{"id":35950,"date":"2020-12-18T03:56:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T11:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=35950"},"modified":"2020-12-22T12:19:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T20:19:55","slug":"complexities-of-polands-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2020\/12\/18\/complexities-of-polands-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Complexities of Poland\u2019s past"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrzej Ma<\/strong>\u0144<\/strong>kowski, Poland\u2019s consul-general in Vancouver, shared some reflections on his country\u2019s history with the Jewish Independent<\/em>, including about the \u0141ado<\/strong>\u015b<\/strong> Group, which tried to help Jews escape the Nazis by the issuing of fake passports. (photo from Andrzej Ma<\/em><\/strong>\u0144<\/strong>kowski)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The wartime actions of Poland and its people provide a prime example of the human capacity for good and evil. Many Poles today proudly point out that there are more of their compatriots recognized in Yad Vashem\u2019s Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations than there are heroes of any other nationality. By contrast, the work of Polish-Canadian historian Jan Grabowski and a team of researchers in Poland chronicles in great detail the collaboration by Polish officials and ordinary citizens in assisting the Nazis in the goal of executing the \u201cFinal Solution\u201d in that country.<\/p>\n

Poland\u2019s government prefers to focus on the more positive fact. So sensitive and contentious is the history that, in 2018, Poland passed \u2013 then, in the face of international outrage, rescinded \u2013 a law that criminalized expressions of Polish complicity in the Holocaust. At the time, Israel\u2019s President Reuven Rivlin acknowledged that many Poles had aided Jews during the war era, but also that \u201cPoland and Poles had a hand in the extermination\u201d of Jews during the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

Poland\u2019s consul-general in Vancouver spoke to the Jewish Independent <\/em>last week and shared some personal reflections on his country\u2019s history \u2013 including how his own grandfather was murdered in Auschwitz.<\/p>\n

Andrzej Ma\u0144kowski wanted readers of the Independent to know of a recently discovered story of a group of Polish diplomats in Switzerland who provided faked passports to help Jews flee Europe.<\/p>\n

Called the \u0141ado\u015b Group, after Aleksander \u0141ado\u015b, the Polish envoy in Bern from 1940 to 1945, the six individuals included four Polish diplomats, one of whom was Jewish, and two representatives of Jewish organizations that conspired with the officials. The RELICO Assistance Committee for the Jewish Victims of the War, established by the World Jewish Congress, and the Agudat Yisrael worked with \u0141ado\u015b and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

In addition to \u0141ado\u015b himself, three other Polish diplomats were members of the group: Stefan Ryniewicz, Konstanty Rokicki and Juliusz K\u00fchl. The two members of Jewish organizations in Switzerland who rounded out the group were Abraham Silberschein of RELICO and Chaim Eiss of Agudath Israel.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 1941 (or possibly earlier) until the end of 1943, the six men illegally purchased passports and citizenship certificates from Latin American countries, primarily Paraguay. The documents were sent to Jews in nations under German occupation, where possessing them increased chances of survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of those passports came too late to save people,\u201d Ma\u0144kowski said. \u201cThe recipients or the holders of the passports ended up in Auschwitz in spite of already having the false passports in their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

As many as 10,000 forged passports may have been obtained, but most reached their intended recipients \u2013 primarily German and Dutch Jews, as well as some Polish Jews \u2013 too late. Of about 3,200 passports issued to individuals whose names are known, it is estimated that about 800 individuals \u2013 approximately 25% \u2013 survived the war.<\/p>\n

Ma\u0144kowski\u2019s own family history is deeply impacted by the horrors of the Nazi era. His grandfather, Emeryk Ma\u0144kowski, fled Ukraine after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and settled in central Poland, where his wife\u2019s family owned land. Part of that land was forested and, during the German occupation, Nazi officials discovered a radio communications device in the forest on the property. Unable to identify the owner of the contraband device, they arrested 10 members of the local intelligentsia \u2013 including Emeryk Ma\u0144kowski \u2013 and sent them to Auschwitz as a warning to the rest of the population.<\/p>\n

At the time, Polish inmates were permitted 100 zlotys per month from their family. During the second month of his incarceration, Ma\u0144kowski\u2019s family had their monthly stipend returned, with a message telling them that the prisoner was no longer present in the camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe German Nazi bureaucracy was so precise and honest to send back money after killing the victim,\u201d said his grandson, the consul-general.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
As many as 10,000 forged passports may have been obtained, but most reached their intended recipients too late. Of about 3,200 passports issued to individuals whose names are known, it is estimated that about 800 individuals survived the war. (image from Andrzej Ma\u0144kowski)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Poles suffered at the hands of the Nazis, Ma\u0144kowski acknowledges the magnitude is incomparable. Three million Polish Jews died during the Holocaust and, during the same period, three million non-Jewish Poles also died, he said. This represented about 10% of the larger Polish population, but 90% of the Jewish population. After the war, he said, a Polish family of 10 would have a relative missing from their holiday table. A Polish Jew from a family of 10 would be alone.<\/p>\n

The consul lamented that Poles and Jews have incompatible narratives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have two separate histories,\u201d he said, citing the visits by Israeli students to the memorial sites of the Shoah in Poland. \u201cThese groups of Jewish youths from Israel walk around in Warsaw and see only ghetto, only death all around. They never see us, living Poles. They are coming with bodyguards, they are insulated from Poles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy around the now-rescinded law proscribing discussion of Polish complicity led to a major diplomatic eruption with Israel, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki acknowledged that it was not any respect for civil liberties or historical veracity that led to the reversal, but international pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who say that Poland may be responsible for the crimes of World War II deserve jail terms,\u201d Morawiecki said at the time. \u201cBut we operate in an international context and we take that into account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chrystia Freeland, then Canada\u2019s minister of foreign affairs, wrote on Twitter that Canada is \u201cconcerned by the potential impact on free speech\u201d of the Polish law and urged that country to \u201censure open discussion and education about the horrors of the Nazi death camps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The consul emphasized that the law didn\u2019t apply to scientific publication, research or artistic activity, as these fields were excluded from the jurisdiction of this law.<\/p>\n

World attention has focused on Poland in recent years not only because of concerns around free expression and inquiry into Holocaust-era history. Poland has been called the worst country in the European Union for gay rights. Expressions of hate speech are leveled against LGBTQ+ Poles by individuals at the highest levels of government. There is a lack of legal protections for sexual minorities and criminal charges have been laid against individuals exhibiting Pride flags. Dozens of Polish communities have declared themselves \u201cLGBT-free zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ma\u0144kowski acknowledged that Poland is a conservative country. Last month, a new abortion law was promulgated, banning abortion in almost all cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a question of some conservative attitudes and opinions on the part of Polish society,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are quite conservative, that\u2019s true…. It\u2019s a hot discussion within Polish society and, if you follow polls and opinion research, you will see the real judgment of Polish society and maybe the political system is not following the tendencies of the changing trends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrzej Ma\u0144kowski, Poland\u2019s consul-general in Vancouver, shared some reflections on his country\u2019s history with the Jewish Independent, including about the \u0141ado\u015b Group, which tried to help Jews escape the Nazis by the issuing of fake passports. (photo from Andrzej Ma\u0144kowski) The wartime actions of Poland and its people provide a prime example of the human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[20135,2892,4242,53,1122,8615,4582],"class_list":["post-35950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-andrzej-mankowski","tag-auschwitz","tag-history","tag-holocaust","tag-human-rights","tag-lgbtq-2","tag-poland"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}