Z comments: But the most antisemitic people in the world are Romanians."I respond: Ok, first of all, it's not all Ukrainians who are anti-Semites. It's much more prevalent amongst Poles. It's true that Poles are anti-Semites for a variety of reasons:
I'd actually say that the Ukrainians, Russians, and Poles are actually more antisemitic that Romanians, if only because there were so many more Jews in those countries as compared to Romania.
So many of the citizens in all of these Eastern European countries are antisemitic because Ashkenazi Jews dominated their economies for so long (as a non-native ethnic minority) and played such a major role in the repressive form of Communism that existed there...so can you really blame them for harboring ill-will toward them?
1. They wanted Jews to convert to Catholicism.
2. Catholicism was doctrinally opposed to Judaism.
3. Jews refused to assimilate to Polish culture.
4. Jews often refused to learn Polish (though this has been overblown as many Jews did learn Polish).
5. Competition between poor Jews and poor Poles.
6. Role of Jews in Communism, which most Poles really hated. As Stalin said, bringing Communism to Poland was like putting a saddle on a horse. The main reason Poles opposed Communism was not that they were wonderful people or anything, but it was due to their Catholicism.
The business about Jews promoting Communism mostly applies to the postwar period, so Poles can hardly use it as an excuse for their behavior during the war.
Jews never dominated the economy of Poland at any time to my knowledge, unless you want to go way back in time 100's of years. By the mid to late 1800's, there was a massive population explosion of Polish Jews and this ended up impoverishing a large number of them.
Let this be a lesson to all of those racialists, racists, nationalists and ethnic nationalist pro-natalists who say that having lots of babies is wonderful for the economy!
Many Ukrainians are anti-Semites, but note that there was mass volunteerism when Germany invaded Ukraine. There were quite a few fighting with the Ukrainian Nazis (nationalists), yes, but there were vastly more fighting with the USSR and then in partisan bands. These partisan bands were full of Jews.
Nowadays, many Ukrainians are anti-Semites because many are nationalists. The nationalist-Nazi line has gone over pretty well, but that's mostly in the Western Ukraine. In the eastern Ukraine, there is not much anti-Semitism and they are pro-Soviet. This is part of the Holodomor crowd.
It's not really known how nationalist or anti-Semitic Ukrainians were from 1945-1990. The Ukrainian nationalists blow things way out of proportion. Keep in mind that many more Ukrainians joined partisan bands and volunteered for the Red Army than joined the nationalist bands.
Note that the Red Army and the partisans were in a war to death with the nationalists - a terrible and gruesome war with atrocities on all sides. The Holodomor - Ukrainian nationalist crowd is associated with the nationalist bands who fought alongside the Nazis against the Red Army and partisan bands in WW2.
To say that the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians still line up with the nationalist - Nazis against the partisans, or that it was always this way, is completely mistaken. Many Ukrainian peasants were quite happy to be rid of those kulak bastards, and peasants were the overwhelming majority in the Ukraine, not kulaks.
Yes, there was a famine in the Ukraine, but life expectancy exploded in the Ukraine before and afterwards. This was a time of hardship, and people were just taking a lot of this horror in stride.
I would guess that the vast majority of Ukrainians felt or later figured out that the Nazis were far worse for the Ukraine (and had an infinitely worse plan for the future) than Stalin ever did. During WW2 and even afterwards, most Ukrainians did not believe in this Holodomor bullshit, and most felt that about 2 million died.
Ukraine lost 25% of its population during the Nazi invasion, and the Nazis had deadly plans for most of the rest. That's way more than died in any kind of Holodomor, fake or otherwise.
Russians do not hold it against Jews that they played a role in Communism. Communism is actually pretty popular in Russia right now, or at least it is not unpopular. The Russian nationalist fascists like Solzhenitsyn are not that common and even the Russian Nazis are usually socialists and even pro-Stalin. Stalin is positively regarded by most Russians today.
There is resentment against Jews by Russians, but Jews never dominated the economy in either Ukraine or Russia except for now with the return to capitalism, so there is now some resentment due to their role in looting the USSR.
Russians started hating Israel because the Israelis lined up with the West after WW2. That's what that was all about. Also E European Jews (Zionists) were caught spying for the US over and over. The USSR always disliked Jewish nationalism so that was another reason they opposed Israel.
But initially Stalin supported Israel when it looked like they were going to be pro-Soviet or even neutral. They turned pro-West real quick. This explains Stalin's anti-Semitic turn in the USSR after the war.
At one point in the late 40's someone asked Stalin why he was persecuting the leaders of the Jewish organizations in the USSR and he said, "But you do not understand! They are all Zionists!" So he wasn't going after them because they were Jews but because a lot of them were thought to be lining up with the West in the Cold War.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.
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