Ira Forman, the US State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism writes on 7/22/2020 in the The Jerusalem Post / JPost.com:

“President Duda himself exploited the issue of restitution for pre-WWII Jewish property. Arguing against any settlement of Jewish claims, he proclaimed that he would never reward one ethnic group over another. This type of rhetoric led Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich to respond that “[t]he Jewish community of Poland was shocked that President Duda made a statement that specifically appealed to the votes of antisemites.””

[What is anti-Semitic about stating he would never reward one ethnic group over another?]

“Though Poland once was the home of one of the largest Jewish communities in the world [wrong, the largest, where they were protected by laws since 1363 when King Boleslaw the Great declared Jews “as people protected by the King” and this resulted in the largest migration of Jewish people to Poland in the world where they became very successful due in part to the protections and laissez faire offered them so that many lived completely unassimilated, many became successful entrepreneurs, and some became successful leaders much like the Chinese community in the USA today where some live unassimilated in Chinatowns (in Poland they were szetls), others own restaurants, laundromats and tailor shops, and many are entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors, politicians — that’s the way Jess lived in Poland for a 1,000 years and there was no war or mass violence between Poles and Jews), today there are only approximately 10,000 Polish Jews remaining, a tiny minority in a country of 40 million.” [Remarkably but as typical, not one mention of the word Germans or that Germany murdered these people, so that the blame goes to Poland].

“The issues of restitution for stolen Jewish property and complicity in WWII atrocities by some Poles has been heatedly debated in recent years. Surveys reveal rising levels of antisemitic attitudes among many Poles. The cynical manipulation of bigotry by the ruling party in this recent election can only have negative, real-world consequences for the Polish Jewish community. [Actually, it’s posts like this that then get repeated in the NYT and WaPo so that not only Israel but American Jewish people are poisoned with these anti-Polish bias lies. “Some” Poles. How many is that? Somewhere between 1 in 5,000 and 1 in 10,000 according to Jewish historian statistics. So 99.98% to 99.99% of Poles are innocent and you are ascribing WWII atrocities to criminals whom if you look at the last names cited are often Ukrainian, Belorussian, Estonian; all of whom have a different language, culture, and religion than Poles — they’re not Poles even though they are counted that way based on the fluid borders at the time. Stolen property — how could Poles steal property. If they did, they would be murdered. It was the Germans that stole property. That’s ridiculous.]

“That can’t be done by just handing out carrots like invitations to the White House. It’s time to use some sticks in support of human rights in Poland.”

[In other words, quid pro quo withhold support for Poland as the US Congress recently sent a letter to the Polish PM saying provide us with details on these special interest heirless properties or we withhold support. The US President was impeached for something similar with Ukraine but his special interest was re election. Anyone who knows anything about history knows if you leave Poland without allies, which is what all of this is leading to, it will get gobbled up and lead to war, and a global one at that.

These story lines have agenda, they are not based in facts, and if it means gut punching people to realize that all of this anti-Semitic stuff is totally made up, so be it, wake up! Poland has less crime against Jewish people than Brooklyn does. Millions of Jewish people visit there every year with no incidents. But when Poland says the Polish nation will not admit to crimes it could not have perpetrated, and will not pay Jewish people for the crimes perpetrated on them by Germans (not Nazis in Poland), that’s virulent anti-Semitism Michael Stern?

And when you point all of the various institutions that stand to benefit from what could be up to $300B (half of Poland’s GDP, for comparison they received $160 B for seven from the COVID-19 Fund, this is huge money to Poland, and why is it so big, because Jewish people were so successful in Poland prior to WWII (how were they if it was that anti-Semitic?) to continue the defamatory and anti-Polish story lines that people then repeat in movies, articles, higher education, all over social media and in daily interactions, that’s anti-Semitic?

Here is the way it works… this is a mass class action suit whereby any Jewish person in America with relatives who were tragically murdered by a German system and German people in German occupied Poland with no provisional government like Vichy or Quisling in France or Norway (Poland’s government could not have collaborated it was in exile in London, though did support the largest resistance movement in occupied countries, so half the world, against Germany’s murderous policies) will get a letter that says the Polish government is compensating Jewish for heirless claims. Please accept your $10,000 or whatever for five years, or be a good Jewish person and check the box on the tzadekh (a philanthropy organization for “creative works, research, and education” which Israel negotiated to have exempt from the anti-defamation which said you cannot “falsely ascribe” crimes and the atrocities of WWII on Poles, which these so-called Jewish historians called an anti-Holocaust law which is defamatory, because it’s not, and so that movies and so called research which is at this point all based on hearsay and opinions continue to move in the anti-Polish narrative.

