it, which is unbelievable - he should have resigned at that point if only for his connections to Osama.) 12. Both wars could have been prevented simply by arresting the President of the invading country and prosecuting him for election fraud and war crimes. (GW Bush has killed 10,000 innocent Afghans). War is only inevitable while Bush is President. We will be at war for as long as Bush is President. If Carl Rove continues to fool the American people and Bush serves two terms, he will destroy the foreign-debt ridden American economy for all time. (He will probably also kill more than the total of 4.73 million people his Dad did, but Americans don't know about that - their press is censored for foreign news.) And remember the USA orgainsed the 1963 coup which put Saddam Hussein's brutal Bathist party in power, and the USA and Britain financed and armed Hussein every step of the way. All the killing around Iraq has been done by the USA or is the responsibility of the USA. It is up to the USA to remove Bush first, as Dubya is the real threat and killer, then remove Saddam the way it put him in, ie a coup, not a war. Posted by: Pre$$kott von Busch at January 27, 2004 08:23 PMJames Taranto in his Best of the Web today (Wall Street Journal) has this: Who's Like Hitler? 35% said Jews "should stop playing the victim because of the Holocaust and persecution of 50 years ago."
Pre$$cot - You are aware, no doubt, that Grandfather Bush is the shadowy figure on the "grassy knoll". Posted by: Theodopoulos Pherecydes at January 27, 2004 10:42 PM"The Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust" is a group aimed at building links between Western Christians and those in the Holy Land. The latter are of course mostly Arabs. The one-day meeting mentioned by Melanie is described here: http://www.livingstonesonline.org.uk/events.htm It is taking place at a Friends Meeting House in Central London. Advance registration is required (cost £10). It is co-organised by the Quakers as well as the two bodies mentioned by Melanie. Why not go? If indeed it turns into "a hate-fest against Israel and the Jews", I am sure the Trust's spiritual patrons would be interested to hear about it. Their names are listed here, and include Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, one of those who made today's statement: http://www.livingstonesonline.org.uk/patrons.htm Posted by: KJN at January 28, 2004 12:34 AMThe supposed similarities between the German invasion of Poland and the US invasion of Iraq are flippant. However, the links between President Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush, and the Nazi industrialist Thyssen, were discussed in the mainstream media in October 2003, first in the New Hampshire Gazette: http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=NN_Bush_Nazi%20Link and then by The Associated Press, whose investigation is reported here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100474,00.html http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=8054 The latter emphasises that George W Bush and George H W Bush are of course not responsible for their (grand)father's actions. It also notes that the Bush family was allowed to keep the money it had made from trading with the enemy. Other material available on the internet, but with no mainstream imprimatur, alleges that the companies controlled by Union Banking Corporation, of which Prescott Bush was a director, used slave labour from Auschwitz. Posted by: KJN at January 28, 2004 02:20 AMIt is easy to be delusional when you take a few facts, add a whole lot of rubbish and ignore all the other very pertenant facts surrounding an issue. That is the method of delusion used by Pre$$cott Von Bush. While some of his claims had smidgeons of actual fact, twisted by relentless spin and hatred, this one is totally devoid of reality: 6. Both Hilter and Bush seized power by usurping the electoral process. (Bush brothers destroyed 250,000 Democratic votes in 4 electoral frauds in Florida, declared "W" the winner by 537 votes.) No set of ballots was counted any more carefully than the Florida vote. In all recounts, even years later, Bush still won the state. There was no evidence of any tampering with democratic votes. All allegations were investigated without a shread of evidence to the contrary. The election laws of Florida were followed as was the Constitution of the United States in electing Bush President. Appointing Gore to the office would have been a violation of State law and the Constitution. Bush won. Get on with your life. Finally, there is evedence that Pre$$cott von Bush puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like Hitler, and that his grandfather wore mirrors on the tops of his shoes. I wouldn't trust him. Posted by: Jim at January 28, 2004 03:24 AMThe idiot who wrote a diatribe against Bush is bonkers. ". Hitler only invaded Poland once, and killed less Poles than Dad Bush killed Iraqis. (Dad killed 200,000 in the war, 1.5million with sanctions - UNICEF)"
