Film about anti-Semitism in Poland sparks uproar By

A film about the rise of anti-Semitic movements in Poland has recently been met with censure by members of the country's parliament and public.

Hitler's Daughter, directed by Aro Korol and produced by Korol's London-based Awesome Industry, focuses on right-wing radio station Radio Maryja, as well as its founder, Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Roman Catholic priest.

"Father Rydzyk sees no contradiction between wearing a collar and spreading his politics via satellite," Korol wrote on the film's Web site, hitlersdaughtermovie.com. "One of Radio Maryja's many anti-Semitic commentaries suggested that Jews were sabotaging the struggle of democracy in Ukraine and Belarus. The station also made very nasty, anti-Semitic remarks accusing Jews of making a business of Holocaust reparation payments."

Well, I don’t know anything about Father Rydzyk. But I am suspicious about what has become almost an industry of charging the Poles and the Catholic Church with antisemitism, as in that libelous book, “Hitler’s Pope.”

And there is some truth in the fact that SOME people have made the Holocaust into a money raising industry. And SOME people have made it into a pseudo-religion, which displaced the traditional Jewish religion based on the Pentateuch.

That is NOT to say that the Holocaust didn’t happen, or that it wasn’t one of the most terrible events in history.

Since I don’t know Father Rydzyk, perhaps he is antisemitic. I’m willing to stand corrected. But I suspect this is one more leftist attempt to split Jews and Christians, to blame Catholics for antisemitism, and to get them fighting with each other—which is not a productive activity for the Jews.

Jews have been on thin ice for the longest of time, because of two reasons.

The first is the predilection of some towards antisemitism. This is real, well known and carefully watched by Jews looking for danger signs that could threaten them as a people.

However, as important, or even more important, are individual Jews who do their level best to incite and provoke an antisemitic reaction from others—even those not otherwise inclined to antisemitism.

Comparatively speaking, an analogy is of a mother who takes her wicked small son to the zoo. In a cage is an inherently dangerous animal, a lion, but that in this example is sleeping near the bars. If left alone, the lion will still be dangerous, but that danger is tempered by the bars of its cage.

But the wicked small boy, wanting to see what will happen, picks up a stick, that he reaches through the bars to poke the sleeping lion. While he does this, his mother watches at a safe distance, perhaps admiring how daring her son is; but the thought never crosses her mind that she should stop him from tormenting the lion.

At first, the lion ignores the wicked small boy. So the small boy pokes harder and harder at the lion, eventually reaching through the bars with his arm so that he can injure the lion with his stick.

Then, with little warning, the lion lashes out at the boy’s arm, cutting it with his claws. The boy retracts his now bleeding arm. His mother starts screaming. She threatens, she demands, and she screams at the zoo for not keeping its lion under control. She yells that she will sue, and shut the zoo down for its allowing its animals to attack “people”. She is full of anger and rage, none of it directed at her wicked son, who provoked the sleeping lion.

And this is an analogy of how often Jews behave in other nations. As a group, they behave themselves well, aware of the sleeping lion of antisemitism that dwells within that society. But individual Jews are “allowed”, by not being severely controlled, or otherwise supervised and corrected, like wicked children to incite and provoke that society, and by extension, the security of Jews as a whole.

And this happens to any group, not just Jews, that allows individuals of the group to run amok, and incite those among who they live, then offering them shelter from retribution and punishment from society.

Instead, Jewish children should be taught to respect the non-Jews among who they live. That they should be the first to condemn one of their own who incites and provokes the non-Jews.

Importantly, this does not mean to surrender their Jewishness in an effort to conform. Just the recognition that all may suffer for the bad acts of a few. And Jews must be at the head of the line to punish Jews who misbehave, demanding even harsher punishment than what society as a whole demands.

It gives an easy excuse for the antisemites, but it also provokes the indifferent to antisemitism. For others, this promotes prejudice as well, so it is not limited to Jews. But Jews do face the ongoing threat of antisemitism, existing as an undercurrent always, so must be ever watchful that none of their own trespass with impunity, as it invites a terrible retribution.

"But I suspect this is one more leftist attempt to split Jews and Christians."

I had similar thoughts. Blame put on the Jews for the difficult transition to democracy in Ukraine and the absence of any such transition in Belarus, if the facts are true, does suggest that Father Rydzyk is prejudiced. I am concerned like you, however, that this will be amplified tenfold to serve the leftist agenda.

"to blame Catholics for antisemitism,"

Every time I hear leftists advancing that agenda, I recall that over 5,000 Polish Catholics were killed by the Germans for hiding Jews. These people are celebrated in Israel as righteous heroes, but the leftists don't mention this fact very often, do they?

"not a productive activity for the Jews."

Of course not. It is productive only for those that abandoned Judaism for the leftist mantra. If I may say so being Jewish myself, there is little left that connects them to their Jewish roots.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.