JUST A MISTAKE?

Polish Americans have been complaining about descriptions such as "Polish concentration camps" and "Polish death camps" for years now. At first we assumed these were just mistakes made by the uninformed, confused or simply ignorant. Later, we began to get concerned and suspect that there just might be some animosity involved.

Today, I have less doubt. Surely, anyone who writes about "Polish" concentration or death camps is either a bigot or a moron. Considering that reporters and columnists are generally well educated and reasonably intelligent, I would vote for "bigot," except that it is too simple an explanation and does reach to the roots of the problem.

Recently an article in the widely circulated Parade magazine referred to concentration camps and the ghetto in Warsaw as being Polish. Well, there should no longer be any need to explain that they may have been situated in Poland, but characterizing them as Polish is a major historical error. There is no excuse for any educated person not knowing that these places were created and managed by the Germans. On an equal par is hiding the true identity of the perpetrators by constantly referring to them as "Nazis." Described only as Nazis, the uninformed reader, particularly the young not familiar with the history of World War II, might easily assume them to be Polish. That is misinformation by misdirection.

Mistakes or purposeful? Again, it is difficult to believe that it is merely error. Just sloppy reporting? If so, it is still inexcusable and would not be tolerated by editors in any other situations.

The Parade article was written by a gentleman named Blumenthal. It may not be politically correct to mention that this writer has a typically Jewish name, but it is factual. The point is made here only because the description of German camps and ghettos as Polish is too often made by Jewish writers. Poles have ignored stating this because we do not want to be equally guilty of the bigotry apparently evidenced by those authors. Ignoring the truth, however, does not help to rectify a wrongful situation. Sometimes, regardless of how hard it may be, reality must be faced head on.

There are reasons why Jewish writers may tend to think of German crimes on Polish soil to be actually the work of Poles. Those motivations may not bestow total innocence upon the writers, but they do account somewhat for the incorrect descriptions.

To some extent, the reason may be seen as "hereditary," not in the physical, but the psychological, sense. Young Jews were often taught that the transgressions were Polish, either by intentional falsehoods or by carelessly defined statements. Polish guilt is, therefore, deeply ingrained in some persons from their youth and difficult to correct even by education and investigation. It is not easy to erase the lessons taught on the knee of one’s grandfather.

German Jews, such as those with Germanic names like Blumenthal, considered themselves superior to Slavic Jews, just as other Germans claimed superiority over all Slavs. There has always been a love-hate relationship between German Jews and other Germans, so it was not difficult to ascribe the offenses within Polish borders to the residents rather than the German occupiers. Recall the difficult truth that Jews initially refused to believe that the German population could commit atrocities against them and resisted leaving what they considered to also be their fatherland.

The foregoing is explored here primarily as a part of the difficult task of perfecting Polish-Jewish relations. If some Jews have inaccurately described the events of WWII, some Poles have also incorrectly portrayed the history of Jews in Poland. Both sides have to discard old concepts and look anew at each other, and their mutual history. Only then will false statements disappear.