Warsaw, Poland – The media’s use of phrases which imply – intentionally or otherwise – that Poland was partly responsible for the Holocaust has recently stirred a hornets’ nest.
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In a recent obituary of transplant pioneer Dr George Mathé, The New York Times wrote that he had been sent to “a Polish concentration camp in a cattle car.” The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, made use of the phrase “Polish concentration camp” in an August article.
Despite vociferous protests from Polish-Americans outside its New York offices, the business daily has declined to remove the offending phrase from its website. The New York Times’ article also remains unchanged.
The Polish Consul General in New York, Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, even wrote a letter to the WSJ’s editor, saying that its article was “indicating that Poland was a participant in the Nazi crime.”
The WSJ has countered that it used the adjective correctly, according to Polish daily Rzeczpospolita.
Nevertheless, other papers have previously been forced to rework their phrasing in similar situations. According to a feature written by journalist Alex Storozynski on liberal-leaning news site The Huffington Post, a June article in The Los Angeles Times used the phrase “Nazi Poland,” but quickly removed it from its website after being informed that it was libelous.
“The media’s slander of Poland: Ignorance, lazy editing, or malicious libel?”, runs Mr Storozynski’s headline, in reference to what he sees as a regular occurrence.
The question is rhetorical, of course, but also difficult – if not impossible – to answer. Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League in the US, told Rzeczpospolita he believed that over 90 percent of cases mentioning “Polish concentration camps” could be attributed to ignorance.
Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka was less certain. “You never know where the article used terms inconsistent with historical facts due to ignorance [or to] bad intentions,” she told the daily. In each case, she said, the response by those who find the error must always be to recall the truth of the matter.
After occupying Poland in 1939, Nazi Germany began rounding up and then systematically murdering Jews, much of which took place on Polish soil in infamous death camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka. According to figures published by Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, almost six million Polish citizens lost their lives during the war, many in concentration camps.
hey y quibble whats a couple of million jews they were on polish soil polish citizens and the poles did nothing to defend them my mother in law was born in the city of auschwitz her extended family munbered over 100 people in that town 2 survived the poles did the work just as the germans and as for the number of aditionals poles that died how many of them where conveerts to christianity one or two generations back as her friend tomas that in 1938 called her a dirty jew even though they had been friends for years post script tomas died in the camps his grandmother was a jew my mother in law survived and raised a family steeped in torah and yeira shomium
when schinlers list was made the producers wife a goy convertred to judiasm had to leave earlier because the polish extras were still curseing us out
and we give trhem jobs
Poland remains the only country to have pogroms even after WW2
Read the book “Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish community in Jedwabne, Poland”. At times they were more sadistic than the lovely Germans.
I don’t like to increase the hate against jews in Poland as many jews are traveling to Poland to our great parents and Rabbis grave sites. But the fact that atleast 65 % or 75% Polish local people were helping the Nazi Gestapos to kill the Jews. I had a polish house working lady about 18 years ago who told me that her mother told her that they helped the Germans because the wanted the jews out.
They even killed Yidden after the war
Even though many Poles were victims of the Nazis, and many went out of their way and risked their lives to hide Jews in their homes and churches, the fact of the matter is that there were many Poles who collaborated with the Nazis, and assisted the Nazis in identifying a Jew from a Pole. When the Jews were planning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, they tried desperately to buy arms from the Poles. The few arms which were sold to the Jews, were at astronomical prices. Even when the Jews staged an uprising at the Sobibor concentration camp in 1943, they were met with hostility and indifference by Polish civilians, once they managed to escape. The Poles were rewarded by the Nazis for turning Jews in. Last, there was a pogrom at Kielce, Poland in 1946, where over 100 Jews were killed, when they went back to Poland, in an effort to reclaim their homes. Even Lech Walesa stated that “Polish anti-semitism comes from their mother’s milk”. Even with less than 10,000 Jews remaining in Poland today, (out of 3,000,000 prior to WW2), there is still anti-semitism in Polish society.
The Pollacks dont like when the camps are referred to as Polish Concentration Camps?? Well TOO BLEEPING BAD! They WERE in poland the farshultina country!
I don’t disagree with the comments that Poland had and has anti-semites. I would just like to point out a couple of facts, though.
1. The Polish government is today trying hard to “do the right thing.” If you recall the story published at this Web site, at a soccer game in Poland a crowd of hooligans marched holding up anti-Semitic posters. The government responded by making it forbidden for them to attend those soccer games for the rest of the season. (For some reason there often seems to be anti-Semitic elements at soccer games in many countries.)
2. At risk of their lives there were also Poles who saved Jews. It’s well-known that for helping Jews the penalty was death. They’re honored by Yad Vashem. There was a Polish underground organization set up to help Jews. A Pole was smuggled into the camps and tried to make Roosevelt and others in the American administration, and in England, aware of the torture and killing of Jews on a massive scale and to stop the holocaust—but they refused to listen to him.
I just mean to say don’t condemn an entire country or people. Not everything in life is black or white.
There is not much to add to what the other (upstream) posters stated. Especially posters # 3 & 6. Jedwabne and Kielce were just two of the more infamous cases. The vast majority of the polish population were happy when they could turn a Jew over to the Gestapo. Beside getting rewarded (by the nazis) 1 kg. sugar and/or 1liter kerosene. There was a talk show host in NYC by the name of Barry Gray. He made a pointed observation. “Poland is an interesting country. You can’t find a Minyan, yet there is anti-Semitism”.
To #6 How correct you are, this fact is often forgotten by todays generation. The Poles are tied in the wool Jew haters. I visited Kielce about 20 years ago for a commeration of the communal Jewish cemetary. Since after the war it had been turned into a soccer field with all the matzavahs strewn around. A generous former Polish Jew then living in Germany paid for the restoration. Upon leaving Kielce our group was treated to a good bye message from the local drek, freshly scratched on the wall of a building “All Jews Must Die” along with a Magen David. Anti Semitisim is alive and well in Poland. The death camps were in Poland and should be called Polish Concentration camps. While I certailny acknowlege there were rightous Poles who risked there lives they were in the miniscual minorty compared to the vast numbers who derived pleasure from Jewish torture, who stole Jewish property, money and collaborated with the nazis YSM. Residents of BP & Willi STOP HIRING Poilishe goytas you are supporting the relatives of our murderers. And congratulations to the NYT & WSJ for calling the camps what they really are!
Of course, grammatically, you know, “Polish concentration camp” simply means a concentration camp in Poland, not that the Poles were necessarily responsible.