Israel, jews and anti-semitism came up at a dinner table discussion.
I stepped forward and said that Israel needs to calm down and said that after all "you don't see Poland armed to the teeth harassing its neighbors and constantly bringing up the holocaust to justify being an aggressive power." I was laughed at. Then I mentioned that the holocaust started in Poland, after the Nazis invaded it and built extermination camps and that the holocaust was not just about the jews, but about Lebensraum and the need to destroy Poland and the polish race which ultimately led to the killing 2-3 million non Jewish Poles, together with another 3 million polish jews. I was laughed at, told how the Jews were especially targeted, and that the Poles helped the nazis etc.. That the Poles that died were just casualties of war (as if that was any better or worse) etc. I mentioned that Germany and Russia have repeatedly sought to destroy the Polish nation and that poland was wiped off the map for roughly 100 years. "that was forever ago, germany and russia would never do such a thing today. " Although I would never say never, I partly agree, bu my point was that it's just as ridiculous for Israel to be paranoid about its existence as it would be for poland.
I read up about anti-polonism, and was surprised to see many statements from Polish figures sympathizing with the plight of the jews without making much mention of the fact that the Poles were fellow victims of the holocaust. When Polish organizations expressed outrage at hints in the western media that poland collaborated with the nazis, they often mention the righteous poles who helped the jews, but without really stressing the ultimate insult of calling a victim of the holocaust a participant in it!!
An article in the Economist defending the Poles' role in WWII had the following passage:
One could ask him why he thinks more Poles are honoured at Yad Vashem than gentiles from any other country. One could also point out that Poland was under foreign occupation during the Holocaust, and that Poles, unlike some other places occupied by the Nazis (Norway, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark or the British Channel Islands, for example), proved extremely unwilling to collaborate with Hitler’s war machine. One could note that the allies won the second world war thanks in part to Polish bravery and brilliance in smuggling out the Germans’ Enigma cipher machine.
One could also mention that while 3 million Jews were Killed in Poland, The Poles themselves were to suffer complete extermination, and that 2 to 3 million Poles subsequently perished. Isn't that a glaring omission??
Am I wrong?
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