tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6142857971379251277.post1104543885923497505..comments2024-02-26T06:54:13.679-08:00Comments on Writing the Polish Diaspora: Hollywood's War with Poland: 1939-1945John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6142857971379251277.post-26663369382824731742011-08-28T18:42:14.989-07:002011-08-28T18:42:14.989-07:00Tried posting this before ... it may have gotten l...Tried posting this before ... it may have gotten lost. If so, trying again. <br /><br />I received some feedback about my mention of Cardinal Glemp. Here is my mention: "When, in 1989, Cardinal Glemp mentioned that Jews had sullied Poland's reputation in the press, he was sued by Alan Dershowitz and widely denounced as a wild-eyed anti-Semite."<br /><br />A concerned reader sent me reports of Cardinal Glemp's activities and public statements. I was shocked by what I read, specifically in reference to a 1995 display in Father Henryk Jankowski’s Church in Gdańsk that put a Star of David together with a Swastika, as symbols of forces that destroyed Poland. When people protested, Cardinal Glemp claimed that such protests infringed on freedom of speech. <br /><br />This is utterly alien to me and I protest it in my small way in this little note. Such displays are not part of anything I want to be part of, and not part of any idea of Polish identity that I would support. <br /><br />I agree with my correspondent that Cardinal Glemp has proven himself to be an imperfect person. At the same time, I stand by my initial statement. His 1989 speech was mishandled. Newsweek ran a photo of Glemp sneering at a pile of naked female Holocaust victims. He was spoken about as if he were Hitler, and as objectionable as his behavior and statements have been, he is not Hitler. <br /><br />It's a fine distinction to make: between a Cardinal Glemp many of whose statements about Jews I do not support, and the demon, essentially anti-Semitic and typically Polish Cardinal Glemp that the press, and Dershowitz conjured up. But it's a distinction worth making, I think. Our attempt to overcome stereotyping is challenged by objectionable, incorrect people, but we can't abandon our attempt to overcome stereotyping when confronted by objectionable, incorrect people.<br /><br />When I encounter a black person who happens to be both lazy and to have a criminal record, my best response is not to resort to the "Lazy, violent, N word" stereotype, and the press, and Dershowitz, did exactly the analogous thing in response to Glemp's 89 speech.D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6142857971379251277.post-69054900086283128852011-08-28T17:28:15.214-07:002011-08-28T17:28:15.214-07:00Your comments on Dracula are very much in line wit...Your comments on Dracula are very much in line with Jimmie Cain's book "Bram Stoker and Russophobia".<br /><br />William Shirer's "Berlin Diary", observing the lack of real war between Britain/ France and Germany after Poland was invaded, cogently makes the point that had Britain and France invaded Germany from the West, while the German ARmy was in the east, the whole Hitler era might have been avoided. Her 'allies" were no real help to Poland.<br /><br />The whole approach of England's "diplomacy" was to encourage Hitler to go east so that as I think Churchill said the two powers "could tear each other's guts out" -- and England could pick up the pieces. Stalin's realpolitik alliance with Hitler instead forced the allies to really fight Hitler, when Hitler went through the Ardennes. I read somewhere that German would have had the bomb if they had had another 6 months. They already had the V2, and already had jets and smart bombs. Putting the Fritz-X down the smokestacks of allied vessels in 1944, they far pre-dated the American media footage of the precision Stealth down-the-stack attacks in Iraq.<br /><br />1944, with Allied bombing and military attacks, was still the year of highest German aircraft production. <br /><br /> If, with his invasion of POland, Stalin bought enough land= time to enable the USSR to rebound to ultimate victory over Germany, it was probably the lessor of two evils. That time was an era of no clean hands, and multiple mutual atrocities. Poles in particular had to try to make choices to survive despite useless allies, and somehow how managing to survive under one regime, which would then make them choice targets for the other regime. Certainly few western European nations had this problem, with the severity the POles did.<br /><br />Nemo.<br /><br />NemoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6142857971379251277.post-30876651118910817212011-08-28T11:32:05.187-07:002011-08-28T11:32:05.187-07:00A reader wrote to say that my words about the Amer...A reader wrote to say that my words about the American Jewish response to Poland's efforts for rebirth after World War I were "greatly oversimplified." Here's what I wrote: <br /><br />"World War II was not the first time American Jews contributed to a negative American assessment of Poland. Andrzej Kapiszewski's "Conflicts Across the Atlantic: Essays on Polish-Jewish Relations in the United States During World War I and in the Interwar Years" reports that American Jews often undermined Polish efforts for its own rebirth in 1918 after over one hundred years of colonial status under Prussia, Russia, and Austria. In a typical incident, in 1914, American Jewish newspapers published an open letter alleging that "barbaric" Poland did not deserve independence."<br /><br />The reader who accuses me of "oversimplifying" may be understanding the above paragraph as a statement about all Jews all the time. It's not. It's a statement about some Jews who did make public statements, publish articles, and argue publicly with powerful movers and shakers that Poland wasn't worthy of independence. This is all supported in the book cited. <br /><br />Were those Jews who did this representational of all Jews? No, no more than anti-Semitic Poles are representational of all Poles.