They fought there in 1939 and again in 1942 when the Red Army invaded for the second time since 1939. The Soviets deported 2 MILLION Poles from the east to Siberia. This man/woman/thing is so ignorant as to beggar belief. As for Prescott Bush he was a Partner in Brown Bros. Harriman merchant bank arranging trade finance.......but ask what the Warburgs were doing arranging loans for Germany. http://www.polandsholocaust.org/intro.html Poland's tragic fate during WW II, particularly the Holocaust, is well known, including the fact that 6.5 million Polish citizens perished, of whom close to 3 million were Jews. Jan 1945 http://www.kresy.co.uk/ww2losses.html Posted by: Romulus at January 28, 2004 07:20 AMPre$$kott von Busch, So? Your mother was a dirty whore. Does that make you one too? Posted by: murph at January 28, 2004 10:35 AMHitler liked dogs, and so do I. Does that mean I am Hitler? Posted by: Toby at January 28, 2004 11:26 AMIf you wish to find those who currently are most guilty of propagating the central aspect of Hitler's ideology - his virulent Jew hatred - do not look to those who are on the Right, but, instead, seek the men and women of the Left. The new anti-Semitism does not wear the colors of black and brown but red and green. Posted by: Charles at January 28, 2004 11:46 AMThe statement by these religious leaders does not, as usual, go far enough. It should specifically lay the blame for the upsurge of attacks on Jews where it belongs - with the muslims in Europe. We have already seen a major EU report on the rise of anti-semitism being shelved because it was found that the muslims were responsible for this increase. When is everyone going to stop bending over backwards to spare the feelings of muslims? Oh, maybe its because they are so sensitive about any criticism of their religion. Well, a strong well founded religion can take criticism. Islam can't because any criticism is too near the truth - and as we all know, the truth hurts. Posted by: Derek at January 28, 2004 11:52 AM"3. Hitler only invaded Poland once, and killed less Poles than Dad Bush killed Iraqis. (Dad killed 200,000 in the war, 1.5million with sanctions - UNICEF" Just one example of how such despicable individuals play fast and loose with the truth: 1) Hitler did not invade Poland. The German and Austrian armed forces backed by the overwhelming support of their respective nations invaded Poland. 2) Hitler did not kill Poles. The German and Austrian armed forces did not kill Poles either for the most part. They did murder millions though. 3) The German and Austrian armies together with millions of Polish collaborators murdered over 3 million Jews alone. 4) Virtually all Iraqis who were killed were serving members of the armed forces of a murderous regime which had invaded a neighboring sovereign state in order to steal its oil and territories and murder and enslave its people. 5) Those Iraqis who were killed were not killed by Bush, but by the coalition forces of many nations from around the world, including Arab nations. 6) The sanctions were backed by many nations around the world and by many different leaders. Given that Clinton was in power for eight years of those sanctions and Blair for over six years, they are, de jure and de facto, far more responsible for the effects than Bush's father. The real analogies are these: Bush and the coalition force = Roosevelt and the Allies in World War II. Iraq under Saddam Hussein = Nazi Germany and Austria under Hitler. Appeasers of Saddam Hussein = Nazi collaborators and sympathisers Posted by: Charles at January 28, 2004 12:08 PM"It should specifically lay the blame for the upsurge of attacks on Jews where it belongs - with the muslims in Europe." And the incitement by the Left. Posted by: Charles at January 28, 2004 12:09 PM"Hitler did not kill Poles. The German and Austrian armed forces did not kill Poles either for the most part. They did murder millions though" Charles stop being an apologist for Revisionists. If the Nazis killed no Poles as you say, they certainly harmed no Jews. And in the east - Polesie the Jews cooperated with the Red Army and NKVD deporting Poles to Siberia. The German/Austrian Armies (no distinction as it was one Reich after 1938) killed nmany more Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Bylorussians than they did Jews........38 million Europeans died in the War Charles..... Posted by: Romulus at January 28, 2004 12:21 PM"So? Your mother was a dirty