TIME IF OUR COMMON ENEMY
LIDIA DUDKIEWICZ, THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF ‘NIEDZIELA’
Poles were extremely surprised by the results of surveys carried out among the youth in France. For, it turned out that, being asked who the Nazis were, 70 per cent of young French people answered that…Poles. This is a signal to undertake a strategy of actions in the sphere of historic policy. Especially that bad news (or maybe in this case false news) has been perpetuated the 11th time, and good news (the real one) has been perpetuated the 3rd time. So, we must write our history ourselves very quickly, as others are already writing it. Let it be not too late!
Lack of reliable historic policy is a big sin of neglect. – In Poland we all must shout loudly that those were German nationalist socialists who had built death camps and crematoria on Polish lands. It were them who had brought the Jews from all over Europe to kill them on our land. Poles were the next to be in this queue to death – said Fr. Prof. Waldemar Chrostowski at the international congress on help to Poles in saving the Jews during the Second World War, which had been organized by the Higher School of Social and Media Culture in Toruń. He emphasized that the death plan against the Jews on the area of Poland had been a very precisely organized action. It was aimed at destroying the good image of Poland among the Jews. At the aforementioned conference Fr. Dr. Paweł Rytel Adrianik and his brother Artur shared the investigation results and gathered testimonies in preparation of the Memory Chapel at the sanctuary in Toruń. During three years they collected testimonies of 40 thousand people about Poles saving the Jews. At present in the chapel there are 1059 their surnames written. – We have the common enemy. This enemy is time. It is necessary to do everything so that memory about them would not disappear.
Among Poles saving the Jews there are two people strictly connected with ‘Niedziela’ -Fr. Antoni Marchewka and Zofia Kossak-Szcucka. During the occupation they helped a lot of people, among the others, a Jewish boy Arturo Dreifinger. Today on another anniversary of gaining independence by Poland, it is worth reminding the Decalogue Poland from the year 1940, by Zofia Kossak- Szczucka. Here is a perpetuated writing of it: ‘I am Poland, your homeland, the land of your Fathers, from which you grew. You will be grateful to me after God, for everything what you are: 1. You will not love the earthly materials more than me; 2. You will not call the name of Poland for your own glory, career or a prize; 3. Remember to give back property, personal happiness and life to Poland without hesitation; 4. Respect your Homeland, like your own mother; 5. You will fight with enemies of Poland steadfastly, till the last breath, the last blood drop; 6. You will fight with your own love for comfort and cowardliness. Remember that a coward cannot be a Pole; 7. Do not show any grief towards the traitors of the Polish name; 8. Say that you are a Pole all the time and everywhere; 9. Do not allow for any doubts in Poland; 10. Do not allow for insulting Poland, disrespecting its achievements and Majesty; After God, you will love Poland. You will love it more than yourself’. We see how the text of the Decalogue of a Pole is still current. At the present situation it is necessary to add one more commitment – a fight for the truth, as the wise reliable historic policy is a duty of every Pole.
AA
„Niedziela” 45/2016