| Dear Mr Frum.I have read with interest your editorial It Wasn’t a “Gaffe”, as well as the follow-up essay/explanation by Helen Stringer, and would like to add a few comments.
1. In Poland, occupied by the Germans, there existed Polish underground army, a Home Army (Armia Krajowa) – the strongest resistance movement in the German occupied Europe. It was commanded by the Polish Government in exile, then in London. It was the Home Army, which published and enforced policy to execute people involved in blackmailing Jews who were hiding, and/or denunciators.
2. There are thugs in every country, and those who betrayed a Jew also condemned to death a Polish family, and sometimes even neighbours, who were shielding/protecting that Jew. Those thugs (called "szmalcownik") looked for bribes and favours. Their heinous actions caused more deaths among Poles than Jews, as for a Jew it was almost impossible to hide for a prolonged time without support from Poles.
3. Jewish immigration to Poland lasted from 13th century until Poland’s final partitioning among Prussia, Austria and Russia in 1795. This was the era when other European countries were either expelling the Jews or were very reluctant to accept those expelled. In Poland, the Jews were granted all rights available to Polish citizens plus autonomy in the area of faith and rabbinical justice. However, Poland was a vast federation then, comprising of lands that were traditionally inhabited by Ukrainians, Russians, Tartars, and Lithuanians. Russia, which took the largest slice of Poland, created the Pale of Jewish Settlement, comprising Polish, Ukrainian and Lithuanian territories where Jews were allowed to live permanently. For various reasons, many Jews from Lithuania and Ukraine moved to the native Polish territories. As in case of any immigration, if it is too big, it creates some tension between locals and new arrivals.
4. While the history of Jewish settlement and life in Poland could be an interesting subject for a discussion, the Second World War finished nearly 70 years ago, and we live in Australia now. For example, had my father committed a crime against a Jew in 1941 and I did not even exist at that time, should I be labelled an anti-Semite in Australia, together with the whole Polish community?
5. We live in a country where relatively recent immigrants constitute a large portion of the population. We came from countries that fought wars. Do we want the legacy of those wars to continue here and now? Do we wish to have an Australia in which the Greeks are fighting the Turks, the Irish fighting the English, the Polish fighting the Russians/Germans and so on? Would we like to live in such a country? We are all Australians now and we should bear some responsibility for her future. We should strive for peace and understanding and lies and slanderous generalizations most certainly do not serve this purpose. And if we want to write about the history of other nations, a mandatory pre-requisite must be to commence with a diligent research.
6. We may have sentiment to other countries, particularly our homelands (where the rest of our extended families still live), but we should always place Australia and her interest in the first place. Otherwise, how can we justify having our Australian citizenship?
Janusz Rygielski
President Polish Community Council in Australia
Rocky River, 25 July 2012
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