Oy vey. Poland and the other Visegrad countries are a bulwark against the leftist (and anti-Israel) tendencies of the EU. Poland is coming to this summit and wants to be friend to Israel, and some schmuck thinks it’s the perfect time to relitigate the holocaust? Not the wisest move.
Sounds like a very brittle relationship, where most people remain stuck on past disagreements and presumptions.
One wrong word, joke or gesture destroys any bridges being built.
I have relatives in my family like that.
Them; stuck on past squabbles, me; patiently waiting (years!) for them to wake up and move on.
No, it did not.
If Barack Obama had told those diplomats that Europe nurtured Black racism, they would have been on their knees begging him for forgiveness!
They messed up again. But this was sabotage.
Israel is right that Poland shouldn’t let their people send money to the west bank. Trump is telling banks here not to do it.
Bad timing by Katz on what he said, but there is truth in some of it. That should be settled quietly for the good of all concerned.
I had a “dog” in this game but the Nazis killed them all so I have to stand in for them. Yes, many Poles were anti-Semitic and killed Jews during WW2, or refused to help them.
My survivor friends have to me stories about this, and I just bought a book entitled “The Crime of Silence: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime Jedwabne”, 2004/2015 (English translation), by Anna Bikont.
A short synopsis review on the back cover of this book, written by author Jan. T. Gross, read as follows:
“What happens to a society that tries to bury an unconscionable crime”?
On July 10, 1941, residents of the Polish town of Jedwabne herded local Jews into a barn and set it on fire. Sixteen hundred men, women, and children perished in the blaze. But the massacre was kept secret, its destails obscured or vehemently denied. Despite warnings and threats from residents who insisted that she stay away, the acclaimed Polish journalist Anna Bikont began reporting on the town.
Part reportage, part memoir, “The Crime and the Silence is based on oral histories of survivors, witnesses, and PERPETRATORS alike. Bikont’s miss is nothing less than to identify the sources of hatred that ignited the flames”.
The Germans had invaded Poland and the Soviets were on their way but this massacre had nothing to do with WW2. It had to do with ancient hatreds, based on nothing real, and it cost the lives of thousands of people.
Poland has a lot to explain and repair from their recent past. Perhaps Katz was undiplomatic to say the least, but he spoke the truth.
PS: One of my friends for many years at a monthly scholars/soldiers/diplomats, etc luncheon was Stefan Korbonski,a key leader of the Free Polish Army who fought the Nazis and Communist invaders. He was given the highest award that Israel could give to a non-Jew, the Yad Vashem Award of “Righteous Gentile” for his help in getting arms and aid to the Jewish “Warsaw Ghetto” so that they could defend themselves against the Nazis. Other Polish leaders did nothing.
Stefan was a very honorable exception, and as we learn through continuing research, there were other Poles who risked their lives to save their Jewish friends, neighbors, and strangers (one of my friends and her family being amongst them - the posed as Catholics for years and were never betrayed, unlike Anne Frank and her family were in Holland).
Just thought you might like to know a little more about Katz’s feelings.
Epilogue: Among the 15-20,000+ Polish Army Reserve Officers massacred by the Soviets at Katyn Forest were anywhere’s from 5-7,000 or more Jewish officers. Those killed were the cream of the crop of Polish intellectuals and other leaders, of all faiths. The communists viewed them as great a threat to their invasion as they did the Polish Army.
I’ve read part of the U.S. Government’s reports on the Katyn Forest Massacre, a many volume study that is as good today as it was back in the 40s/50s.
People are starting to get tired of being called “anti-semitic” all the time.
Wow