WERE POLES KILLING AND WERE THE GERMANS RESCUING JEWS?

JANUSZ WOJCIECHOWSKI

As catharsis, then catharsis…time for a Polish film about how Poles were killing the Ukrainians in Wołyń with saws.

1. My knowledge about the worldly culture is not impressive, so maybe somebody of You will help me - has a famous film in the world ever appeared about how the Germans had been killing the Jews? Did this kind of film appear especially in Germany? Has any film been made about a meeting in Wannsee where murdering of millions of Jews had been decided, after which jellyfish and poultry in three tastes were consummated for dinner? I do not know this kind of a film. Well, there was the film ‘The last stage’ by Wanda Jakubowska from the years 1946 but outside Poland it was unknown.

2. Instead the worldly masterpieces were created about how the Germans had been rescuing Jews. The ‘Schindler’s List’, ‘A pianist’. How beautifully were wonderful attitudes of fair Germans shown in them, in the face of the overwhelming evil. Schindler rescued thousand of Jewish workers in such a way that he simply had not sent them for death. And the film ‘A pianist’ showed a beautiful attitude of a German officer, captain Hosenfeld, who had rescued heroically a Jewish musician Władysław Szpilman from death, to whom he had brought food. Schindler was rescuing Jews in Cracow, Hosenfeld in Warsaw. Where is Cracow, where is Warsaw? In Poland…And Poles? And Poles, numbering 15 people, were forcing one and a half thousand Jews to a barn in Jedwabno at that time. Unfortunately, this time the Germans were late with help…

3. Has a worldly-famous film or a novel appeared – please, correct me if I am wrong – about how Poles had been rescuing Jews during the war? Instead famous works appeared about who Poles had murdered Jews. The whole world already knows the ‘Neighbours’ by Jan Tomasz Gross, and soon it will see the film ‘Aftermath’. Earlier there was the famous ‘Shoah’ by Lanzmann about a cruel indifference of Polish boys towards Holocaust. Among literary and movie works a clear message is going to the world – Poles were killing Jews, whereas the Germans were rescuing them.

4. A cruel nation, those Poles. Cruel for ages, because it has already been thousand years since cruel Poles murdered German children on shields near Cedynia. Such a picture of Poland is in the eyes of today’s average American man, for example, Barack Obama. Such a picture is also in the eyes of the average Pole, for example Maciej Stuhr.

5. When Polish creators will have presented a full picture of Polish crimes on Jews, it will be necessary to show to the world how Poles were killing the Ukrainians in Wołyń with saws. These terrible crimes cannot be forgotten either. As catharsis, then catharsis…

(AA)

"Niedziela" 50/2012

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
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