I don't have the evidence at my fingertips, but I have seen surveys showing astounding levels of antisemitism in Poland -- a country where there are, as I say, a lmost no Jews any more. And there are anecdotal things like the clowns who wanted to build a nightclub on the site of the railhead to Auschwitz a few years ago.
As to W's defense of the prewar Poles, ptooey. I actually didn't say the Poles were the worst -- I said the Romanians and the Lithuianians were. (BTw, I should mention that there was a popular Yiddish song, Romanie, Romanie, about the glories of the old country. Course there area lot of sentimental Irish songsa bout the auld sod sung by desecendents of refugees from the potato famine.) The Ukranains were terrible too, but there the Jews were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen rather than in camps. The camps were build in Poland because there a lot of Jews there, so it was less trouble to transport them, and because the Poles were either in general hostile orindifferent to their fate.
As to assimilation. some upper class Jews aspired to be Poles. Most Jews in Poland were poor people who lived in shtetls. The Poles didn't consider them Poles, but zhidy, Yids, and they didn't consider themselves Poles but Jews. German Jews, who looked down on Polish Jews as low class, dirty, unenlightened religious fanatics, rather embarassing, did aspire pretty consistently to assimilation.
And W, don't give me this identity Politics crap, "I grew up there, this is my culture." Alas, it's my heritage and culture too. That's why I'm here. And why I have no living relatives any more in Poland.
--- Chris Doss <itschris13 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Justin:
>
> The Poles still hate the Jews, and there
> are none of us left in Poland any more.
>
> ---
> Do you have evidence for this, or is this simply a
> cultural stereotype?
>
> ---
>
> Auschwitz.
> Not, interesting, Oszweicim (sp?). How terrible to
> be
> from there, and to have that pall hang over your
> inevitable answer to that inevitable question.
>
> ---
> Yes, that must be a bummer. About 10 years ago I
> read an interview with
> Eichmann's son, who at least at that time was
> teaching anthro at the
> University of Tubingen. He said something like "I
> know my father did some
> very bad things, but to me he will always be the guy
> who taught me to ride a
> bike." Thank God Hitler didn't have any children. On
> the other hand,
> Stalin's grandson and great-grandchildren (who is
> named Josif Veniaminovich
> Dzhugashvili - imagine growing up with that name)
> are down in Georgia.
> Stalin III spends his time glorifying the memory of
> his illustrious
> progenitor, which of course is less controversial in
> Stalinophilic Georgia.
>
> My grandfather was in fact a Nazi (not a party
> member as he was too young,
> 17 when he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943,
> but a Hitlerite). I used
> to have some real psychological baggage over that.
> BTW he wasn't a vicious
> anti-Semite either; in his mind he was just
> following the orders of the
> Fuehrer like a good patriotic soldier.
>
>
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