<br /><br />Poles did commit crimes against Jews during this period, and Jews had reasons to be concerned. That's undeniable. Again, the best approach was taken by those who offered serious criticism without resorting to essentializing and stereotyping, to referring to *all* Poles as "medieval" "barbarians" unworthy of independence and needful of supervision by superior non-Poles. <br /><br />A further example from "Conflicts Across the Atlantic." In 1919, a "well known Jewish American weekly" wrote that Poles are a "pogromist people" who should not dare show their face in America, "the Poles, a demoralized and degenerate people, a nation without honor and without honesty, prize liars … Poland, born in crime and sin will go under in a sea of crime and sin." <br /><br />One could adduce many such examples. <br /><br />Did all Jews oppose Polish independence by exploiting stereotypes? No. But it's undeniable that some did.D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6142857971379251277.post-27330761974119579982011-08-28T11:02:40.127-07:002011-08-28T11:02:40.127-07:00I received some feedback about my mention of Cardi...I received some feedback about my mention of Cardinal Glemp. Here is my mention: "When, in 1989, Cardinal Glemp mentioned that Jews had sullied Poland's reputation in the press, he was sued by Alan Dershowitz and widely denounced as a wild-eyed anti-Semite."<br /><br />A concerned reader sent me reports of Cardinal Glemp's activities and public statements. I was shocked by what I read, specifically in reference to a 1995 display in Father Henryk Jankowski’s Church in Gdańsk that put a Star of David together with a Swastika, as symbols of forces that destroyed Poland. When people protested, Cardinal Glemp claimed that such protests infringed on freedom of speech. <br /><br />This is utterly alien to me and I protest it in my small way in this little note. Such displays are not part of anything I want to be part of, and not part of any idea of Polish identity that I would support. <br /><br />I agree with my correspondent that Cardinal Glemp has proven himself to be an imperfect person. At the same time, I stand by my initial statement. His 1989 speech was mishandled. Newsweek ran a photo of Glemp sneering at a pile of naked female Holocaust victims. He was spoken about as if he were Hitler, and as objectionable as his behavior and statements have been, he is not Hitler. <br /><br />It's a fine distinction to make: between a Cardinal Glemp many of whose statements about Jews I do not support, and the demon, essentially anti-Semitic and typically Polish Cardinal Glemp that the press, and Dershowitz conjured up. But it's a distinction worth making, I think. Our attempt to overcome stereotyping is challenged by objectionable, incorrect people, but we can't abandon our attempt to overcome stereotyping when confronted by objectionable, incorrect people.<br /><br />When I encounter a black person who happens to be both lazy and to have a criminal record, my best response is not to resort to the "Lazy, violent, N word" stereotype, and the press, and Dershowitz, did exactly the analogous thing in response to Glemp's 89 speech.D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6142857971379251277.post-20646294302056272102011-08-28T10:28:12.190-07:002011-08-28T10:28:12.190-07:00I received some feedback about the review, above, ...I received some feedback about the review, above, and I'd like to share it here. <br /><br />A reader sent me a passage from the introduction to the Polish version of the book. It is anti-Semitic. Prof. Biskupski had nothing to do with this introduction. It was written by someone else, Stanisław Michalkiewicz. Prof. Biskupski has protested its inclusion in his book, not just in word, but in deed – he has put distance between himself and the publisher. Michalkiewicz's introduction invokes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious anti-Semitic forgery. <br /><br />I renounce such talk, just as Prof. Biskupski has done. Stanislaw Michalkiewicz's public statements, in this incident and in others, do not represent me at all. <br /><br />I ask my fellow Polonians to think about this matter. I invite them to compare scholarship like Prof. Biskupski's and mine and statements like Michalkiewicz's and compare the differences. We must recognize and support scholarship, and we must recognize and reject hate mongering. <br /><br />We don't like it when we confront bigotry, when people insist that is the nature of Poles to be brutal idiots. We must not embrace that tactic in relation to anyone else, and we must renounce it when someone who says he represents us spreads bigotry. Prof. Biskupski has done so. So should we.D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6142857971379251277.post-82183915190031923802011-08-27T11:40:08.081-07:002011-08-27T11:40:08.081-07:00Tygodnik Powszechny did a story on the introductio...Tygodnik Powszechny did a story on the introduction to the book, added by the Polish publisher, to the Polish addition. Tygodnik Powszechny says that the introduction, NOT by Biskupski, is anti-Semitic. Biskupski has protested this introduction. This is a shame. The book itself is not anti-Semitic at all.D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6142857971379251277.post-55389736314161577842011-08-27T11:34:21.245-07:002011-08-27T11:34:21.245-07:00Thanks, Danusha.Thanks, Danusha.John Guzlowskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6142857971379251277.post-70834536101417777462011-08-27T08:26:20.931-07:002011-08-27T08:26:20.931-07:00It looks like some links were lost in the transfer...It looks like some links were lost in the transfer of text, so I'll provide them here.<br /><br />A discussion of Anatole Litvak's "Decision Before Dawn" as a propaganda film meant to exculpate Germany, and indeed, Nazis, in the American mind is here: http://bieganski-the-blog.blogspot.com/2011/08/hollywood-exculpates-nazi-germany.html<br /><br />The opening of "Dracula" is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9qtivRryDM<br /><br />Todd Bennet's excellent article on the reception of "Mission to Moscow" is here: http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&folder=933&paper=1230<br /><br />The Amazon page for "Conflicts across the Atlantic" is here: http://www.amazon.com/Conflicts-Across-Atlantic-Polish-Jewish-Relations/dp/8371886829D Goskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353495585591945881noreply@blogger.com