Complex Dance: Poles and Jews in World War 2

We have already been over this subject a few times on this blog and there is no need to rehash it forever, but despite all my reading on the subject, I still cannot seem to figure it out.

See A Short History of 20th Century Poland, Who Were the Real Terrorists in Kielce 1946?, Zionology or Żydokomuna?, Stojgniev O'Donnell, "The Feast of the Resurrection 2007" and It Is Better to Forget Some Things on this blog for background into this immensely complex subject.

The problem is that Polish nationalists and anti-Semites are continuing to use Jewish cooperation with the USSR during and after WW2 as a club to beat Jews over the head with and keep the anti-Semitic fight between Jews and Poles going on forever.

Here are a couple of examples of modern anti-Semitic Jewish nationalist stuff along these lines: Neighbours On The Eve Of The Holocaust. Polish-Jewish Relations In Soviet-Occupied Eastern Poland, 1939-1941 from the Canadian Polish nationalist Electronic Museum site and Jews Murdering Poles, Jedwabne and the atrocities in East Poland 1939-1941 (part II) by Prof. Jerzy Robert Nowak.

A slightly similar piece, but much more balanced, comes from an excerpt from a book called Darkness and Hope by Sam Halpern on the Zionist and Jewish religion site aish.com.

These pieces present a picture of Jews kissing the tanks of the invading Soviet troops, collaborating with the Soviets, and assisting the Soviets as they carried out punitive actions, including executions, against those who were supporting a Polish nationalist insurgency against the USSR.

It is important to note that the Nazis killed 90% of the Jews in Poland, and many Poles were all too willing to help the Nazis by pointing out Jews and in any other way they could think of. It's true that many Poles risked their lives to save Jews, but surely an even larger number helped the Nazis kill Jews by collaborating with them.

From an excerpt of an English translation of Leonid Smilovitsky's The Holocaust in Belarus 1941-1944, we see an entirely different picture, in which the nationalist forces of both Poland and Belarus were actively assisting the Nazis in killing as many Jews as possible.

The persecutors of Jews in the Belarus included the AK or Armia Krajowa, the Polish Home Army, the main Polish resistance group. This complements the common wisdom that the AK was basically a rightwing nationalist army (though they fought both the USSR and Nazi Germany) and they were not exactly Jew-friendly.

Polish nationalists had shown strong anti-Semitic feelings before and after the Nazi invasion. Nationalists of all stripes and their supporters, including Polish nationalists, were among those helping to herd the Jews to their deaths. After the Nazis invaded Eastern Poland and the Red Army retreated, most of the local Jewish men of fighting age were pressed into service in the Red Army, but many others just flat out volunteered.

Of course these Jews kissed the Soviet tanks and later volunteered for the Red Army. It's also not surprising that many Jews collaborated after the war with the Communist government. The USSR meant life for Polish Jews. Nazis and to some extent Polish nationalists and their supporters meant possible to sure death.

Smilovitsky's page indicates that East European nationalists of various stripes were running around killing an awful lot of Jews and even collaborating with the Nazis. They were killing plenty of civilians too.

The Jews were collaborating with the Red Army in their own counterinsurgency against the AK, who were fighting the USSR. There was a dirty war on both sides with killings of villagers and other civilians, massacres, burning of villages, expulsions, and on and on. It was a horrible time in a monstrous war with lots of death all around.

To characterize this whole complex period as "Commie pro-Soviet Jews running around murdering innocent Poles" is completely mistaken.

I'm willing to discuss this matter further if anyone has anything intelligent to add to the conversation.

References

Halpern, Sam. 1996. Darkness and Hope. pp. 37-40, 47-48. New York: Shengold.

Neighbours On The Eve Of The Holocaust. Polish-Jewish Relations In Soviet-Occupied Eastern Poland, 1939-1941. Electronic Museum website.

Nowak, Jerzy Robert, Jews Murdering Poles, Jedwabne and the atrocities in East Poland 1939-1941 (part II), translated by Lesław Kawalec.

Smilovitsky, Leonid. 2000. Katastrofia Evreev v Belorusii 1941-1944
(English translation by Judith Springer: The Holocaust in Belarus 1941-1944), pp. 129-146. Tel Aviv: Biblioteka Motveya Chernogo. From the Jewish Gen Yizkor Project website.

Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.