whore. Does that make you one too?" Prescott Bush through Harriman Brothers did indeed finance Hitler. Was he any less guilty though than those nations, including the Allies, which closed their eyes and turned their backs as genocide was committed on the continent of Europe? Was Bush any less guilty than Switzerland and Sweden which laughingly called themselves "neutrals," but actually backed the Nazis with with money, arms, and vital raw materials, and in Switzerland's case stole money from murdered Jews? Posted by: Charles at January 28, 2004 12:21 PMMuslims need no incitement. The left covers up the violence. Posted by: Derek at January 28, 2004 12:22 PM") The German and Austrian armies together with millions of Polish collaborators murdered over 3 million Jews alone." There is a place called Yad Vashem......what is the largest contingent of 'Righteous Gentiles' commemorated there Charles ? You repeat this 'blood libel' against Poles (and I am not one) which is factually incorrect, and the product of a twisted nationalist/racist mindset........ If you knew any history ytou would know about General Gouvernement and Frank, and lapanka, and you would not write such self-centred, ethnocentric twaddle.......if you believed such rubbish you would have to be as rabid as that neio-Fascist who shot Rabin. Posted by: Romulus at January 28, 2004 12:29 PM"If the Nazis killed no Poles as you say, they certainly harmed no Jews. And in the east - Polesie the Jews cooperated with the Red Army and NKVD deporting Poles to Siberia." 1) I wrote that the German and Austrian armies did not kill, but murdered. It would pay you to actually read what other posters write in future. 2) The actions of the Poles and many millions of other gentiles in collaboraing in genocide resulted from an anti-Semitism promoted by the church and gentile culture over two thousand years. In most cases they had the active approval of their local churches and leaders (who had in many cases organised massacres themselves). What a few Jews (who in most cases were no longer Jews anyhow) may or may not have done, were the actions of those individuals alone. No Jewish country or people sympathised or encouraged those actions. Compare this with a Lithuania, for example, whose partisans backed by the church and their local leaders, and certainly the great mass of their fellow citizens, murdered 93% - 250,000 -of Lithuania's Jewish citizens "The German/Austrian Armies (no distinction as it was one Reich after 1938) killed nmany more Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Bylorussians than they did Jews........38 million Europeans died in the War Charles....." Only Jews and Gypsies were marked for death without exception. Only these two groups were subjected to a pre-arranged industrialised genocide. Only Jews were virtually wiped out in Europe. Only a small percentage of Poles and Ukrainians were killed, many of whom were any way fighting in the armed forces (of which 300,000 in Poland were Jewish) - small in comparison with the Jews who, inter alia, lost 99% of their number in Poland and 93% in Lithania, 75% in Holland, 60% (600,000) in Hungary. The greatest irony of course is that almost all the nations you mention were themselves responsible by direct action and collaboration for the murder of millions of Jews. However much they hated Germany and Austria, they hated Jews even more. Posted by: Charles at January 28, 2004 12:39 PM"There is a place called Yad Vashem......what is the largest contingent of 'Righteous Gentiles' commemorated there Charles ?2 Given that 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland, it is shocking how few Poles are represented at Yad Vashem. "You repeat this 'blood libel' against Poles (and I am not one) which is factually incorrect, and the product of a twisted nationalist/racist mindset........" 1) The "blood libel" (the suggestion that Jews murdered Christian children and used their blood to bake matzos) against the Jews originated in Poland and is still, incredibly, believed by many people in Poland today. That you would employ this term to defend the Poles themselves is typical of a man who, at every twist and turn, seeks to blame Jews and Israel for all the ills of the world, and at the same time find no one guilty of the persecution to which they, the Jews, have been subjected. Ugly but typical. 