Many people will check the box and the moneys will go to these institutions that are peddling these lies.

The fact is Poland has Jewish museums, refurbishes Jewish cemeteries, holds Jewish festivals as its part of Polish history. No one needs to tell us how to remember our history especially those looking for Poland to pay for these crimes it did not commit and will defame and slander as this Post does so that people like Michael Stern and Heather Rosmarin think it’s anti-Semitic to point this out and will dismiss it a conspiracy theory or “ingratitude”. No it’s happening.

And if it does happen, this issue is so deep and scarring for the Polish people, just as much and more than Jewish people, because we have to see these kinds of lies everyday and live with the anti-bias it causes, it will destabilize Poland.

A destabilized Poland will lead to a huge war. As Mark Twain history does not repeat but it sure does rhyme. So if successful on putting enough political, support, media, social pressure on Poland and Poles to settle which is the goal, it will be a significant risk to us all. Because Poles will fight, and there will be a war, and then there is everything that comes from that.

So please get woke. This is not Polish anti-Semitism. This is an attack by those who would benefit from a settlement for heirless properties and given the number of organizations, universities, movie producers that will benefit from researching and doing creative works on the Holocaust exempt from the defamation laws against Poland, we will see Poles portrayed as the virulent anti-Semitic Nazis that had Polish death camps that you have already been misled to believe.

Why hasn’t one Holocaust Museum or Yad Vashem gone out and said those were not Polish death camps, it’s wrong to say so, and blames co-victims for the crimes of the perpetrator. Because they would be one of the organizations to which a Tzadekh would be paid. So it’s against their interests to speak up, even though it’s wrong and against their missions not to. $300B divided by a 1,000 is still $300M. It’s enormous funding for a startup, museum, research grant, and how many of these Holocaust study organizations are the out there? Maybe a 1,000.

Because if these claims had any merit, they would have been satisfied already which they have been. The Poland government already settled with Jewish religious organizations just as they did with Catholic ones for restoration of religious lands like churches and synagogues so they could have them back. So why would Polish people today pay Jewish organizations or American relatives of Holocaust victims for the crimes of Germans?

They won’t, so the result is lobbying the USA (something the author of this post does), Poland’s ally against Russia and Germany, their historically murderous neighbors to withhold support unless these claims are settled.

It’s morally incorrect. And for those who think they don’t have a dog in this fight. You may not realize it but everything is tilted for you to have these knee jerk reactions to these claims instead of actually paying attention to what’s going on. Because these kinds of articles are what lead to misunderstanding, antagonism, and more.

To be clear, Poles told the world about the Holocaust when only 1 million people had tragically perished (There is a NYT article about it Dec 1942 when they presented to the then version of the UN and pleaded for help in stopping it). The US, the British, who could have bombed the railroads to stop the transport of people did nothing. They established the largest resistance against Germany, also Zegota the largerst organization for helping Jewish, it took 10-20 Polish people risking their lives and “the lives of their helpers” which often included families and neighbors to shelter and provide food to Jewish (but if they took money to buy food on the black market because they were on 460 calorie rations per day becuase Germany wanted to starve Poles and lower their birth rate), Yad Vasham disqualifies them from recognition which is why the number of helpers is under reported enormously.

I wonder who on this feed would help an illegal immigrant in California today if the penalty for getting caught was death for them and their helpers as it was in Poland when Poles helped Jews? Please comment below if you would — I want to acknowledge such heroes. But since no one would, why do Jewish organizations refer to Poles as bystanders, and complicit when they are aware of these laws.

It’s to take away sympathy, when they settle. Because if you make it sound like it was the Nazis in Poland and Polish death camps, not Germany and their German soldiers and guards and policies, then you don’t feel so bad taking the money from the victim. Just shake your head at those anti-Semitic Poles.

Pete Szymanski