Excerpts from article on June 28, 2019 in Haaretz in response to Poland’s law forbidding reference to Polish participation in the Holocaust.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave Poland a real treasure in return recognition of Poland’s narrative. The joint declaration, which (for good reason) the two leaders read in English rather than in their voters’ languages, made it clear that Warsaw has scored a real victory in the battle for the historical narrative. Israel has acknowledged that the Polish nation and state, as a whole, were not involved in the Holocaust and did not collaborate with the Nazis.
Israel also recognized that the Polish government in exile and the Polish underground acted to rescue Jews. In addition, it appreciates and respects the action of “many Poles” who saved Jews, including, of course, about 7,000 Polish Righteous Among the Nations. These points are not historically disputed. Israel’s reservation concerning the phrase “Polish extermination camps” is also clear and acceptable.
The problem begins with the part of the declaration dealing with the most painful, difficult and sensitive issue: the part many Poles played in persecuting, turning in and murdering Jews – before, during and after the Holocaust.
Not a word about burning Jews alive after locking them up in a barn; no mention of “hunting down Jews” in the fields and selling them to the Germans for a beer bottle. Moreover, this is followed by a reservation, saying that the “cruelty” wasn’t linked to the criminals’ Polish origin – or even to their religion or “world view” – but was simply conduct practiced by “certain people” – so the statement said – in various places. In other words, “there are bad people everywhere.”
The joint statement lacks an honest reckoning on Poland’s part of the findings arising from numerous historic studies, including those carried out in Poland itself.
Examining these studies shows that the Polish collaboration with the Nazis was so extensive, under any criterion, that in almost every village, township and city there were Poles who agreed to sell their soul to the devil.
Excerpted from Aderet, Ofer (June 28, 2018). Israel yields to Poland’s narrative. Haaretz English Edition.
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