2) After a deeply anti-Semitic history replete with pogroms and vicious discrimination, Poland in 1935 (four years before Germany had put a foot inside the country) introduced a number of anti-Semitic laws that were, in great measure, modelled on the Nuremberg laws. Jews were forbidden from taking any jobs in government; Jews were basically forbidden from entering universities; special taxes were levied on Jews. During this time, Jews were openly harangued and attacked in the streets of every Polish city and town on a daily basis. The government explored various possibilities of how Poland could "get rid" of its Jews, including ethnic cleansing. This latter was only prevented by the outbreak of war. 3) I have given many examples before of Polish collaboration during the war. Just a few examples now. A) In virtually every city, town and village in Poland Jews were betrayed to the Germans by the local people, sometimes for an item as small as a second-hand suit, usually for nothing. B) In every city, town and village, the property left by Jews was immediately stolen by the local population. Indeed, in a telegram to London, the local partisan group, the Home Army, told the government-in-exile that the Poles would never accept the Jews back, especially now they were in possessionof their property. C) Jews who had escaped the round-ups were far more likely to be murdered by local Poles than the Nazis. We have detailed authenticated accounts of massacres of Jews carried out by the Poles. Jewish partisans who escaped the Warsaw Ghetto were later murdered by local Poles. Can there be any wonder that a popular saying during the war was: "When Hitler dies we will come to his grave to spit on it. We will then return to bring him flowers to thank him for helping us get rid of the Jews." D) The local partisans, when not killing Jews themselves, gave virtually no help to Jewish partisans. Of the money sent by the government-in-exile in London to the Home Army only 1% was spent on helping Jews. E) There are now today virtually no Jews left in Poland. Why? 1) Because of pogroms carried out against Holocaust survivors directly after the war. 2) Because of anti-Semitic rioting in many Polish cities in the 1960's. 3) Because of the climate of pervasive anti-Semitism still encouraged by the church and nationalists, and which exists despite the almost complete absence of Jews. Thus we have a radio station, Radio Maria, run by the church which pumps out anti-Semitic propaganda from morning to night. Radio Maria is listened to by over 30% of the Polish population. Thus we have anti-Semitic literature being sold on every street corner. Thus we have a city like Lodz literally covered from head to foot in anti-Semitic graffiti. 4) After the recent display of friendship by the Pope to the Chief Rabbis of Israel, literally thousands of Poles, now worried their souls might burn in hell, have come forward confessing their part in the genocide of the Jews. "If you knew any history ytou would know about General Gouvernement and Frank, and lapanka, and you would not write such self-centred, ethnocentric twaddle.......if you believed such rubbish you would have to be as rabid as that neio-Fascist who shot Rabin." Coming from a man who displays every sign of having the very same mentality as those who carried out the atrocities I have spoken about, I really am not surprised by such vicious insults.
The massacre spoken of by the BBC has now been confirmed. Jews were either shot by local Poles, or alternatively rounded up and burned to death in a barn. BBC News Wednesday, 19 December, 2001, 18:02 GMT Polish investigators say the latest evidence about a 1941 massacre of Jews in the eastern village of Jedwabne appears to confirm suggestions that German troops were not involved. Now an investigation into bullets found at the site has found that they were not of a type used by the Germans at the time. The investigators say they also have no evidence indicating any significant German presence in the area. The possibility that Poles were responsible for the killings led to a national debate in Poland on wartime attitudes towards Jews. President Alexander Kwasniewski apologised earlier this year for the role Poles played in the massacre. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1719790.stm "Only a small percentage of Poles and Ukrainians were killed" According to Alan Bullock, at least 3 million non-Jewish Poles were killed by the Nazis (10% of the non-Jewish population). I don't have the comparable percentage for Ukranians, but I would doubt if it was much less. That is not, by any yardstick, a "small percentage" of the population. Any population has its share of scum. The fact that a small percentage of Eastern Europe's population collaborated with the Nazis in murdering Jews does not *prove* that the inhabitants of Eastern Europe generally endorsed the mass murder of Jews, any more than the fact that a certain percentage of the Bolshevik leaders were Jews *proves* that Jews generally endorsed Bolshevism. Posted by: Sean Fear at January 28, 2004 02:01 PM"The fact that a small percentage of Eastern