Mary Reicher’s letter (Poles protest too much, The Australian 21 Apr. 10) cannot remain unanswered, because it smacks of glaring inaccuracies and naivety, if not malice.
1. At the beginning of WW II 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland – that is 10% of the total population. This would explain why there were so many concentration camps on German occupied Polish territory. It was simply most convenient for the occupying power, as it saved on transport.
2. The numbers might also explain why more than half of the trees at the Yad Vashem Memorial in Israel, dedicated to “The Righteous” who saved the Jews during WW II, bear Polish names.
3. Poland was the first country in Europe to resist German aggression and subsequently was defeated and totally enslaved. Therefore any claim that the camps “could not have been possible without some consent from the Polish authorities” is simply laughable if not sad. The intentions of the Nazis was not only to destroy Jews, but to also to subjugate Poles – indeed all Slavs. How than could there have been any Polish authority?
4. As to the origin of the word “pogrom” I refer her to any English dictionary.
Zbigniew G. Sudull
Spokesman, Polish Ex – Servicemen’s Association
Australia Branch
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