Europe's population collaborated with the Nazis in murdering Jews does not *prove* that the inhabitants of Eastern Europe generally endorsed the mass murder of Jews, any more than the fact that a certain percentage of the Bolshevik leaders were Jews *proves* that Jews generally endorsed Bolshevism." Why should I not be surprised that Mr Fear, without any evidence whatsoever makes the totally fabricated and outrageous claim (a claim that borders on Holocaust denial in its depravity) that: "The fact that a small percentage of Eastern Europe's population collaborated with the Nazis." Such a claim ignores the evidence of deep and pervasive collaboration of the governments, the church and millions of citizens in Europe and the genocide of the Jews. It also is a denial of the massive anti-Semitism that is and was so prevalent in Eastern and Central Europe. That Fear goes on to make a completely illegitimate comparison - one that is so common in anti-Semitic circles - between the participation of lapsed Jews in the Bolshevik uprising and the collaboration of Christians in the Holocaust is again hardly surprising. That the Holocaust - the industrialised slaughter of an entire people- was the end result of 2,000 years of European gentile hatred of the Jews and was carried out by million upon millions of gentiles (actions which have been well documented) while the church and their governments turned their back or actively encouraged it, totally goes over his head. Compare this with the actions - actions that were never sanctioned by Jewish authority, culture or the mass of the Jewish people - of what a few individuals who had formerly been Jews may have committed during a bloody civil war. Who can be taken aback that Fear stated elsewhere that he cannot understand why "saving the Jews" should have been a priority of the Allies? No, his arguments are all of a piece with his obvious feelings about Jews. Posted by: Pooh at January 28, 2004 02:23 PM Charles Pooh - naturally! Posted by: Charles at January 28, 2004 02:23 PM"That is not, by any yardstick, a "small percentage" of the population." Do you actually read anything properly? It is small in comparison with the over 3 million - the 99% of the Polish Jewish population (those who had not escaped prior to the German invasion) who were murdered, and that is the comparison I orginally made. And that many of the Poles were not civilians but fighting member of the armed forces, unlike the Jews who were mostly ordinary, men, women and children, is also a signal difference. Who can doubt that these attempts by so many to diminish the Holocaust, and also to deny that so many millions of willing gentiles took part, is not just one more manifestation of this new wave of anti-Semitism that is sweeping through Europe? Charles, you're becoming a parody of yourself. Nowhere have I denied that the holocaust took place, nor that the mass murder of Jews was anything other than a wicked crime. What I have been trying to point out are three obvious facts:- (1) Jews weren't the only European victims of Nazism and (2) most Europeans neither were nor are responsible for the mass murder of Jews and (3) defeating Nazi Germany by any means possible took priority over futile efforts to save any particular ethnic group And since this is the second ad hominem attack you have made upon me, I consider that I am entitled to reply that if I were a neo-Nazi troll wanting to make Jews appear bigoted, nasty and spiteful I'd post the sort of paranoid ranting that is your speciality. Posted by: Sean Fear at January 28, 2004 02:51 PMPrescott Bush, I gather you don't own a Ford then? Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge at January 28, 2004 03:36 PM"No Jewish country or people sympathised or encouraged those actions. "
Charles you are ridiculous, but it is probably therapeutic for you to ooze your loathing of Christians and Gentiles. You have never condemned the Soviet Union or Stalin.....why not ? The fact that makes you riddled with guilt Charles is that there was NO widespread collaboration with the Germans in Poland; it was the one occupied country where they could not find Quislings or Petains........and it was in fact not the Nazis who organised the Ghetto but the Judenrat; and it was a self-administered zone closed off to anyone else but the SS/SD. You loathe Gentiles and Christians, at least you help us understand Anti-Semitism in a more rounded perspective....do you loathe yourself too ? Posted by: Romulus at January 28, 2004 04:04 PM"After the recent display of friendship by the Pope to the Chief Rabbis of Israel, literally thousands of Poles, now worried their souls might burn in hell, have come forward confessing their part in the genocide of the Jews."
I do understand that Polish passports are all the rage in Israel now with long queues at the embassy. With the economy looking rough, insurance policies in the form of an EU Passport with the right to settle in Britain are apparently appealing.....understandably. What is your second citizenship Charles ? http://www.iyp.org/polish/history/antypolonizmy/jedwabne_en_8Eastern Poland was inhabited by Poles, Jews, Belorussians, Ukrainians, and others who fought, brutalized and betrayed each other in one of the worst place in wartime Europe in June, 1941, the Nazis broke their non-aggression pact with the Soviets, who had occupied eastern Poland since September, 1939, and invaded the area. There is a mountain of documentation which shows that in this area, occupied by the Soviets during 1939-1941, a significant number of Jews collaborated with the Soviets in the arrest, deportation and death of thousands of Poles. Jedwabne Jews were no exception. When the Soviets reconquered the area from the Germans in 1944-1945, Jews again were prominently involved in the destruction of the Polish Home Army and the arrest and execution of Poles loyal to the Polish democratic government, then in exile in London. That process of Jewish involvement in the persecution, imprisonment and execution of Poles continued throughout the Stalinist era. Even though in his earlier writings Gross had admitted Jewish complicity with Poland's enemy, he now conspicuously dismisses this aspect of Jewish behavior because to acknowledge it would depict Jews as victimizers of Poles, a contradiction of the prevailing Holocaust image that all Jews were victims. Cast in the light of Jewish collaboration with the Soviets, it should not be too surprising that some Poles may have sought out Jewish traitors and tried to kill them. It worked the other way too. Several hundred Poles, including women and children, were murdered by a Jewish-Soviet partisan unit in Koniuchy in 1944. One of the members of the unit was even honored by the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. AS IS SO OFTEN THE CASE WITH SENSATIONALIST ACCOUNTS OF THE WAR, the author raises more questions than he answers. He bases his claims primarily on the allegations of Szmul Wasersztajn, who was not an eyewitness to the events at Jedwabne but was in hiding some distance away, and the testimonies elicited during the Lomza trials in 1949 and 1953, a period when Poles underwent the brutal Stalinization of their country. Regarding German documentation concerning Jedwabne, Gross claims he looked for it but "I was unable to find it." I am not entirely convinced Gross personally investigated German and, for that matter, former Soviet archives during his research on his book. He makes the quaint observation that he asked two scholars, both of whom allegedly familiar with German archives, about Jedwabne and neither of them heard of it. IT IS TESTIMONY to the power of the "Holocaust Industry," to borrow Professor Norman Finkelstein's apt description, that an obscure event that occurred in eastern Poland sixty years ago should be dredged up in this slim volume that is long on sensationalism and short on acceptable historical evidence and receive the hysterical media acclaim that it has received. We are a long way from the quality control Holocaust historiography desperately requires. Now more than ever we need fair and balanced investigations of the Holocaust and the related genocides of eastern Europeans by the Nazis. The highly sensitive subject of Polish-Jewish relations can no longer be painted with the broad brush of anti-Semitism. The subject needs trained professional historians to present all the facts and who refuse to apply one standard of moral behavior to Jews and a more severe one to Poles. Let us hope that the research currently underway by the Polish National Institute of Memory will give us the answers to Jedwabne that Professor Gross failed to provide us. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/ http://www.thbookservice.com/bookpage.asp?prod_cd=c6184 Esteemed Jewish historian tells how Christian rescuers saved untold thousands of Jews from the Nazis Why is the secularist press ignoring this book? One of Britain's most distinguished historians, Sir Martin Gilbert has written no fewer than eight books on Holocaust themes. So when he turned his attention to the subject of Christian heroism on behalf of Jews during the Nazi era, those who have been accusing Christians and their leaders of complicity with, or silence about, Hitler's crimes themselves fell into silence. Most of the major reviewers who had lavished attention and praise on previous Gilbert books simply ignored this one. But the truth will out, and the Conservative Book Club is honored to bring this monumentally important book to wider attention. Drawing on twenty-five years of original research, Sir Martin vividly re-creates countless dramatic stories of non-Jews -- the overwhelming majority of them Christian -- who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust, for which some of them have been formally recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum and archive in Jerusalem. "The penalty for helping a Jew hide was often death," writes Gilbert, "especially in Poland and eastern Europe. Many hundreds of non-Jews were executed for trying to help Jews." Through extensive interviews, he explores the courage of those who -- throughout Germany and in every occupied country from Norway to Greece, from the Atlantic to the Baltic -- took incredible risks to help Jews whose fate would have been sealed without them, including:
A Polish woman known as "the Angel of Lvov," who worked closely with Roman Catholic authorities to obtain false certificates of baptism for those in imminent danger An Italian policeman, Giovanni Palatucci, who saved at least 500 Jews from death -- with help from his uncle, Giuseppe, the Catholic bishop of Campagna, who requested and received financial assistance from Pope Pius XII for the Jews under his care The Ukrainian Uniate Archbishop of Lvov, who hid hundreds of Jews in his churches and monasteries Others were priests and nuns, nurses, teachers, neighbors and friends, employees and colleagues, soldiers and diplomats, and, above all, ordinary citizens. "At the beginning of the year 2002," writes Gilbert, "fifty-six years after the end of the war in Europe, more than nineteen thousand non-Jews had been honoured as Righteous at Yad Vashem. As one century gave way to another, more than eight hundred non-Jews were being identified and honoured every year. Were a single printed page to be devoted to each person already recognized as Righteous, it would take fifty books the size of this one to tell all their stories." No doubt the full story of these mostly anonymous heroes will never be told, but Sir Martin Gilbert has made an excellent -- and long-overdue -- beginning. "Truly remarkable stories of the brave deeds of the Righteous: poor Polish farmers, for instance, who hid Jewish families under barn floors or in attics; Italian priests and nuns who disguised refugees as monks and novices (as in Assisi, where one hiding place was 'the only convent in the world with a kosher kitchen'); British prisoners of war who smuggled Jews scheduled for annihilation into their own camps, keeping them fed and hidden for months at a time at grave risk to their own safety. These stories are marvelous moral lessons." -- Kirkus Reviews
But the Wos experience prompted Paul to sit down and write a letter to Dr. Mordecai Paldiel who heads Yad Vashem's Department for the Righteous in Jerusalem. It started as a thank-you note shortly after the 1998 ceremony at Israel's Consulate in New York where he and his parents, now deceased, were awarded 3 Certificates and Medals of Honor. More than from any other country, Poles number the largest group of rescuers at Yad Vashem. Now the Wos family made it even larger by adding their names to this distinguished list. Along with his expression of thanks for the medals, Paul alerted Dr. Paldiel to a flaw he found in the procedures Jerusalem uses to identify individuals as "Righteous." From his own experience it was clear the special requirements seriously understate the count of Polish Christians who also merit recognition but are unable to qualify under present rules. Citing the Germans' ominous warning of mandatory death that was unique to Poland, Mr. Wos wrote, "Countless Polish families, even entire villages, were slaughtered for their heroism. Some perished on the spot alongside the Jewish families whom they tried to save. Many heroic actions by Poles may not be honored and their story never told because there are no surviving Jews to corroborate these events." The Wos experience made Paul realize nobody would have remembered or cared how many Jews his family saved a half-century ago had he not visited Israel a year earlier. There he met some of the surviving members from the families he helped escape the ghetto. When they found out no one ever bothered to speak up for Wos and his parents, they contacted Yad Vashem and confirmed that the rescue really took place. Only their testimony, so many years after the fact, caused the selfless courage of the Wos family to become a part of recorded history. "Without the verification efforts of the Melamed family and Professor Israel Shahak, this recognition would not have occurred," he said. Mr. Wos believes there are thousands of Polish Christians who aided Jews in various ways and should be added to the rescuer lists at Yad Vashem. In the United States, "there appears to be a segment of contemporary Jewish society which holds the misconception of Polish Christians as 'by-standers' and 'indifferent.'" Such accusations, Mr. Wos feels, are unjustified and unfair. "Jews were killed because they were Jews, but at the same time, Poles were being killed because they were Poles. Had the Germans caught us helping our Jewish friends, we all would likely have been immediately executed. Then, instead of being honored at Yad Vashem, not only would the Wos family be forgotten but we would have found ourselves put into this kind of 'bystander' category," by those who are unable to understand the situation we were in, the said.
Great Timing Rowan ! You certainly have views on suicide bombers methinks Archbishop meets Arafat The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as part of a five-day trip to the Middle East. Dr Williams was due to pay a courtesy call on Mr Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah before visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/PA_NEWRELIGIONArchbishopthu02ar?source=null
A statement from the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said the bomber, identified by Palestinian sources as a policeman, http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/8881813?source=Reuters Posted by: Romulus at January 29, 2004 02:35 PM |
